Volume 14 , Issue 32

Pendleton County, (West) Virginia - Pendleton Under Rockingham

This week as we continue our journey of Pendleton county, (West) Virginia, as written by Oren Frederick Morton around 1912, we learn that Augusta county has been a mother of counties in Virginia. It was the spread of the population and the increasing inconvenience of attending court that caused one county after another to be lopped off.

In 1777 Rockingham was created with its first court meeting 17 April 1778 at the house of Daniel Smith, which was two miles north from where Harrisonburg stands. But the town of Harrisonburg did not begin its existence until two years later. Harrisonburg was named after the a prominent family of the early days.

John Smith, father of Daniel, came from England as an officer in the French and Indian war. John Smith was compelled to surrender a fort at Pattonsburg in Botetourt county. His French and Indian captors being angered that he had held them off with a very weak force, they took him to Point Pleasant, treated him with harshness and made him run the gauntlet. He was passed on to New Orleans and taken to Paris. This is where he showed a copy of the terms of surrender. John Smith was released, treated with respect, and at London was given quite an ovation. John Smith married a lady of Holland, returning to America and settling in Rockingham county, Virginia. He wished to serve in the American army and was indignant when he was adjudged too old. But he had eight sons in the service of his adopted country. Abraham being another of these. Daniel Smith, a son of Daniel, became an eminent jurist.

The new county was defined as being all of Augusta east of a line. To begin at the South Mountain, and running by Benjamin Yardley's plantation so as to strike the North River below James Bird's house; then up the said river to the mouth of Naked Creek, leaving the river a direct course so as to cross the said river at the mouth of Cunningham's Branch in the upper end of Silas W.'s land to the foot of the North Mountain; then 55 degrees west to the Alleghany Mountain and with the same to the line of Hampshire.

The Fairfax line, passing near Petersburg and Moorefield, was at first the country between Frederick and Augusta. In 1753 the western part of Frederick became the county of Hampshire. When Rockingham was created, the country line between Hampshire and the new county was moved southward nearly to the position of the north line of Pendleton.

Its definition in the legislative act read as follows: "Beginning at the north side of the North Mountain, opposite to the upper end of Sweedland Hill and running a direct course so as to strike the mouth of Seneca Creek, and the same course to be continued to the Alleghany Mountain; thence along the said mountain to the line of Hampshire."

But it was not quite all of Pendleton that formed a part of Rockingham. A strip along the southern border was still a part of Augusta, and a fringe on the opposite side was a part of Hampshire.

The men designated to comprise the first court of Rockingham, at least four were Pendletonians: John Skidmore, Robert Davis, James Dyer (NW Okie's 5th great grand uncle) and Isaac Hinkle. Skidmore and Davis were not present, being with the the army. Thomas Lewis, previously surveyor of Augusta, became the first surveyor of Rockingham. The population appeared to have been rather less than 5000, about a fourth being in the Pendleton section. There was neither a tavern o=nor a wagon in the new county. The act creating Rockingham provided that its voters should elect 1 May 1778, twelve able and discreet persons to form a vestry.

By this time America was in the midst of the Revolution and the infant county had to deal with the grave problems interwoven with the questions of enlistment and finance.

It was in October, 1778, that some counties had not raised the quota of soldiers required by an act of the preceding year. The state now called for 2216 men for the Continental service. Each soldier was to have a bounty of $300 if enlisting for eighteen months, and $400 if enlisting for three years. He was also to receive clothing and a Continental land bounty. In May of 1779, 10 battalions of 500 men each were ordered, a bounty of $50 being offered. Two of these battalions were for service on the frontier. In October of 1780, the quota for Rockingham was 49 men out of a levy of 3000. The same Act of Assembly offered a bounty of $8000 for an enlistment of three years, and $12,000 for an enlistment of drink the continuance of the war. The man serving to the close was to have his choice of these two additional rewards. It was May, 1781, a bounty of $10,000 was promised, to be paid when the soldier was sworn in.

