Preston County,
WV
History
Preston County,
WV
History
The first court convened at the house of William
Price in Kingwood, which was for many years known as the "Herndon Hotel." The
first officers of the county were: Joseph D. Suit, Sheriff; Charles Byrne,
By the revision of the constitution
in 1831, the Superior Court was designated "Circuit Superior Court of Law and
Chancery," and Joseph L. Fry, of
Charles Byrne served as clerk of
both courts until his death in May, 1843, when he was succeeded by his son, John
P. Byrne, who was appointed at the June term, 1843, reappointed in 1850, and
held the position until 1852, when Smith Crane succeeded him. In 1852, Gideon D.
Camden was elected Judge and John P. Byrne was defeated by one vote for clerk,
his successful competitor being James H. Carroll.
Kingwood, the county
seat, then in
Monongalia, was established a town, by legislative enactment, January 23, 1811,
with John S. Roberts, Jacob Funk, William Price, James Brown and Hugh Morgan,
trustees. It became the county seat in 1818, being selected by the
commissioners, Thomas Byrne, Felix Scott, William Irvine, William Marteney and
John McWhorter.
Rowlesburg was incorporated by Act of Assembly
passed February 27, 1858. The first election of municipal officers was held at
the house of Mrs. Maria Hooton, the commissioners being Russell Finnell, H. H.
Wheeler, D. Wonderly, Jr., T. F. Hebb and William Hall.
Bruceton was incorporated February 18, 1860;
[Source: History of
PRESTON COUNTY
FORMATION
The Act of Assembly creating Preston
County reads as follows:
LET BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL
ASSEMBLY,
1. That all that part of the county
of Monongalia contained within the following bounds, to wit: beginning on the
Pennsylvania line near Fickle's, including the same, thence a straight line to
where Cheat breaks through the Laurel Hill, Bo as to include all the inhabitants
of the Monongalia Glades settlement, including Samuel Price and Henry Carothers,
from thence, including Gandy’s, to the Clarksburg road on the Laurel Hill where
It descends; from thence a direct line to the junction of the Big and Little
Sandy Creek where the Randolph line is; from thence with the Randolph county
line to the Maryland line; from thence to the Pennsylvania line, and with the
Pennsylvania line to the beginning, shall form a distinct and new county, and be
called and known by the name of Preston.
2. A court for the said county of
Preston shall be held by the justices thereof on the first
Monday in every month after the same
takes place, in like manner as is provided by law for other counties, and shall
be by their commissions directed.
3. And in order the more impartially
and correctly to ascertain the most proper place for holding courts and erecting
the public buildings for the said county, Thomas Byrne, Felix Scott, William
Irwin, William Martin, and John McWhorter shall be, and they are hereby
appointed commissioners, a majority of whom may act for the purpose aforesaid,
whose duty It shall be, after having performed the services hereby required, to
make report thereof to the court of the said county of Preston, whereupon they
shall proceed to erect the necessary public buildings at the place so fixed on
by the said court, or a majority of them, which when completed shall be the
permanent place for holding courts for the said county. The said commissioners
shall be allowed each the sum of three dollars per day, as a compensation for
the duties hereby imposed on them, to be paid out of the first levy to be
collected In the said county of Preston. The justices to be named In commission
of the peace for the said county of Preston shall meet at the house of William
Price In the said county upon the first court day after the said county takes
place, and having administered the oaths of office to, and taken bond of the
sheriff according to law, shall proceed to appoint and qualify a clerk; and
until the necessary public buildings are completed at the time pointed out by
the commissioners or a majority of them, to appoint such place within the county
for holding courts, as they may think proper: PROVIDED ALWAYS, that the
appointment of a clerk, and of a temporary place for holding courts, shall not
be made unless a majority of the justices of the said county be
present.
4. It shall be lawful for the
sheriff of the county of Monongalia to collect and make distress for any public
dues or officers' fees, which shall remain unpaid by the inhabitants of the
county of Preston, at the time it takes place, and shall be accountable for the
same, in like manner as if this act had not been made.
5. The governor with the advice of
council shall appoint a person to be first sheriff of the said county of
Preston, who shall continue in office, during the time and upon the same
conditions, as are by law appointed for other sheriffs.
