Posted on: Jackson County, WV Bios Reply Here: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/WV/JacksonBios/169 Surname: THOMAS, WESTFALL, RADER, CASTO, OURS, BONNET, SLAUGHTER, ROLLINS, MCDADE, WINTERS, SHAMBLIN, CARNEY, FLESHER, HYRE ------------------------- This sketch taken from "Pioneers of Jackson County", by John House. Tug Fork The right fork of Mill Creek is formed by the confluence of Bear Fork and Grass Lick, two considerable sized streams, which unite twelve miles from the junction of Tug Fork with the Left Hand, or Trace Fork. There are two origins assigned to the name of the stream. The one, that because the path, trail or "trace" leading from the river settlements to Harrison County and the regions beyond, led up this branch, it was called Trace Fork, and the settlers who commonly used bark or rawhide tugs in their primitive harness, instead of chain traces, gradually came to apply the name Tug Fork to the right branch, to distinguish it from the Trace Fork. The other legend is that in the early days when settlers were crowding in and game began to be scarce, markets were distant and inconvenient, and the people, many of whom had not become adapted to the new style of making a living, thought they had a hard tug to live, and so called their home the "Tug Fork". The name is said to have been first used by Enoch C. Thomas, when he moved up on the creek. The country along Tug Fork is mostly rough and hilly. There is much fine rolling tableland on top of the hills, and good bench and cove land in the runs and small streams, and the bottoms are of fair width and fertile, but the hills bordering the valley are high and often steep. On the upper reaches of the creek, the hills are so rocky and precipitous and the stream zigzags back and forth from hill, hugging the rocky bluffs so close that there is not room for the road to pass around it. In consequence, the fords were numerous, and owing to the rocks and the rapidity of the current, very inconvenient to the traveler. The left branch of Tug Fork runs far up into Jackson County mountains, which attain an altitude of eleven hundred feet, and abound in sheer cliffs and wild rocky ravines. The right branch, on the contrary, includes the finest rolling uplands of Jackson County, especially towards the head of Grass Lick, the hills are low and the ascent gentle with wide tops, often level or only slightly rolling. Parts of Bear Fork are a miniature edition of the Allegheny mountains with its cliffs, bluffs, rocks, clefts, caverns, fissures and silvery, leaping rills flashing through the sunlight down the hillside. Often as on Laurel Fork, there are rocks as large as a smoke house, and from that down to boulders no bigger than a salt barrel, scattered over the narrow bottoms below the cliffs, from which they have fallen away. Some miles below the confluence of Grass Lick and Bear Fork, near the Falling Water Church, a little stream coming down through the hills leaps over a sheer cliff of rock eight or ten feet high, into the valley below. Tug Fork is twelve miles to the forks and from there to the head of Bear Fork is eight miles, and to the sources of Grass Lick twelve and one half miles, at Garnes Knob, a lofty hill eleven hundred feet above sea level. The right branch of Grass Lick, in going upstream, curls back nearly to the main stream. If a drop of water were to fall on a knife edge set on the top of Salt Lick Hill, so as to divide it, one half would reach Mill Creek within less than a half mile, the other flowing by way of Grass Lick would reach the same spot, after a journey of twenty three miles, or more. By water, the valleys are, respectively, Tug Fork, about six miles, Bear Fork, six or seven miles, Grass Lick, eleven miles. By road, the distances are a few miles shorter than by following the course of the very crooked streams. Tug Fork Valley is about seventeen miles long, Trace Fork, or so called main Mill Creek, some twelve and one half miles, counting the longest branch of Buffalo Fork. The villages on Tug waters are Staats Mills, seven and a quarter miles up the creek, Belgrove, five miles up on the Bear Fork, and Fair Plain, near the head of the right branch of Grass Lick, and Kenna at the head of main Grass Lick. There was a Buffalo "stomp" on Buffalo Lick at Lick Springs two or three feet deep, at the upper side, sixty years ago. OTHER SETTLERS ON TUG FORK Next was Stephen Westfall. His father was a brother of Zachariah Westfall. He lived here for a space of years and later moved to Elk Fork to a farm three or four miles above the Rader settlement. I give these settlements according to locality, and not necessarily with regard to date of settlement. The next cabin was that of George Casto, who moved from the Salt Lick farm about the 1820's. His history is given elsewhere in this history. George Casto was a brother-in-law of Stephen Westfall, whose sister had been his first wife. John Ours, a brother of the George Casto's second wife, owned the next farm, which was about a mile and a half from Mill Creek. He came out from the Buckhannon River, and married Mary Bonnet, a daughter of William Bonnet, who lived above Ripley. After a few years he sold the farm to Enoch C. Thomas, and he crossed into Ohio to make his home. Then came Jesse Slaughter, who married Polly Rollins, a sister of Elijah, J.O., Zachariah Rollins, from Lewis County, and settled one mile above Staats Mill. Later he sold this farm to George Casto, before mentioned, and it was the home of his son, Nicholas, till 1905. John J. Casto, or "Big John" Casto, was a son of John Casto. He lived on the Elijah Rollins farm for a number of years, but sold it and moved to another place just above George Casto's. His wife was Gracey McDade, supposed by my informant to be a daughter of the Samuel McDade who was one of the first settlers at the mouth of Mill Creek. [James McDade, not Samuel...b] They had five sons in the Union Army. Jesse Slaughter, when he sold his first farm to George Casto, bought what has since been known as the Slaughter farm on Bear Fork. His son, Silas H. Slaughter, settled just above him, and James C. Slaughter immediately below his father. Daniel Casto, brother of the man who was shot in the woods, settled first on Grass Lick, on the farm where Henry Winters now lives, but moved on to the head of Bear Fork. He married Polly Shamblin. I think Nic Casto was my informant that Thomas Carney had been there five years (in 1816). William Bonnet about 1811. Isaac Flesher, Lige Rollins and John Casto the same. Jacob Hyre about 1810. Michael Rader before 1810.