Six months afterwards the army of Cornwallis was added to the 1000 prisoners the state was feeding at Winchester, and the long war was practically at an end. It had never been popular wight he English people, and even before the surrender at Yorktown, William Pitt, spoke in the British Parliament, pronouncing the struggle the most accursed, wicked, barbarous, cruel, unnatural, unjust and diabolical of wars.

In 1781 the poll tax was $40, and in 1781 a man taking his dinner at an ordinary could be charged the stunning price of $30, when he had eaten nothing more luxurious than corn pone, bacon, potatoes, and sauerkraut, washed down with a cup of herb tea and smug of cider.

A month after the surrender of Cornwallis, the legislature ordered paper money to be turned into the treasury by the first of October of the following year. "Worthless as a Continental Bill" became a byword for many years.

The county was hard put to raise enough revenue for the public needs. In 1779 something had to be done for the families of indigent soldiers. In 1781 and 1782 the sheriff was ordered to collect a tax of one shilling on every glass window. A tax of two percent in specie was levied on all property. It was permitted to make payment in tobacco, hemp, bacon, four or deerskin.

As to the royalism in the Pendleton section of Rockingham, the recorded information gives only a partial glimpse, and for the rest of the story we have to depend on the recollections that have come down to us through the space of a hundred and thirty years. The trouble was evidently most acute in the later years of the war. The American cause was then hanging in the balance, taxation, as we have seen was very high, and very hard to meet, and the depreciated paper currency was causing great hardship. The disaffection in Pendleton took the form of an armed resistance that fell within the verge of domestic war. There were petty raids by the tories, but there would seem to have been little bloodshed. The only loss of life that we locate was the killing of Sebastian Hoover by a settler from Brushy Fork. The Virginia law of 1781 declared the man civilly dead who opposed by force the statute calling out the men to the public defense. The disaffected person might be exiled, and if he returned he could be executed without benefit of clergy. Free male inhabitants had to swear allegiance to the state through commissioners appointed by the county court.

In Hampshire was John Claypole, a Scotchman, who had a band of 60 to 70 men. They resisted the payment of taxes, and at their meetings they drank toasts to the health of the king and damnation to Congress. General Daniel Morgan, the hero of the Cowpens, was sent against them in the summer of 1781, and smothered the insurrection in a few days. The tories were pardoned. Claypole appealing for clemency and pleading ignorance of the real situation. There was no fighting, although one tory was accidentally shot.

Claypole had followers on the South Fork in Pendleton. One of these at Fort Seybert, who claimed his oath of allegiance was not binding, was taken to Patton's still-tub. He was doused three times in it before his German obstinacy was sufficiently soaked out to permit him to hurrah for Washington. This style of baptism does not seem to have been administered by Morgan's men, who scarcely came this far up the river. It was perhaps at the same time that a party of tories, pursued through Sweedland valley, were noticed to throw the corn pone out of their haversacks, so as to make better time with their feet.

The other center of disturbance was in the south and southwest of the county, where its memory lingers in the name of Tory Camp Run, Randolph county. Here Uriah Grady headed a band of tory refugees. The leader in this quarter was one William Ward. There were two men of this name, an older and a younger, the latter being perhaps no more than a boy at the time of the Revolution. The elder William Ward was a South Carolinian and is first mentioned in 1753. In 1763 he was a road surveyor, and in 1774 he was a soldier in the Dunmore war. In 1765 he was under sheriff of Augusta. In 1781 he was living on the Blackthorn. For tumult and sedition words he was bound over by the court of Rockingham in the sum of 1000 pounds, Andrew Erwin being his surety. The next year (1780) he was delivered up by Erwin and Ralph Loftus, another surety, was given a jury trial, fined 100 pounds, and given twenty-four hours in jail. The records at Staunton say that he was found guilty of treason in Augusta and sent to the capital for trial. Erwin was himself indicted for propagating some news tending to raise tumult and sedition in the state. John Davis, apparently a resident of the North Fork, was adjudged guilty of treason by the Rockingham court and sent up to the General Court. His bondsmen were Seraiah Stratton, William Gragg, and James Roger. In 1779 Henry Peninger was indicted for speaking disrespectful and disgraceful words of the Congress and words leading to the depreciation of the continental currency. A true bill was returned against him. His bond was fixed at 5000 pounds, and those of his sureties, Sebastian Hoover and Henry Stone, were each of half that amount. Peninger informed on one Gerard, but he himself did not appear for trial.

