U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statementon the following page: ----------------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER XX. THE GREAT BUSINESS BOOM, 1845-60 The period from 1845 to 1860 may rightly be called the era of commercial awakening in Weston and Lewis County. Beginning about 1845 there was a tremendous burst of energy among the people; internal improve- ments had broken down the barriers which had hereto- fore circumscribed the interests of Lewis County and the people found themselves in a world bigger than any they had ever dreamed of. Industry was stimulated; living conditions improved; and before the period was half over Weston was a center of the business life of north- western Virginia, and Lewis County was regarded as one of the most prosperous agricultural communities in the state. There were several reasons why Weston took the lead during this period. The completion of the Staunton and Parkersburg turnpike brought immigration, stimu- lated business prosperity and established a home market; but it alone could not have produced the result. The effect of the great panic of 1837 which had stopped in- vestment of capital and temporarily checked the wheels of industry, had practically disappeared; but the return of prosperity would only have meant a consolidation of the results already accomplished and a further growth along the old lines for a number of years. A community is rarely singled out by fortune to be the recipient of a very great development. The real ex- planation is believed to be in the great number of men of large vision and of untiring energy who formed a part of the population of the county — men like Jonathan M. Bennett. R. P. Camden, Minter Bailey, C. J. Moore, David S. Peterson, George W. Jackson, A. A. Lewis, George J. Arnold, William E. Arnold, R. J. McCandlish and others of like stamp. The efforts of the Camdens, the Arnolds and Minter Bailey to settle the wild Sand Fork country have been noticed already; Jonathan M. Bennett, one of the greatest of the luminaries, a young man who had only just begun to come to the front in 1844, deserves special mention. He was born in Collins Settlement, the son of William Bennett, 4 October 1816. His early education was obtained in the schools of the neighborhood, and in the school taught by Matthew Holt in Weston. In 1844 he was a young lawyer of diffident manners. He soon became a leader in the coun- cils of the Democratic party in the northwest, and one of the leading capitalists of the county through his at- tention to business and his careful investments. David S. Peterson was a farmer who lived about a mile out Polk creek, and was regarded as one of the wealthiest men in the county. A. A. Lewis was a new comer in the county, as was R. J. McCandlish, first cashier of the Ex- change bank, who came from Norfolk. One of the signs of the new era was the formal in- corporation of Weston as a town. The government by trustees was superseded by a government with a mayor, sergeant (chief of police), recorder, and five aldermen. The limits of the town as fixed in the act of incoporation were about the same as those before the coming in of the McGary addition. North Weston and the other late accretions. Jonathan M. Bennett was the first mayor of Weston. The aldermen were Addison McLaughlin, lawyer; John Lorentz, tan house owner; Conrad Kester, gunsmith; Elias Fisher, and M. Lazell. So far as im- provements were concerned there appears to have been little difference between the new government and the old. There was a police protection of a sort, and added dig- nity and importance. The Staunton and Parkersburg turnpike had scarce- ly been completed when Weston made efforts to secure a railroad. The Baltimore and Ohio railroad, which had reached Cumberland in 1839, was anxious to extend its lines to the Ohio river. The logical route was by way of Wills creek and the Youghiogheny — the old Braddock road, and the route used later in part by the National road:, but Pennsylvania also had a road in process of construction to Pittsburgh and the route through the state was refused. The company applied to the legisla- ture of Virginia for permission to build the lines across the northwestern part of the state and to make its ter- minus at Parkersburg or Point Pleasant. The matter was under consideration in 1846. Virginia capitalists in the Tidewater section did not wish to see the trade of the northwest diverted to Baltimore but wanted Rich- mond and Norfolk to secure it. They therefore pro- posed an all-Virginia railroad which would start at Alexandria, and run by way of Moorefield, in Hardy County, and Weston to Parkersburg. In the summer of 1846 a monster convention of 1400 delegates from all the counties in the Parkersburg district assembled at Wes- ton in the interest of the proposed railroad. Strong res- olutions were adopted in favor of it — resolutions which called the attention of the assembly in no uncertain terms to the magnificent improvements which had already been constructed in the eastern part of the state, while the people of the west had not a single railroad or canal. The people did not secure their railroad. By a com- promise the Baltimore capitalists were allowed to con- struct the Baltimore and Ohio railroad through Virginia, but it was