6. The court of the county of
Monongalia shall have jurisdiction of all actions and suits depending before
them at the time the said county of Preston takes place, and shall try and
determine the same and award execution thereon. The said county of Preston shall
remain in the same judicial circuit, and In the same chancery district with the
county of Monongalia: and the courts thereof shall be holden on the first Monday
after the fourth Monday in the month of April, and the first Monday after the
fourth Monday in the month of September in each year; and be of the same brigade
district in like manner as if this act had not, been made. In future elections
of a senator and elector, and a representative to Congress, the said county of
Preston shall be of the same district as the county of
Monongalia.
7. AND BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That
the courts of quarterly session for the said county of Preston shall be holden
in the months of March, May, August, and November in each
year.
8. This act shall be in force from
the passing thereof.
Preston began its independent
existence with about 3,000 people, and with no subdivision into magisterial
districts, this step not being taken until 1852. Kingwood, the only chartered
town, the only postoffice, and the only voting place, had less than 100
inhabitants.
More than a half of the counties of
West Virginia are named for public men of the Old Dominion. Following this
custom, the legislature sitting in 1818 gave this county the name of the honored
citizen who was then filling the governor's seat.
James Patton Preston was the
grandson of John Preston, a Scotch Irish immigrant, who in 1740 settled near
Staunton in the Valley of Virginia. The grandfather was a ship carpenter and
cabinet-maker. His wife, whom he married as the result of an elopement, was
Elizabeth Patton, whose brother James was the nabob of the Augusta colony, and
one if it’s most forceful leaders.
The Patton’s, in fact, were people
of great influence and conspicuous ability. To this strain may be largely
attributed the men of prominence who have appeared among the descendants of John
Preston. The latter had several daughters, one of whom was the maternal ancestor
of the Breckenridge’s of Virginia and Kentucky. His only son was Colonel William
Preston, born in Ireland in 1730. He was a man of culture, and was active in
civil affairs and in the wars with the Indians and the
British.
It was one of the five sons of
Colonel Preston who became governor of the state. James P. Preston was born in
1774, and died at his home in Montgomery County in 1843. A planter by
occupation, he had a military as well as civil record, and as a colonel in the
second war with England was wounded in the battle of Chrystler's Field. He was
governor of Virginia from 1816 to 1819, and afterward was postmaster at
Richmond. Through his brother, General Francis Preston, he was the uncle of the
eminent William C. Preston of South Carolina.
The organization of the county took
place at the house recently occupied by Mrs. Kemble, but which was then the
tavern of Colonel William Price. The first habitation of the county government
was the "Old Red Courthouse," which stood nearly on the site of the Jenkins
Hotel. This building is elsewhere described. In the rear was the jail of hewed
logs. Standing in front of this municipal boarding house was a whipping-post,
significant of an old-fashioned mode of punishment which Delaware still retains.
It was not long until the insecure jail was burned by escaping prisoners, two
white men and a runaway negro. The whites were discharged, one of them only
after his back had been well warmed at the whipping-post. The negro was lodged
in the courthouse itself, but again broke out, and was never afterward heard
from.
When Preston was admitted, the
counties of Virginia west of the Alleghenies had about 84,000 people, the number
in the whole state being nearly 1,000,000. With one-third of the area of
Virginia, these counties held only one-twelfth of the population.
,
A large map of Virginia, published
in 1827, is in certain particulars the best that has yet been executed, but some
of the names we find on it have passed out of use. Smoky Mountain is placed
against the Maryland line. Mount Vernon is a crossroads two miles south of where
the Crab orchard is marked. Draper Run is the first tributary of the Cheat below
Dority Run, and Butler Run is put at the upper end of the Dunkard Bottom. Across
the river are the Big and Little Heater, between Morgan's Run and Pringle's Run.
Stony Run is a left-hand branch of Three Fork, and Brain's Run is a right-hand
branch. From this map many county names of West Virginia are missing. Logan and
Randolph are of enormous area, each being nearly as large as the state of
Connecticut.
The Preston of 1818 was not so large
as it is now. From the present northeast corner it ran west with the
Pennsylvania boundary only eight miles. Thence a line ran southwest to where the
present boundary crosses the Cheat. Randolph County came up along the Maryland
border for nine miles northward from the Fairfax stone. The southern boundary of
Preston was a single straight line running northeastwardly from that point on
Laurel Hill where the Preston-Barbour line begins. The line still running thence
to the Cheat is the western part of the original south
boundary.