One Hull (possibly a distant ancestor of NW Okie) was a lieutenant of Ward's, and Robert Davis seems to have been particularly obnoxious to the tories. Visits with hostile intent were sometimes made to his vicinity, but an Eckard woman from Brushy Fork usually gave the settlement a forewarning. On one occasion, believing Davis home on furlough, the band came down to seize him, and in their disappointed vexation Hull called Mrs. Davis a damned liar. Her son John, a boy of about fourteen years, took aim at Hull, unobserved by the latter, but the mother interfered to prevent a tragedy and a burned home. The factional strife was ended by a conference between Davis and Ward held near the site of the schoolhouse. The principals were unarmed, but a neighbor of Davis posted himself near to guard against treachery.

The capture of Cornwallis in the fall of 1781 made it highly advisable for the Tories to accept the situation. It would seem that the episode was passed over lightly. At all events we find the former Tories remaining on the ground, acting as good citizens, and holding positions of trust.

In 1782 a list of claims from the furnishing of military supplies came before the Rockingham court for settlement. The claims were very numerous, though of small individual value. Many of them were from Pendleton. For registering these claims Henry Erwin was allowed 100 pounds, a good salary for that day.

In 1781 took place what seems the last Indian raid into this county. A party of redskins, led by Tim Dahmer, a white renegade, came by the Seneca trail to the house of William Gragg, who lived on the highland a mile east of Onego. Dahmer had lived with the Graggs, and held a grudge against a daughter of the family. Gragg was away from the house getting a supply of firewood, and seeing Indians at the house he kept out of danger. His mother, a feeble old lady, and with whom Dahmer had been on good terms, was taken out into the yard in her chair. The wife was also unharmed, but the daughter was scalped and the house set on fire, after which the renegade and his helpers made a prudent retreat. The girl was taken up the river, probably to the house of Philip Harper, but died of her injuries.

There was now a long period of domestic peace, broken only by the incident of the "Whiskey Insurrection of 1794." At least one company of Pendleton militia under Captain James Patterson formed a part of the army of Governor Henry Lee that marched to the Redstone district of Pennsylvania, the scene of trouble. At a Pendleton court martial sitting the same year, it was ordered that the names of the officers and privates who marched from this county to Redstone be recorded. The list does not seem to be in existence. A fine of $36 was imposed upon each of the 11 men who avoided going. In one instance the fine was remitted.

In 1782 there were three militia districts. Robert Davis commanded the company on the South Fork. Garvin Hamilton, the company on the South Branch, and Andrew Johnson was captain of the North Fork company. John Skidmore was recommended as major the same year the county was organized, but he was not commissioned. Other militia officers of the period were the following: Captains, Roger Dyer and Michael Cowger; Lieutenants, Frederick Keister and John Morral; ensigns, John Skidmore, James Skidmore, and Jacob Hevener.

Among the civil officers we find Isaac Hinkle, a deputy sheriff in 1780, and Robert Davis, commissioned sheriff, October 30, 1786. As constable we find James Davis, George Kile, George Mallow, Jacob Eberman, Samuel Skidmore and Lewis Waggoner. Thirty road overseers were appointed in 1778. Of those serving in Pendleton during the ten year period (1778-88) we have the names of George Mallow, Jacob Eberman, Samuel Skidmore, Lewis Waggoner, and James Davis. In 1779 Joseph Skidmore had charge of the roads of the middle valley to the line of Hampshire. The next year George Kile had the territory from the Coplinger ford to the Hampshire line, and George cop linger had the roads from the same ford to the Augusta line. In 1786, Pendleton, as the portion of Rockingham west of North Mountain, was made the fourth overseer of the poor district, and Robert Davis was appointed to superintend the election of the necessary official. This brings us to the establishment of Pendleton county.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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