U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Skidmore Family ------------------------------------------------------------------- History of Braxton County and Central West Virginia by John Davison Sutton Sutton, West Virginia, January, 1919 Pages 428-434, The Skidmore Family According to Bardley's dictionary of English and Welsh surnames, the Skidmore family is of English origin, but traditional history claims that the Skidmore family is of German descent, possibly coming down through Holland, thence to America. The record of the family dates back to the fourteenth century. The name was originally Scudimore, but was at an early date changed to Skidmore. The family comes from the southwestern part of England. Wilts, a parish record, shows a baptism of Mary, daughter of Thomas Skidmore, in 1657. An old census report from Virginia shows an enumeration having been taken in the years 1782 and 1785. It is entitled, "A census of the heads of families," and the name of Skidmore is found as follows: From Fairfax county, the census for 1782 gives the names of Edward Skidmore, Elizabeth Skidmore, Ann Skidmore and Malinda Skidmore. From Rockingham county, the enumeration which was taken in 1784, contains the names of John Skidmore, Joseph Skidmore and Thomas Skidmore, John and Thomas presumably being the sons of Joseph. Of the early ancestry of the Skidmores, we have but little knowledge. That five generations or more ago, they took an active part in the Indian wars and the struggle for independence, is well established. As a family, they have become very numerous, spreading over many states of the union, and numbering in their kindred ties many thousands. Some of the characteristics of the Skidmore family have been prominent in every generation. They are domestic in their habits, frugal and industrious, while large families is the rule and not the exception. The old records show that the early or first generations of the Skidmores owned a great deal of valuable lands. As a rule, they were farmers, and sought the best farming lands. In an early day, those coming to the Tygarts Valley river, the Elk and Holly, sought out the finest bottom lands, and for a hundred years or more much of this land remained in the possession of their descendants. They are tenacious and unyielding in what they conceive to be right. Their florid expression and auburn hair characterizes every generation, and is an inheritance that has never faded away. It is most probable that the Skidmores were originally of Scotch origin and emigrated from that country, settling in Holland before coming to the states. Whether Joseph Skidmore was born in this country or across the water, we know not, or whether he came alone to America, we are not informed. Mrs. Delila Coger says her great-grandfather, Joseph Skidmore, lived in Pendleton county on a small run, and that the Indians came to his house and took a hog that was dressed and hanging up in the house, taking it up the run. Her great-grandmother was the only person at home, and the Indians ran around the house and looked in through the cracks of the wall and laughed at her while she sat in the middle of the floor and cried. She described her as a large spare built woman. On what a slender thread hung the destiny of a great family. She said that Captain John Skidmore's wife's name was Betsy; that she outlived her husband several years, and was blind for a few years before her death. She lived with her son John, and requested to be buried under an apple tree. Joseph Skidmore and his wife, Rachael, moved from near Norfolk, Va., before the Revolution, and settled either in Bath or Pendleton counties. Their son John, it was said, was the eldest of the seventeen children, and his brother Andrew was the youngest. John was married and had children older than his brother Andrew. Of the other members of this numerous family, we have been able to secure only a part of the names. In addition to John and Andrew, we have the names of Thomas, Benjamin, Samuel, Joseph, James; one of the daughters married a man named Taylor, one married Jos. Friend, one married Lawrence, one, a Coger, one, Jesse Cunningham, one, a Stonestreet and one married Robinson. It is of John and Andrew, his brother, that we wish more particularly to speak. John was born in 1725, and Andrew in November, 1750. John was a captain, and commanded the Greenbrier militia at the memorable battle at Point Pleasant, being badly wounded in the hip. Andrew belonged to the same company, and lost a finger in the same battle. Captain Skidmore married Polly Hinkle and reared a large family. Many of the descendants of the Skidmore family settled in Pendleton, Randolph, Barbour, Braxton and what is now Webster county. Captain Skidmore was said to be a man of deep piety. He was buried near Franklin, Pendleton county. Thomas Skidmore, a great- grandson, told us a short time before his death, when he was in his 88th year, that he remembered seeing Capt. Skidmore's widow in Pendleton county when he was a boy, and he gave from memory the names of the children of his great-grandfather, John Skidmore. They were John who died on the Holly river, Braxton county. He was a Baptist preacher, and was granted license by the