Citizens of Randolph living next to
Preston, and between the Cheat and the Maryland line, complained of going fifty
miles to their own county seat, when they could reach Kingwood in half the
distance. So in 1828 a strip of ground was transferred from the one county to
the other. In 1838 a second slice was taken from Randolph. The two annexations
covered a triangular tract, the base of nine miles resting on the Maryland
boundary, and the point of the triangle resting on the Cheat. Thus a large
portion of Union, including even the ground where Aurora stands, was formerly in
Randolph. The new Preston Randolph boundary was ordered to be marked for the
convenience of the people living near it.
A third enlargement of Preston took
place in 1841. This time it was another triangular section, and it was taken
from Monongalia, the northeast corner of that county being moved back to the top
of Chestnut Ridge from a point near where the Big Sandy crosses the interstate
boundary. The revised boundary is thus defined in the Act of
Assembly:
So much of the county of Monongalia
as lies east of the ridge of mountains called the Laurel Hill and north of Cheat
River, next to and adjoining the county of Preston, and Is contained -within the
following boundary lines, to-wit: Beginning on the line dividing said county at
the point where it crosses Cheat River, and running thence a straight line to
the England Ore Banks on the top of the mountain; (thence a straight line to the
Osborne farm, so as to include the dwelling house of said farm in the county of
Preston; thence a due north course to the Pennsylvania
line.
The effect of these annexations was
to make the boundaries of the county less artificial and more natural than was
at first the case.
Unlike many other counties of the
two Virginias, Preston has never changed its seat of government and has never
been reduced in size, either by division or by minor alteration of boundary. Yet
neither result has been due to lack of active effort, and such effort began to
appear with the very organization of the county.
Elsewhere in this book we have
pointed out that there is a certain lack of homogeneity in Preston, and that its
districts are so individualized as almost to appear like counties in themselves.
This internal diversity has built up a half dozen towns of fairly equal
strength, and rendered any one of them a potential claimant for the courthouse.
Furthermore, it has given rise to movements for dividing the county, or for
otherwise changing its boundary.
The sections of the county divided
by the Cheat are equal in number and fairly equal in size and population. For a
time they differed in politics, and each side still claims its full share of
political prizes. The rivalry between them even antedates the formation of
Preston County. The earlier, and therefore the less familiar of the movements
alluded to, we now proceed to mention.
Just after the establishing of the
county we find a petition expressing pleasure at the fact, but also expressing
great disappointment that the courthouse was placed on the west side of the
river. The east side declared itself the more populous, and "after petitioning
for twenty years for a division of (Monongalia) county," it wanted the
courthouse on the Dunkard Bottom. A numerously signed counter-petition of 1819
says that over $1,000 had been expended on the public buildings, and that the
evils in the case could as well be borne by one side as the other.
The east affirmed, while the west
denied, that the Cheat could be made navigable. In 1822 there were petitions and
counter-petitions on removing the courthouse from Kingwood. A petition for its
removal was in 1823 endorsed by a legislative committee as "reasonable." In 1851
there was a petition to divide the county on the line of the Cheat, and place
the courthouse for the east side at Brandonville.
In 1846 there was an attempt to form
a new county out of parts of Preston, Barbour, and Taylor. A petition in its
favor speaks of "grievances too numerous to be set forth." The proposed line is
thus described: Beginning at the corner of Taylor, Marion, Monongalia, and
Preston, thence in a direct line to Lunsford Jones' mill on Three Fork, thence
to McDonnel's ford on the Tygart's Valley River, then with river to the mouth of
Teator’s Creek, then to Barbour-Randolph line near Isaac Phillips, then with
Randolph line to Barbour, Preston, and Randolph corner, then with
Randolph-Preston line to Cheat, then with Cheat to mouth of Tray Run, then a
straight line to Cassel Run bridge near William Matlick's, then to old
Clarksburg road, by a straight line from bridge on Brain's Run on
Monongalia-Preston line at Micajah Smith's, then to
beginning.
