of James Parsons, four miles below the present town of Parsons. He had smallpox, and when the Indians discovered that he was afflicted with a disease greatly feared by them, they fled without scalping him, yelling as they ran: "Smallpox! Smallpox!"*

The troubled times on the borders, and the many murders by the Indians, induced the Governor of Virginia in 1782 to send troops. The number sent to Monongalia County was only seventy, and they were militia from Hampshire County. At that time Monongalia embraced the present counties of Tucker, Randolph, Harrison, Barbour, and northward to Pennsylvania, and westward to the Ohio. Seventy soldiers were too few. These seventy were divided into squads, and before June 30, 1782, had been stationed in Tygart's Valley near Beverly, on the West Fork, near Clarksburg, and on Cheat River near St. George. It is stated in General Irvine's report that in Monongalia County he only had 300 effective men. ‡

There were several visits by the Indians to the Cheat River settlement, the dates of which cannot now be fixed. Without giving the date, it can be stated that on one occasion an alarm of Indians was sounded and the settlers fled to the fort. A family living at the mouth of Clover Run, half mile from the fort and on the opposite side of the river, were working in a cornfield, and in the haste of the older members of the family to reach the fort, they forgot a boy, eight years old, in the field. When he called he was answered, as he supposed by his parents, and was thus decoyed into the woods, out of sight of the fort, where the Indians took him prisoner and carried him to the Ohio. He never got back. §

The night following the capture of the boy, Indians appeared four miles below the fort at the house of Mrs. Cameron, widow of Daniel Cameron who had been killed with John Minear and Jacob Cooper. The savages approached the cabin in the night. The widow with two small children was alone. Looking through a crack in the wall, she discovered in the vague shadows, an Indian's head and shoulders above the garden fence, as he stood motionless, apparently listening to detect the whereabouts and meaning of some uncertain sound. She quietly lifted her sleeping babies from their cradle, and carrying them in her apron, ran into the woods and

*The date of the killing of Sims is uncertain. While Withers gives no date, he leaves it to be inferred that it occurred about 1779. This was probably just ten years too early, as there is a well founded tradition in Tucker County that he was killed the day before Jonathan Minear met his death, 1789.

+ In Colonel John Evans' official report to General Irvine at Pittsburg, June 30, 1782, he says the troops were sent to "the Horse Shoe:" but that was then and for many years afterward, the common name for all the settlements on Cheat River for miles above and below. The fort was at St. George and no doubt the troops were stationed there.

Two years before that. in 1780, the militia enrollment in what is West Virginia, was given in Jefferson's Notes on Virginia as follows: Monongalia 1000, Greenbrier 502, Hampshire 930, Berkeley 1100; total 3532.

A pet crow which was with him in the field, followed him as far as the Ohio River where the Indians, actuated by superstitious fear, shot it.

reached the fort in safety.

The Indians burned the house that night.* In 1787 Indians came into the settlement and stole five horses from Henry Fink. The settlers barricaded themselves in the fort for several days. Believing that the savages contemplated an attack on the fort, which then contained only six men, the others having gone to Winchester for salt, great pains were taken to impress upon the enemy the belief that the place was well defended. The men would change their clothes frequently, and walk out where the Indians, who were concealed on a bluff across the river, could see them. The trick had the desired effect, and the

Indians made no attack.

In 1789+ Indians again invaded the Cheat River settlements, and in March drove the settlers into the fort. After some days the enemy were supposed to have departed, and the people returned to their farms. Among them were Jonathan Minear, son of John, and Philip Washburn, brotherin-law of Jonathan. Their land was two miles below the fort, on the opposite side of the river, at the mouth of a creek known to this day as Jonathan's Run. Indians waylaid them and killed Minear and took Washburn prisoner as he was carrying a load of fodder to feed the cattle. The savages had siezed him before he suspected their presence. At the same instant they fired upon Minear and broke his leg. He tried to reach the river, but was overtaken on the bank, and while running around a beech tree, propping himself with one hand against the tree, he was tomahawked. I The firing was heard by a settler on the opposite side of the river, and men from the fort went in pursuit of the Indians, under the leadership of David Minear, brother of Jonathan. The savages retreated up a steep ridge below Jonathan's Run, and the ridge is still known as Indian Point. They hurried to the Valley River in what is now Barbour, and there the trail was lost. The white men hunted for the trail all next day, and late in the evening found it, and after following it a mile or two, discovered the camp of the enemy. It was subsequently ascertained that the Indians, who seemed to think that pursuit from St. George was not to be feared, had spent the day hunting for the cabins of settlers in the vicinity of the Valley

