Posted on: Jackson County, WV Bios Reply Here: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/WV/JacksonBios/201 Surname: ACREE, CLEEK, VINYARD, PAXTON, HARPOLD, STAATS ------------------------- This sketch taken from "Pioneers of Jackson County", by John House, it appears in the section "Hill of Mill Creek". Acree Family Lewis Acree was from Bath County, Virginia. He married Mary Cleek, who was a daughter of Peter Cleek, for whom she named her son Peter. Their children were: Peter C. Acree (mentioned above) was born March 9th, 1829, and died at Walton, in Roane County, in June, 1904. He married Nancy, daughter of John and Mary Vinyard Paxton. They had two sons, George and Adam Acree, who were in the Confederate Army. Charles L. Acree, son of Lewis, was in the Union Army, as was Peter C., the father of the two boys mentioned above. Lewis Acree was born in Bedford County, Virginia, in 1783, and died on Mill Creek in 1844. Mary Cleek Acree was born in Bath County, Virginia, in 1802, and died August 1th, 1843. My informant "Aunt" Hannah Harpold Staats, now deceased, described Mary Acree as one of the "kindest and best women that ever lived". Lewis Acree moved to the section known as Kentuck, in 1845.

Posted on: Jackson County, WV Bios Reply Here: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/WV/JacksonBios/200 Surname: BAKER, HARTLEY, WOLFE, TATTERSON ------------------------- This sketch taken from "Pioneers of Jackson County", by John House, it appears in the section "Upper Sandy Valley". Baker The first settler of whom I have any account at the mouth of Fallen Timber and Rush Run after Hartley and his daughter, was Elijah Baker. He was born in 1815, and died February 12, 1896, aged eighty years. He was a son of John Baker, who lived below the mouth of Conrad's Run, on Reedy. He married Nancy Wolfe. A daughter of James Wolfe, who settled at the mouth of Elk Fork, on Mill Creek, soon after she was born. Nancy Baker was born in 1815, and died June 30, 1902, at the age of eighty seven years. Baker settled here many years ago. He kept a country store at the mouth of Rush Run several years, and was the first Postmaster at Leroy. When I first knew the country, he lived on the hill above the road, where Mike Tatterson now resides. He was a strong Union man, and had a child killed about the beginning of the war.

Posted on: Jackson County, WV Bios Reply Here: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/WV/JacksonBios/199 Surname: PARSONS, ROLLINS, FOUTY, RUBLE, HYRE, RADER, PARISH, RHODES, PAYNE, KNOPP, VINT, JOHNS, HARPOLD, CASTO ------------------------- This sketch taken from "Pioneers of Jackson County", by John House, it appears in the section "Upper Mill Creek". Settlements on Frozen Camp The first man to settle on Frozen Camp was the redoubtable Captain Billy Parsons, who erected his humble cabin on the eminence at the end of the point near the Iron Bridge, now cut off by the public road. There were two reasons for choosing this location. One was the bottoms were low and subject to overflow when the creeks were at flood tide. The other, the principal factor in locating all the pioneer cabins, proximity to a spring. This settlement may have been made between 1820 or 1830, possibly a few years earlier. A sketch of Captain Parsons will be found in the Parsons Family given earlier in the book. A half mile or less up the creek, Isaac Rollins made the first clearing on the present farm of L. D. Parsons. There are some old apple trees still standing, where he planted an orchard, near his house, which was in the bottom near the creek. He is said to have settled here then he married Polly Parsons, about 1843. The old orchard across the road from the Parsons house was planted by William Fouty. He married a Ruble and lived there in the 1800's, in the old Rollins house. At the next farm above, now owned by John Hyre, a son of John A. and Rebecca Rader Hyre, who lived on what is now the "Hamp" Parish farm, on the creek below, first settled about a quarter of a mile below a road crosses to Gay, on Elk Fork. The next place above is the Old Payne farm, where Levi Payne once lived. J. C. M. Rhodes lived there, and D. W. Knopp, son of Gideon Knopp, has built across the creek, up on a point from the old building site. David Knopp received a deed for land here, for maintenance of Payne's widow, after his death. She was still living at Knopps in 1906, and said to be one hundred years old. A quarter of a mile below, lived George W. Vint, who came from Lewis County, about 1856. He is said to have been rather an eccentric individual. He died August 9th, 1869, and was buried on the farm, at the upper side of the road, a short distance below the house. The graves, three in number, are enclosed with a cut stone wall three and a half feet high on the lower side. There was a pine tree there when the grave was made, but it is gone now. His wife and her sister are buried by his side. She was Miss Elizabeth Johns, and died April 29th, 1872, in her seventieth year. She was a sister of the late William Johns, of Elk Fork, and aunt to Mr. W. L. Johns, and Mesdames John A. Harpold, J. H. Evans, and Martin Casto.

Posted on: Jackson County, WV Bios Reply Here: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/WV/JacksonBios/198 Surname: STAATS, RARDON, DERENBERGER, MOORHOUSE ------------------------- This sketch taken from "Pioneers of Jackson County", by John House, it appears in the section "Lower Sandy Valley". There was another sketch in the "Lower Mill Creek" section. Staats Family Elijah, Daniel and Noah Staats were probably nephews of Abram Staats, who settled on Mill Creek about 1800. Noah Staats lived on Little Sandy, about a mile from the mouth. His children were: David Staats lived on Skull Run. Henrietta Staats married Sam Rardon. Rowena Staats married Tom Rardon. Christina Staats married Peter Derenberger. Mary Staats married a Moorhouse. Louisa Staats. Peggy Staats. Sarah Ann Staats.