confined to the northern limits of the state, with its terminus at Wheeling. Other means of trans- portation were taken up by the people of Weston and other points with the result that before many years, Weston became a center of improved roads which ra- diated, like the spokes of a wheel, in every direction. The first of these turnpikes, which were really lat- eral feeders of the Staunton and Parkersburg turnpike, was constructed in 1847. The inconvenience of having to depend upon the narrow, muddy road connecting Weston with points north in the Monongahela valley led to the incorporation of the Clarksburg and Weston turnpike in 1847. The capital stock was fixed at $12,000 in shares of $100 each. Lewis Maxwell, Minter Bailey and J. M. Bennett, at Weston; Stephen P. Jackson and Walter McWhorter, at Jane Lew; and three citizens of Clarksburg were authorized to open books and receive subscriptions of stock for the new road. It was also provided that the county courts of Lewis and Harrison might make subscriptions. It was the favorite method of road improvement at that time for private citizens to form companies to construct roads. Tolls were charged to meet the expenses of upkeep and to provide dividends for the stockholders. The road was opened via Jane Lew and Lost Creek the same year. Like the Weston and Charleston road its surface was clay, and it was not of much use in winter. The route was further improved two years later. In 1849 the Weston and Fairmont turnpike was in- corporated with a capital stock of $16,000 in shares of $25 and the Board of Public Works was authorized to sul)scribe $9,600. The company opened the road along the route located through Jane Lew. The road was hampered by lack of funds, and in spite of the fact that the Board of Public Works borrowed $4,000 for the road in 1848 it remained little better than it was before the company relieved the citizens along the route of the task of keeping the road in repair. The road was desig- nated as the route for mail from Clarksburg, in 1850, and a regular mail stage was established the next year. In 1858 Mail Contractor John D. Sinnett, filed no- tice that he would apply to a justice of the peace to have a jury summoned to examine the section of the road near the county line to determine whether the tolls should be discontinued on account of the damaged condition of the road. The section was repaired by the company. It was upon this turnpike after the completion of the Northwestern Railroad from Grafton to Parkersburg that a regular stage line was put in operation which brought better mail service in addition to greater con- venience in traveling. The coach was driven by Peter Dargan for many years, who, following the custom of the drivers of the old stages, would let his horses go at the regular speed until he came to the bridge across Stone Coal and then drive furiously to the corner of Second street. In 1847 a company was incorporated with a capital stock of $25,000 to build a turnpike between Weston and Lewisport, in Doddridge, a few miles east of West Union. The county courts of Lewis and Doddridge were also given permission to make subscriptions. The route for the road was disputed among various commu- nities, special objection coming from West Union; the capital stock was too large for two-fifths of it to be raised in order to secure the subscription of $15,000 authorized by the legislature from the board of Public Works; and other impediments caused the abandonment of the scheme. It was taken up again in 1851 when the Weston and West Union Turnpike Company was in- corporated with a capital stock of $14,000, the road to be built on a route surveyed by Joseph McCally, engin- eer of the Board of Public Works. The state's subscrip- tion was to be $8,400. The road followed a direct route via Dry fork, Left fork of Freeman's creek. Fink creek and Indian fork of Middle Island creek. It made use of the Staunton and Parkersburg turnpike to the mouth of Dry fork, but owing to the fact that part of the route was new, the opening of the road as a public highway was delayed until 1862. It later accomplished much for the development of the northwestern part of Lewis County. The Buckhannon and Little Kanawha turnpike (sometimes called the Buckhannon and Bulltown road) was incorporated in 1849 to run by way of French creek to some point on the Weston and Gauley Bridge turn- pike south of Weston. The capital stock was fixed at $12,000, of which the state was to take the customary three-fifths provided that the other two-fifths should be raised by private subscription. The road was opened about 1855. It entered the present county of Lewis by way of the Left fork of the river and followed that stream to Bennett's mill where it crossed and proceeded up the Right fork for a short distance. It then crossed to Abram's run, and thence to the present Lewis-Brax- ton line. Not well constructed in the beginning, it is still the rockiest road in the county. The important bridge at Bennett's mill was its chief contribution to the development of Lewis County. By far the most important of all the lateral feeders of the Staunton and Parkersburg turnpike was the Wes- ton and Gauley Bridge turnpike, incorporated in 1851. The necessity for a north and south road connecting the Great Kanawha and Monongahela valleys had