U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statementon the following page: ----------------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER XVIII. THE IRISH AND GERMAN IMMIGRATION The last of the five districts of the county to be set- tled was Court House. By 1840 every other considerable territory in the county had a number of families, and the beginning's of institutions could be discerned. Sand fork and its tributaries, Butcher's fork. Cove creek, Indian fork, and other smaller streams, together with a consid- erable territory on Leading creek remained unsettled except for Tom Boilen, who had settled at the mouth of Rock Camp run, and Jim Ditcher, colored, who lived on Goosepen. Everywhere else was dense wilderness. The primeval forest covered the slopes of the hills and dales. The creatures of the wild, then rapidly being extermin- ated before the advance of the white man found their last refuge in Lewis County on its western borders. Sand Fork in the thirties was a paradise for hunters. Deer, bears and all the other animals of the western Virginia forests remained in the valley and furnished good hunting though they had been made wary by the number of hunters who invaded their haunts. The greater portion of this land had, of course, been patented even while the Indian wars were in pro- gress, and some surveys had been made by the intrepid Henry Jackson and others. The Pickering survey of 100,000 acres on the headwaters of the West Fork and Little Kanawha rivers, which included part of the Sand fork lands, was made in 1785. The Ford grant made in 1797 for 27,000 acres, extended southwest from a cor- ner near the head of Rush run. Many smaller tracts had been patented and surveyed by speculators. In al- most every case the large surveys had been made with the view of inducing immigrants to make settlements; but the abundance of more desirable lands, both in west- ern Virginia and beyond the Ohio, and the small num- ber of immigrants who stopped in this section, caused the investments to be unprofitable. In the first quarter of the nineteenth century, most of the surveys had either been sold or had been reported delinquent. Tracts of 100,000 acres were sometimes mortgaged for small sums and the mortgage left unpaid until it was foreclosed. Large estates changed hands for a few cents per acre. Colonel James M. Camp bought up many of the tracts on Sand fork in early years, and stored the deeds for them in his trunk without having them record- ed. Unfortunately for him and for his heirs the con- fusion of land titles in that region was so great that other claims to the same land, almost equally good, were admitted to record by the courts. Several younger cit- izens of the county, believing that the Sand fork sec- tion had a future, bought up small tracts as they came on the market. The process was hastened by a change in the policy of the state with respect to delinquent lands. The laws of Virginia respecting these lands had always been ver) reasonable. Under them the owners always had a long: period of grace for the payment of taxes. By acts passed in 1831 and 1835, however, the titles of lands published as delinquent and not redeemed were declared forfeited. Under an act passed in 1837, a commissioner of delin- quent and forfeited lands was to be appointed in every county of the northwest. His duties were to survey the tracts declared delinquent, to make adjustments for the payment of taxes if possible, and if not to sell the lands for what they would bring. One of the first holders of the office in Lewis County was Minter Bailey, proprietor of the Weston Hotel, who had achieved some local fame as a surveyor and land speculator. Among other land dealers in the county, none were more prominent than Gideon D. Camden and Richard P. Camden. Just what the rela- tions were between Bailey and the two Camdens before his appointment as commissioner of forfeited lands is not clear. By 1841 a partnership between them is evi- dent. In that year Bailey, as commissioner, "after ad- vertising in one of the Clarksburg papers, and at the front door of the courthouse", sold a large tract to G. D. Camden for about ten cents per acre. He reconveyed one-third of it to R. P. Camden and one-third to Minter Bailey at the same price per acre he had paid for it. The greater part of the Reed and Ford surveys and part of the Pickering survey also came into the possession of the firm within a few years. In addition to the land sold for taxes there were to be found on Sand fork isolated small tracts which had never been patented, or if patented had never been sur- veyed. Many of them were taken up by one of the part- ners and added to the common stock of Camden, Bailey and Camden. A tract of 2,172 acres lying in Gilmer and Lewis counties, but mostly in Lewis, was patented by R. P. Camden in 1846, and smaller tracts were afterwards purchased through the land office. The largest tract — one which had been overlooked, and the existence of which had probably been discovered by Minter Bailey when he was county surveyor — was taken out in 1856, a great quadrangle extending from Leading creek across Cove lick. Left fork of Sand fork. Butcher's fork and Indian fork, and containing 20,000 acres. It was unbroken ex- cept where one homeseeker had located a farm which in- cluded forty-seven acres on the eastern boundary. It should be explained that there is no evidence of unfairness or of sharp practices in the possession of the Sand fork lands by Camden, Bailey and Camden. The old deeds show that the sales of forfeited lands at the courthouse were always well advertised according to law. Minter Bailey did only what most other county surveyors and commissioners of forfeited glands have done both before and after his time. As commissioner, he knew the legal status and the quality of all the for- feited lands, and as county surveyor he