Birth of a Nation
Young Bob Gwinn came up the King’s Highway with his old Ulster buddies Griffin and Graham, a sword and a pistol by each of their sides. They came down into the Shenandoah Valley with deeds in their hands and settled on the Calfpasture River. Certificates of land they had obtained through their military service under a militia known as Preston’s Rangers. After their service, Bob’s pal Lewis had sold him a fine piece of land for a good price. They cleared the land and planted crops, hunted game and continued serving in the local militias. Bob even became Sheriff, married Jean Kincaid and they gave birth to a lot of children, including Samuel Gwinn in 1745.
Sam grew up and joined the local militias himself, patrolling the frontier to protect the settlers and grow the land of the budding new republic. He marched under Andrew Lockridge patrolling on each side of the Allegheny Mountains, clearing out the Indians of the land that would soon be known as Almost Heaven. Sam fought against the Shawnee in the Battle of Point Pleasant, as part of Lord Dunmore’s War. He made his name by shooting an Indian who was hiding behind a tree. Apparently his foot was sticking out and Sam got him with a good shot.
After Dunmore could do no more, Sam’s brigade was charged by Major Andrew Lewis with staying on after the battle was over, to care for the wounded and dispose of the dead, with dignity of course. After the cleanup was finished, he was discharged in 1774 and made his way back across the mountains to Augusta County. All the while, he thought about moving his family west across the mountains to this beautiful setting that filled him with so much good feeling and promise.
At 25 years old, he and his best friend Jim Graham decided once and for all to move west to a new spot beyond the present frontier. In previous years, without the protection of British law and British arms, there was little incentive to move west. But with momentum on their side, things were starting to pick up. One Spring morning, they embarked and rode for a couple of days. After crossing the Allegheny mountains, down into the valley they trudged. How magical, Sam thought. The mist-covered mountains, the racing water of the river, the cool breeze, the blue sky, with but a cloud here and there. It was all that one thinks of when trying to imagine a paradise, a bucolic scene, natural wonder, intimate dreamland, a place to plop down and set up shop.
Sam and his friend Jim climbed down the valley to the river’s edge and followed that upstream for a few miles until they found a nice turn in the path of the river with a high promontory on either side. This was at the terminus of the Piedmont Hill country where it gave way to the Appalachian Mountains. This is it – said Jim- this is exactly it. We can build here. Which side do you want? I’ll take the southern side, if you don’t mind- Sam said. I was hoping you’d say that- says Jim. He gestures toward the sloping hill on the north side of the river which really was more creek-like at this point. In fact, they could walk right across it, which is what they did, to the north side of the river and up the hill to go see the land that Jim would build on.
This was serious business because where you build is where you are going to live most likely for the rest of your life. It’s where your children and grandchildren are going to live too. So you kinda wanna do it right and see what happens from there. Supposedly, they knew about this stuff, the things you need to be aware of upon making a homestead; where to build the main house and in which direction it should be facing, where to build the barn, the smokehouse, the forge, the chicken coop, the granary; how to clear the land, how to fell trees, till the soil, make boards from the fallen trees in order to build the house.
There was also how to make bricks from the clay you dig up when excavating the foundation, how to shoot game, how to prep game, cook game, eat game; how to defend the house in case of attack from Indians, from rattlesnakes, voles, ants, boll weevils, locusts, cicadas, silkworms, moths and birds. There was no giant home improvement store down the road that you can hop in the car and go pick up stuff from, add the cost to your credit card debt, or better yet just order it on line and have it delivered. No, it was just you and your family and some tools and some plowhorses and some guns and knives. The year was 1776 and they were the first Immigrants to settle in what is now Summers County, West Virginia.
Both Sam and Jim had titles to their land given to them by The Commonwealth for their work as scouts and spies pacifying he frontier, making it soft and supple and ready for penetration. They succeeded in that so The Crown gave them some kind of paper dipped in Authority Juice and they had rights to the land. They went back east to their homes in Virginia, in a little valley on a little river, and they started getting ready to pack up everything and go. How long of a journey was it going to be? About a hundred miles or so. How many days would it take to get there? About four or five. How many wagons and carts would they need? About ten, I’d say. Where would they sleep along the way? Underneath a canvas tarp they had, maybe on the ground or maybe in the wagon perhaps, but that means they’d have to unload the wagon and it was packed full of stuff; dishes, clothes, axes, hoes, iron pots and pans, wooden cups, furniture maybe, a table and some chairs, an iron bed frame perhaps.
