Early Settlements in Kanawha County (#2)

Vanbibber, Eulen, Long, See, Sinclair, Northrop, Pointer, Bullitt, Clendennin, Tackett, Lewis, Brace, Botkin, Welch, Buster, Rogers, Brown, Hart, Frankenburger, Griffin, Hale, Patrick, and more

Source: Atkinson, George W. History of Kanawha County . . . Charleston: The West Virginia Journal, 1876. Public domain. Adapted.

AN AGED PIONEER

There lives up Thirteen-mile Creek Mr. Jesse VANBIBBER, an aged pioneer in this county, whose life, like his own mountain stream, was rough and turbulent at its commencement, but as it nears its close, calm and peaceful, beautifully reflecting the Christian virtues. From conversation with him, we gathered many interesting anecdotes and incidents, illustrating the early history of this region, some of which here follow.

ANECDOTES OF THE VANBIBBERS

A few years after the close of the Revolution, a daughter of Captain John VANBIBBER, named Rhoda, age 17, and Joseph VANBIBBER, a young lad of 13, a brother of our informant, had crossed over in a canoe one morning, to the west side of the Ohio, opposite Point Pleasant, on an errand to Rhoda’s father, then living temporarily in a house on that side of the stream, when a party of Indians suddenly made their appearance. Dave, a black man belonging to Captain VANBIBBER, gave the alarm, and rushed into the house. The Indians attacked the house, but were driven off by Dave and Captain VANBIBBER, with the loss of two or three of their number. Joseph and Rhoda, in their terror, hastened to the canoe, whither the Indians pursued them, killed and scalped the young lady, and took Joseph a prisoner to Detroit. Rhoda’s scalp the Indians divided in two, and sold them to the Indian traders at Detroit for $30 each; their object in purchasing them was to encourage the savages in their incursions, so as to prevent a settlement of the country by the whites, and thus monopolize the Indian trade. Joseph afterwards stated that the barrel in which the scalps were put was nearly full of the horrid trophies. He remained with the Indians two years, during which time he learned their language, and acted as interpreter between them and the traders. He at length made his escape, and lived with a trader until after Wayne’s victory, when he returned home. While at Detroit, he became acquainted with the notorious Simon GIRTY, then a British pensioner for services in the Revolution. He said GIRTY was an affable man, but extremely intemperate.

In the fall of 1788 or 1789, Matthias VANBIBBER, aged 18, and Jacob, aged 12 years, were out a short distance from Point Pleasant, with a horse, when they were waylaid by four Indians. Jacob was leading the horse, and Matthias was a short distance ahead, with a rifle across his shoulder, when the Indians fired two guns at Matthias. One of the balls struck him over the eyes, and rendered him momentarily blind; he sprang to one side, and fell into a gully. The boy Jacob, on hearing the report of the guns, fled, and three of the Indians went in pursuit. Matthias, in the meantime, sprang up and took to a tree. The remaining Indian did the same. Matthias brought up his gun to aim. The Indian dodged, and the former took the opportunity and escaped into the fort. The Indians, after a tight chase of half a mile, caught the lad, who, being very active, would have escaped had his moccasins not been too large. The Indians retreated across the Ohio with their prisoner. He was a sprightly little fellow, small of his age, and the Indians, pleased with him, treated him kindly. On the first night of their encampment, they took him on their knees and sang to him. He turned away his head to conceal his tears. On arriving at their town, while running the gauntlet between the children of the place, one Indian boy, much larger than himself, threw a bone, which struck him on the head. Enraged by the pain, Jacob drew back, and running with all his force, butted him over, much to the amusement of the Indian warriors. He was adopted into an Indian family, where he was treated with kindness. On one occasion his adopted father whipped him, though slightly, which affected his Indian mother and sister to tears. After remaining with the Indians about a year, he escaped, and for five days travelled through the wilderness to his home. When he had arrived at maturity, he was remarkable for his fleetness. None of the Indians who visited the Point could ever equal him in that respect.

EULEN'S LEAP

In the spring of 1788 or 1789, Ben EULEN, who was insane, was out hunting in the woods below Point Pleasant, when he was discovered and pursued by an Indian. He threw away his rifle, an elegant silvermounted piece, to arrest the attention of the Indian, and gain time. The Indian stopped to pick it up. EULEN unexpectedly came to a precipice, and fell head first through a buckeye tree, struck a branch, which turned him over, and he came up on his feet. The fall was 53 feet perpendicular. He then leapt across another precipice of 12 feet and escaped.