Posted on: Jackson County, WV Bios Reply Here: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/WV/JacksonBios/197 Surname: DAVIS, MILLER, STEWART, RADER, MORRISON, DUNN, STREET, HALL, BORD, SMITH, LATTIMER ------------------------- This sketch taken from "Pioneers of Jackson County", by John House, it appears in the section "Lower Mill Creek". Davis Family The first improvement on Buffalo after that built by Joe Miller, on the Stewart place, and possibly earlier in point of time, was that of William Davis, a wild and picturesque character, said to be half Indian, who was a squatter on what was afterward known as the Rader land, before 1843. He first appears on the scene living near Sandyville. Later, he had a shanty on Trace Fork, and in 1843, we find him on the lower end of the Morrison farm, in a camp shed, at the mouth of the run, below where M. W. Morrison lives, near where the old mill shanty stands. Some reports say this camp was at the forks of the creek at the site of Widow Dunn's residence, but one who has lived nearby for the last sixty years, and certainly should know, says it was at the next run above. Some say he had one of his camps in the bottom below David Lattimer's house. He lived by hunting and trapping, and raising little patches of corn and "truck", and had "slashed down" most of the narrow bottom, from Lattimers to Dunns. He is described as being tall and straight, with long, coarse, black hair. His "houses" were made of poles pinned fast to forks set in the ground, and sometimes open at one side, for summer use. When he left Buffalo, he built up in the cove, near the spring, just over the hill from the old Rader, or Street house. It is said the stones where the chimney of this shanty stood are still visible, although I failed to find them when I visited the spot in August, 1905. I found, however, one of the most beautiful spots in all the country, for the lover of nature. I quote from Journal of the trip: "This spring is about seven rods from the brook, and five from the top of the hill. It comes out under a large rock, which has been worked off back for several feet, and the ground graded and filled below it, so as to make it freely accessible to cattle, though the water, which is clear and nice, but with a muddy and unpleasant taste, is in a walled basin, and some eighteen or twenty inches below the surface. It is in a shady and picturesque spot, above is a cliff of rocks about eight feet high, overhung with saplings, an oak, gum, sassafras, and two or three hickories, all intertwined by a very large grapevine. Just below is a large poplar tree, a red oak, and an ash, while other trees grow along the sides of the sprint drain, to its mouth, where, on the brookside, stands a large black willow, a foot in diameter, and fifty feet high, and leaning toward the spring at an angel of about forty degrees. About fifteen feet of the willow top is broken over to the ground. The hillside opposite the brook is uncleared for several rods back, and is a tangle of brush and vines. Some distance above the mouth of the spring run is a large pool of clear water, reflecting in its limpid depths the rocky walls and bushes which line its banks. A narrow strip of bottom reaches almost to this spot, over grown with tall grass and weeds, and waving with purple ironweed and wingstem, while walnut trees and copses of brushwood form an inviting retreat for roaming cattle, truly a pretty spot." Quiet and peaceful as s this charming spot today, it was in the days when the clouds of war hovered over the land, the scene of a premeditated and wilful depredation of war, thought being committed by men wearing the uniform of soldiers, it is characterized by a name less harsh. It occurred at a large rock, which lies even with the surface of the ground, a little ways from the spring. Joseph Rader, who lived at the Dunn place, was accused of harboring and assisting bushwhackers, and was decoyed to the spring with food, by two men disguised as Confederate soldiers, and shot by others concealed in the brush. This occurred in the fall of 1863. Davis had one of his shanties here, and another in the bottom, across the creek from the Hall house, where Mr. Stewart now lives. This was known as Stump Cabin, and was built by cutting off three saplings which were found growing in the proper position, and a post set in the ground formed the fourth corner. To these were nailed split slabs, or puncheons, and the whole roofed with long clapboards, which were carried back and forth, as Davis moved from his hill home to the bottom, and back again. One year (probably after this), Davis lived in the Old Bord house on Big Run, and later he was stowed away for three months with the rheumatism, at John Smith's, above there. The impression is that he went back east, perhaps to Harrison County. Mr. Lattimer thinks he went out about the Falls of the Kanawha, above Bulltown. Possibly, he may have been east, and returned again. There is no record of his wife that I have heard. Possibly she was dead before. There are three or four children mentioned, a son, Joe Davis, and another son called Abe Davis, or Andy, or perhaps there was one of each name. There was also a daughter-in-law, who was Davis's housekeeper, while she lived. This girl, whose name was "Sinder Davis", died suddenly, falling off her chair dead. She left two children and , it is said, soon took to coming back, finally Davis decided, after she had returned several times, that if he saw her again, he would speak to her and find out why she could not rest easy in the spirit land. One day not long after, while going through a wheat field, he saw the spook coming along the narrow path, meeting him, as she stepped to one side for him to pass, he mustered up the courage to ask her what she wished, in coming back to earth. The ghost answered that being old and poor, he could not take the proper care of her children, so she wanted them put out with someone who would be able to educate them and bring them up right. Davis promised that this should be done, at which the girl expressed her satisfaction, and turned to pass on. When leaving him for this the last time, she, it is said, extended her hand to shake hands with him. This, however, was more than Davis had bargained for, and he strove to avoid the proffered hand. Two of the girl's fingers struck his wrist, leaving yellow marks, which, of course, he carried with him to the grave.

