SWOPE Family of Summers County

Source: "History of Summers County, West Virginia", Pages 438-445, Published 1908
by Judge James H. Miller

Transcribed for Genealogy Trails by Mrs. Walter Henderson Pack, Sr.

This a German ancestry (Schwab or Swab being the original German name for what is now known as Swope). The Swopes were among the first settlers in Monroe county, Jos. Ulrich, or John Ulrich Swope being the ancient and original settler and ancestor of the family in this region of the country. He was the second son of Yost (Joseph) Swope, and was born in the town of Leiman, in the Duchy of Baden, in 1707. His grandfather was the mayor or burgomaster of that town. His father, Yost Swope, was born in the same town, on the 22nd day of February, 1678, and owing to the persecutions of the Lutheran church, of which he was an active member, he emigrated across the seas and settled in Upper Leacock Township of Lancaster County, Pa. Here he raised a family of five children, all of whom located there except John Ulrich or Joseph, as he will hereafter be called. We are not positive as to his first name, whether it is John or Joseph. This family records show that frequently these Dutch people gave two of their children the same name, and traditions is that he dropped the name of John and assumed the name of his older brother, and assumed and adopted his father's name as Joseph. The original ancestor wrote his name Swab, and it was Americanized into Swope. This Joseph Ulrich left Pennsylvania and emigrated with the German colony into the Valley of Virginia, locating in Augusta, near the site of the present Swope Depot on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway. It was here that his son Joseph was born, on the 11th day of August, 1751. He was of a venturesome disposition, and began explorations in the country to the west. In 1750 and 1752, with his trusty flint-lock gun, he followed the Indian trail up Jackson's River to the mouth of Dunlap's Creek, thence up that creek, crossing the table-lands into the country where Union is built. There instead of following the trail down the waters of Indian Creek, he took a due west course and landed on top of those knobs which bear his name to this day -Swope's Knobs- and from there he viewed the country. He descended from this mountain into the Wolf Creek Valley, and was detected by a party of marauding Indians, who followed him, but whom he discovered in time to make preparations for his escape. He headed for a large hollow poplar tree which stood about a third of mile west of the present site of the Wolf Creek Post Office near the Broad Run Church. He managed to crawl into the hollow of this tree and climbed up the hollow, bracing himself against the sides, and there remained until the Indians gave up on the search. He could hear them talking and marching around the tree, but they decided it was impossible for a man to be inside of it. This tree remained standing until 1860, when it became dangerous from decay and was cut down. After the departure of the Indians he came out of his hiding place, and there located a claim to the land round about, and cut his name in a beech tree near the spring on the farm now owned by Mrs. Cornelius Leach, entered his tomahawk or corn title and cut a brush heap at the same place. He then left, and returned in a year or two, and brought his wife and son, Joseph, and built his house a few hundred yards west of what is known as the Connor Spring. In this house he lived, and his son, Michael, after him, who was born there on the 29th day of September, 1753. This child was the first white male child born in the territory of Monroe County, if not within the present territorial limits of Southern West Virginia. There is a tradition that there had been a girl born before this date within that territory, but if so, all history thereof is lost. This house built by this pioneer still remains in splendid condition, and it was from this house that his son, Joseph, was stolen by the Shawnee Indians in 1756, at the age of five years, and kept a prisoner with them near Chillicothe, Ohio, for nine years. After formally settling his family in this new home, Joseph the settler, decided to visit his people in Pennsylvania and look after his interest in his father's estate. On this trip his horse threw him, fractured his leg where it had once been fractured by an Indian bullet, and from this wound he died, and where his place of burial is not one knows.

