The Short Creek Country Settlement

Transcribed and Donated by Jo Ann Scott

On the first development of the Panhandle, it constituted a portion of the extensive county of Ohio, which dates back to before the revolution, and reached territorially to an indefinite extent. On the waters of Short Creek, celebrated from the earliest period for the exceeding richness of the soil, was located the seat of justice for this immense territory. It was called West Liberty, and here on the 16th of January, 1776, was held the first Court for Ohio County, and perhaps the first civil Court ever held in the valley of the Mississippi. A Court House and jail were ordered in the following spring, and among the attornies practicing are the names of Philip Pendleton and George Brent in 1778. The town was incorporated November 29th, 1786. At the organization of the present county of Brooke in 1797, at which period the seat of justice for Ohio County, was removed to Wheeling, and at about which time the county records were burned, West Liberty was quite a metropolis, and was the scene of many a hard fought battle with forensic as well as physical weapons.

The state of society generally, in this section eighty years ago, was very similar to that which now prevails upon the outskirts of our newly settled States; with perhaps the exception of containing a larger infusion of the fighting element than in these latter, owing to the almost continual conflicts of the settlers, first with the French and Indians, and finally with the British during the war of the revolution: for it must be borne in mind, that the men of whom we treat, were the contemporaries of Morgan, Campbell and Lewis, of King's Mountain, and Point Pleasant; and many of them held commissions under the sign manual of Washington himself, or had borne arms in the "brave old continentals."

The old settlers of this section were largely Marylanders, Virginians, and North Carolinians; and naturally introduced into their new settlements, the manners and customs of the hospitable and never over industrious sections from whence they came.

The different settlements appear to have been made by people from neighboring localities, the ties of friendship and kindred, with apprehensions of danger, inclining them to set their stakes in close communities. A squad of Marylanders would settle here, a company of Virginians there, while in another section a detachment of Germans or Scotch; and to this day, these localities are distinctly marked by peculiarities of names, manners and modes of speech. The Short Creek country about West Liberty, early attracted settlement by its fabulous fertility, and was appropriated by horse-racing, fox-hunting, jolly Marylanders and Virginians--some of them, men of education and refinement, and early given to hospitality, good living, fun and intermarriage. Farther north, the Scotch and Irish element began to predominate, though the prevailing type continued Virginian. It is, however, said that the genuine 'Short Creeker' never did fully recognize his fellow citizen of the "White Oaks" region, but held him in a manner, outside the sporting pale.

Among the original settlers of Ohio County, may be named Jas. Caldwell, George McColloch, Benj. Briggs, And. Woods, John Boggs, Joseph Tomlinson, Ebenezer Zane, Moses Chapline, John McColloch, Solomon Hedges, John Williamson, David Shepherd, Archibald Woods, Z. Sprigg, Alexander Mitchell, &c., whose names appear prominently on the record; while in 1787, several patents were located in Brooke, or Yohogania, by Dorsey Pentecost, Moses Decker, Peter Cox, Benjamin Wells, John Van Meter, Benj. Johnson Jr., who was a surveyor, and located 7000 acres in 1785, Wm. McMahon, who appropriated the hills lying back of Wellsburg, in 1786, Hezekiah Hyatt, Lawrence Van Buskirk, John Beck, and Gabriel Greathouse, besides many others whose names do not figure so prominently. These appear to have constituted the advance guard of pioneers, for after their arrival, there was a cessation of entries, until 1795, when it again commenced in redoubled numbers. Among this latter irruption we find prominently the names of Thomas Cook, Nathaniel Fleming, Jas. Darrah, Wm. McClane, Benj. Reed, and others.

Under the operation of the very liberal Virginia laws regulating claims to unappropriated lands, the good land of the country was rapidly taken up, and generally in large bodies, by the parties named above, and their contemporaries--a large proportion of it on speculation, to be sold at an advance or held until forfeited for non-payment of taxes; but much of it for actual settlement. It is singular and significant of the characteristics of our institutions, to observe how small a proportion of the land now remains in the hands of the descendants of the original proprietors. A large proportion of it changed hands, during the first twenty years; and although the names sound familiar enough, it will be found on examination that but few of the present actual landholders of the Panhandle, are represented in the family names above recorded.

(source: Original data: Jacob, J. G. Brooke County: Being a Record of Prominent Events Occurring in Brooke County, West Virginia from the Settlement of the Country, until January 1, 1882, Wellsburg, WV, USA: Herald Office, 1882)