Posted on: Jackson County, WV Bios Reply Here: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/WV/JacksonBios/196 Surname: SNYDERS, HARTLEY, LOGAN, JENKINS, SMITH, BURROUGHS, TIBBLE, CARDER, HILL ------------------------- This sketch taken from "Pioneers of Jackson County", by John House, it appears in the section "Upper Sandy Valley". Snyder Family Another family who lived in this section before the war, though not pioneers, were the Snyders, Levi, Ben and Henry, who came from Preston County. Levi Snyder came to Jackson County and lived on Mill Creek. Later he married Abby Hartley, and the family moved to the neighborhood of Ripley. His son, Burris Snyder, was in Company "F" - 4th W. Va. Cavalry, and two nephews, Nimrod and Elias Snyder, sons of Henry Snyder, were in the 11th W.Va. Infantry". Ben Snyder, another brother of Levi, built a cabin on the high point on the left of Little Creek, just below the Widow Logan's place. There was a Snyder (some say Ben, others, Tom) lived in the Jenkins cabin at the forks of Buck Run during or after the war. Tom Snyder lived on Wolfe Pen or Patterson Run at one time, where he made a two-man hand mill which was of great benefit to the neighborhood. It is possible that he lived on the Warren place. The Snyders lived in various places in the neighborhood of Liverpool for several years. There is another family of the same name in the vicinity of Mill Creek and Sandy, who I think are not related. Sometime about 1850, Joseph Smith, afterward a prominent lawyer of Jackson County and Judge of the Circuit Court, bought 2,000 acres of land, including the Burroughs farm, all the lower part of Buck Run, the Warren and Patterson farms, also most of the land on the pike above Liverpool. He moved on the land which he contemplated turning into a tobacco plantation. He hired a great boundary cleared, and planted it in tobacco, building several large log tobacco barns - but either the project was not a success or he lacked what the Germans call "ausdauer" to push it to successful results. Perhaps the coming of the clouds of war caused him to leave the place. In any case, the undertaking fell through with. In 1862, Mr. James Tibble, who had come to Jackson County from Athens County, Ohio, in 1864, after a short stay at Ravenswood and Ripley, bought a part of the land and moved on it. He lived in the house at the mouth of Buck Run until his death in March, 1901, in his eighty first year. The land at the mouth of Little Trace was bought by Anderson Carder from George W. Smith. Later he sold it to Thomas Hartley, as before mentioned. There was an extensive sugar camp in the bottom at the forks of the creek, and thousands of pounds of sugar have been made there. Later a smaller camp was opened in the bottom in front of the Dave Hill house below the Arnold line. There was an old house on the land, said to be haunted. Mr. John Hartley told me that once he was passing the house, which was then vacant, at night, and as he came in sight a light was shining through the cracks between the logs, as though there were a fire or other light inside - but when he came close, all was dark and silent.

I think I have posted all the sketches requested from House's Pioneers of Jackson County. If I missed yours, please write again. The following is what remains, if you have an interest in a name or area, let me know. Betty Acree Family Adams Family Alkire Family Aplin Family Armstrong Ayers Family Baker Family Baggs, Captain Beatty Family Boso Family Bradley Family Ripley Bridges Buffalo Trail Bush Family Butcher Family Thomas Butcher Ephraim Carder Reminiscences Carder Family Carez, Joseph Casto Family Casto, George Casto, John Casto, John J Casto, Levi Casto, William Ripley Cemetery Charcoal Burning Cleek Family Custer Family Davis Family Dawson Family DePue Family Dilworth Family Duff, George Duncan Eagle Farm Evans, Village First Settlers: Buffalo First Settlers: Frozen Camp First Settlers: Joe’s Run First Settlers: Little Creek First Settlers: Lower Mill Creek First Settlers: Tug Fork Fitzhugh Family Fleming Family Flesher Family Floods: Jackson County Floods: Poplar Fork Fountain Family Fouty, William French Settlement Frozen Camp, named Gallatin Family Gallatin land Game, last on Sandy Gandee Family Graham Family Graham, James Green, Edward Green Trial Greenleaf Family Greer, John Hannaman, William Harner Family Harper Family Harpold Family Harpold, Hannah (Staats) Harpold, James Harpold, John Hartley Family Hartley, John Hawk Family Hood Family Hogsett Family Homicides Hopkins, Lawrence Hopkins, Robert Horner Howes Family Hunting tales Hutchinson Family Indian Fighting Indian Mounds Indian Trail Jackson Co, organized Johns, William Johnson Family Keeney Family Kelley Family Kidd Family King Family Henry Knopp Farm Knotts Family Koontz Family Landfried Family Lattimer Family Ancient Laws Lisez, Charles M Lodges, Ripley Ludwick Family Ludwig Family Mackintosh Family Magee Family Maguire Family Mate, Robert Mill Creek Valley: Heart of Mill Creek Valley: Upper Mills, Ripley Morgan Case McDade, Samuel McFarland Family McGrew Family McMahan, William McPherson Newspaper, Ravenswood Newspaper, Ripley Norman Family Parish Family Parsons Farm (Luke) Parsons Family Parsons, Charles Parsons, Charles’family Parsons, Charles Jr Parsons, Devil Bill Parsons, George Parsons, Joe Parsons, John Parsons, John Fink Parsons, Joseph Parsons, Joshua Parsons, William Lowther Payne Rader Family Rader, James Rader, Joseph Rader, Michael Rader, Michael C Rader, John R Ravenswood Ravenswood, named Reed Family Richardson Family Rhor Family Riley Family Ripley Ripley, 1905 Ripley, Civil War Roads Roberts Family Rollins Family Roy Family Lower Sandy Valley Ripley Schools Shinn Family Smith, Nehemiah Smith, John V Snyder Family Staats Family Starcher Family Street Family Stutler Family Sycamore creek Thomas, James Trueman Family Vandyne Family Vint, George Washington Lands Weas Family Westfall Family Wetzell Family Wiblin Family Windon Farm Woodruff, John

