By the Year of 1979, a Hos Tof Settlers Had Settled at the Falls of Tug, Just Above The

By the year of 1797, a host of settlers had settled at the Falls of Tug, just above the present town of Fort Gay. All the settlers came from Virginia. This part of Virginia hadn't been settled at that time, so there were all new people in a new land. There were no roads, no stores and the land was covered with virgin forests. The settlers had to clear the land before a cabin could be built. Most came in the month of October, therefore, they had to make haste before the weather got too cold. These cabins usually consisted of one room, large enough for a bed, table, and chairs. A fireplace large enough to accommodate a six or seven foot log. They cooked all their food and baked in this fireplace. If their family was large, whit it usually was, then they built a loft over the one room and made a bedroom for the children, which they reached by a ladder. If the man of the house was a really good carpenter, he built stairs.

These cabins were snug and warm in winter, between the logs was chinked with mud. The doors were made of hewn planks with leather hinges and a drop in bar to fasten at night.

Indians worried the settlers at For Vancouver on the Kentucky side of the river in the point in 1789/90 and the fort was abandoned, but no mention is made of Indians bothering the settlers on this side of the river and they settled in 1796/7. So the settlers would have been extra cautious in building, so as to be safe from attack. They brought seeds for planting, and all their goods they could carry or pack on horses to start their new homes. They only had a blazed trail to follow over the mountains until they came to the river, then they could have built rafts and floated down stream.

An old lady told me several years ago, that her grandparents crossed the mountains on horse back with all their belongings packed on horses and what they could carry on their backs. She said they had two small children and two large iron kettles. They fastened the kettles on the horses and put the children in the kettles and let them ride. Walking was very hard on small children.

These people had all different kinds of trades, millers, blacksmiths, farmers, raftsmen, shoemakers, sawmill operators, but all had to pitch in and work to build their homes and clear the land for crops. Home and safety came first. It was all virgin land and timber. They had no use for the large trees so they cut them down and burned them to clear the land. Land that was cleared of trees for crops was called "new ground". Even as late as the 1930s it was still called "new ground."

According to Hardesty's History, the first white settler in this vicinity of the present town of Fort Gay was Samuel Short. He built a log cabin in the vicinity of Cass Street, back of the Jay New property. Certain old family records indicate that there may have been a hostelry here as early as 1799. Also, that Samuel Short was a Baptist minister and had immigrated from Scotland.

Push boats came up river at that time going up as far as Pikeville (the Leslie settlement) bringing all sorts of trade goods to the people there. These people traded furs to these early traders as evidenced by the goods that Charles Vancouver brought up to Fort Vancouver only to find it had been abandoned. The fort consisted of three log cabins, so pens were made of logs, like corn cribs and reaching from one cabin to another. They cleared about 18 acres of ground before leaving. This settlement was just above the bridge in the point.

These goods Mr. Vancouver took back down river and took it to Lexington, Kentucky, in 1790, and offered it all for sale. It consisted of buckles, buttons, round glass, queens ware, men and women's shoes, mats norwich camblets, callimancoes, Indian chintz, muslin, silk and calicoes. Iron mongery, together with an assortment of British mounted carpenter's tools.

The first white person to see the forks of the Big Sandy must have been Gabriel Arthur, during his captive wanderings with the Indians in 1674. Next was Mary Engles and an old Dutch woman, who was fleeing captivity, trying to reach Virginia in 1754.

Going back to Samuel Short, the first settler in Cassville (Fort Gay) in 1796.

Mrs. Cecil Romans (Bertha Wellman) widow of one of Fort Gay's early dentists, said, "My father, Oliver Wellman, took me to see the site of my great- grandfather's cabin, the first house built in the town of Cassville. The year was 1888, when I was eight years old. There was only a pile of stones and an outline of rotting logs, all that was left of the cabin. My grandfather, Robert Wellman, was born there." Her father, Oliver Wellman, was born near Sulfur Springs.

By the year 1802, several families had ventured this far and settled. The Wellmans, Frashers, Webbs, Workmans, Bartrams, Robinsons, Jarrells, Wilsons, Robert Tabor in 1798, Thomas Short, Thomas Short, Jr., Samuel Hatten, William Adams, Peyton and Joseph Newman, John and Richard Grayston, Thomas Vaughn, Peter Loar, Benjamin Sperry and William Artrip, all of these came and settled beside Samuel Short, and all probably before the year of 1800.