Evansville was to be the new county
seat, and favored the measure by a vote of 138 to 33, while Germany (Carmel)
opposed it by 18 votes against 4, and Kingwood by 234 votes against 3. But in
1849, on a Proposal to form a new county out of portions of Preston, Randolph,
and Barbour, Germany gave 84 affirmative and 24 negative votes. In 1859 there
was an attempt to add a portion of Preston to the new county of
Tucker.
CHAPTER
XXIV
THE TOWN OF
KINGWOOD.
Beginnings of the
Town - Legislative Designation - County Buildings in 1818-
The Town in 1832 -
Subsequent History.
In 1797 there were perhaps 1200
people in the Preston area. This was a thin sprinkling for a surface of 430,000
acres. The Americans of that day were more content to dwell in isolated homes
than they are now, although the prototype of the modern town boomer was then
alive and stirring. He had no brass band with which to work upon the feelings of
a crowd, yet he could appeal to them through the stomach. Burchinal Town was
started with a barbecue, and so, very possibly, was
Kingwood.
The site of Kingwood was once a
forest owned partly by John Miller and partly by Hugh Morgan. It was traversed
by the "Old State Road," leading from Winchester to Morgantown and Clarksburg.
Around and upon the present courthouse square was a grove of large, fine trees
known as the "King Wood," and presenting to the wayfarer a favorable spot for
his camp. Scarcely more than a hundred yards to the north was a spring, and down
the short hillside in the direction of the river was still another. The county
seat, which was also the nearest town of any pretense, was twenty-two miles
away, and as the valleys of the Monongahela and the Cheat are sundered by a
mountain ridge, which was then uninhabited, it produced an isolation of the
settlements along the eastern of the two rivers.
The important thoroughfare, the
remoteness of an established town, the pleasant spot, the water and shade for
man and beast, and the enterprise of two landowners, are the leading factors
which gave rise to the town of Kingwood. The very suitable and euphonious name
was suggested by the noble grove on the camping ground. It is to be regretted
that at least one of the trees was not suffered to remain. The writer remembers
on the street of an old town in Massachusetts, a giant elm which at the founding
of the place a little more than two and a half centuries ago, was permitted to
stand as a relic of the primeval forest.
At what date Miller and Morgan
joined forces in laying off the town site is not precisely known. The plotting
was done in "quarter and half-quarter lots." In March, 1798, Miller sold to
Aaron Royse for $20 lots 12 and 13, lying on the south side of the main street.
Taking into account the climate of this locality, we may quite safely conclude
that the surveying was done not later than in the fall of 1797. It is probable
that it took place before the burning of the Monongalia courthouse in 1796. In
1805 three lots were purchased by John S. Roberts, a
merchant.
Tradition states that the first
house was built by Hugh Morgan near the spring on the place now owned by Dr.
Varner. When it was built is not known. It is stated by Wiley that in 1807
Conrad Sheets 'built a cabin on the hillside above the Varner spring and near
the McGrew residence. But Sheets had already been in the vicinity at least ten
years, and there is no record of his purchasing any lot until 1813. when he paid
$50 for lot 27, containing one acre and seventeen poles. He died and was buried
on his town holding, but had previously owned a farm on Morgan's Run much
earlier than the date mentioned. Morgan moved to Ohio about 1815, and seems to
have been accompanied by Jacob Funk, a son-in-law, who was also a resident.
Across the road, and on the lot where a livery stable burned a few years since,
lived a man named Steele. About 1810 if not earlier, Miller built for John S.
Roberts a store that stood very near the site of the Jenkins Hotel. Roberts had
already been keeping a stock of goods in the Miller farmhouse, a mile east of
the embryo town. He was soon doing enough business to employ two
clerks.
It will be observed that all these
houses lay in the hollow east of the camping ground, the convenience of spring
water seeming to determine the choice of location. It will also be found that
during the first dozen years no more than five or six houses appear to have
sprung up. But January 23, 1811, the little hamlet received a decisive boost in
an Act of Assembly reading in part as follows:
Sect 2. That the lots and streets as
already laid off at a place called Kingwood in the county of Monongalia be
established a town by the name of Kingwood, and that John S. Roberts, Jacob
Funk, William Price, James Brown, and Hugh Morgan, gentlemen, be and they are
hereby appointed trustees thereof.