Posted on: Jackson County, WV Bios Reply Here: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/WV/JacksonBios/195 Surname: KNOPP, RICHWEIN, STEWART, MILLER, KYGER, WRIGHT, WIBLIN, FLESHER, CASTO, CARNEY, CAIN, BORD, TALLMAN, BIGLER, WESTFALL, PARSONS ------------------------- This sketch taken from "Pioneers of Jackson County", by John House, it appears in the section "Upper Mill Creek". Knopp Family The ancestors of George Knopp came from Germany to Pennsylvania, where they became incorporated in the host of frugal, industrious Americans, known as "Pennsylvania Dutch", and, like so many of their neighbors, drifted south, into the valley of Virginia. George Knopp was born in the Shenandoah Valley, on July 23rd, 1794, and died on Mill Creek, February 18th, 1855, aged sixty years, five months and eight days. This is the record taken form his tombstone in the Baptist Grove Cemetery, but his son, H. F. Knopp, thinks he was probably several years older. His wife died at the home of one of her children, in Indiana. He married Catharine Richwein, and lived for a time in Meigs County, Ohio, and in Mason County, West Virginia, before moving to Mill Creek, in 1826. When Knopp came to Mill Creek, the country was yet wild and full of game of all kinds. There were three little fields of two or three acres each, cleared, one around the house, one up Little Creek, and one across where the present residence of Mr. Knopp stands. He belled his horses and turned them to the woods, where they fared well on the rich succulent pasturage of wild grasses, pea vines, weeds and "brouse". Sometimes when wanted, they would be found two miles or more out the ridge, between Buffalo and Little Creek, or up the streams from the house. Cattle and sheep and hogs also ran at large. The sheep did not do much good in the earlier years, owing to the ravages of the wolves and bears, and frequently had to be penned in the yard, or against the cabin. Hogs, however, throve wonderfully, notwithstanding the onslaught of the wild beasts. Once or twice a year, the neighbors would try to corral all the hogs in the woods, each marking with his private mark, all the pigs and shoats that were judged to be the offspring of his swine, and in the fall when they were fat with the rich abundance of oak, chestnut, and beechmast, each would drive in and butcher, or shoot in the woods, dress, skin, and pack in anything he could find in his mark. Many hogs, however, annually escaped notice, and the woods was full of wild hogs, which like the game, was accounted the common property of all. Once, while Mrs. Knopp was out hunting her cows, she met in the path in the woods, a large sow, with a brood of little pigs running along before her, while the mother was fighting back a large black dog that sought to levy toll on her family. Mrs. Knopp hollowed at the dog, which, being a wolf and afraid of a human being unless very hardpressed by hunger, bounded away into the forest. George Knopp's children were given according to age: Gideon, married Nancy Stewart, of Reedy, a daughter of Old Billy Stewart. He settled first on his father's farm, where the late Henry Brown lived. He died about 1858. Lucinda, married John Stewart, a brother of Old Billy. She lived on the J. J. Miller farm, below Buffalo, after his death, on the Kyger farm on Reedy, about 1846. Phoebe, married Basil Wright, who lived for a time on his father's farm, near Reedy. William, married Catharine Wiblin, and settled on the Charles C. Casto farm, on Little Creek. Sevilla, married Kelley Flesher. He lived on the Hall farm, on Little Creek, and on the lower part of his father's farm, three quarters of a mile up Left Reedy from the Three Forks. Abraham married Delila Carney, a daughter of Spencer Carney, of Middle Fork of Reedy. Henry Fisher, married Rachel Ann Cain, a daughter of Alfred Cain, of Reedy. Kitty Ann, married Thomas Bord, son of "Sandy" Bord, of Reedy. After his death, she married James Wiblin, and lives on a part of the home place above Henry Knopp's. There was a son, Jesse. He lived on Right Fork Reedy, where Rev. C. E. Tallman now resides. He went west later, as also did Kelley Flesher and William and Abraham Knopp. Henry Knopp was born in 1838, and so is now about sixty eight years old. He lived on the old home farm, where he was born. His father brought the first wagon to the upper Mill Creek Valley. This was about 1833. He remembers when all the hill land and much of the bottoms were standing thick with heavy oak, poplar and walnut timber. He and neighbor boys used, while "sky-larking", of Sundays, to visit the old improvement where peach trees were still bearing in the thickets, as late as 1850. The first teacher he remembers in the old field schools was Henry Bigler, who taught three terms at the schoolhouse near L. Parsons, sometime during the forties. Bigler is remembered by many of the elder people of Mill Creek and Reedy, and was afterward a Mormon elder in Utah. Another teacher he recalls was Clark Westfall, who lived on Frozen Camp. The Knopp family were Democrats in politics and members of the Presbyterian church.

Posted on: Jackson County, WV Query Forum Reply Here: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/WV/Jackson/1948 Surname: Knopp Staats ------------------------- I've heard the story about 20 times from different sources. I think that House had a version of it in his notes that he wrote back about 1900. Another version appeared in the Jackson County Family history book that came out about 10 years ago.