INDIAN INCURSION

In May, 1791, a party of eighteen whites were attacked by thirty Indians about one mile north of the fort at Point Pleasant, the field now belonging to David LONG. The whites were defeated. Michael SEE and Robert SINCLAIR were killed. Hampton and Thomas NORTHROP, and a black boy, belonging to SEE, were taken prisoners. This boy was a son of Dick POINTER, who acted so bravely a few years before at the attack on Donnally’s fort, in Greenbrier. He became an Indian chief, and in the late war with Great Britain took part with the friendly Indians against the enemy.

SETTLEMENT AT CHARLESTON

In 1772, Lord DUNMORE gave Major Thomas BULLITT a patent for a large tract of land on the Great Kanawha River, including the present site of Charleston, for his valuable services as an officer in BRADDOCK’s war. This survey began in the upper end of the bottom, about two miles above the mouth of Elk River, and extended down the Valley as far as the mouth of Tyler Creek, four miles below Elk. Major BULLITT did not settle upon the land himself, nor did he ever even see it. In 1786 he met Mr. George CLENDENNIN at Richmond, to whom he sold that portion of the tract on which the town of Charleston now stands. The deed was made to Mr. CLENDENNIN in 1786 or 1787, before the formation of Kanawha County, and is on record in the Clerk’s office of Greenbrier County, which then embraced this portion of Kanawha.

The exact year that Mr. George CLENDENNIN moved upon the land which he purchased from Mr. BULLITT is a matter of uncertainty. It seems to be generally admitted, however, that he was the first settler within the limits of the present city of Charleston, and that it was either in the fall of 1786 or spring of 1787 that he built the fort on the river bank near Brooks’ Landing, which took his name. This could not have been later than 1787, for the reason that Lewis TACKETT settled at the mouth of Coal River during that year, and the year following his home was destroyed by the Shawnee Indians. Those members of his family who were not taken prisoner fled to the CLENDENNIN Fort at Charleston for protection and safety. I must, therefore, conclude that Charleston was first settled by George CLENDENNIN and family in 1786 or 1787.

THE FIRST HOUSE IN CHARLESTON

The first house in Charleston was built by Mr. George CLENDENNIN on the bank of the Kanawha River immediately in front of the present palatial residence of Charles C. LEWIS, Esq., corner of Kanawha and Brooks Streets, and was called the Clendennin Fort, or blockhouse. It was the only fort at that time between Fort Union at Lewisburg, and the fort at Point Pleasant, except a small blockhouse at the mouth of Paint Creek, twenty-three miles above Charleston. The Tackett Fort at Coalsmouth was built the year following.

The Clendennin Fort was a two-story double-log building, and was bullet- and arrow-proof. It was built out of large hewed logs, was about forty feet long by thirty feet in width, and stood for nearly a hundred years. It was torn down by Mr. LEWIS in 1874 to make room for the elegant brick mansion in which he now resides. Mr. H. S. BRACE, a resident gunsmith, procured a cut from one of the large logs of the fort, when it was demolished, out of which he made a handsome cane, which he kindly presented to the writer as a token of those days of frontier life.

OTHER OLD BUILDINGS

Shortly after Mr. CLENDENNIN built his blockhouse, several other log cabins were constructed, and they stood for many years as mementos of the early settlement of the county. Including CLENDENNIN’s, there were seven buildings erected in Charleston by the early pioneers. I have no means of knowing the precise order in which they were constructed. Old citizens claim, however, that they were all built about the same time, or at least within a few years after the erection of Fort Clendennin.

Beginning at the lower end of town, I am informed there was a block of one-story log cabins on the corner of Kanawha and Truslow streets, near the store of C. J. BOTKIN. These buildings were principally occupied after the beginning of the present century, by John and Levi WELCH, as residences and places of business. John WELCH was a hatter of many colors and styles in these old-time log buildings.

Coming up the street, next in order, was the large two-story log mansion on the upper corner of Court and Kanawha streets, called Buster’s Tavern. It was kept by Thomas BUSTER, as a house of entertainment, for many years, and was one of the most noted stopping places between Richmond and the Ohio River.

Next was a neat, two-story double log building on Kanawha Street, where now stands the drug store of Dr. James H. ROGERS. In this building, in the early history of the county, Ellis BROWN kept a hatter shop. John HART, who kept the first ferry across Elk River, at its mouth, worked for Mr. BROWN for many years at journey-work in his battery establishment. Colonel Joel RUFFNER and other old citizens of Kanawha say that they have sold Mr. BROWN many a raccoon, fox, otter, and muskrat skin for the manufacture of fur hats.