At their destination spot on the Greenbrier River, each bank was blessed with bottom lands, fertile flood plains and rolling meadows, very suitable for eventual clearing and planting. Whilst settling in and building their homes, clearing the land and such, they continued serving in the militias battling the Indians. There were frequent skirmishes and it was necessary to build a fort nearby, a place to run to when things got hairy. They “forted” pretty much every summer from then on, until the Indians were eventually driven West. (Even so, Graham’s home would eventually be attacked one night, two of his children killed along with a servant named Sharp, who they dragged down out of the chimney. They even captured one of his daughters, who would live among them for eight years until being ransomed back with thirty saddles and some silver. Some years afterward, an Indian skeleton was found nearby and Jim used the jaw bone for a gun rack, as a kind of trophy.)
Before they themselves had moved west across the Alleghenies, while living back on the Calfpasture River, Sam’s first wife had died and he had later got married to Elizabeth Lockridge Graham, his buddy Jim’s cousin, and the sister of Major Andrew Lockridge. Elizabeth already had two kids of her own from a previous marriage, but when it was time to move west, she left them with her brother and set off with Sam across the mountains. A few years after building their new home, they had greatly expanded their land holdings and had two more children. They bought slaves, and made themselves a big tobacco plantation, established more forts along the frontier and kept battling the Indians. It was the 18th Century version of the American Dream.
Tobacco was the currency of the time in Virginia. If you wanted to buy something, you could pay in pounds of tobacco. And If you were fined for an infraction, the price was a load of tobacco. Stealing someone else’s hog would cost you 100 pounds. Being a Quaker would cost you a lot more than that. I guess it was to one’s advantage to grow tobacco, and Sam grew a lot.
As Sam and his family settled in to his new surroundings, he reminisced about the old place back east along the Calfpasture River, and how his dad Bob had come from County Tyrone in Ireland to land there after a long, hot, storm battered journey across the Atlantic in August 1738.
In April of that year, the following advertisement had appeared in George Faulkner’s Dublin Journal:
The Ship Cockermouth of Whitehaven, Burthen 250 Tons, newly rebuilt, and well fitted, manned and victualed, mounted with great Guns, and a sufficient Quantity of small Arms, Captain James Patton Commander, will be in Dublin the latter end of April, or Beginning of May in order to take in Passengers for Virginia, Maryland, or Pennsylvania: (those for Pennsylvania to be landed at the Head of ChessypeakBay, either at Bohemia Landing or Elk River.) Whoever is inclined to go in the said Ship from Dublin, may apply to Mr. Matthew Houghton, Mr. John Hornby, Mr. Campbell Merchants there, or to the said Captain at Mr. Heath’s at the Flag on Temple Bar, or on the Custom House Key, and on the Change at Change House, who will article with them.
The said ship, when victualled and fitted, will sail directly from Dublin to Loughswilly in the County of Donnegal. Whoever is inclined to go with her from thence as Passengers, to any of the aforesaid Places, may apply to Mr. Collin Campbell, Mr. John Preston in Derry, Mr. Daniel M’Farland near Burn Cranoughy, to Mr. John Hutchinson of Glenvain, to Mr. Robert Smith of Rathmullen, and to Mr. David Thompson of Rathmalton. Those from Limerick must apply to Mr. Isaac Patton, or to Mr. Charles Linde at Coleraine, and at Monaghan to Mr. William Jeeb.
Those from the Counties of Tyrone and Armagh may apply to Messrs. James and Thomas Sommervill in Dungannon, who goes with the Ship with their Families.
All the aforesaid Gentlemen will enter into Articles with passengers according to Custom; The Ship being five foot one half between Decks, which is very commodious for Passengers, and may assure themselves not to be crowded, but in all respects civilly used.
- B. Any Tradesmen or others that have a Mind to go as Servants,may apply to the Captain or Gentlemen aforesaid.”
It seems that the aforementioned Captain James Patton had a deal to populate the Calfpasture River valley in Virginia and was charged with rounding up enough “english” immigrants to settle the land and establish a populace, thus claiming more territory before the French could settle it for themselves. For whatever reason, Bob Gwinn signed on and was thus granted a plot in Virginia, along with a good many of the others who sailed with him, all Irish Presbyterians. Sam was born seven years later.
Sam and Jim, in addition to serving in militias to fight the Indians, had moved west at the same time as the War of Independence was breaking out. Although the war was mostly a New England affair, they also fought in some southern battles of the Revolutionary War in the company of Major Andrew Lockridge, while continuing to battle the Natives whose land they were intent on occupying permanently. In 1778, they were called up to participate in a night march to defend Fort Donally and drive the Shawnee from the area. The company was successful in defending the fort, however, Jim Graham lost his life in that battle.
