Posted on: Jackson County, WV Bios Reply Here: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/WV/JacksonBios/184 Surname: WASHBURN, LOWTHER, CARDER, HYRE, SMITH, STUTLER, BUTCHER, CHEUVRONT, HARTLEY ------------------------- This sketch taken from "Pioneers of Jackson County", by John House, it appears in the section "Upper Sandy Valley". Upper Sandy Valley In the month of June, 1782, there lived in the village of Clarksburg, a man named Charles Washburn, who, while chopping wood in his yard, was shot by a party of Indians lurking in the vicinity. One fellow more venturesome than the others, rushed up to the dying man, cleft his skull with an axe, and, quickly scalping the body, made his escape with the bloody trophy. Three of the Washburn brothers had formerly been killed by the savages: Isaac, who was shot on Hacker's Creek in 1778, and James and Stephen, who were waylaid, while hunting for pine knots for making shoe wax, near their home on West Fork. Stephen was shot and scalped, and James was carried off to their town, where he was put to death by cruel torture. Charles Washburn's widow, who before her marriage was Nancy Lowther, was afterward wedded to William Carder, who was living "near below" the mouth of Hacker's Creek (as my informant expressed it) when on the 25th of July, 1794, his place was raided by the Indians. Though the savages were repulsed, they burned the house and drove off the stock. This was the last depradation committed in that section. The history of some of William Carder's descendants is, for the most part, the early history of Upper Sandy. His father, says family tradition, was a rope maker by profession, while living in England. He and a friend and comrade named Hyre, crossed the ocean and located together on a large tract of land they held in partnership. Carder had the most perfect confidence in his friend, and they were, it is said, "just like two twin brothers." But, alas for trust in "mortal man!" As is too often the case, this friend proved treacherous, and taking advantage of the perfect reliance the other place in him, swindled him out of nearly all that he possessed, and left him old, infirm and poor, to drift about the country and into a grave in the potter's field. Carder was a deeply religious man, and withal, it appears, something of a prophet, for it is said he told Hyre that his ill gotten gains would not profit him much, for he and his family would be stricken with blindness. In a few years both Hyre and his sons and sons-in-law were stone blind. William Carder had several children. Among them were: John Wesley, who married Margaret Smith. Manley. Elizabeth, who married Thomas Washburn. Nancy, who married John Stutler. William, whose last wife was Priscilla Butcher. John Wesley Carder was born and reared in Harrison County. He married , and lived there until his older children were married and had homes of their own. He then, early in the winter of 1838 or 9, decided to follow his brother-in-law, Washburn, to the fertile valley of Big Sandy Creek in the new County of Jackson. Washburn had preceded him by several years, and now Carder, Stutler, and a neighbor by the name of Cheuvront, packed their rude belongings and followed him to the new West, where land could be had at a nominal price and game was yet abundant. Stutler, it is said, came by the overland route, arriving sometime in January. Carder and Cheuvront took the long way by water, down the West Fork past Clarksburg, and down the Monongahela by way of Pittsburgh, and the Ohio River to Ravenswood, reaching their new home in April. Carder was an expert blacksmith and gunsmith, a craft always in demand in a pioneer settlement. His patronage came from many miles in every direction. He and his boys were successful trappers, and famous as hunters, and prospered in their agricultural pursuits. He bought a large boundary of land, and located on the present site of Liverpool. But, living at first in a squatter's cabin near the site of Mr. T. I. Hartley's residence. Later, he built a log house practically on the site of Hartley's house, perhaps a little nearer to the well.