been felt almost from the establishment of Lewis County. As early as 1827 the surveyor of the Board of Public Works was ordered to survey and locate a road from Gauley Bridge to Nicholas Court House (Summersville), thence to Raymond's salt works (Bulltown), thence to Lewis Court House and thence to Salem. If the survey was made nothing came of it at once. The next attempt to unite the two sections resulted in the construction of the Weston and Charleston turnpike in the late 'thirties. Though it followed a roundabout route, it was the only connecting link between the Monongahela and Great Kanawha valleys other than the narrow trails hacked out through the laurel thickets of the back counties and utterly unfit to be used for wagons. The plan to build the road from Weston to Gauley Bridge met with great favor among the people because it was seen that the completion of the road would make the whole district tributary to Weston. The opening of the books for subscriptions was so successful that the en- tire amount was quickly subscribed, and the work of construction began the same year. In general the route decided upon followed the old roads marked by commissioners, appointed by the Lewis County court thirty years before, except where a change was necessary by reason of the legislative proviso mak- ing the maximum grade five per cent. In 1820 commis- sioners had been appointed to locate a road from First street in Weston to the head of Rush run, and the next year from the head of Rush run to the head of Granney's creek at the Nicholas County line. The last named road was declared a public highway in 1832. Both together formed what was known for many years as the "Salt works road." The Weston and Cauley Bridge turnpike was sur- veyed and located by Minter Bailey and others. It as- cends high mountains, like Powell's mountain in Nicholas County, by easy grades, rarely reaching the maximum of five per cent. It winds round ridges, descends into valleys for a space and then climbs to the ridges again. From its location on the benches along the divide be- tween the West Fork and the Little Kanawha river sys- tems can be seen the hills and valleys for miles around, making it perhaps the most picturesque road in the coun- ty. The turnpike was constructed thirty feet wide throughout. In a few places it was macadamized or cor- duroyed but for the most part it was simply a well con- structed, well drained, dirt road, its high location making a metaled surface less important than in the case of other West Virginia roads. The initial capital stock of $30,000 was increased by $15,000 in 1857. Thirty thousand dollars was added the same year for the purpose of building bridges over the Little Kanawha and West Fork rivers and Salt Lick creek and for graveling the roadbed. It was following this act that the Bendale bridge was constructed. The importance of the road in the development of Collins Settlement can hardly be estimated. From al- most the opening of the turnpike there was a great vol- ume of travel. A blacksmith shop was built at the foot of the hill on the Carrion run side as soon as the road was opened. The community at the mouth of Sand fork and Canoe run, which had grown up around Wal- do's mill, was augmented by a store and ordinary oper- ated by Joseph Hall, and the postoffice of Bush's Mills was established before the outbreak of the Civil war with one of the Rohrboughs as postmaster. The office was kept in a log house which still stands by the side of the road between the mouth of Canoe run and Roanoke. Jacksonville became probably the most important place in the county next to Weston. It had the advantage of a location at the junction of the turnpike and the road coming down the West Fork valley, and the citizens were enterprising enough to take advantage of their op- portunities. And all the goods sold in the stores, all the imported commodities in use by the people of not only the upper West Fork valley but of practically all of Braxton County as well, were hauled over the Wes- ton and Gauley Bridge turnpike until the construction of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad into Braxton County in the early nineties. The possession of the road was of the utmost strat- egic importance in the Civil war. It was the chief line of communication between the armies of the Mononga- hela valley and those operating in the Kanawha and New river valleys. Rosecrans advanced over it to con- quer the Kanawha valley. Confederate raiders used it in retreating from the West Fork. Weston became an important stratigic center and Clarksburg an important depot of supplies, all on account of the road. Other important turnpikes constructed during the period were the Weston and West Milford, which fol- lowed the right bank of the river, and the West Union and New Salem road which passed up Hacker's creek and Buckhannon run in Lewis County. The outbreak of the Civil war interrupted further progress in building roads. The military campaigns cut to pieces the exist- ing highways; the state government which followed the government of Virginia was unable to furnish aid in turnpike construction; and public sentiment in the county was not sufficiently educated to appreciate the value of good roads. Interest has only recently been awakened by the advent of the automobile. The