had unusual op- portunities to know the location of a great deal of un- patented land. The other two members of the partner- ship were far sighted business men. Gideon D. Camden was a capitalist of Clarksburg, who probably financed the operations. R. P. Camden was a business man of Weston who seems to have devoted a great deal of his time to the business, and probably did most of the de- tailed work. It was a well-balanced partnership. Other great landholders in the Sand fork water- shed were James Bennett, Jonathan M. Bennett, George J. Arnold and William E. Arnold. Their lands were lo- cated in various parts of the region. They did not exer- cise as great influence in the settlement of the country as Camden, Bailey and Camden. The lands in the Sand fork watershed were seen to be desirable on account of the fact that the Staunton and Parkersburg turnpike was nearing completion. It was confidently expected that settlers who came west over the road in search of homes would be attracted to the lands, now that means of transportation were assured. They were not disappointed in their hopes of form- ing a colony. Many of the laborers engaged in the con- struction of the Staunton and Parkersburg turnpike were 'recent immigrants from Ireland and Germany They had been engaged in construction work on many of the public works then building in all parts of the United States. The effects of the panic of 1837 in de- creasing the amount of construction work everywhere continued to be felt for many years thereafter. The Staunton and Parkersburg turnpike, being under con- struction by the state, did not feel the effects of the panic as did enterprises of private concerns. When it was prac- tically completed the laborers seemed to be out of em- ployment, for all the other construction projects had all the laborers they could use. They were glad of any op- portunity to make a living until conditions should im- prove. The advantages of settling on the lands owned by Camden, Bailey and Camden were early brought to their attention. In order to provide farms within range of their means the large tracts were divided into smaller tracts of from fifty to one hundred acres. Few of the Irish laborers had sufficient funds to purchase their lands outright, but the matter was waived by the owners who arranged that they should pay for them as soon as they were able. Meanwhile the Irish were to build their homes on the land, clear as much as they wished and raise their crops. The first Irish to take advantage of the opportunity were John Hayden, Thomas White, John and Michael McLaughlin, Michael and Patrick Copely, Patrick Hare, James and Thomas Mullady, Thomas and Anthony Hart and William Murphy. Minter Bailey needed a varied supply of provisions for the Bailey House, including venison, chickens, potatoes, corn, wheat and pork. The need was partly met by the residents on the lands of the firm, who received credit on their accounts; but by far the greater amount was paid in cash. The clearing of the land was done by the men dur- ing the winter when the demand for labor was not very great. As soon as spring came, the Irish put out their crops and then went in search of work to do either on the farms of other citizens or on public works. The cul- tivation of the crops was left in the hands of the wives and children. Sometimes the men went away from home in the spring and did not return to their farms until the beginning of the following winter — but they always re- turned. Soon by the united efforts of husbands and wives they accumulated sufficient ready money to buy their way to landed independence. One of the first deeds recorded from Camden, Bailey and Camden in the county clerk's office in Lewis County transfers title to land on Sand fork to Thomas and James Malady, 1845. From that time on a great number of these deeds were recorded every year. The price paid for the land was from $2.75 to $3.00 per acre. The proprietors could afford to allow the Irish and Germans to settle on their lands without requiring the payment of rental of any kind because of the fact that every small tract improved enhanced the value of all the lands in the vicinity. Every acre grubbed and put under cultivation or seeded to grass meant an increase in the value, not only of that parcel of ground, but of all other lands in the vicinity. The proprietors would have lost nothing if an occasional settler had become discour- aged and left his farm without making any payment at all. As a matter of fact few of the thrifty immigrants were ever long in arrears in making payment for their land. 'Squire Oliver says that not a single Irishman abandoned his farm or allowed it to slip from his grasp. They had stopped working on construction jobs in order to settle on Sand fork and they meant to stay there no matter what happened. By 1848 the Irish colony on Sand fork was so large its permanence so evident and its prospects for a further great development so bright that steps were taken by their leaders to secure a church of their faith. The next year Camden, Bailey and Camden conveyed to Bishop Francis V. Whelan of the diocese of Wheeling, thirty acres of land on Loveberry run and Rock run for the purpose of building a church and laying out a cemetery. This tract was afterwards utilized as the site of the first Catholic church on Sand fork. Other owners of lands on Sand fork also became in- terested in the possibility of developing them by settling a colony of Irish and Germans upon them. George J. Arnold and William E. Arnold, owners of an extensive block of land, busied themselves in competition with Camden, Bailey and Camden, and succeeded in forming what is known as the "Murray Settlement" on the upper tributaries of Indian fork. It grew and prospered with only less rapidity than the Sand fork settlement. The potato famine in Ireland, 1846, drove a large proportion of the