Sect. 4. The trustees of the said town, or a
majority of them, are empowered to make such rules and orders for the regular
building of houses therein as to them shall seem best, to settle and determine
all disputes concerning the bounds of the lots, and to pass such bye-laws as may
be necessary for the internal government of the said trustees respectively.
PROVIDED, such bye-laws shall not be contrary to the laws of this state, or of
the United States. So soon as the owner or purchaser of any lot in the said town
shall erect a dwelling house thereon, equal to twelve feet square, with a brick
or stone chimney, such owner or purchaser shall enjoy the same privileges that
the freeholders and inhabitants of other towns not incorporated hold and enjoy.
Vacancies by death or otherwise of any one or more of the said trustees shall be
supplied by the remaining tithables, and the person or persons so elected shall
have the same powers as if they had been named in this
act.
Sections one and three refer,
respectively, to Millsville in Londoun county and Newbern in Montgomery, all
three towns having been included in the same bill.
Kingwood now became a polling place
and it acquired a postoffice. Thus it took rank as the recognized village center
of the Preston area.
Funk built a tannery, and in 1813
sold it to William Sigler. A hatter named Fulton moved into the Steele house. It
is alleged that he was a brother to the Robert Fulton of steamboat fame. William
Price moved up from the Fairfax ferry, built the house lately occupied by Mrs.
Kemble, and opened it as a tavern. It is now the oldest house in Kingwood. The
trees to furnish the logs were felled on the courthouse square. Sarah Price, a
daughter of the tavern keeper, made for the young man who cleared the house-lot
a suit of clothes from cloth she wove herself.
To the cluster of log houses and a
frame store a few more dwellings had been added, when in 1818, Kingwood became
the seat of government for the new county of Preston. The store building used by
Roberts was turned into a courthouse. It was styled the "Old Red Courthouse"
from its being painted with the hematite ooze found in a spring of iron water
not far away. Within the building, which was 26 by 35 feet in size, was
partitioned off a jury room just large enough to hold the twelve men. Another
corner was used as an office by the clerk of the county and circuit courts.
Elsewhere were the bench and bar. The jail was of hewed logs and near by it was
a whipping post.
Such were the county buildings of
Preston until 1824. A courthouse of stone and a jail were
then built on the present courthouse
square. A mile east of town, on the old road to the mill of David Trowbridge,
was a schoolhouse used also as a church. There was none in the town
itself.
By an Act of Assembly passed January
12, 1826, the limits of the town were extended so as to include an addition laid
out by William Price, William Sigler, and Charles Payne.
Let us now come forward to the year
1832, and see to what proportions the town has grown during the third of a
century since it was surveyed.
We come up the old road from
Albright, then known as Snider's Ferry. The highway does not take its present
course after leaving Green's Run, but turns to the right and mounts a level
ridge, passing near the homes of David Trowbridge and James Brown and not far
from the Green cabin of tragic memory. Beyond, and when abreast of the Jordan
residence, we pass a comfortable log church with glass windows. A little further
and we come into the road that climbs the river-hill from the Fairfax ferry.
Somewhat farther yet we arrive at a fork, the older road pursuing a direct line
to the courthouse, while the other passes the log house of Major Charles Byrne,
where J. W. Parks was lately residing. It does not pursue its present curve
around the hollow, but keeps a direct course to the present schoolhouse,
crossing the ravine on a log bridge.
We return to the old road, cross the
same ravine lower down, and come to an intersecting street which on the left
turns up an ascent to '.he new road, or the present High street. On the right it
leaves the village to continue as a country road to Green's Run. In the nearer
angle on this lower side is the frame house, yet standing and weather beaten,
which then was occupied by Elijah Shaffer, a farmer and blacksmith. On the
opposite side of the street, and well back in its lot, is the log house of
Thomas McGee, a merchant. Farther west on the same side of the street is the old
red courthouse, now a temporary school building, and in about three years to be
torn down to make room for what is at present known as the Jenkins Hotel. The
latter does not stand on precisely the same spot, nor does it altogether consist
of the old courthouse.
Westward still is a new dwelling
occupied by Andrew Love, a jailor. It is now the Cresap house. Beyond, and on
the farther side of a cross street, is a log tavern occupied about this time by
Caleb Fuller. Above and on the main street is the new frame house of John S.