good effects of the construction of the turnpike system centering at Weston were not confined wholly to the country districts, but had their influence as well upon the town. New people came who constructed dwellings far more commodious than those already there. The older residents made improvements in their proper- ties so that within a few years the whole aspect of the town was completely changed. It was no longer a col- lection of houses of which the log buildings were the best. A. A. Lewis established a store in 1849 which was a center of trade under his guidance for half a century, and other stores followed. Minter Bailey built a brick building across the street from his old stand and moved his "Weston Hotel" into it. Henceforth it was called the Bailey House. He also established a still in what is now West Weston where he manufactured most of the beverages partaken of by the customers of the half dozen ordinaries in Weston. An effort was made to improve the schools of Weston through the short-lived Lewis County Seminary, incorporated in 1847. The system of private schools was, however, too deeply engrafted into the life of the town to be changed. The first newspaper was established in 1847 by Ben- jamin Owen, formerly a foreman in the office of the New York Tribune under Horace Greely. The Weston Sen- tinel, as it was called, was a four-page, six-column jour- nal published in the interests of the Democratic party, which was then in the ascendency in Lewis County in spite of the tremendous Whig sentiment in the Buck- hannon river settlements. The paper was liberally sup- ported from the first, both in subscriptions and in adver- tising. Many of the merchants of Clarksburg advertised in it. Owen continued to publish the weekly until the office was burned down in 1853. He apparently did not care longer to continue in the newspaper business, and the paper was revived under the editorship of W. D. Tapp, who sold it to F. D. Alfred in 1856. The name of the paper was then changed to "The Weston Herald." It continued in existence, always an apologist for slavery and states' rights, until the Union troops came to Wes- ton. Two new churches were established in Weston shortly before the middle of the century. The first ser- vices of the Episcopal church in Weston were held by the Rev. Ovid A. Kinsolving, of Christ Church, Clarks- burg. A church was organized by the Rev. Samuel D. Tompkins, of Parkersburg, at a meeting held in 1847 in the new Southern Methodist church presided over by Major Thomas Bland. The church began its existence with two members, Thomas Bland, Joseph Darlinton and Samuel Tompkins were appointed trustees, to pur- chase ground and erect a church building. They bought the lot where the Baptist church now stands from Lewis Maxwell for $130, and there erected a frame church, which was consecrated by Bishop Meade in 1850. The Rev. Tompkins continued to serve the church at Wes- ton for several years, being followed by R. A. Castleman, James Page and T. H. Smythe, under whose ministry the rectory was built. The foundation of the Catholic church in Weston was due largely to the construction of the Parkersburg and Weston turnpike and the Irish immigration to Lewis County which followed. In 1845, when there was "one Irishman and five children" in Weston, the Rev. Francis Vincent Whelan, Bishop of Wheeling, celebrated the first mass in an upstairs room of the Bailey House in the presence of a group of Irish workingmen and their families, some of whom had walked all the way from Sand fork. The visits of Bishop Whelan continued for some time. In 1848 a permanent pastor was appointed in the person of Father A. F. Crogan, who began the erection of a small brick church on the hillside where Robert L. Bland now lives. He was followed by the Rev. B. Stack, under whose ministry the church was completed. All sects in the town had contributed generously to the construction of the church, and it became an im- portant educational center in the community almost from the first. The priests were all men who had good clas- sical educations, and their schools in the basement of the church on the hill were attended by boys who after- ward became prominent in the life of Weston and Lewis County. Father L. C. L. Brennan, who succeeded Father Stack in 1855, is thought to have established the school, and it was continued by Fathers James V. Cun- ningham, L. O'Conner and John McGill. The little brick church on the hillside had great in- fluence over the further growth of the Catholic faith in Lewis County and northwestern Virginia. It was the fourth church of the denomination in what is now West Virginia. There were no other churches in this section with the exception of a small church at West Union which had been established for the spiritual welfare of the workmen on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad who had moved to Doddridge county and taken up lands. Churches which have since been built at Clarksburg and other towns, as well as the Sand Fork churches, are off- shoots from the Weston church. Connection with the outside world by means of the stage line to Staunton was not deemed sufficient by the people. Following the completion of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad to Wheeling, a Virginia corporation which, however, was