Nicholas County Court to celebrate marriages. His wife was Nancy Tingler. (Their daughter Sallie married Dr. Cozad, Edie married a Canfield, Polly married, George Bickle, Mahala married Edward Robinson and one son died. Prof. R. A. Arthur was related to the Skidmore family, through Joseph Friend whose wife was Jos. Skidmore's daughter. James died in Pendleton county, Eliza of whom he gave no further account.) Another son's name was Andrew who lived in Pendleton, two of the sons were slave owners, Polly married Adam Lough. Phebe married Alexander Taylor, Edith married Robert Chenoweth, Susan married a Harper, Mary married a Rodgers, Rachel never married, Levi lived near Union Mills on the Elk, and many of his descendants are living in Braxton and Webster. Isaac was drowned in Pendleton county, and one daughter's name was not remembered. Samuel Skidmore's wife was named Betsy Parson. He was a son of James, son of Captain John. He settled on the Elk river and owned the Union Mills. He was the father of Thomas, John, James, Isaac, Jesse, Rachael and Mary, splendid upright citizens, and all reared large families. Jas. Skidmore was a commissioned officer in the Virginia militia; he was one of nature's noblemen. The author was shown a copy of his father's will, James Skidmore, dated Pendleton, Va., August, 1827, in which he willed quite an amount of property to his children. He had three sons and three daughters, Samuel, John, Jesse, Mary Belle, Phebe and Sarah. Samuel and John were soldiers in the war of 1812. John died while in the service at Norfolk; Samuel said that he was on picket duty the night his brother lay a corpse, and that the night was to him the most distressed and horrible that he ever experienced. He died in Pendleton county. "Kiser" Sam was a son of Andrew and grandson of Captain John, and owned the large and valuable bottoms on the Holly. He sold his land and moved West; his wife's name was Kiser, hence his nickname. There were two Joseph Skidmores, one being a son of Andrew, and one a captain in the militia service, but whether he was a son of Joseph, founder of the family or grandson, we have no definite knowledge. Henry Robinson who lived near the forks of the Holly, married a daughter of John Skidmore. Of Andrew Skidmore, youngest son of Joseph, and his descendants, we have a more general knowledge. He was twenty-four years old at the time of the battle of Point Pleasant, and was a private in his brother's company. That he was a daring, reckless soldier and Indian fighter, is an unquestioned fact. His hostility to the Indians did not cease after peace had been declared. It is related that he and two others named Judy and Cowen were imprisoned in Pendleton county for killing Indians, but the sympathy of the citizens caused their release without the form of law. After a man named Stroud had been killed in what is known as Strouds Glade by the Indians in 1792, Wm. Hacker, a Mr. Kettle, Wm. White and others murdered Captain Bull and his little tribe said to be composed of five families, a remnant of friendly Indians who had sought shelter from their northern enemies, and built a fort on the banks of the Little Kanawha river. Andrew Skidmore said that after they had killed the Indians they stepped in a trough of bear's oil to grease their moccasins, and went on. Whether he had participated in that unjustifiable slaughter or had the account given him by the lips of the other parties, we know not, but the inference is that he was along. His grand daughter, Aunt Nellie Rodgers who lived in Roane county, W. Va., told the writer when she was ninety-eight, that "Granddaddy," as she expressed it, had done several bad things after peace was made. It is the history of all nations that when civilization is at war with barbarous or uncivilized people, that they become barbarous through retaliation or demoralization, and often become more cruel than the savage himself. It was true in our Indian wars ; it was true in our subjugation of the helpless Filipino; and it will always be true. But this sturdy old soldier and pioneer, after the struggles for independence and a long and hazardous warfare with the Indians, blazing the way for civilization in the western world, married Margaret Johnson of Randolph county, and settled on Tygarts Valley river, near where the town of Elkins now stands, where he owned four hundred acres of valuable land entered on the 24th day of November, 1777. Joseph, his brother, entered on the same date, three hundred and fifty acres adjoining. Andrew undertook to dig a ditch to carry the water across a bottom at a long horseshoe bend to secure water power for a grist mill. This enterprise was never completed, but the ditch can yet be seen. The old soldier showed a spirit of enterprise in trying to harness the waters of the Valley river and make it useful to man. Margaret Johnson was a daughter of Andrew Johnson. She had six brothers — John, Charles, Robert, Oliver, Jacob and Levi. Jacob went to Raleigh, N. C., and married a Miss McDonald where he died in 1812, leaving one child about four years old, named Andrew who afterward became President of the United States. Margaret Johnson Skidmore is buried near Elkins in what is now the Odd