Posted on: Jackson County, WV Bios Reply Here: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/WV/JacksonBios/194 Surname: WOLFE, HYRE, THOMAS, BEATH, STRALEY, HOGSETT, RADER, KING, SHINN, TANNER, RUNYAN, BOSWELL, RHODES, MORRISON, ALKIRE, DANIELS, CRITES, BORD, GARNES, PARSONS, BAKER, JOHNSON, STOUT, SPENCER, ARMSTRONG, HUGHES, KESSELL ------------------------- This sketch taken from "Pioneers of Jackson County", by John House, it appears in the section "Upper Mill Creek". Wolfe Family The next farm is a mile or more above Hyre's and just below Elk Fork, and was known as the James Wolfe farm. It has for many years been the residence of Summerfield Thomas. James R. Wolfe was born and raised near the fort on Hacker's Creek, not far from the present village of Jane Lew. Here is a "curious incident" related in Withers" "Chronicles of Border Warfare", page sixty seven: "Jacob Wolfe, in digging a well on Hacker's Creek, found a piece of timber, which had evidently been cut off at one end, twelve or thirteen feet in the ground. — marks of the axe were plainly visable on it." James R. Wolfe married Frances Beath, a sister of Mary Beath, who married Jacob Hyre. One informant says that after her death, he returned to Lewis County, and married the widow Straley. He died on the farm above mentioned, and was buried on the point back of the house. There are several persons buried at this spot, but are now no markers, and it has long since ceased to be used for burial purposes. It is even said that some years ago, the then owner commenced to plow it up, but became frightened and desisted, fearing ghosts would retaliate. Mrs. Thomas (Hogsett) Rader says there used to be a gravestone marked "Lizzie". The children, as given by the widow of the late James Wolfe were: Abe, Joe, Jake, Tommy, Jim, Lon, Mary, Katie, Nancy, Peggy and George. James R. Wolfe and wife moved to Mill Creek in August, 1821, bringing with them eight children. With them came Francis King and wife and Jacob Wolfe, thirteen persons in all, and they brought all their goods and everything on five horses. They were four days on the road, and never inside of a house in that time. They first settled at the Wash Rader farm, near the mouth of Station Camp, now the residence of Mr. Charles Shinn. The immediate object of the move was to find a better hunting ground. Jonathan Wolfe, who came with Tanner to Spencer in 1812, is said to have been a brother. He married Bridgett Runyan, a sister of Henry Runyan. James R. Wolfe's children were: Abraham Wolfe was born March 25th, 1811, and married Emily Boswell, in 1835, lived for many years on Parchment, and died the spring of 1904. His children were C. M., Nehemiah, Adam, John, Jane who married Isam Rhodes, and Virginia who married G. P. Morrison. The O.J. and C.S. Morrison, merchants, were their sons. Joseph Beath Wolfe, born in 1819, married in Lewis County, at Hacker's Creek, to Elizabeth Alkire, a daughter of Nicholas and Elizabeth Bonnet Alkire, in 1842, and a year later, moved to Roane County. He died in 1895, and she died March 21st, 1911. Elizabeth C, their daughter, married John W. Daniels. Jacob Wolfe, born in the early 1800's, married Sally Boswell. Aunt Sally died at the age of seventy seven years. George Wolfe built the first house where John Rader now lives, 1907. Mrs. Ludwick says his first wife was a Crites, and his second, a Bord. James G. Wolfe married Lizzie Straley, and lived on Station Camp. He was born in 1826, and died December 26th, 1889. She died December 22nd, 1911, aged eighty four years. Thomas Wolfe married Susan Garnes and went west. Margaret Wolfe married Isaac Crites. Rebecca Wolfe married Charles Parsons, Jr. Nancy Wolfe married Elijah Baker, of Reedy, and lived at Leroy, on Sandy. Their children were Dal Baker, who married a Johnson, Frank who married Alice Stout, and America who married John Spencer. Mary Wolfe married Lenox Armstrong. It is stated that the grandmother of Elizabeth Alkire Wolfe was a daughter of Jesse Hughes. A Lewis Wolfe lived on Elk Fork at the place about Ellet Hyre's, no date given. Reece Wolfe was a local preacher from Monongahela, who settled on the Little Kanawha before 1799. He was probably not connected as his name was at first spelled "Woolf". C.M. Wolfe was a son of Abram, whose second wife, Jemima Kessell, died in 1872.