financed by the Baltimore and Ohio com- pany, received a charter to construct a railroad from Grafton to Parkersburg in 1852. Some of the members of the legislature fondly hoped that this home company would compete with the Baltimore and Ohio, and hav-. ing the southern route, would soon acquire the ascenden- cy in the trade. In the same year that the charter was granted influential politicians of Weston secured the passage of a bill authorizing the construction of a branch of the Northwestern railroad from Clarksburg to Wes- ton. The corporation of Weston was allowed to bor- low $20,000 to be subscribed to the stock of the com- pany if the measure was approved by the qualified vot- ers of the town. Apparently the promoters of the North- western railroad had enough to do in the construction work from Grafton to Parkersburg, for they paid no at- tention to the proposed branch to Weston. In 1852 a branch of the Exchange Bank of Virginia was established at Weston, with Jonathan M. Bennett as president and R. J. McCandlish as cashier. The capital stock of the branch was fixed at $150,000, but an act of the legislature passed in 1853, provided that the capital might be increased to not more than $300,000. The bank building was located at first on the site now occupied by the store of T. N. Barnes, and was later moved to the Bennett property. The branch at Weston was at the time of its establishment the only banking institution between Staunton and Chillicothe, and between the branch at Lewisburg and the Northwestern bank at Wheeling. It served an immense territory. Business men came all the way from Parkersburg, Fairmont, Bev- erly, Summersville and intermediate points in order to secure loans or transact other business with the bank. The only day on which loans were made was Wednes- day; and so great was the crowd on that day that extra beds were always required at the Bailey House. Bank- ing methods were extremely crude at the time of the es- tablishment of the bank. It was impossible, for instance, to renew a note. The borrower was obliged to come to the bank, pay off the note in cash, and then if he wished, he might borrow the money again, always of course with approved security. R. J. McCandlish was an exemplary banker. Everything he did was just right, and the banker of the present day who follows in his footsteps can not go far wrong. His services were so satisfactory that after a few months the directors of the bank gave him an unsolicited increase in salary of $500 per year and a testimonial letter. Most of the money required for the construction of the Northwestern railroad passed through the hands of the branch at Weston. When the "Trans-Alleghany Lunatic Asylum" was located at Weston the bank fur- nished to the commissioners the funds with which to purchase the site. All the funds appropriated by the legislature of Virginia for the construction of the build- ings was deposited in the bank, and after the division of the state it was the depository of West Virginia funds appropriated for the same purpose. Though accused of being disloyal to the cause of the North, it was one of the most loyal of the banking institutions of the country, investing its funds in United States bonds in times of the country's greatest emergency. A charter was also granted to the Lewis County Mining and Manufacturing Company in 1853. David S. Peterson, Minter Bailey, Albert A. Lewis, George Jackson and others were the incorporators and the cap- ital stock was fixed at $10,000, with the privilege of in- creasing it to $500,000 by vote of the stockholders. The purpose of the company was "to mine iron, salt, goods, lumber, and such other mineral substances as the com- pany may determine to mine for" Lumbering seems to have been the principal activity of the company, which suspended operations almost immediately. The Lewis County Woolen and Cotton Manufacturing Com- pany, incorporated by Richard P. Camden, David S. Peterson, Blackwell Jackson, Noah Life, Henry Butcher and others with a capital stock of $5,000 to $200,000, was another company created upon a magnificent plan, but failing in execution. The old court house had long been considered in- adequate for the business to be transacted and not be- fitting a great county like Lewis, and in 1855 the county- court made provisions to supplant it by another. John Brannon, William E. Arnold and Jonathan M. Bennett were appointed commissioners to contract for the con- struction of the work. Joseph Darlinton was the super- intendent of the building. The structure was complete 16 November 1857. It was a more commodious and com- fortable building than the one now occupied by the coun- ty officers, and in addition it was an imposing edifice worthy of Lewis County. The courtroom, passageway and stairs were carpeted, and the walls of the interior were elaborately decorated. The next year after its completion the court provided for the construction of an iron fence with cut rock foundations around the square. The Weston College was incorporated in 1857 but it apparently never exercised much influence on the ed- ucational development of the town. George G Danser established the first foundry in Weston in 1857. By far the greatest single event in the history of Weston was the location of the Trans-Alleghany Lunatic Asylum in the town