Fellows' cemetery. Her grave is marked by a stone cut by her son Andrew. Her husband died in Braxton county and is buried in the Skidmore cemetery at Sutton. Their children were James, born August, 1784. (He married Sarah Kettle, daughter of Jacob Kettle. Their children were William, Hickman, Edwin, Edith who married James Madison Corley and is buried at the Corley place in Flatwoods, Mary who married John Daly. Elizabeth who married Isaac Harris, Margaret who died in infancy, Rachael who married John K. Scott and was the mother of the celebrated large Scott family, Sarah who married Wm. F. Corley, father of Attorney A. W. Corley of Sutton.) Andrew, born March 20, 1780; Nancy, born December 25, 1787, (she married Thomas Scott); Mary, born February 14, 1789, married Chenoweth; Sarah, born April 28, 1792, married Coberly; Joseph G., born June 17, 1794; Jesse, born April 6, 1796; Eleanor, born March 15, 1798; John, born August 15, 1S00; Benjamin, born October 20, 1802; Margaret, born February 10, 1804, married Crites; Rebecca, born May 7, 1807, married Jesse Jackson. Some of the descendants of Captain John Skidmore settled on the Elk and Holly river's, and many of their kindred are in that vicinity yet, while some of the descendants of Andrew Skidmore settled on the Elk at or below Sutton. Benjamin Skidmore, a most exemplary citizen, owned what is known as the Skidmore bottom which is now a part of the town of Sutton. Benjamin Skidmore's wife was Mary Gordon, and their children were Hilliard, Washington, John Newhouse, Franklin, Jennings, Salina who married J. A. Baughman, Sabina who married B. T. Canfield, Caroline who married J. M. Mace, Mary Ann who married William S. Gillespie and Rebecca who married Thomas Daly. Two sons and two daughters are all of this family who are living. He and his wife, and several of his children, are buried at Sutton in the Skidmore cemetery. Andrew, an older brother of Benjamin, settled three miles below Sutton on a tract of one hundred and forty acres of splendid land bought of John D. Sutton, paid for principally "by labor in building a post and rail fence on the bottom where the town of Sutton stands. He was a man of remarkable strength and endurance. My father related to me that he killed a yearling bear on Wolf creek and carried it home, together with his gun, shot pouch and knapsack, laying this bulky and excessive load down but twice to rest though the distance was seven miles to his home. Andrew Skidmore married Margaret Hudkins. Their children were Felix, Allen, James, Naomi who married Levi Rodgers, Polly who married James Sutton, Sally who married Levi Prince, David and Eliza who died in infancy, Susan who married Felix Sutton and Nellie who married Elija Rodgers. He and his wife and several of their children are buried at Bealls Mill. The old hewn log house that Andrew Skidmore built a century ago is still standing and is occupied by the family of his son James, a home in which he reared his children, and from the shelter of which they married and went out into the world. How sacred the relic and spot where father and mother were united in marriage. In tracing the genealogy of the family we find a similarity of names running through every family, namely: Polly, Rachael, Edith, Betsy, Phebe, Andrew, James, Thomas. The name Oliver appears in the Scott family, taken from the Johnsons, as well as the name of Jacob, Andrew, Robert and Levi. The Skidmores in an early day intermarried with the Chenoweths, the Johnsons, the Coberlys, Kettles, Corleys, Scotts, Hinkles and numerous other families. As a rule, they are exemplary citizens, and have been loyal to the government, having been represented in every war from that of 1774 to the present. Their course has been westward from the day of their ascent of the James river to the wilds of the western world. They have never aspired to office or eminent positions. Few of (hem have chosen the legal or professional life, but they have penetrated the forests and assisted in driving back the savage and exterminating the panther and the bear. They have felled the forests and builded churches and schools, and transformed the wilderness into a land desirable for human habitation. The daring revolutionary soldiers and adventurous citizens, like swampers in the forest, blazed the footpaths, and opened up the way for the generations who were to follow. They followed in the very presence of the Indian tomahawk and scalping knife that lurked in every ravine, that crouched behind every bush and boulder. When we think of it, it is simply marvelous — their endurance in penetrating an unbroken wilderness, in facing the storms that have no limit to their fantastics while sweeping the peaks of the Alleghenies. Who pauses to think while passing the mounds that contain the sacred dust of their fathers, who it was that drove the savage from ocean to ocean and conquered a mighty empire. Not the citizen of wealth, not the men in authority, not the gentlemen of leisure, not society cultured and sparkling in gems, all beneficiaries of a generation unsurpassed and immortal. Every grave should have a monument; every county should have a little historical society and map out and make note of the name and place of