As mentioned, Sam was a good business man and kept acquiring more and more land around the river valley til they had about 2000 acres. More land was bought elsewhere out even further west. They planted crops, mostly tobacco, had hogs and cows and just about everything else you could think of on a big old successful farm. And they had bought quite a few slaves to do the work. In fact, it was no longer just a farm, but a full on plantation, right there in the Greenbrier River valley. About the year 1800, after 25 years, Sam and his family decided to take it easy, and moved from Muddy Creek to Lick Creek, where their son Ephraim had bought some land.
After a long and very fruitful life, Samuel Gwinn died in 1839 at the ripe old age of 94, and is buried near Green Sulphur Springs. His wife Elizabeth had died in 1832, at the age of seventy-three. In his last will and testament Sam directed that three thousand fourteen dollars in cash be “laid out in Congress Land in the western Country” for the future use of his grandsons, thus showing his foresight in contributing to the settlement of the West. Three daughters, Ruth Jarrett, Isabell Busby, and Betsy Newsome, and each grandson named Samuel received a slave. His son Moses had preceded him in death, and he provided for Moses’s children to share in the division of his property. He divided 12,000 dollars worth of gold and silver amongst his sons. They were seen by neighbors carrying it all in burlap sacks across the hills and dales towards their own homesteads to the south and west.
John Gwinn was one of Sam and Elizabeth’s middle children. At twenty-four years old, in 1812, he had married Sally George, daughter of renowned hunter Thomas George and his wife Catherine. Twelve years after marrying, they bought their first tract of land, in what was then wilderness, near the present town of Meadow Bridge. The land was well-timbered. He cleared a large section of it and used it to raise grain, cattle, sheep, and hogs. John Gwinn followed in his father’s footsteps and acquired many more acres of land in Summers and neighboring Fayette Counties.
Fayette County had been formed by an act of the General Assembly of the state of Virginia in 1831. In the new county government, John Gwinn was commissioned a justice of the peace. And in 1844, he received a commission from the Governor of Virginia to execute the office of Sheriff. He was the seventh Sheriff of Fayette County. He served in this office until 1846, receiving a salary of eighty-five dollars a year
John Gwinn was also keen on expanding and diversifying his sources of income and livelihood. At the June term of the County Court, in 1840, he was granted a license to keep a “house of private entertainment”, a tax of $2 being imposed. This was a market place where all kinds of foods were kept and exchanged. The early hunters sold their venison, bear meat, beef, pork, hides, pelts and even wild ginseng. The farmers traded their products for coffee, lead, powder, caps, tobacco, cotton cloth, etc. At that time it was all a barter business, with little money handled. It was also a stopping place for the traveling public, an inn or hotel. Every month or so John and one of his sons would load a wagon with the surplus of grains or hides and make the two-day journey to Lewisburg where they would sell them.
As them that’s got shall get, John Gwinn kept buying more land. One was a certain tract of land in the county of Fayette containing 230 acres, lying on New River and known as the “round bottom tract,” which he bought in April of 1855. Soon after, or maybe some time before, he acquired the name Squire John, on account of all his land holdings and financial status. Squire John, like his daddy and his daddy before, was able to do well for himself and save a large amount of money.
But the good life there was to be disrupted by the Civil War, which brought hardship, heartache, and division to so many families in the borderlands of Virginia. The Gwinn family, like others, had some on the side of the Union and some on the side of the Rebs. Squire John was a Union man as was his son Laban, although his brothers and nephews had signed up for the Confederate Militias. Up in Pendleton County, an old Irishman named Jim Boggs was enlisted as a Confederate commander, while his brother Joe was a Captain in the Union Army. This happened all over the now disputed territories.
By 1861, Squire John and Sally’s son Laban Gwinn had built a house and barn on the Round Bottom property and was farming there. The next year saw active fighting in the New River Valley. W. D. Thurmond, of Oak Hill, joined the Confederate Army on August 26, 1862, and organized a company of guerrilla fighters who were active in the region. Laban Gwinn was warned ( family tradition says by a neighbor boy whom he had befriended, and who swam the river to warn him) that the Confederates were coming to arrest him. While Laban guarded the boat landing with a rifle, his wife Mary Jane packed food, clothing, and three small children (Sarah, John, and eighteen-month-old Loomis) into a covered wagon. The family started up the mountain toward Camp McCoy’s Mill, and as they looked back, saw their house and barn burning. They continued heading north.
