U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Stump, Michael (1766-1834) ------------------------------------------------------------------- History of Braxton County and Central West Virginia by John Davison Sutton Sutton, West Virginia, January, 1919 Pages 426-427 Michael Stump who introduced the Stump family into the Steer creek valley, was the son of Colonel Michael Stump who served in the Revolutionary army. His wife was Sarah Hughes, sister to the great Indian fighter. Colonel Stump lived on the South branch of the Potomac. Young Michael when he was a boy of eighteen, left home and came to the forts on the West Fork, now Lewis county, and is said to have been with his Uncle Jesse Hughes when they overtook and killed an Indian near Ravenswood, W. Va. He afterwards returned to the South branch and married a Miss Richardson, and came back to the West Fork and bought land and settled on Hacker's creek where Jane Lew now stands on land afterward owned by Isaac Jackson. He was born on the South Branch, Feb. 4, 1766, and died March 27, 1834, at his home on Steer creek. A few years before his death, he became partially insane, and had to be confined. His sons built a cage or small room of strong pieces of timber in which they kept him. Bailey Stump, his grandson, has in his possession the stool, a wooden seat with four legs, upon which he sat, and Fletcher Stout has the old saw that belonged to Mr. Stump which was used in the construction of this primitive asylum, perhaps the first one built in Virginia. Mr. Stump came to the Steer creek valley in 1804, and was the first white settler in that region of country. He was an honest, rugged pioneer, fond of hunting and enjoyed the rural life of a woodsman. When he settled in the Steer creek valley, it was a wilderness, the streams abounded in fish, and the forest in game. He was the progenitor of a family that has become very numerous, spreading out over many states. His immediate family was Michael, Jacob, Absolum, John, George and Jesse, and daughters Sarah, Mary Magdalene, Elizabeth, Temperance and Jemima. These girls all married and reared large families. The descendants of Michael Stump are scattered all over the Steer creek valley and its tributaries. The selection that the old pioneer made for a home for himself and family was a wise one. His son Michael was a surveyor, and was quite a prominent man, living to be nearly a hundred years old. He was bitten twice by rattlesnakes and nine times by copperheads. Michael Stump, the progenitor of the family, is buried near his old home on an eminence overlooking the Steer creek valley not far from Stumptown. A few years ago, his descendants placed at the grave a monument made in shape to represent the stump of a tree, with the design of a gun and ax cut in the monument, representing the pioneer and the hunter. The Stump family are industrious, sober people, frugal in their habits, and almost universally adhere to the Baptist faith. Some of them became ministers of the gospel and attained prominence. ------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 -------------------------------------------------------------------