every silent and long-neglected grave; the state of West Virginia, with her limitless treasure, might in justice make provision to seek out and memorialize her worthy pioneer dead. Recently, we had the pleasure of seeing Mrs. Delila Coger who with David Chenoweth, aged eighty-eight, are the only living grandchildren of Captain John Skidmore. Mrs. Coger was next to the youngest of Levi Skidmore's family, and is one of twelve children. Levi was the youngest child of Captain John Skidmore's family and was also one of twelve children. Mrs. Coger is in her 92nd year, and is keeping house with part of her children. Ordinarily she does her own housework, and is remarkably well preserved for one of her years. She is a woman of striking intelligence and force of character. She related many incidents of pioneer life, and spoke of many topics of importance relating to the present. She emphasized the fact that there ought to be more stringent laws in reference to marriage. She advocates that there should be property qualifications; that a man entering the matrimonial state should have at least something to begin life with, and that he should be sufficiently intelligent to manage his property; that he should be free from deformity or hereditary disease. This, she said, would lessen divorce and insure a stronger and more energetic race. If the descendants of Joseph and Rachael Skidmore could be numbered down through all the five or six generations to the present, with all the kindred blood, the number would be as great as the army that followed Grant through the wilderness. If anyone doubts this, and he be a statistician, let him exercise his powers of enumeration, and he will begin to see great armies rising up before him. We said in the beginning that large families was the rule and not the exception. We had seventeen to begin with in the year 1745 or 1750. Captain John had twelve children, Andrew had twelve, Levi had twelve, and of the grandchildren, Andrew had ten, and lived to see his fifth generation, Mary, daughter of Rev. J. Y. Gillespie; Benjamin had twelve, James had twelve, John had twelve, Allen had fifteen, Jennings Skidmore was father of seventeen, the same number as Joseph, his great-grandfather, Mrs. Naomi Skidmore Rodgers had nineteen, Mrs. Nellie Rodgers had thirteen, Mrs. Canfield had thirteen, and we visited the home of one of the fourth generation who had twenty children, and the father yet living; David Skidmore Jackson was father of sixteen children, including one set or triplets. Politically, the early Skidmores with few exceptions were Democrats, and if the. old party of Jefferson shall ever be wanting in numerical strength, it will be because the Skidmore family has disobeyed the scriptural injunction. We know of three children who are of the eighth generation from Joseph Skidmore, and of the fifth generation from their greatgrandfather, Simon Prince who died in his 98th year. At one time, we saw one of these children, Spurgeon Hefner, sitting in his lap, a sight rarely witnessed in this life. The above list contains only a few of the hundreds that might be named measuring up to the patriarchal number. We are indebted to the late Attorney A. W. Corley of Sutton for quite a number of names and dates of this article. We have made no attempt at bringing out the various branches of the Skidmore family or of placing them in their genealogical order. Such an effort would be very laborious and would fill a volume, for we believe the Skidmore family to be the largest in the United States, taking the first six generations. We have only attempted to gather a few facts in order that any of the kindred wishing to trace up their family connection might take the information which we have tried to impart as a guide, and if any should be benefitted by the same, we will have been amply paid. That this great family is one of honor, Christian virtue and integrity none can deny, and since Andrew, the old Indian fighter, who helped to drive the redskins from the Alleghenies across the Ohio river and was put in prison for killing Indians after peace had been declared, no one of the name in six generations has ever been tried for crime nor looked through a prison bar. We cannot close this imperfect sketch without adding a line to the memory of Allen Skidmore. He was a son of Andrew Skidmore, and was a man of exemplary Christian character, touched with the divine spirit of grace. We vividly recall many pleasant evenings spent with him and his faithful and devoted wife. He exemplified in his moral life more of the characteristics of a frontiersman than is usually found in a well settled country. His aspirations were only to do good, and he seemed best contented in a humble cabin home where he spent the greater part of his life; a home stronger and more impregnable than the fortress or palace of a king. It was here that he established his altar, for God was with him. ------------------------------------------------------------------- If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access other biographies for Braxton County, WV by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/wv/braxton/bios.html -------------------------------------------------------------------