*At the October term of the County Court in Randolph in 1801 a note occurs which probably gives the ages of the Cameron children at the time their mother carried them to the fort. It is stated that when Daniel Cameron was killed he left a widow and one daughter, Catherne, a year old, and that five months after his death, a second daughter. Elizabeth, was born. If Mrs. Cameron's flight from Indians was in 1783, the children were about three and two years old, respectively. Both daughters grew to womanhood, but no record of their marriage is found in Randolph County. After the death of Daniel Cameron, his widow married Thomas Cade. No record of this marriage occurs in Randolph; so if it took place in Randolph territory, it must have been before the county was formed.

The date of this occurence was long disputed, and is not yet settled with absolute certainty; but a minute entered on the court records of Randolph County in April, 1789, renders it highly probable that the occurrence was in March of that year.

While striking at Minear, the Indian's tomahawk frequently struck the tree, and the cuts in the bark left scars which could be seen for a hundred years. While thus striking they cut off the fingers of Minear's hand. They scalped him, broke his skull into fragments and drove the pieces into a stump. His dog guarded the body till men came from the fort.

River, but had found none that were occupied. They were thus off their guard when Minear's party attacked them. Two or three were too severely wounded at the first fire to escape and were overtaken and killed. The remainder of the Indians fled, some taking their guns, others running off without them and eluding further pursuit. Their only prisoner, Philip Washburn, was rescued, and on April 29, 1789, the county court of Randolph appointed him administrator of the estate of Jonathan Minear.*

The Minears, and their descendants, became related with many of the people, not only of Tucker County, but of Barbour also. Of John Minear's children, Mary Ann married John Saylor in 1795. He is supposed to have perished in the woods while hunting. A small stream near St. George, where he was last seen alive, is still known as Saylor's Run. Sarah, another daughter of John Minear, married Benjamin Marsh in 1799, and their descendants are still living. John Minear's sons who survived him were, Philip, David and John; the Minears now living in Tucker County being descendants of David, through his son, Enoch; while Adam, another son of John Minear, settled in Barbour, near the Taylor line, on the river. He had marrid Miss Cobb, a native of Pennsylvania, and their daughter, Nancy Minear, who was born in 1801, was the wife of John Howe Woodford, of Barbour County, and thus became related with a large family of that

name.

The first settlers within what is now Barbour County, so far as can now be ascertained, were Richard, Cotteral and Charity Talbott, and their mother. Richard was sixteen years old, Cotteral about eighteen and Charity twenty. They came in 1780 and settled two miles northwest of Philippi, and by intermarriages afterwards became related with the Woodford and Reger families. The account of this settlement will be found in the biographical part of this book, under the name of Richard Talbott. another chapter which treats particularly of the settlement and development of Barbour, the colonization of the various localities will be considered in detail, together with early developments and improvements in each.

In

*At the fire of the whitemen, the savages fled in panic while the victors rushed into the camp. A few moments later an Indian came bounding back into the midst of the white men, caught up something from the ground, looking like a small pouch, and escaped with it so suddenly that no one had time to shoot him. The old settlers often

discussed the question whether it was a bag of money or a pouch of medicine which the Savage valued so highly that he risked his life for it. It was probably neither money nor medicine, but the scalp of Jonathan Minear.

CHAPTER XIX,

Notes From the Records.

