Volume 14 , Issue 13

Highland County Virginia - Under Pendleton & Bath

This week our journey of Highland county, Virginia takes us back to a time when there was a subdividing of Augusta county with the formation of Pendleton and Bath, the Greenbrier District. We shall learn a bit about the Highland men as local officers and the growth of the Highland area and what some call the Turnpike.

Let us begin with Augusta, the mother of counties, extending at the first 240 miles along the Blue Ridge, westward to the Mississippi. County after county was lopped off in every direction except the east. The subdividing of Augusta began with Botetcourt in 1769, continuing rapidly in 1790 as Augusta was reduced in size.

In 1787 - Highland area was wholly a part of Augusta, and the portion of Rockingham lying west of the Shenandoah mountain was with the addition of narrow slices taken from Hardy and Augusta made into the county of Pendleton. The southern line of Pendleton passed through the Highland area by following the divide between the waters of the Potomac and the James in a crooked course. Less than two years after Pendleton was created, the county of Bath was stricken off from the parent county by being made to include that section of it west of the Shenandoah range. It took in the whole upper basin of the James, down to the point where it passes through the range just mentioned. The boundaries of Bath county followed natural lines.

In 1796 - The southern line of Pendleton was pushed southward a distance of four to twelve miles,made to cross the Highland area nearly through the center. The reason for such annexation was not clearly apparent at that time. Pendleton and Bath were enlarged by being made to take in the upper Greenbrier Valley, with their western border was changed from the crest of the main Alleghany to that of the "Back Alleghany," which diverged from the former on the west line of Pendleton and ran southwestward in a nearly parallel course at a distance of ten or fifteen miles. This enlargement was by petition of the few settlers on the Upper Greenbrier.

In 1821 - The remote section of the two counties became a part of the new county of Pocahontas, and Bath was diminished to the southward by the creation of Alleghany county. As the story goes, it was the intention to name the western county Alleghany and the eastern Pocahontas, but through a blunder of the engrossing clerk the names were transposed.

When Highland area had become identified with the new counties of Pendleton and Bath, it contained from one thousand to twelve hundred people. Some of those being my ancestors, I suspect. many new settlers had come into its valleys. The Back Creek basin was the last to be occupied, containing the Wade, Slaven, Bird, Matheny, Brisco, Chestnut, Ryder and Woods families.

In 1799, on Straight Creek, the following persons in a coroner's jury called together by a tree falling upon John Mifford, we find the following jurors: John Beverage (foreman), Henry and John James, James and Jacob Seybert, George Franklin, John Moon, Thomas Jones, George Fisher, John Warwick, James Trimble and George Rymer.

In May of 1800, we find at the sale of the late Christian Wagoner's effects, the following: Michael Arbogast, William Bennett, William Cunningham, Michael Fox, John Hickley, William Janes, James and Hopkins Jones, Martin and Christian Life, William Michael, Francis Nicholas, Michael Peck, John Rexrode, Christopher Reed, James Trimble, Philip Wimer, Martin Waybright, John White, Adam and Michael Wagoner, and Christina Joseph. Abraham Smith was during this time a dweller in Crabbottom.

Reading through this chapter XI, History of Highland County, Virginia, by Oren F. Morton, page 108, we find another ancestor, Peter Hull (HOHL) mentioned as the only justice from the Highland area. Henry Fleisher was appointed major of the militia regiment, Jacob Gum was a constable and George Nichalas was a road overseer. John McCoy was a constable in 1792. Michael Arbogast served on the first grand jury. John Wilson and John Peebles appear to be the only Highland representation among the first justices of Bath. Samuel Black, William Ruder and Stephen Wilson served on its first grand jury.

That section of Bath beyond the main Alleghany was given two constables and was one of the three districts to elect overseers of the poor. This area was populated by the overflow from the older section to the east. The Vurners, Houchins, Sharps and Sharrots removed to this place in a group and were joined by branches of the Arbogast, Gum and other families. John H. Peyton was an attorney, who visited Huntersville in 1823, shortly after the organization of Pocahontas, declaring it as much out of the world as Tartary. The town consisted of two log cabins, one of these being the residence of John Bradshaw, who had moved there from the Bullpasture Valley. The following is an ext rat from his letter: "The other hovel is called the Loom-house, for these people are self-sustaining. The big wheel and the little shell are birding in every hut. The homespun cloth is stronger anymore durable than that brought by our merchants from Northern manufacturers. In Bradshaw's dwelling is a large fireplace, which occupies the entire gable end. The chimney is enormous, and so short that the room is filled with light which enters this way. It is an ingenious contrivance for letting all the warmth escape through the chimney, while most of the smoke is driven back into the chamber. In the chimney corner I prepared my legal papers before a roaring fire, surrounded by rough mountaineers, who were drinking whiskey, and as night advanced growing riotous. In the back part of the room two beds were curtained off with horse-blankets; one for the judge, the other for myself. To the left of the fireplace stood Bradshaw's couch. In the loft, to which they ascended by a ladder, his daughter and the hired woman slept, and in time of a crowd, a wayfarer. The other guests were sent to sleep in the three beds in the Loom-house. The loom was used as a hatrack at night and for sitting on. My clients roosted on the loom while detailing their troubles. "Bradshaw's table is well supplied. There is profusion if not prodigality in the rich, lavish bounty of the goodly tavern. As a mark of deference and respect to the Court, I presume, we had a table-cloth -- they are not often seen on Western tables, and when they are, are not innocent of color, and clean sheets upon our beds. This matter of the sheets is no small affair in out-o-the-way places, as it not infrequently happens that wanderers communicate disease throughout he bed clothing. Bradshaw's family is scrupulously clean, which is somewhat remarkable in a region where cleanliness is for the most part on the outside.