He was a traveler and hunter, and it was Swope, Pack and Pitman who were hunting down New River near its mouth, and discovered the Indians, who were making for the Jackson's River and the Catawba settlements for the purpose of attacking and destroying them. These hunters separated, one going to one settlement and one to another to warn them of the danger, and it was this band of Indians that Captain Paul followed. An account of this fight with them at the mouth of Indian is given elsewhere in this book. The theft of Swope's boy by the Indians embittered him towards that people to such an extent that he never let any opportunity pass to harrass them or to secure a scalp. This son, Joseph, who was taken to the Indian village, was adopted by the queen of the tribe, who was said to have been Cornstalk's mother. He was treated with royalty and saved from death and many hardships. An Indian boy one day located a skunk near the camp, and induced his white comrade into making an investigation for game, the result being that he was throroughly fumigated. Bent on revenge, and not large enough to whip the Indian, he waited his opportunity, and when the Indian boy started to kindle a fire with steel and flint, Swope placed some powder where the fire would ignite it, and when he got down to blow the smoke into a blaze, the powder ignited and blew out both eyes of the Indian. The Indian tribe took up the matter, and Swope was sentenced to death, and it was here the good offices of the old queen came in. She was a silent spectator to his sentence of death; then she quietly exercised her authority, took charge of her adopted boy, and told the Indians they had taught him nothing but revenge, and that this boy had a right to resent the treatment of the Indian; so saying, she led him to her wigwam, and the sentence was set aside and his life saved. The boy was returned to his parents by reason of the treaty following the battle of Point Pleasant. He was exchanged and returned to civilization, recognized by his parents, and became the ancestor of many people now living. This boy took to civilized life after his return, learned to write, and became a prosperous man. On April 3, 1774, he married Catharine Sullivan, a full-blooded Irish woman. She was a woman of strong character, and led an eventful life, many of the details of which would be interesting to her descendants. She was a fearless pioneer, capable of defensive as well as offensive warfare for the protection of her family against the wild beast as well as the savage men. On one occasion six Indians came into her house without saying a word, and sat down at the table and ate all she had prepared. With a grunt of thanks they walked over to the woods in the direction of her people. In a few moments she heard the crack of a rifle, and directly the Indians returned, and one was carrying a large buck which they had killed, and delivered it to her. They laid it down by the door, and indicated by signs and grunts that it was to pay for the dinner. This Joseph and his wife, Catharine, raised a family of nine children; George was born August 15, 1776; Margaret, October 20, 1777; Ruth, December, 1778; Joseph, June 20, 1781; Jonathan, January 5, 1784; Catharine, February 12, 1786; Eleanor, January 3, 1788; Adam, April 23, 1791; and Mary, March 17, 1793. Joseph settled in the Wolf Creek country and secured a patent to 600 acres of land above where his father entered his tomahawk right, and there raised his family in the house built by his father. Of this large family of early settlers and their descendants but few remain in the country of their nativity. George moved to Kentucky; Eleanor married a Burdette and moved to Kentucky; Mary married Thomas Casebolt and settled on Locust Creek, Pocahontas County. She was the mother of Henry Casebolt, who went to California with the forty-niners and who was the inventor of the cable car. Joseph Swope died March 3, 1819; Catharine, his wife, died March 12, 1820. Michael Swope, brother of Joseph Swope, settled on the head of Hand's Creek, where he raised a large family. He died April 25, 1839. Jonathan Swope the third son of Joseph and Catharine, first married Frances Legg on the 4th day of January, 1803. They settled on a part of the 600 acres patent. He was a prominent and useful citizen, inheriting the sturdy German traits of his father, with the active determination and push of his Irish mother. The children of Joseph Swope by his first marriage were George W., Lewis C., Elizabeth, Matilda, Catharine and Mary Jane. Lewis C. Swope settled in Madison County, Indiana; Elizabeth married an Argobright and settled at Spencer in Roane County, West Virginia; Matilda married a Johnston and settled in Iowa; Catharine married Griffith Ellis and died near Bluefield. Mary Jane was twice married, her first husband being Henry Miller and her second husband, Christian C. McGame. They moved to Greenfield, Indiana, where she died a few years ago. Their third daughter married Joseph Craig, of Nicholas County, and is a literary lady of pronounced ability, she having published a book of poems. George C. Swope married and settled near his father at the site where his great-grandfather cut his name on the beech tree at the Swope Springs. He raised three children, one son and two daughters. His son, Caperton Swope, settled in Boone County, Indiana. His daughter, Elsie, first married Robert Haynes, by whom she had one daughter. Haynes was a brave soldier in the Confederate Army, and was captured and killed with a large number of prisoners in a railroad wreck while being transported to prison. She afterwards married James Alderson, by whom she had one daughter, Elizabeth, now deceased. Her husband, James G. Alderson, and one daughter, Abbey, now live at Alderson. Her daughter, Mattie Haynes, married Charles K. Thompson, and they live in Alderson. Amanda Swope married Cornelius Leach, settled on the homestead of her father, and to them were born two boys and three girls. Elmer, the oldest son, after graduating at the University of West Virginia, taught one session as associate principal with William H. Sawyers in the Hinton High School. He is now engaged as a draughtsman with one of the large steel bridge concerns near Pittsburg. Arthur, the second son, married a daughter of J.J.H. Tracy, and is living on the farm since the death of his father. Ada married Dr. De Veber; Irene married a Mr. Black, and they both live in Monroe County; Elsie is unmarried and lives with her mother. Cornelius Leach was a prominent citizen of Monroe County, a Confederate soldier who fought through the war and an active Republican politician. He died in 1906. He was a prosperous and enterprising citizen; four years deputy sheriff under R.T. McNeer, and was six years a member of the county court. He was the first man to insist on and agitate a revision of the tax system of this State, contending that all species of property should be assessed at its true and actual value. George W. Swope bore the distinction of being the best scribe in his county, and one of the best educated men of his day and time. He was for several years a justice of the peace, was a careful farmer, and it was said that he was able to walk out in the night-time and lay his hand on any tool used on his farm. He died in 1871. On January 3, 1850 Jonathan Swope married as his second wife Susanna Roach, widow of M. Roach, her maiden name having been Susanna Siders. To this union was born on December 28, 1854, one son Joseph Jonathan Swope, whose father at the time of birth was seventy-one years old and his mother in her forty-sixth year. This Joseph Jonathan Swope received such rudiments of an education as was afforded by the public schools of the neighborhood until he was seventeen years of age, when his father died on April 5, 1872, leaving him in charge of the farm and the care of his aged mother. He gave up the attempt at securing an education, except what he would secure from study at home on the farm. On the 28th day of May, 1873, he married Lucy J., daughter of L.J. and Susan (Scott) Burdette. To this union four children were born, Ida S., wife of Jacob H. Hoover, of Hinton; Mary E. , wife of John W. Cook, of Charleston; Elsie W., wife of Z.A. Dickinson, of Talcott, and Loxie J., wife of Ethelbert Baber, of Hinton. Mrs. Swope died in 1883, and on September 23, 1883, he married Nettle Diddle, a daughter of M.P. Diddle, of near Union in Monroe County; Nellie H., at present postmistress at Thacker; Joseph Buell, who has completed the course in the Hinton High School and is at present a student of the commercial college at Charleston, and Stella J., residing with her parents in Pineville.