Posted on: Jackson County, WV Bios Reply Here: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/WV/JacksonBios/193 Surname: HYRE, KEENAN, SHATTO, BORD, WRIGHT, ROUSH, PARSONS, BEATH, CASTO, AULTZ, HARPOLD, RADER, HEBLER, MCNULTY, WOLFE ------------------------- This sketch taken from "Pioneers of Jackson County", by John House, it appears in the section "Upper Mill Creek". Hyre Family Next above the Keenan farm is that owned by Jacob Hyre. He owned the bottomlands along the creek for a mile or more. His cabin was on the south side of Mill Creek, above where Philip Shato now lives. He built there about 1817, and continued to reside at that spot until an old man. He died in 1855, and is buried near the mouth of Joe's Run, in the Ben Bord graveyard. The first place above the Keenan farm was settled by Jonathan Hyre, son of Jacob, who married Elizabeth Wright, and built on the lower part of his father's farm, while the bottoms were still in woods. When clearing the heavy beech bottom below the Shatto house, he found the bones of the buffalo shot by his father years before. It was perhaps about 1820, or earlier, that Jacob Hyre discovered a large buffalo drinking at the Lick Spring, below where Mr. Roush now lives. He shot it, wounding it severely, and following it, the dogs brought it to bay in the lower bottom, where he killed it, and taking its "robe", left the carcass. Up next the upper end of the Hyre place, the creek makes a bend to the right. A brook comes in and, though only about a yard wide and not over a mile long, spreads out in a fan shape, draining the one side of the half of Ripley hill, the circumference of its drainage basin being over three miles. At the foothills, at the spreading of the fan, on the right side of the road, is the residence of David Hyre. A large stone house with wooden "L", and all surrounded by fruit trees and grapevines, for the present owner makes a specialty of fruit growing, it is one of the most pleasantly situated dwellings in the country. The house was mostly built by Jonathan Hyre, while living, and completed by his son. Just across the road, and a little lower down, stood the cabin in which lived George Parsons, a son of Charles Parsons, Sr. He appears to have sown and perhaps harvested a goodly crop of wild oats, but settled down before his death, joined the church and, it is even said, preached. Jacob Hyre was born in what is now Lewis County, on Hacker's Creek, January 1st, 1784. He married Mary Beath, and moved to Mill Creek in 1815. He died in 1855, and his wife, who was nearly five years his elder, in 1859. She was an energetic sort of a woman, and when her husband became discouraged trying to make a living and declared they would be sure to starve, she replied, "they were not going to starve either". She hadn't come to Mill Creek to starve, so, shouldering her axe or mattox, she would go to the field and work bravely by the side of her husband all day, and at night would spin the wool or flax for the manufacture of clothing for themselves and children, often sitting up till the middle of the night, with no light to work by but what was afforded by split pine knots in the middle, or a rag wick in a cup of grease in the summer. Grandmother Hyre had a nice little pet bear about the size of a cat, which was very interesting and playful. One day she had churned a large churn full of cream in one of the old fashioned wooden churns of the day, and having completed the churning, left the lid off while she took a pail and went to the spring for a bucket of water, with which to rinse down the churn before gathering her butter. While stooping down to dip the water, she heard a mighty splash at the house, followed by a terrible splattering. Hastening back, she found the bear had climbed up the churn to investigate, and, losing his balance, had tumbled in, head over ears, and was now bobbing up and down in her butter. Jacob Hyre had six children. Jonathan Hyre married Elizabeth Wright, daughter of Benjamin Wright. She died in 1901, at nearly seventy nine. (I rathre think it was Dorcas Wright, daughter of Levi Casto's wife.) Jacob Hyre married an Aultz, who lived on Poca, and she dying, next married Dorcas Casto (Erilla D.) , daughter of Levi Casto. He died in 1854, aged thirty five years, she a year earlier, when but nineteen, Mary Hyre married David Harpold. Rebecca Hyre married Michael C. Rader. Two sisters married in Upshur County, the one a Hebler, the other a McNulty. Jonathan Hyre died in 1880, aged sixty eight. He and his wife are buried at the Mount Olive burying ground. In the early days, the settlers made their own powder, of dogwood, charcoal, salt peter, and other home ingredients the wilderness afforded. This answered a very good purpose for use in their old-fashioned flint lock deer guns, but they had to buy a finer article for use in priming. In the Mill Creek Valley this was usually procured at Point Pleasant (or "The Point", as it was called), or from Charleston when they went after salt. It is related that when Jonathan Hyre was a little boy, he saw, when out at play one day, "an animal with a big head", as he told his father on running to the house. Investigation disclosed a panther in a neighboring tree. Sending the boy up to his brother-in-law, Wolfe, who lived a mile up the creek, for priming powder, of which he chanced to be out, he, seeing the animal evinced an intention of attacking him, knocked it out of the tree with a rock, and then dispatched it with a club, before the child, who had run all the way, arrived with the powder and help.

Posted on: Jackson County, WV Bios Reply Here: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/WV/JacksonBios/192 Surname: HYRE, RADER, PARISH, ALLEN, FLESHER, PARSONS, DOOLITTLE ------------------------- This sketch taken from "Pioneers of Jackson County", by John House, it appears in the section "Upper Mill Creek". John A. Hyre The first man to erect a cabin at the Hemp Parish farm was John A. Hyre, who married Rebecca Rader. This is one of the most beautiful locations for a residence on Mill Creek. It is situated on top of a gentle eminence, and well back from the creek, which it overlooks for quite a distance. Immediately in front, the opposite hill comes down to the water, while a little wooded hollow and a rocky bluff add picturesqueness to the scene. A run flows into the creek a short distance east of the house, which comes down out of the hills a half mile back, reaching the creek after meandering over a wide rolling plain. Above the run, the hill runs back in a smooth slope of easy grade, that along the creek is a cliff sixteen or twenty feet high, of rocks, here and there covered with a scant soil, to which cling a row of spruce pine and other trees and bushes, their gnarled roots fastened in the crevices of the cliff. Jesse Allen, whose wife, Mahala Flesher Allen, a sister of George Flesher, of Reedy, who died here in 1861, was long a resident of this spot. He sold it to D.W., son of Elias Parsons, in 1865. Hyre was living here in 1839. The land was a part of the Doolittle farm in 1826.

Posted on: Jackson County, WV Query Forum Reply Here: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/WV/Jackson/1947 Surname: Sayre ------------------------- Now, I am not so sure that Julius Campbell, son of Thomas and Mazilla Barr, married a Hannah Sayre. As ut seens that a Hannah Sayre may have married a Julius Campbell. I have about seven Hannah Sayres. I wonder if this is the same Julius Campbell that married Sophia Barr...not Susan Sophia, the older Sophia. Link: Okey's West Virginia Homepage URL: <http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/8003/>

I am looking for John Plummer McGrew family..they were in the 1880 Jackson co census.seems to be the only ones listed....just wonder what happened to them...or if anyone is researching them.Nan-wv