Where Mr. Moses FRANKENBURGER’s three-story brick business block now stands, on the corner of Kanawha and Summers Streets, there stood a two-story, hewed-log hotel, which is generally supposed to have been the original Charleston Hotel, a man by the name of GRIFFIN being one of its first proprietors.

On the same square, where the Kanawha Valley Bank building now stands, was a large log dwelling-house, put up by Nehemiah WOODS, and occupied by him for many years as a residence.

Next above was a log building, two-stories high, where Dr. J. P. HALE’s residence now stands, on the corner of Kanawha and Hale Streets. It was one of the first buildings of the settlement in point of time. In this house, in the year 1808, Mr. Norris S. WHITTEKER was born, being the first white child born within the present corporate limits of Charleston.

Two squares above, on the same street, was a two-story log dwelling, which was built prior to 1790. It was torn down by Dr. Spicer PATRICK a number of years ago, when he erected in its stead the brick building now owned by the Kanawha Presbyterian Church, and in which Mr. H. H. WOOD at present resides.

Shortly before the beginning of the present century, a small log fort was built on the river bank in front of the residence of Mr. Silas RUFFNER, perhaps a mile and a half above the court house.

On the corner of Kanawha and Alderson Streets, about the same year, was constructed a one-story log dwelling, which was subsequently remodeled, and long known as the Central House. This building was burned down in the great fire of December 12, 1874, and upon its ruins Lewis WEHRLE erected the substantial brick block which bears his name.

There stood for many years in the vicinity of the jail, on Virginia Street, a small one-story frame building with a steep clapboard roof, which was one of the primitive buildings of the town. It was occupied as a residence for many years by James WILSON, Esq., who was perhaps the first Commonwealth’s Attorney for this county. After the death of Mr. WILSON, it was occupied by Captain CARTMILL, one of the most influential and intelligent of Kanawha’s earlier citizens.

INCORPORATING THE TOWN

The Act of the Legislature of Virginia incorporating Charleston as a town, was passed December 19, 1794, and is in the language following, taken from Henning’s Statutes:

“That forty acres of land, the property of George Clendennin, at the mouth of Elk River, in the county of Kenhawa, as the same are already laid off into lots and streets, shall be established a town by the name of Charlestown. And Reuben SLAUGHTER, Andrew DONNALLY, Sr., William CLENDENNIN, John MORRIS, Sr., Leonard MORRIS, George ALDERSON, Abraham BAKER, John YOUNG, and William MORRIS, gentlemen, are appointed Trustees.”

The name was originally “Charlestown,” which was changed some years afterwards for reasons not now known. The name was suggested by George CLENDENNIN, in honor of his brother Charles, who came to the Kanawha Valley with his elder brother in 1786, and became one of Charleston’s most exemplary, distinguished and useful citizens.

O’BRIEN’S FOLLY

The upper portion of the Elk River Valley was first settled by Jeremiah CARPENTER, his brother Benjamin, and a few other families from Bath County. The exact point on the river at which they located I cannot ascertain, but it was somewhere along that portion of the Valley which is now embraced within the limits of Braxton County. The settlement, however, worked upstream, instead of down, and the descendants of Jerry and Ben CARPENTER at the present time constitute quite a community in the vicinity of the mouth of Holly River, in the county of Webster.

After the CARPENTERs and others had located on Elk River, Adam O’BRIEN, a son of Erin, found his way into the same locality, in the spring of 1792 and being an inferior woodsman, and fearing that he could not find the way to and from the settlement, he incautiously blazed the trees in several directions from his home. Upon one of these marked traces a band of Indians one day chanced to fall, and pursuing it came to the cabin of O’Brien, which they found unoccupied; he, having become disgusted with the Elk River country, had gone back in the direction of Clarksburg.

After leaving O’Brien’s cabin, the savages proceeded to the house of Benjamin CARPENTER, whom they found alone, and killed Mrs. Carpenter, being also discovered by them was tomahawked and scalped.

From a former narrative, I make the following extract in regard to the destruction of the Carpenter settlement on Elk River:

“The burning of Benjamin CARPENTER’s house led to the discovery of these outrages; and the remaining inhabitants of that neighborhood, remote from any fort or populous settlement to which they could fly for security, retired to the mountains and remained for several days concealed in a cave. They then caught their horses and moved their families to the West Fork; and when they visited the places of their former habitation for the purpose of collecting their stock and taking it with their other property, scarce a vestige of them was to be seen — the Indians had been there after they left, and burned the houses, pillaged their movable property, and destroyed the cattle and hogs.”

The CARPENTERs and O’BRIENs afterwards moved back into the Elk Valley, and from them are now being brought up the fourth and fifth generations of a direct progeny.