U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statementon the following page: ----------------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER II. BEFORE THE WHITE MEN CAME Unlike most other portions of the American conti- nent Lewis County and West Virginia were not occu- pied by the Indians at the time the first explorers tra- versed the region. The whole expanse east of the Ohio river, rich as it was in game, held not a single permanent human habitation. There were Indians to be found in West Virginia during the summer and autumn months when they came from their camps and villages in the Scioto valley and elsewhere for the purpose of hunting, but at the approach of winter they always returned to their permanent homes. Indications in many parts of the county point to a large aboriginal population of more or less permanence. Village sites, artificial mounds, burial places and other evidences of habitation are the reward of the antiquarian in almost any part of the county where he undertakes his investigations. On the present site of Cleveland just across the right fork of the Little Kanawha river in Web- ster County there were ten or twelve earth mounds, five feet in height and about twenty feet in diameter. They were thought to have been of Indian origin, but what part the mounds played in the social, industrial or relig- ious life of the Indian is unknown. Excavation has failed to reveal any trace of their use as burial mounds. Just across the river from Jacksonville, in Collins Settlement district, there is an old field which, tradition says, is the site of an Indian village. There are to be found even now many arrow heads and broken pieces of flint which have been only partly worked into proper shape, indi- cating that a maker of arrow heads lived there in the days before the white men came. Near Round Knob school house on Big Skin creek there is a similar village or camping site. The remains of an important village were found at Arnold, and nearby another mound. Near the mouth of Canoe run there was also a mound. It is on Hacker's creek, however, that the most im- portant archaeological discoveries have been made. Seven Indian village sites have been found in the main valley of the stream, besides one on McKinney's run and another on Jesse's run. Temporary camping sites and scattered Indian graves have been unearthed all through the valley. On practically every elevated knoll or con- siderable tract of high bottom land the first explorers found a space which had been cleared for a village and nearby a burial ground where the dead had been laid to rest, from immemorial centuries. The locations which have been identified are Minor Hall's residence within the corporate limits of the town of Jane Lew, a second bottom at the mouth of Jesse's run, two locations within a short distance of each other on the farm of the late John Alkire, the original John Hacker settlement about one mile below Berlin, the old Cozad farm in the same vicinity, and two sites in Upshur County, one at the mouth of Rover's run and the other several miles further up the stream. At the last named location there was a trace of Indian habitation of great interest to the antiquarian, When cleared in 1821 the site was covered with a growth of young sugar trees about twelve inches in diameter indicating that the place had in very recent times been occupied by Indians. The remains of a great ash-circle one hundred eighty feet in diameter are to be seen at the present time. It consists of a clear space sixty feet across surrounded by a heavy deposit of ashes in a belt sixty feet wide. The inside circle is thickly strewn with fragments of bone, mussel shells, pieces of broken pot- tery, flint more or less broken, and stone implements and ornaments. When first cleared the field is said to have been literally covered with fragments of shell and bones, evidently the votive offerings of a tribe which had either been exterminated or driven away. In a mound close by the ash circle were found a flint spear head, a broken arrow point, a small piece of stea- tite paint-stone and a single bit of charcoal. A finely carved stone pipe made from brown sandstone has been picked up nearby. A perforated steatite "banner stone" in almost perfect condition was plowed up near the same place many years ago. An effigy-like figure of Indian origin was found on the crest of a hill adjacent to Bear knob. Three stone heaps each about three feet high by eight feet in diameter and surrounded by a curbing are located near the Lewis-Upshur line. One of them was removed some years ago revealing a small bed of ashes about one foot below the original surface. Nothing else was there save a small flint spear head, which showed traces of having been subjected to heat. It is claimed that a fragment of an engraved sandstone tablet was picked up near the site of Berlin, together with a fine "chungky" stone, and a small copper pendant. Grooved stone relics were seldom found, though mysteriously pitted cup-stones have been picked up in every glen in the valley. A grave opened in 1890 near one of the vil- lage sites below Berlin contained a fine stone bird-head pipe and a polished slate gorget; in another, was a well- made celt, slightly damaged at the poll; and