Murdock, a blacksmith. Beyond, on the lot of George A. Williams, was then a
one-storied building about fifteen by eighteen feet, and empty save as a granary
for oats that sell at eighteen cents a bushel. A few more steps and we come to
the street corner. Here is the merchant stand of Samuel Byrne, who about this
time lost it by fire. He was succeeded by Elisha M. Hagans, whose building is
yet occupied as a store by George A. Herring.
Crossing Price street to where the
soldier's monument now stands, we find a stone tavern built about 1824, or
according to another account in 1818 or 1819. The tavern keeper is Wick Johnson,
who will be followed by many others during the lifetime of the building. In 1848
it took the name of Union Hotel. After standing vacant while, it had burned in
1883. The pump by the sidewalk was once the hotel pump. Passing the hotel we are
in front of the stone courthouse. Just beyond and nearly where the Band of
Kingwood used to have its quarters is a two-storied log house with the broad
side toward the street. This is the new tavern stand of William
Price.
Going back to Shaffer's, and taking
the other side of Main street, we find in the corner opposite him the frame
house of William Sigler who purchased this property from Jacob Funk. At Sigler's
tannery are two other dwellings, one occupied by Moses Royse, and the other by
Dadisman, a tanner, doing up the hill toward the courthouse, we find that the
cabin of Conrad Sheets has disappeared. Sheets is not living, and through an
inadvertence a stable was in after years built over his grave. On the level
ground, little east from Dr. Pratt's cottage, we find the house of Israel
Baldwin, a land agent. His office was where the stone bank now stands. Across a
road leading northward is a two storied log house, since disguised by
weatherboarding. This is the hostelry of Solomon Paul Herndon. A short distance
down the road leading into the country and in the edge of a swampy spot is the
well-known Herndon spring. Still following the street, we find nearly opposite
Price the home of William Carroll, a merchant. A very little distance further is
a log house, used as a temporary shelter by people journeying through. A few
steps farther on still, and close to the site of the present Journal office, is
the dwelling of Thomas Squires, a blacksmith.
Nearly in front of the Squires
house, and about where the stone walk now crosses Main street, is a chestnut
tree bearing a "fingerboard." Here the road forks, the branch to the right
closely following the present course of the Morgantown Pike. Up this road and on
or close to the present property of Leroy Shaw, is a small log house occupied by
Thomas Locke, a laboring man. Returning to the chestnut tree, we find in the
angle between the roads the blacksmith shop of Squires. The index-board tells us
the left hand road goes to Beverly in Randolph county, and from this
circumstance the hill against the horizon has ever since been known as Beverly
Hill. In 1832 this road took a straight course to where the colored schoolhouse
now stands. It first plunged down a short descent, then went through a belt of
swamp in the rear of the present jail, and next made the ascent of Beverly Hill
by a very rough and rocky course. There was but one house on this road, and it
stood on the left side not far from the index board. This dwelling belonged to
Charles Byrne.
Returning once more to Shaffer's, we
pass up the scarcely used crossroad to High street, and on the corner at the
right is the home of George Rumsay, a carpenter and cabinet maker. Beyond, and
near the site of the Bishop mansion is the house of Hiram Hansliaw, a shoemaker.
On the Monroe property is P. T.
Lashley, a physician and "New Light" preacher. With one exception the remaining
houses on this street are on the south side. Where a few years ago stood the
Gordon House, was then a one-storied brick building about fifteen feet square.
lt was the second brick structure in Preston, the first being the store of
Harrison Hagans in Brandonville. A lawyer of Morgantown is making some use of
this building as an office. On the lot where stands the shoe-shop of James W.
O'Hara, was then the frame dwelling of William G. Brown, an attorney. A little
farther westward is William K. Hall, a carpenter, and a brother-in-law to Mr.
Brown, where since was built the Methodist parsonage we find an old house
occupied a little after our visit by lsaac W. Cobun, a shoemaker, and still
later by David C. Miles, a sheriff. A little earlier it was tenanted by Hanshaw.