Posted on: Jackson County, WV Query Forum Reply Here: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/WV/Jackson/1946 Surname: BARR, CAMPBELL, SAYRE ------------------------- On the LDS family search site, there is listed the information below. However, I believe this to be false information so beware if you have also seen it posted there/ MARY CAMPBALL Sex: F Event(s): Birth: 1836 Jackson, West Virginia Parents: Father: JULIUS CAMPBELL Mother: HANNAH SAYRE As far as i can determine, the Juliis Campbell that married hanna Sayre was not born until about 1880. He is the son of Thomas Campbell and Mazella Esther Barr the daughter of John Henry barr and his second wife Nancy Mariam Hunt. Fact One. In the Mason County Marriage Book, there is listed a Julius Campbell who married Sophia Barr October 31, 1871 Fact two. My third great grandfather Isaac Barr, father of John Henry and George W, Barr, is said to have married a Mary. The Mason County Marriage Book list an Isaac Barr who wed a Mary Campbell in Mason County January 6, 1825. Since John Henry was born in 1831 and george W. was born in 1833, it would seem that this Isaaca and Mary are my 3rd great grandparents. Questions.: One. Are the Thomas Campbell, who marrie Mazella Barr, and the Elder Julius Campbell, who married Sophia Barr, from the same Campbell Family that Mary, who married, Isaac, is a memmber of. Two. Could the Sophia Barr, that married Julius Campbell, be a sister of John Henry Barr and a daughter of iassac and Mary Campbell Barr. Considerations: Neither the name Sophia or the name Julius is a very common first name even then. Since we have an elder Julius Camnpbell and we have Thomas Campbell naming his son Julius, the one that married Hannah Sayre, it would seem that there would be a definate connection here. Likewise, since we have an elder Sophia Barr, and we have Joh Henry Barr naming one of his chiuldren Susan Sophia, it would also seem that we have a definite family connection with the Barrs also. Who is the Mary E. Campbell who the person wrongly assigned to Julius and Hannah Sayre Campbell? She is to young to be teh same mary that married Isaac Barr, so, is she perhaps a neice of this Mary? Is there anyone one at all who knows any of these things? After all of the confusion caused by Oral History with in teh John Henry Barr family, I wonder if anyone alive has the key that would untangle this mess. Statement: I have learned, that no matter how unpopular the axiom may be, that, "The most cherished sources but yet the most unreliable sources are those sources derived from oral history. No matter how bitter the pill the swallow, we must realize that sometimes what "Aunt Suzy" remembers is just not accurate. Link: Okey's West Virginia Homepage URL: <http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/8003/>

Posted on: Jackson County, WV Bios Reply Here: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/WV/JacksonBios/191 Surname: FLOWERS, HALL, WRIGHT, KING, BOSWELL, HARTLEY, WOLFE, BAREMORE, CARTER, SQUIRES ------------------------- This sketch taken from "Pioneers of Jackson County", by John House, it appears in the section "Lower Mill Creek". Cow Run Cow Run is the first considerable stream falling info Mill Creek on the south side. It is a country basin shaped with low hills gradually ascending from the bottom lands, running back perhaps a half mile or more, to the tops of the ridges. The hill sides are not steep or bluffy, and are all cleared out and green with succulent pasturage, timothy, blue grass and red top, and along the roadway at the base of the hill nestles cozy white farmhouses surrounded by orchard and garden, truly a beautiful picture as seen from a train window on a hot day in early August, 1904. Cow Run Valley early attracted the attention of the hardy pioneers who at first clustered like bees on the rich bottomlands of the Ohio River, at the mouth of the creek, but soon becoming cramped and crowded for elbow room, pushed out up Mill Creek. Thomas Flowers, who came to Warth's Bottom in 1806, married Mary Hall, a daughter of Joseph Hall, and shortly after located on Cow Run, is the first recorded settler. Thomas Flower's daughter, or sister, was the second wife of Benjamin Wright, Sr. Other names identified with the early history of Cow Run are King, Boswell, frequently spelled "Bozzle", and Hartley. Descendants of all of these still live in the vicinity. Francis and John King, who live on Cow Run, are sons of Elijah, who was a son of the Francis King who came to Mill Creek with James Wolfe, in 1821. Francis married Ruth Baremore in Wood County, in 1852, and has nine children. John married Julia Carter in 1862. He had two children, Susan E. and Charles T. Gilbert, sometimes called "Bird" (Bert) Boswell, was a magistrate at the organization of Jackson County, and was appointed a school commissioner at the second session of the County Court, June, 1831. Another family of Boswells, connected with the Squires people, came from Rockbridge County, Virginia, to Mason, at an early day. A daughter, Jane, married John Carter, who purchased land and settled about seventy-five years ago. It is related that he used to walk barefoot to the Court House to settle his taxes, so economical did he have to be while saving money to pay for his land. Huntsville Post Office is up near the head of Cow Run. It is one of the six post offices in Union District prior to 1887, the others being Ripley Landing (Millwood), Cottageville, Angerona, Willow Grove and Pleasant View. In the past twenty years have been added others.

Posted on: Jackson County, WV Bios Reply Here: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/WV/JacksonBios/190 Surname: NESSELRODE, ATKINS, SLAVEN ------------------------- This sketch taken from "Pioneers of Jackson County", by John House, it appears in the section "Lower Sandy Valley". Nesselrode Family Ambrose Atkins is authority for the following statement: "Ellis Nesselrode lived at the mouth of Little Sandy (about 1855). From his appearance he would suppose him to have been born about 1800 or 1805. He was a noted hunter and had a camp under a rock below John Slaven's which is known as Ellises Rock." If this was the pioneer mentioned as a first settler, he was either much older than Mr. Atkins supposes, or came much later than the date given. Israel Nesselrode lived on Little Sandy. He had sons: Peter, Frank, Ed and Shelton. David Nesselrode, who kept the post office on Little Sandy, beyond Utah Hill, called Israel "uncle". There was also an Elias Nesselrode living in that vicinity, in 1900, then an old man past three score and ten.

Posted on: Jackson County, WV Bios Reply Here: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/WV/JacksonBios/189 Surname: DERENBERGER, STAATS, LOCKHART, SAFREED, TROTTER, LEEP ------------------------- This sketch taken from "Pioneers of Jackson County", by John House, it appears in the section "Lower Sandy Valley". Derenberger Family Peter Derenberger married Christina Staats, and lived on Little Sandy, below the mouth of Meat House Run, where there is an old orchard, below Tack Derenberger's house at the lower end of the place. Their children were: W.T. Derenberger, born in 1836. Elija Derenberger. Geroge Derenberger. Annette Derenberger, married Albert Lockhart. Caroline Derenberger married a Safreed. Margaret Derenberger married a Safreed. "Californ" Derenberger married first Alex Trotter, and second Joe Leep.