"The support of the people is mainly derived from their flocks of cattle, homes, and sheep, which they drive over the mountains to market. There is little money among them except after these excursions, but they have little need of it -- every want is supplied by the happy country they possess and of which they are as fond as the Swiss of their mountains."

The Grand Juries

The grand juries of Pendleton during the first decade of its history were represented by the following: Adam, David and John Arbogast; John Armstrong; William Blagg; Thomas Duffield; Conrad and Henry Fleisher; Jacob Gum; Charles Halterman; James and William Janes; Henry Jones; Jospeh Lantz; Peter Lightner; Edward Morton; George Naigley; George Nicholas; Garrett Peck; Henry Seybert; William; David; and Elibab Wilson; and Peter Zickafoose. In 1788, my ancestor, Peter Hull took a storekeeper's license, and then years later Samuel Blagg took a license for an ordinary. In 1800 Peter and Jacob hull had two stores.

It was in 1788 that George Nicholas was road surveyor from the mouth to the head of Straight Creek. In 1790, Charles Erwin had the road from Mathias Benson's to the Augusta line, James Steuart, the road from the Pendleton line to Joseph Gwin's and Abraham Gum, the road from John Slaven's to the Pendleton line.

Robert Carlile, David Gwin and William Houchin were other road surveyors under Bath. In the same year (1788) Jacob Gum took the place of McKenny Robinson on the upper South Branch. Two ears later John Arbogast had the road form Michael Arbogast's to the intersection with the Dry Run road. Garrett Peck ahd the latter road around to the mouth of STraight Creek. The precinct of James Mullenax was from peter Hull's to the mouth of Straight Creek, and that of Isaac Gum was from Peter Hull's southward to the old Pendleton line.

In 1790 - On the other side of the county, William Jordan had the road from the head of the Cowpasture southward to the old Pendleton line. His assistants were Francis Hayworth, Thomas Douglas and three sons, Thomas Devericks and one son, Henry Jones, Edward Morton, William Harris, John Keezle and son, and John Hatton. Four years later, George Sheets cared for the road from Robert Malcomb's to John Hiner's, and Thomas Duffield, the road from Elibab Wilson's to Burnett's mill beyond the present Pendleton line.

By 1780 there was a pioneer road from the Crabbottom westward across the Alleghany, known as the Riffle road from Francis Riffle or Riggle, a pioneer of Tygart's valley. In 1790 - The Bath Court provided a jail by laying on a special levy of 13 pounds of tobacco (43 cents) per tithable. The more prominent offenses in this county during its earlier history were hog stealing, liquor selling, swearing and blasphemy and obstructing road surveys. But in 1799, 324 citizens were presented for not voting, and in 1881, 332 were likewise called up.

In 1800 - The heavier landholders int he Pendleton half were the following: Michael Arbogast (1037 acres), Joseph Bell (611 acres), John Beverage (559 acres), peter Hull (2712 acres), William Janes (566 acres), Nicholas Seybert (662 acres), Philip Wimer (772 acres), Peter Zickafoose (570 acres).

The railroad age dawned about 1830. It was some years before this date, and for some years later, the need of better highways for the growing American people became a very live topic. It was necessary to shorten the hours of travel. People beyond the mountains were in particular need of better roads to the Eastern markets. It was in 1822 that James B. Campbell, experienced surveyor, returned front he West to Crabbottom, and soon began to plan a turnpike to connect Staunton with Parkersburg. The route selected was from the top of Shenandoah mountain to Shaw's Fork nearly the same as the present pike. From this point his own route followed Shaw's Fork to its mouth, and there crossed Bullpasture mountain, reaching the river of the same name near the mouth of DAvis Run. This stream was followed to the Sounding Knob Gap. The next range was passed through Vanderpool Gap, and a course was thence traced through the Great Valley of Back Creek to the Townsend Draft near the Bath line. This is where it began the ascent of Alleghany mountain. But the survey did not become a road. In 1838 the Staunton and Parkersburg Turnpike was built under the supervision of Claude Crozet, a civil engineer of the first Napoleon, who work in Russia as we'll as France. Influential citizens induced him to abandon the easier route, to adopt the one by which the road was actually constructed.

The turnpike paralleled and crossed a common road constructed by the state, and the long-abandoned track was sometimes in full view for quite a distance. On the slope of Shenandoah mountain was a still older road, apparently the one laid out by Wallace Estill.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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