in still an- other, a clay pipe and a broken clay vessel containing part of the shell of a turtle. Not all the relics found in graves, in mounds or scattered singly throughout the valley were of aboriginal make. Besides the copper ves- sel mentioned above there was found in one of the graves below Berlin a small fragment of bright blue home-spun woolen cloth. Iron and steel tomahawks and a clay pipe stem of undoubtedly European manufacture have been discovered in other Indian remains in various parts of the valley. These trinkets must have been taken as booty in wars with the English settlers of Virginia or else have been secured in trade either from the Eng- lish settlers in Virginia or from the French in Canada who reached the region of Lake Huron as early as 1615. Probably they were obtained from the latter source. It is hardly supposed that the mounds, burial places, etc., were built by the later tribes who were merely hunters in the valley and who therefore would hardly undertake any considerable works. They must have been con- structed within comparatively recent dates by a tribe who made their permanent homes in West Virginia. It may have been shortly after the first permanent English and French settlements in America, or it may have been at a considerably later time. The Iroquois, or Five Nations, of New York (who became the Six Nations by the accession of the Tusca- roras of North Carolina in 1713) began a series of wars against the surrounding Indians about 1650, and within a century they conquered the mighty tribe of Hurons living to the west of them and had overrun all the terri- tory as far west as the Illinois and Mississippi rivers and as far south as Alabama and Mississippi. West Vir- ginia was included in the early conquests of the New York tribe. There were traditions among the Indians of long and bloody wars fought between different tribes. Several battles were fought among the West Virginia hills during which the streams are said to have run as with blood. It is possible that the Iroquois found a strong tribe occupying West Virginia whom they had to exterminate because they could not drive them out. The ash circle found on Hacker's creek is said to be very uncommon among the American Indians, and it may be that it was built by a tribe different in civilization from most of the other tribes found east of the Mississippi. All attempts to solve the riddle have been futile. The permanent aboriginal inhabitants of West Virginia will probably remain undetermined. Very different is the case of the Indians who made their hunting trips to West Virginia in historic times. According to Indian tradition the Iroquois in 1713, leased- to the Shawnees and the Delawares the rights to hunt and fish in the district now embraced in West Virginia. These two tribes had left their settlements along the upper courses of the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers in Pennsylvania upon the approach of the whites and had taken up their residence in Ohio with their principal seat at Old Chillicothe. From there it was a journey of only a few days to the magnificent hunting grounds of West Virginia. The Shawnees often came in considera- ble bodies bringing their women and children with them and remaining from early fall until the near approach oi winter compelled them to return to their villages. While the tribe was on one of these annual hunts it is claimed that Tecumseh, the greatest Indian military ge- nius who lived within historic times, was born on Hack- er's creek. The date of his birth is supposed to have been 1768, one year before the first exploration of the valley by the whites. The place is unknown, but it is said that the chieftain declared it to be one of the village sites of the valley, either about one mile below the pres- ent site of Berlin or at the mouth of Jesse's run. Both these sites were occupied as camping grounds by the In- dians within a few years before the first settlement by the whites, as is attested by the finding of brass but- tons and other perishable objects of European manufac- ture among the rubbish heaps left by the earlier occu- pants. The Indians came to the Hacker's creek hunting ground and to others farther east by way of trails leading up the Little Kanawha river from its mouth, and thence across the divide to the waters of the West Fork. The principal trail in Lewis County followed Leading creek from its mouth to its source and then crossed over to Polk creek, down that stream to its mouth, up Stone Coal creek, thence across Buckhannon mountain and down Saul's run to the Buckhannon. Many years after the coming of the whites the Staunton and Parkersburg turn- pike followed this trail except where the course was changed for political or industrial reasons. The Indians also reached Lewis County by coming up Sand fork and crossing to Rush run, and by crossing from the head of Oil creek to Indian Carrying run whence it is only a few hundred yards to the West Fork river. This is the only spot where the Indians, within historic times, por- taged from the watershed of the Little Kanawha to the West Fork. The streams navigable for canoes are not more than three or four miles apart and the' watershed is low. The old portage is now used by