The County of Barbour was named from Philip Pendleton Barbour, who was a son of Thomas Barbour, was born in Orange County, Virginia, May 25, 1783, died February 24, 1841. He studied law while young, and when only seventeen years of age went to Kentucky to look after some business for his father. He was unsuccessful in managing the business, and his father was so much displeased that he disowned him. He attempted to teach, but could procure no school. He took up the study of law again, and when nineteen years old returned to Virginia, and borrowing money, entered the college of William and Mary as a law student. Subsequently he returned to Orange County and soon became a successful lawyer. In 1812 he was elected to the Virginia Legislature, and was earnest in his support of the administration in its war with England. Two years later he was elected to Congress and was afterwards chosen speaker. When the University of Virginia went into operation, about 1825, he was offered the professorship of law in that institution, and although pressed by Mr. Jefferson to accept it, he declined, and was soon after appointed judge of the general court of Virginia. In 1827 he resigned the judgeship and was elected to Congress. He was president of the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829. On account of weak lungs, which prevented him from speaking in public, he accepted a judgeship in the circuit court of the United States for the Eastern District of Virginia. In 1836 he became judge of the United States Supreme Court, which post he held till his death.

Boundaries of Barbour.

The act of the Virginia Legislature passed March 3, 1843, establishing Barbour County, fixed its boundaries as follows:

"Beginning opposite the mouth of Sandy Creek, on the east side of the Valley River, in the now county of Randolph; thence down the said Valley River, with the several meanders thereof, to Daniels' Ferry; thence a straight line to the dividing ridge on the waters of Simpson's Creek and Bartlett's Run, (so as to include Ruben Davisson's farm in the new county); thence a straight line to the old farm now occupied by Samuel Bartlett; thence to the head of Goodwin's Run; thence a straight line to William Bean's on Gnatty Creek; thence a straight line to the head of Peck's Run; thence with the dividing ridge between the head of Peck's Run and Hacker's Creek to the gap of said ridge where

the road crosses leading down Hacker's Creek; thence a straight line to Samuel Black's

residence (including the farm of the said Black in the new county) on Buckhannon Run; thence a straight line to the mouth of Sarvis' Run, on the Middle Fork of the Valley River; thence a straight line to the gap of Laurel Hill Mountain where the Widow Corley's corner tree stands; thence with the top of the said mountain until it comes to the Preston County line; thence with the Preston and Randolph County line to the beginning, the whole to form one distinct and new county, and to be called and known by the name of Barbour County, in honor to and in memory of Philip P. Barbour of Virginia."

From a minute entered in the proceedings of the county court it is inferred that the actual line was surveyed entirely around Barbour County in 1843, as

in July of that year the sum of eighty-six dollars was set aside to pay the surveyors, including guides, but no record of such a survey is found on the books of the County Surveyor. It became a matter of importance to have part of the lines accurately surveyed, and in 1894 the sum of $944.50 was paid for that purpose. The commissioners who made the survey between Barbour and Taylor were C. M. Cornwell, J. E. Hall and M. F. Hall on behalf of Barbour, and J. F. Ross, M. W. Kinkaid and Upton Foreman on behalf of Taylor, with J. Nelson Baker as umpire. The calls of that survey were:

"Beginning at a stone pile on the corner of Harrison, Barbour and Taylor, west of Simpson's Creek, thence north 86 degrees 53 min., east 2422 feet, passing 83 feet south of the residence of John Lough, to a stone on the ridge on the Jolin H. Woodford farm; thence south 89 degrees, 30 min., east 10942 feet to the Pleasant Creek Ford; thence north 68 degrees, 53 min., east 19086 feet to the mouth of Pleasant Creek, at L. Keller's residence on the line, and so crossing the river as to have 1772 feet of railroad in Pleasant District; thence up Sandy to the mouth of Little Sandy, which is the corner of Preston, Barbour and Taylor."

The commissioners who surveyed the lines between parts of Barbour and Randolph were, Milton Hart and H. C. Rosenberger on behalf of Barbour; A. C. Findley, C. M. Mosteller and Jefferson Scott on behalf of Randolph, and David Poe, umpire. The line is as follows:

"Beginning (line south 82 degrees, 45 min. west) at a hickory on top of Laurel Hill;