The remaining house on this street has just been built. It stands on what is now
the lawn in front of the residence of the late M. H. Murdock. It is built after
a German model, the spaces between the upright timbers being filled with stones
and mortar, and a coating of stucco laid over the outside. The occupant is
George W. Knisell, a wheelwright.
We are not quite done with the list
of townsmen. John Hooton is the jailer, and the jail stands behind the
courthouse. Gustavus J. P. Cresap, a tanner and later an attorney, is living in
town but is not yet married. Charles Hooton is still another resident. There are
in all 29 households, the deficiency between this number and the number
enumerated being made up of renters.
We have found but one brick
building. The only stone buildings are the courthouse, the jail, and the Johnson
Hotel. The dwellings of Brown, Samuel Byrne, Carroll, Hall, Sears, Sigler, and
Shaffer are frame. All other houses with the exception of Knisell's are log.
Paint is scarcely more in evidence than is fencing of boards and sawed pickets,
rails being generally in use. The area of lawns and planted trees is still in
the future. Looking in any direction toward the country, there is more timber in
sight than in our day, and the open ground is usually dotted with stumps.
Beverly Hill is crowned with wood, and from its base forward to Squire's shop is
a field in tillage.
The three taverns would appear to
enjoy considerable patronage, even if it does not include our modern drummer
with his armor-plated trunks. They all sell ardent spirits and not in small
amount. Cards and dice also become visible, whenever there are guests of gaming
proclivities.
There is neither church nor
schoolhouse inside the town, the nearest buildings for these special purposes
being those we passed a mile before coming in. But religious services are held
every fourth Sunday at Sigler's and sometimes in the
courthouse.
Only a minority of the citizens
appear to be natives of Preston, although probably a majority have long been
resident therein. Perhaps the only townsman of foreign birth is Knisell, who is
of Alsatian stock and fought under Napoleon at Waterloo. We do not find any
leisure class. No one is at all wealthy, unless by the very limited standard of
the time and locality. All the townspeople are in active employment. Most of
them are following the manual trades of tanning, carpentering, and
blacksmithing, and the making of wagons, clothing, shoes, and hats. The other
citizens not holding office under the county are merchants or tavern-keepers,
except Brown, the lawyer, and Baldwin, the postmaster and land agent. It is also
worthy of remark that very few of the people seem to be above middle
age.
Like every other place, Kingwood has
what are very correctly termed its leading citizens. Among them is Colonel
William Price, now about seventy years of age, and probably the oldest man in
town. Baldwin, a native of Connecticut and a man of wide information, has been
living here five years. Sigler, who has been living here at least twenty years,
is a man of affairs. During his time he served as member of legislature,
justice, colonel of militia, and commissioner of the revenue. He is a staunch
Methodist, and his house is a home for ministers of his faith. William G. Brown
is a young lawyer with an active and conspicuous career of more than fifty years
before him. Major Byrne, as clerk of both courts, is almost necessarily an
influential personage. John S. Murdock, a man useful in his county and town, is
destined to live into the present century.
Herndon, the tavern man, is a
character in his way. In the cook room of his hostelry we may see a ten-gallon
kettle. Toward meal time the long fireplace is full of pots and skillets,
propped up with logs to hold them in place. The proprietor went to war in 1812,
and he very judiciously invested his pension money in land near town, buying ii
at forty-two cents an acre. As a final result he became wealthy. In person, he
is broad-shouldered and stout. He is shrewd, observant, and well-informed. While
leaning on his knees he will utter such maxims as the following: "Don't
loan—you'll get cussed; don't take one's word—there's a lie in it; don't go
security—you'll have it to pay." It must be added that he is a good customer at
his own bar, and this circumstance may help to explain a somewhat pugnacious
disposition. The Herndon spring, below his place, might be termed a dueling
ground. Men of lacerated sensibilities use it as a resort where they fight out
their differences with naked fists, and the host himself figure in some of these
frays.
Of Andrew Love a quite practical
joke is related. He found that his woodpile was being pilfered from by a
neighbor, and he loaded a stick with a charge of powder. The explosion took
effect in the neighbor's fireplace.
Having now finished our survey of
Kingwood as it was in 1832, we will now outline its subsequent history.