the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. At the Indian Carrying place there prob- ably stood an Indian house of poles and bark or other light construction, mentioned in some of the older land office records. An Indian canoe which probably was brought over the carrying place was found moored to some willows near the mouth of Canoe run by some of the first white men to visit that section, and this circum- stance gave the name to the stream. Settlers on Canoe run and Carrion run have a tradition that these streams were also used by the Indians in crossing from Sand fork to the watershed of the West Fork, and the name of the latter stream is declared by some to be a corruption of "carrying run". Freeman's creek was a short cut used by the Indians on their way to the Hacker's creek settle- ment. During the later years of the Indian wars it be- came necessary to station a body of men at the mouth of the creek to intercept them. Down Kincheloe creek came Indians who had come up Hughes river and crossed the divide. The Indians never came to the region by canoes during historic times, on account of the dan- ger that their retreat might be cut off by a small body of men near the mouth of the Little Kanawha. During their war with the whites they never followed the streams in the vicinity of the settlements, but made their way along the ridges and benches from which they could ob- serve the country and be comparatively safe from am- bush. The so-called "Seneca trail" by which the Indians reached the settlements on the upper reaches of the Ty- gart's Valley, Shaver's Fork, the upper course of the Greenbrier and the South Branch of the Potomac, passed through the southern part of the county. Sometimes the Indians followed the Little Kanawha through the "Shoe- string" and at other times they came down the Left fork of the West Fork river, crossed to Abram's run and thence to Knawl's creek, a tributary of the Little Ka- nawha. The Buckhannon and Bulltown turnpike follow- ed the course in later years. Persistent traditions exist in several sections affirm- ing the presence of white men in Lewis county before the coming of the permanent settlers. Several trees in the Lost creek valley were found by the first explorers to bear the letters "T. G." cut into their bark. The ex- plorers believed that the man who carved the initials had been lost; or rather by a method of reasoning, which an- tedated the teachings of present day philosophy by a cen- tury and a half, they concluded it was not the man who was lost but the region through which he wandered; and the stream has borne the name of Lost creek ever since. The letter "G" was found carved on a beech tree beside a spring on what is now Gee Lick run. The identity of the person who did the carving has remained a mystery, and the spring and the stream has been called G (or Gee) Lick from that time. It is quite possible that cap- tives may have been brought here by the Indians while on their hunting trips, but why they should have carved their names on trees is another question. At any rate no impetus to settlement or advancement in geographi- cal knowledge has ever been made by the mysterious "G" and "T. G." There are legends also of buried treasure in two dif- ferent sections of the county. In a cave at or near the head of Stone Coal creek a Buckhannon dentist found, in 1867, a group of strange inscriptions which are sup- posed to relate to a rich mine near Indian camp in Up- shur County near which buried treasure might be found. The inscription had been revealed to him by one Calvin Smith, a squirrel hunter, previous to setting out for the west. The inscription reads: "Was fought for the rich minds swartus cnancu 1555 riten snath done while the batel." The legend in explanation of the story is that an Indian wearing arm bracelets of silver arrived at Jamestown shortly after the first settlement. He offered to pilot a party to the place where he found the silver for his jewelry. A large group ranged about "Swartus Cnancu" (who, by the way, is not mentioned in Virginia history as being an immigrant) and they proceeded to the wilds of what is now Upshur County. After digging 1555 pounds of treasure they were set upon by the sav- ages, and a great battle was fought, during which the white men blasted great stones to cover the opening, and Snath escaped to write inscriptions to guide them to the place in case of a return. It is said that much digging after buried treasure has been done by citizens of the vicinity, but needless to say, none of it has ever been unearthed. Near the head of Canoe run there is a stone bearing a turkey's claw which, when looked at in a certain way, points to the spur jutting out from the low ridge oppo- site the mouth of the run. A legend in the community says that the marker indicates buried treasure. On the slopes of the knob a great deal of digging has been done in search of this treasure at various times. NOTE — Most of the important archaeological discoveries on Hacker's creek were made by L. V. McWhorter and are more fully described in his "Border Settlers of Northwestern Virginia." The McWhorter collec- tion of relics occupies a notable place in the State Museum at Charleston. -----------------------------------------------------------