Volume 14 , Issue 43

Pendleton County, (West) Virginia - Family Group Histories

Where a county has been settled for more than a century and a half, where no systematic genealogical records had been kept and preserved, and where no newspaper had existed for more than a small fraction of the time, no such degree of completeness can be reached, even with an unlimited amount of time at the disposal of the local historian. A person depended very largely back then upon family tradition. It did not belong to those family members to set any of this tradition aside, except in so far as unreliability was plainly manifested.

Information of this kind it would turn out to vary a great deal both in fullness and accuracy. One family would contain a member of strong and trustworthy recollection, while in some other family there will be found a discreditable degree of ignorance and indifference regarding the ancestral line. One person had sought to acquire and preserve a knowledge of family history, while another had never bothered himself with such matters. As a result of all these considerations, gaps in a given record were almost certain to occur, and with respect to what was given as fact, the memory or judgment of the informant may have deceived him. The compiler of a local history can do no more than exercise his very best discretion, and no mean vouch for the absolute accuracy of his work.

Those people who lived and had lived in Pendleton county may be classed as the Pioneer, Sub-pioneer, Recent and Extinct groups. The first (pioneers) were those families who arrived prior to 1815. The second (Sub-pioneer) belong to those who came later, but not later than 1865. The third (recent) belonging to those who arrival had been subsequent to 1865 and who had become thoroughly identified wight he county. The extinct families represent those of the first and second groups, where the name but not necessarily the blood had disappeared from the county.

By the year 1815, it marked the close of our pioneer period proper, because up to that time the westward movement of the American people had been very much held in check by the hostilities of the British and Indians (or native Americans). After that date the wear cloud drifted beyond the Mississippi. The migration to the vast, level and fertile West became more rapid than ever. Large numbers of the people of Pendleton joined in this movement, as the record of our families bears witness. Up to this time immigration into the county was active. It grew small, there being a very limited amount of good land to be had. For this reason the number of existing families of the Sub-pioneer class was not large. Pendleton had never fallen behind in population in any decade, yet the continuous movement to newer localities had drawn heavily upon the natural increase even with the small reinforcement of newcomers from the older counties. The drift westward accounts in a great measure for the numerous extinct families, such as mine ancestors that moved westward towards Kansas into the Oklahoma Territory in the late 19th century.

1865 may well mark the beginning of the recent period. Not only had the county changed its state allegiance, but there had come a period of far-reaching change, the nature of which was elsewhere sketched. As one of the features of the new period, emigration from Pendleton began to spread eastward as well as westward, a portion of the outflow locating in the Valley of Virginia, or even beyond.

In an old settled community the threads of relationship spread out in all directions. There were in this county persons of the seventh removed from the pioneer settler.

The natural course of legitimate descent was broken by every instance of bastardy, wherein the surname borne by the bastard was not that of the actual father. Illegitimate births had never been few in Pendleton, and the present ratio of about ten per cent was apparently lower than in earlier times. Such instances seldom occur except singly, whereas in former years entire families were reared shoe paternity was outside of wedlock. Among those persons and their offspring are some of the most worthy members of the community. It goes without saying that these broken links in the chain of family descent complicate the work of the compiler of local history. It cannot be ignored, even if he would.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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