The Rev. Joel Stone road, a
Presbyterian home missionary, preached occasionally in the courthouse and was
followed by the Rev. C. B. Pistol of Fairmont. Baptist services were
occasionally held here also. The Methodists built a brick church in 1842 and the
present structure in 1879. The Presbyterian organization was effected in 1837
and its present church edifice dates from 1877. The Baptist organization did not
take place until 1881. Each white society has a church building of its own. The
colored Methodists use their schoolhouse.
Local schools were held in various
houses until the building of the Preston Academy in 1841.
The first society for intellectual
improvement seems to have been the Philomathean, which arose in 1840 and
included in its membership the more conspicuous men of the town. Yet the
inclination which prompts and maintains such praiseworthy efforts does not
appear to have kept par with the continued growth of the county
seat.
The bank of Kingwood, the pioneer
among the Preston banks, was organized in 1865 with a paid-up capital of
$100,000, and it began work with William G. Brown as president and James C.
McGrew as cashier.
Until 1861, the growth of the town
was almost inappreciable, since the population in that year was only 161. But in
a material way, the improvement was very pronounced. The log houses were
steadily supplanted by good dwellings of brick or frame, and civic improvements
were supplemented. There has been no general conflagration, although the fire
fiend has now and then taken a building. The hotels appear to have suffered the
worst. The Brandon house was burned in 1867, the Union in 1883, the Loan and the
Exchange in 1886, and the Gordon in 1907. A few stores and other business
buildings have also been destroyed.
Although the courthouse lies within
rifle shot of the geographic center of the county, the commercial position of
Kingwood has not been such as to permit it to hold an all round lead among the
towns of Preston, such as is held by Morgantown, Fairmont, Clarksburg, and
Grafton in their respective counties. This lack of the unifying influence of an
unquestioned metropolis has led to efforts to divide the county on the line of
the Cheat, and also to remove the seat of county government to some other point.
One of these crises was in 1856, when the stone courthouse was felt to be
inconveniently small. There was a movement to transfer the county seat to
Albright or Burchinal Town. The county court was not in a mood to appropriate
more than $8,000 for a new building on the old site. The lowest bid on the
specifications furnished was $16,000, and the court declined to raise its
appropriation. James C. McGrew, a member of the supervisory committee obtained
the consent of his associates that he go forward on his own initiative. He at
once raised a force of workmen, making himself one of the number. Winter was
about to set in. Trees were felled and sawed into lumber and bricks were burned.
In the spring construction was begun. While Mr. McGrew was absent in Baltimore a
storm blew in the unfinished walls. A telegram quickly brought him back and work
was immediately resumed. The building would have been completed inside of the
limit of $8,000, but for the extra cost of $1500 imposed by the storm. For this
additional sum Mr. McGrew was reimbursed.
About ten years ago there was a
quite active movement to relocate the county seat at Tunnelton. A still more
vigorous attempt was made in 1910 by the enterprising town of Terra Alta. After
a hard fought campaign culminating in a popular vote, Kingwood retained the
prize though by a narrow margin.
From 1870 to 1890, Kingwood doubled
its population, and from 1870 to 1910. it more than trebled it. The situation of
the town is exceptionally pleasant and healthful. It lies on the plateau between
Morgan's and Green's runs and while it is sheltered on the west by a ridge
rising 400 feet above the town level, it is itself lifted well above the fogs
which may be seen in the summer mornings rising from the deep gorge of the
Cheat. The landscape view from Beverly Hill is unusually attractive and is
rarely equaled elsewhere in West Virginia. From the same eminence the abundance
of apple bloom seen all about the town in the month of May is suggestive of a
great orchard. The verdure of the street borders and the house lots and the
trimness of the dwellings lend to Kingwood something of the air of a New England
village of the older type. On the other hand it is in the county seat alone
among the towns of Preston that the planter element of the Old Dominion
established a noticeable impress. This impress, together with the presence of a
leisure class, accounts for a certain restful quality in the life of the town,
and there is not the same atmosphere of bustle which is characteristic of
commercial centers. By situation, Kingwood is in fact designed as a residential
point and as such it is scarcely surpassed in general attractiveness by any town
of its size in the state.
[Source: A History of
Preston County, West Virginia, Part 1; By Oren Frederic
Morton, J. R. Cole; Publ. 1914; Pgs. 214-223; Transcribed by Andrea
Stawski Pack.]
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