in 1859. The growth of population west of the Alleghanies and the inadequacy of the ex- isting asylums, one at Williamsburg and the other at Staunton, caused the General Assembly to establish the new institution. The legislature designated for the site one of three towns west of the mountains : Fayetteville in Fayette County, Sutton in Braxton, and as usual when there was a pudding to be opened, Weston in Lewis. The final selection was left to a board of three commis- sioners to be appointed by the Governor. Thomas Wal- lace, of Petersburg City; Dr. Clement R. Harris, of Culpeper, and Samuel T. Walker, of Rockingham Coun- ty, were designated by Governor Wise to visit the three towns, inspect the locations offered and fix the site. The other proposed locations were inspected first When Jonathan M. Bennett, then serving as First Aud- itor of Virginia, was informed that the commissioners were coming to Weston, he is said to have hastened home from Richmond and organized a campaign to se- cure the location of the building in Weston. Lobbying in the halls of the legislature has secured the designation of Weston as one of the places to be inspected; but lob- bying could go no further; it was necessary for the citi- zens of the town to impress the commissioners with its desirability for the location. The people without ex- ception followed the directions of their distinguished townsman. Missing palings were nailed on the fences; the whitewash brush was applied to all the houses that needed it; the rubbish lying on the river bank and en the lots both vacant and tenanted, was burned or hauled away; the holes in the streets were filled up; and the whole town was made to present an outward appearance of snug prosperity and a high order of citizenship. An entertainment committee was selected from among the leading citizens, and on the day that the commissioners arrived they were shown not one but several available sites for the proposed building. They were wined and feasted. Every form of entertainment which the inge- nuity of the citizens .could devise was held in their honor; and at every point the advantages of Weston were presented with such force that the commissioners would almost have seemed derelict in their duty to the Com- monwealth if they had made any other choice than Wes- ton. Their unanimous opinion was that Weston pos- sessed such advantages over the other sites offered that the institution should be located there. Of the legislative appropriation, the purchase of land, the beginning of building operations, the interrup- tions by the war, the opening of the institution to pa- tients, the successful completion of the plant and fur- ther progress, more will be said in another chapter. It is desirable to mention, however, the immediate effect of the location of the institution in Weston. Many fam- ilies moved to the town, attracted either by the prospect of obtaining work, or in order to take part in the com- mercial activity which was evidently to follow. The farm on the west bank of the river below the grounds selected for the institution was divided into town lots and platted as Hale's addition. P. M. Hale erected a store near the site of the passenger station, which did a thriving business before the war. The beginning of the hotel business on the site of the Monticello was a boarding house established about 1860 for the accommo- dation of laborers on the building. On the south side of the site purchased for the asylum, P. M. Hale pur- chased the land then occupied by a single dwelling and the still of Minter Bailey, and divided it into lots. The plat of Butcher's addition, as this section was called, was filed in the clerk's office in February, 1860. The population of Weston, which had been about 200 in 1844, 400 in 1855, and 820 in 1860, had increased to a thousand at the outbreak of the Civil war. The new stores of Bailey and Tunstill, Brown and Windle, Darlinton and Wood and I. G. Waldo, which were in evidence in 1857, catered to an increasing trade, and new stores were opened to compete with them. Where there were two or three ordinaries in Weston in 1844, there were six or more in 1860, kept by C. S. Hur- ley, Patrick Tierney, Joseph E. Wilkinson, Francis Bat- ten, Minter Bailey and Thomas Faulkner. Patrick Tier- ney was granted license to keep a "booling saloon" — the first in Weston — 13 April 1857. The prosperity of Weston was shared by the whole county. The proprietors of the Weston mill found that notwithstanding the competition of the Jackson mill and the Holt mill at the mouth of Rush run, it could not grind fast enough by water power to supply the needs of the increasing business, and a steam engine was in- stalled a few years prior to the Civil war. It was the first in Weston, and great difficulty was experienced in making it run. The Jane Lew mill was rebuilt and equipped with steam power by Edward J. Jackson in 1858. In the same year, or the year following, J. P. Potter and John T. Hacker established the potters' shop and kiln which has been one of the distinctive industries of Jane Lew from that time to the present. The village in 1858 had two ordinaries kept by Maxwell W. Ball and Bolivar Hawks, and had entered upon a period of prosperity which seemed to promise much for the future. The rapid development of Jacksonville following