Camp McCoy’s Mill
August 24, 1862
Capt. Levering
Dear Sir:
The bearer Laban Gwynn, a good union man with his family intends to go to Indiana, he is in reduced Circumstances, the bushwhackers robbed him, you would oblige me by giving him a pass for one of the government boats to reach Ohio.
Very respectfully,
- Stumpf Capt.
Com. Post
Squire John’s brother-in-law, Samuel had settled on the Gwinn lands in Iowa. In his heartache due to the war and separation of the family, he wrote a letter in 1863 to Laban while he and his family were temporarily seeking refuge in Indiana. He wrote:
I have received no letters from my own parents since this rebellion broke out, or since this war began. I was, am yet, and always will be Union; live or die, sink or swim, survive or perish and I supposed that you must have all gone South for I continued to write to you for some time after and I received no letters. It’s a long night of anxiety; two years and more—and no letter from Papa, or Mother, or brother, or sister, or cousin, or friend, or the home of our birth. And particularly when times are such as they are.
In December of that year, Laban Gwinn took the oath of allegiance before a Union officer, and was given a pass back to his home on New River.
Later letters of the spring of 1865, revealed that peace was returning to the New River Valley, though much bitterness remained between relatives and neighbors who had fought on opposite sides. Eager to return home, sometime in the late summer or fall of 1865, Laban and his family came back to Round Bottom. Family tradition says that they “camped out” in a sort of cave, or under an overhang of rock, for two years while they rebuilt the house and barn the Confederates had burned.
The courage and stamina of Laban’s wife Mary Jane Gwinn in all these hardships seems extraordinary, but It was most likely exemplary of many men and women of the time. Leaving the first home she and her husband had toiled to build in the wilderness; traveling all the way to Indiana with three small children; then leaving relatives and new friends there and coming back to a homestead in ruins; rebuilding the home and bearing more children was surely difficult, but again, not necessarily uncommon in those times. Indians, after all, had to pick up and move and rebuild time and time again, as they were continually pushed off their lands by the settlers.
Among the trials Laban and Mary Jane faced was the loss of a daughter, Emily, at age three. Another daughter, Cynthia, is said to have “pined away” and died at the age of twenty-four. Both are buried in the family cemetery at Round Bottom. There was also some indication of economic hardships suffered by the family after the war. Many letters dated in the 1870’s are “duns,” asking for payment for farm supplies, seeds, and other necessities. A letter from a Miss Woolwine, the teacher of a school, probably at a lumber camp near McKendree, begs Laban to buy books for his three children, Loomis, Lewis, and Belle. What happened to all them riches Grandpa Sam and Papa John had accumulated over the years?
Laban and Mary Jane, by hard work and perseverance, were able to recover from the trials inflicted by the war. The farm became prosperous once again. They were able to provide for a fine family of eight children of their own, and two adopted children, Hattie and Ripley. And big changes were soon to be coming to the New River Valley. On January 29, 1873, the last spike was driven in the railroad ties on the bridge across New River at Hawk’s Nest, completing the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad from Norfolk to the Ohio River. This would really open the area for development of the mining and lumbering industries, and they would take as much coal and timber as they could get out of that land, by whatever means necessary.
Six months after that railroad bridge was built, John Gwinn died July 27, 1873, on a Sunday morning at 6 o’clock. He and his wife Sally are buried in the Wickline cemetery in Summers County, near Meadow Bridge, next to their daughter, Achsah, who was killed when she was eight years old in a freak accident when a tree limb fell on her.
As the New River Gorge coal mining area expanded, and the railroad brought more people into the area, new opportunities and new risks would come to the Gwinns. The West Virginia legislature provided for the construction and maintenance of three miner’s hospitals in the area. The hospitals and the railroad brought many visitors to the Gwinn farm, provided a market for some of the produce, and made travel to the outside world easier for the family. Laban Gwinn wouldn’t see that change happen as he passed away on March 16, 1900, at the dawn of the 20th century. He was laid to rest in the family cemetery on the farm. The miners hospitals would continue to serve those poor souls who risked their lives in a hole in the ground, so as in order to provide for their families, like my great grandaddy John Logan Gwinn, who sat down for lunch one day inside the mine when a slag heap fell on him and broke his back. He suffered for ten days in that hospital until finally succumbing to his wounds. The Odd Fellows arranged for a special train to be run from Quinnwood to Meadow Bridge to bring his body back home, and he lays there today among all those other Gwinns who sailed from Ireland so long ago to end up in these West Virginia hills.
THE MOSSY BOG 