Posted on: Jackson County, WV Bios Reply Here: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/WV/JacksonBios/188 Surname: PARSONS, GREATHOUSE, GREEN, PFOST, KNOOTZ, GREENE, MORGAN, CHANCEY, STAATS, CASTO, ANDERSON, ROLLINS, SHAMBLIN, FISHER, WINTER, CRITES, POST, REYNOLDS, SHINN, HARPOLD, RAWLINGS, GREER, JEFFERS, SIMMONS, GARNES ------------------------- This sketch taken from "Pioneers of Jackson County", by John House, it appears in the section "Tug Fork". Settlers of Grass Lick Among the first settlers on Grass Lick were the following names: John Parsons, who married a woman named Greathouse, and settled at the mouth of Stone Lick, on what is now known as the Green farm. He lived there a while, and moved farther up on Stone Lick, where his grandson, A.G. Parsons, lived in 1904. His son, Charles Parsons, and about 1860, Joshua, lived on Stone Lick. Abraham Pfost, a German, next came into the possession of the farm at the mouth of Stone Lick. He lived there until his death in the 1850's, and his son, Marion Pfost, lived on the home farm until his death in 1873. In 1855, Marion Pfost married Chlora Koontz, a daughter of Henry Koontz, who lived on the creek above. In 1876, the widow Pfost, he dying in 1895, married Edward Greene, and his wife being one of the victims of the Morgan tragedy in November of 1897. Aaron Pfost, a brother of Abraham, at first owned a share in the Stone Lick farm, but sold to him and went to Ohio. James Chancey came from Reedy, married Polly, daughter of Cornelius Staats, and settled about a half mile below Stone Lick, at or near the mouth of Plum Orchard. Old Neddy Casto lived yet below that, just after the war, whose wife was a widow Anderson, her maiden name being Casto. Above the mouth of Stone Lick, the first settler (in point of locality, not time) was James (Old Jimmy) Rollins. His wife was Elizabeth Shamblin, a daughter of Jesse. He was a connection of Ellijah's. Henry Koontz lived in the early days on the farm now owned by James Fisher, but first by his father, Old Billy Fisher. Below this, and between it and the James Rollins farm, on what is known as the Henry Winter's place, owned after the war by his father, James Winters, who came from Harrison County, is the spot first settled by Daniel Casto, who moved to Bear Fork. Isaac Crites settled at the forks of Grass Lick, where Leonard Fisher now lives, and his father, John Crites, the first place up the Right Fork, on the Abraham Casto farm. Jacob Casto, who lived above him in 1870, was a brother of Abraham Casto, and married a daughter of James Winters. At the head of the creek lived Jonathan and James Casto, the former on the Jonathan Post farm, it is said and the latter on the farm now known as the George Shinn farm at Fairplain. James M. Reynolds, father of Taylor Reynolds, lived in the cove at the head of one branch of this stream. His father, Bill, who lived at Kyger farm, on Reedy, is said to have once lived at the mouth of Stone Lick, probably as a tenant or lease holder. The left fork of Grass Lick is much the longest and largest stream. Of the pioneers, Jesse Shambllin was the first. It is probably his sister Polly who married Daniel Casto. Solomon Wallace Harpold or George W. Shamblin's heirs now own the land. Above Shamblin came Edward Green, who moved in 1876 to the Pfost farm at the mouth of Stone Lick. Above this was James Rawlings, no kin of Elijah L. Rollins, and next above the Rollins' farm was first settled by Isaac Pfost, the father of Abraham and Aaron Pfost. Olf Jimmy Greer owned this place after the war, and it is now known as the homes of James O. and R.P. Shinn, sheriff and ex-sheriff of Jackson County. This appears to be as far as the pioneer settlements extended. About 1870, Greer lived on the Shinn brothers' farm. He had a son Webb Greer, who was found killed in the woods. After the war, the settlers were: Jeffers at the Eli Simmons place, and Tapley Garnes on the left above that. Garnes married Anna Parsons, a sister of Joshua, above this lives George Garnes, son of Tapley, and son of "Jacky" Garnes. A mile directly over the hill from George Garnes is Stone Lick, a considerable stream yet at the place. [Old Neddy Casto was Edward H Casto; his first wife was Mary Anderson, and after her death, he married Sarah Elizabeth Raines, the widow Casto. James M. Reynolds was the brother of Bill, not the son.. . . bb]

Posted on: Jackson County, WV Bios Reply Here: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/WV/JacksonBios/187 Surname: RARDON, DEWITT, HUBBARD, LANGE, STAATS, LANDON, MOOREHOUSE, BUSH, BARRINGER, GARDNER, SYOC ------------------------- This sketch taken from "Pioneers of Jackson County", by John House, it appears in the section "Lower Sandy Valley". Rardon Family John Rardon married Charlotte Dewitt. Their children were: Nancy Rardon was a school teacher, married first a Hubbard, and second a Lange. Tom Rardon married Rowena Staats. Margaret Rardon married Sam Landon. Sam Rardon married a Moorehouse. John Rardon, who made the first improvement at the Bush place, above Peniel, was probably a son of John Rardon. David Rardon was a noted exhorter and class leader. He married a Barringer. Their children were: Mary, married Tom Gardner, and uncle of Clint Gardner. David. Sam. Another daughter married Abel Syoc.