Mr. J.J. Swope is the most prominent of the present generation of the long line of the Swope ancestry now residing in this section of the country. After thirty years of life on the farm of his father in the Little Wolf Creek Valley, he abandoned it and went into the timber business. In 1887 he built a portable steam sawmill at Ronceverte, on which was placed one of his own inventions, a variable friction with only one wheel to use in either feeding and gigging the carriage. In 1888 he moved his family and located in Hinton, where he continued until 1889, when his mill and entire property was destroyed by fire, after which he recuperated and again embarked in the mill business with Robert H. Maxwell for a short time, but the business proving unsuccessful, it was abandoned. Hen then entered the law office at James H. Miller, and while firing the engine for the Hinton Water Company, began the study of law, and after six months of close application was admitted to the bar in 1892. He is a gentleman of great mental activity. In 1894, through his advice and efforts and in his office, a company was organized which established the "Hinton Republican," now the "Hinton Leader." In 1902 a fight grew up over the leadership of the Republican party in Summers County, and during that campaign he published and distributed the "Yellow Jacket" newspaper, which was only intended as a campaign publication. It was independent of the Republican organization and opposed the ring rule of the bosses. In 1903 he abandoned Summers County for more attractive opportunities, and located at Oceana, in Wyoming County. He and his son constructed the first telephone line in that territory, which was from his office to the clerk's office. On September 1, 1903, he took charge of the "Wyoming Herald" under lease, which he published until February, 1905, when he founded the "Wyoming Mountaineer," a Republican newspaper, of which he took entire charge as manager and editor, and which has been a successful county paper, its circulation having arisen to 1,400 copies each week. In the contest over the removal of the county seat from Oceana to Pineville, which was voted on at the election of 1904, he espoused the side of Pineville with his paper, and that town won by a majority of fifty votes over the necessary two-thirds required by law for the removal of a county seat. This election was declared void for technical irregularities on the part of the commissioners holding the election. A second election was called in 1905, Mr. Swope again espousing the cause of Pineville, and again that town won over Oceana, and the court house was removed to the latter place in the year 1907. He removed his newspaper office to Pineville, and his first issue from that town was March 9, 1906. He brought the first cylinder press and the first gasoline engine into that county.

Mr. Swope still practices law, but his law is secondary to his interests and energies devoted to his paper. During his residence in Summers County he was an active Republican politician, and had much to do with the policies and management of that party. It was through his efforts that a city charter for the city of Hinton was passed by the Legislature in 1897, consolidating the two towns of Hinton and Upper Hinton under one administration. He prepared in his own handwriting that legislative act. That consolidation not proving satisfactory, he prepared a bill and aided in securing its passage, known as the "Divorce Bill," by which the two towns were separated and again became two separate municipalities. His practice of law extended to the adjoining counties and in the Supreme Court of Appeals.

He is a gentleman of intelligence and of enterprise, and his energies are usually for the interest of his community at large.. He is now exercising all of his influence towards securing the construction of a new court house and fire-proof clerk's offices and modern jail for his adopted county of Wyoming.

There are few of the Swope descendants now residing within our territory. Jacob H. Hoover, the tinner of Avis married his daughter, and they reside in that town. Another daughter, Mrs. Dickinson, and her husband reside at Talcott. They are all intelligent, law-abiding people. There are a few things of which the Swope ancestors may justly feel proud. They are descendants of the original pioneers who settled in this county. From 1678 to 1907 there is no record of any of the Swope generation who was ever in prison except as prisoners of war. Not one has ever been tried or convicted of a felony in all the long line. Not one, so far as I have ever known or heard of, has signed his name with a mark, and no hungry person has ever gone unfed from their doors.

The old house built by the original settler on Wolf Creek still stands, well preserved. The site on which the hollow poplar tree stood in which Joseph Swope hid from the Indians is still marked and preserved. A large tombstone stands in the Broad Run churchyard with the following inscription: "Joseph Swope departed this life March 2, 1819, in his sixty-eight year. He was one of their first settlers of this country, after having been nine years a prisoner with the Shawnee Indians."