the completion of the turnpike was one of the surprises of the period. The store of John G. Arnold had passed into the hands of Porter M. Arnold, and with it the post- office, the name of which was changed from Collins Set- tlement to Jacksonville in honor of the founder of the village and promoter of the settlements of the upper West Fork. The town came into being full-fledged — blacksmith shop, carpenter shop, shoe shop, and two or- dinaries, conducted by Samuel B. Hogsit and William Brake, and soon afterwards the town had physicians, church and school. At the beginning of the Civil war, it was a rival of Jane Lew for the honor of being the second town in the county. Farther up the river, the little settlement which had grown up around William Bennett's mill as a nu- cleus, and which had a store and postoffice in 1851, had taken on added importance. B. J. Mills established an ordinary there in 1857. The name of the village was changed from Bennett's Mills to Walkersville in honor of Walker the filibuster whose ill fated attempts to con- quer Nicaragua and add it to the United States caused a great feeling of admiration and sympathy for him which extended from one end of North America to the other. Judge G. D. Camden pointed out that the name had no local significance: "If it had been called Craw- fordsville, Bennettburg, Cunninghamton, Barnettstown, or McCraysboro, the name would have meant some- thing." The beginning of the present village of Georgetown may be traced to the same period. In 1851 the post- office of Little Skin creek was conducted in the store of W. B. Peterson. Several families comprised the pop- ulation of the village in 1857 when an ordinary, kept by William B. Roach was added to the town. Improvements were made in several other sections of the county. The Freeman's creek settlers whose cen- ter up to the 'forties had been Hezekiah Tharp's mill, formed a new community center around the old Baptist church. Some time in the early 'fifties Fortunatus and Marcellus White started a store there which was the only establishment of the kind between Weston and Troy. At about the same time Reuben Kemper estab- lished a blacksmith shop in which the work was mainly done by a slave named Tobe. In his honor the place was called Tobetown, which name it bore for many years until the establishment of a postoffice long after the Civil war, when the more euphonious but less ap- propriate name of Freemansburg was bestowed upon it. Mail was brought from Weston by any resident of the neighborhood who happened to go to the county seat and left with the merchants who thus became, as it were, unofficial postmasters. In later years the store was op- erated by Hall and Gaston. On the right fork of Freeman's creek the commu- nity had become strong enough by 1846 to have a sep- arate church, and the Mt. Zion Baptist church was there- fore organized and a meeting-house erected. The prin- cipal support for the church in its earlier years came from Jacob Straley and Alexander (Buck) Moffett. Every section of the county showed greater relig- ious improvement than at any other period of its pre- vious history. The Mt. Hebron church at Jane Lew was organized from among members of the Methodist Episcopal church who did not follow the majority into the Methodist Protestant denomination. The Meth- odists also organized a society on Gee Lick run before the war, meeting at first in the houses of the members and later in an old log house which was donated by Mrs. Lydia Fisher, a staunch Baptist. Farm methods changed for the better, through the introduction of improved machinery The first thresh- ing machine in the county was introduced about 1845. It was evidently a small four-horse "chaff-piler", which threshed the grain fairly clean but did not separate it from the chaff. The grain and chaff together were de- livered by the machine into a rail pen, and later the grain was cleaned by means of an old-fashioned windmill which was hauled from farm to farm. The larsre eis^ht- horse separator was not introduced until a few years be- fore the opening of the Civil war. It is possible that there were a few mowers in the county then, but the real in- troduction of these machines did not take place until af- ter the Civil war. Even then their use was regarded as being in a more or less experimental stage. The "Mitchell Bull" and the "patent lever" plows came into use among the better class of farmers about 1845; but it was ten years later before the hillside plow was intro- duced. Wagons were more or less scarce, and farmers owned them "on shares" or loaned them to one another in the neighborhood. The first buggy, a crude affair without any top, was introduced about 1845. Not every citizen possessed his own saddle. It was not uncommon for a man to be seen riding in public on a pack-saddle with a sheepskin thrown across it for comfort. The growing of livestock continued to be the chief industry of the people. Cattle predominated until about 1860, when the interest of the farmers turned largely to sheep raising. The prices of cattle had increased since 1828, a good cow bringing, by 1860, $15 or $20. The increase was partly due to the good home market after the completion of the Staunton and Parkersburg turn- pike, partly to a general rise in prices. The price of sheep declined as