population to the United States. Many of them found employment in the construction of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad which was then being- pushed westward from Cumberland to Wheeling. Prac- tically all the excavation for the roadbed was done by the new immigrants. Some of those who had been in America for some time held positions as foremen. Some of these immigrants were also attracted, before the com- pletion of the railroad, to the route of the Staunton and Parkersburg turnpike which was then being macadam- ized. From either of these improvements it was only a step to the magnificent domain of Camden, Bailey and Camden, and many of the laborers settled among the earlier comers. It is related that R. P. Camden went to the camps along the Baltimore and Ohio railroad and explained the advantages of the land on Sand fork, and that the Arnolds also made special efforts to bring the Irish to the lands. It is also reported that Bishop Whe- lan, who had gone among. the immigrants establishing missions from the time they came to western Virginia, also recommended that they buy land on Sand fork and settle there. After the movement had begun, the best advertisement for the lands was the sight of the farms which had been established on Sand fork. The comple- tion of the railroad left many of the laborers out of work temporarily, and more of them sought jobs along the turnpike or purchased lands from Camden, Bailey and Camden and others along Sand fork and its tributaries. Michael Collins, James Dempsey, Thomas Kenstry Thomas Mulvaney, Peter Doonan, Edward Doonan, Michael Carroll, Thomas Timms, Thomas Lynch, Pat- rick Hoar and others were all on Sand fork or its trib- utaries by the end of 1852. Among the Germans who came about the same time were Lorentz Schuhtretler, John Finster, Bernard Krouse, Johannes Martin, An- thony Stark, George Scherer and Joseph Stark, all at- tracted to the western part of Lewis County by the pros- pect of securing cheap lands. The center of the first German immigration seems to have been on tributaries of Leading creek, though they were also scattered among the hollows of Sand fork. Not all the Irish in Lewis County settled on Sand fork. According to a census of the town of Weston by a boy in 1845, there were then living in the town "one Irishman and five children." There were doubtless oth- ers in the vicinity. Bishop Whelan in that year estab- lished a Catholic mission at Weston, and held services in the Bailey House for the benefit of all members of the Catholic faith in Lewis County. Most of the Irish citizens of Weston made their living at first by working at odd jobs or helping contractors at various work. Later they established themselves in business. The first comers to Sand fork and Leading creek were frugal and enterprising. Though their lands were so rough and so little desired for settlement that they had been left in the wilderness for over sixty years after the more desirable lands in the valley of the West Fork were occupied, yet the immigrants, by careful clearing, close cultivation and constant care have developed them into excellent farms of bluegrass pastures. The exam- ple of the Irish had a good influence over other farmers in the community who copied their methods of raising potatoes with profit. There was little inclination on the part of the citizens of the county to associate with the immigrants for several years, and the feeling was recip- rocated to some extent. Yet the Irish and Germans, by attending strictly to business, got along well. They be- came good citizens, all of them. The records of the courts for 1857-8 are filled with notations of applications for citizenship or for first papers. Martin Kinney, John Finster, later the millwright of Sleepcamp run, Simon Finster, John McCally, John Mellett, John Collinan, John Bergin, Elick Burk, Thomas Conroy, John Tully, Lawrence Dunagan, Patrick Downey, Patrick Hoar and Michael McLaughlin are names of some of the appli- cants. The new settlers had traveled over all the United States in laboring on public works, and they were per- haps more national than the citizens of the county who had lived all their lives here. They hated slavery; they knew nothing and cared nothing for state's rights; they knew only that their prosperity and independence were due to America. During the war they were staunch Union men, regarding their oaths to their new country before their allegiance to their state. A great portion or Company "B", 15th Virginia Infantry, was made up of Irish and Germans who served under an Irish captain. After the war the development of the Sand fork watershed continued. Many roads were caused to be viewed by the county court and many schoolhouses were erected in a district which twenty-five years before had been a wilderness. There were many other signs of in- creased prosperity. In 1866 occurred the death of Minter Bailey, and the firm of Camden, Bailey and Camden was broken up. Their lands were divided. The third portion assigned to the estate of Minter Bailey was cut up into small tracts to be sold at auction by a commissioner. The terms of sale were as liberal as any arrangement that had so far been made, purchasers being given an extended time in which to make payments. Sixty-three tracts were sold in 1870 alone, and the sales continued for some time thereafter, it being the policy of the commissioner to sell to actual settlers as far as possible. Many of the farmers took advantage of the opportunity to add to their farms, especially since the large number of sales caused the price of the lands to be reduced from their pre-war figures. The Camdens continued to sell small tracts from their holdings at intervals almost to the pres- ent time. They are still charged on the Lewis County assessor's books with many hundred acres of land. -----------------------------------------------------------