the number of wolves became less. The gen- eral average of prices was about seventy-five cents per head for common stock, but more for an animal of bet- ter quality. The sheep were kept wholly for their wool. It was impossible to market lambs and many of the farmers preferred to make up their herds of wethers. A better breed of long-wooled sheep was introduced about 1855 or 1860, and a great deal more attention was paid to the breeding of sheep than at a later period. The tobacco industry, first introduced by Tandy Sprouse on Rush run in 1840, had assumed large propor- tions in 1860, and many other farmers had taken it up following the completion of the Staunton and Parkers- burg turnpike, which made the Richmond market read- ily accessible to Lewis County farmers. The production was in the neighborhood of 50,000 pounds per year by 1860. One of the most prominent growers of the plant was Henry H. Rittenhouse, on his farm at the mouth of Abram's run. The first improved potatoes, the "early rose" appear to have been introduced about 1855 or 1860. Previous to that time the people had to depend for their early supply upon the "cowhorn" variety which grew about the size of a man's thumb and which reached maturity about July 4. The late potatoes were of course larger, but the quality was poor. Sorghum was introduced as an experiment in 1856- The first crop was raised from seed brought from Geor- gia and it was so successful that all the seed was saved and planted, until within a few years most of the farmers had a cane patch. The first sewing machine in the county was brought over the Fairmont and Weston turnpike in 1855. Introduction of the process of canning fruit to take the place of dried fruit for the winter occurred about 1860. Tin cans were used, the lids being sealed with solder. The government of the county also changed for the better during the period. Instead of a dozen or more jus- tices forming a close corporation and filling any vacan- cies which occurred in their body, sometimes with poli- ticians who were unfit for the place, there was introduc- ed a real representative local government. Under the new constitution, adopted in 1852, the people chose their own justices of the peace, who, however, continued to exercise both judicial and executive functions, largely to the detriment of the administration of the county. The sheriffalty, instead of going to the decrepit old man who had managed to survive until his turn came, was made an elective office. The term of office was two years. If he were not an honest collector and a vigor- ous enforcer of the law, it was because the people had not been sufficiently trained in local affairs to protect their interests. Once having an opportunity to exercise the suffrage, they were quick in learning. The later minor subdivisions of the county also began to take shape. After the defection of the Buck- hannon river settlements resulting the formation of Up- shur, the two assessors' districts were separated by a line following the Staunton and Parkersburg turnpike from east to west. The genesis of the present magis- terial districts is also to be found in the division of the county into election districts in order to prevent plural voting which was likely to occur when there were several precincts in the county without any definite division line. The boundaries of the first district were identical with the present Collins Settlement; the second district included the territory now in Skin creek and Court House, except that east of Weston the line was the Staunton and Parkersburg turnpike; the third district was the present Hacker's creek with the addition of Gee Lick and Polk creek; and the fourth district in- cluded the remainder of the county, with the valleys of Freeman's creek and those of Leading creek. Fink and their branches. The election districts as thus consti- tuted made a more even division of the county than was made later, with the exception that the Hacker's creek precinct had more than one-third of the population. The voting places were in 1852: First district, J. M. Bennett's store (forks of river) and Joseph Hall's store (near the mouth of Sand Fork); second precinct, Court House and Peterson's store on Little Skin creek; third precinct, Jane Lew and Weston; fourth precinct, House of Henry Steinbeck on Leading creek and a house just below the forks of Freeman's creek. Country life in Lewis County before the war is thus described by Captain Michael Egan in his book, "The Flying Gray-haired Yank": "Rural life in the wilds of Virginia * * * might well be envied by even the nabobs and the lords of creation. In such places, above all others, are happiness and godliness sure to be found; person and property were alike safe in the keeping of those kind-hearted, industrious and religious people. They were like one happy family in their daily inter- course, cheering and helping each other along the steep, stony path of life, * * * "During the summer months it was customary for the young people of both sexes to attend camp-meetings, revivals, geography singing schools, and other religious or instructive gatherings. In winter the male portion of the population engaged in the exciting pleasures of the chase, hunting deer, bear and smaller game." -----------------------------------------------------------