John Wellman came in 1802, followed by his father-in-law, Robert Webb, with a family of two sons and three daughters. He settled just below Fort Gay in 1804. Other early settlers were Michael Burke, John Smith, Pleasents Workman, Joel Ferguson, James Bartram, William Perry, Joseph Fulkerson, John Breedin, Jesse Cyrus, John Deering, Jesse Smith, Goodwin Lycans, Samuel Smiley, John Thompson and Abraham Queen.

Samuel Webb had a land grant just south of Fort Gay (he was the son of Robert Webb) taking in all of the land between Mill Creek and Tug river, as far up as Napier's Store and where the former Sinbaddi's was located, and the Tri Rivers Race Track (joining David Bartram's farm land grant) and back down to Cedar Heights.

Robert Webb, his father, had a land grant just below Fort Gay, where the government locks are located and including Bill Jr. Rowe's property. The copies of these land grants will be shown.

Samuel Webb had a government license to make whiskey and sell it. He had a saloon and store just in the back of where Sinbaddi's was located. Pages from his son's account book will be shown later.

He planted a large peach orchard and later made peach brandy and sold it. Brandy sold for $.06 per pint, whiskey was $.12 per quart.

The early people farmed and raised cattle and hunted for a living. There were no roads, only trails to travel on, and of course, the river. The only trading post for these early settlers was on the Kentucky side of the river, at Louisa.

It was ran by a man by the name of Frederick Moore, who lived just below the town of Cassville. Mr. Moore came here from the state of Pennsylvania, after his nail business failed. He established a business in Louisa, Kentucky, and built a house and straight away sent for his family. His home was on the Virginia side of the river (located about where Carol Davis' home is now located). He and his wife raised a large family. They were loved by all who knew them. They were large slave holders, but treated them fairly. When the slaves were freed, they wouldn't leave the Moore home. One old Negro gentleman stayed with them all of the rest of his life.

The first white child born in this area was John Short, a son of Samuel Short and Elizabeth Breeding Short, born in 1801 at the cabin on what is now Cass Street.

The first marriage was that of Samuel Hatten and Nancy Campbell, in 1802. It is said the bride's parents were from Kentucky, so they had the wedding in the middle of the river on a sand bar. These early settlers built and settled close together near the river, as everything that they needed was brought in on boats.

The first school, according to Bertha Romans, was located where the Delbert Cyrus home is located, at the junction of Route 52 and Route 37. Mrs. Romans said, "My father went to school there and also his father, Robert Wellman." The school was still there in the 1890s as my grandmother, Clara, and her brother and sister, Harrison and Lucy, attended school there.

According to Hardesty's History, this school was began in 1805, 1/2 mile from Fort Gay on Mill Creek. That would put the school in the location Mrs. Roman's described. Thomas Napier taught the first term at Mill Creek School. Stephen Bean taught in the year of 1810, at which time there were twenty-five or thirty students.

In the years of early 1800 there was nothing, just trees and paw paw bushes where the town now stands. My great-grandmother used to tell me that all the land between Palace Street and the railroad was a paw paw patch, and called that in the late 1880s. She said the Indians used to come there and camp and hunt in the fall. This must have been true, as hundreds of arrowheads and pieces of flint have been found in our garden in Palace Street. When the athletic field was cleared and bulldozed for the Wayne County School system, there were two or three well-preserved tomahawks found there.

In the year of 1802, William Thompson built a mill on Mill Creek, between Cedar Heights and Orchard Street. The first mill in this part of the county. It pre-dates the one at Trouts Hill. Meal was the only bread the early settlers had.

Mr. Thompson must have been a man of means in his time, for when he sold the property around Cedar Heights, the deed stated he was selling all the land there, excluding the mill, but including the plantation house there. It must have been a showplace of the day to be called a plantation house.

The mill was on Mill Creek until it was torn down to remove the large timbers to make a fort on the hill overlooking the town. It was erected on the hill overlooking Wayne and Palace Streets, and the section where the N & S Railroad is now located. Up until the late 1930s the rotting timbers could still be seen on the ground, all around where the fort stood. Where the rocks are along the side of the hill facing the railroad, cannon balls could be found as late as 1936. My grandmother, Rebecca Rowe, found two while hunting for "Shawnee Greens". These cannon balls were fired from the Kentucky side of the river from Fort Bishop.

The mill was built of huge timers. People came for miles around to have their corn ground into meal. Some having to stay the night at the mill, returning home the next day. It was dangerous traveling on horseback, at night and at day. A man in the vicinity of Fallsburg, Kentucky, had been to the mill at Fallsburg and on his way home was set upon by wolves and was killed, his horse escaped. People were very cautious about wolves. In 1828, the Wayne County Court was authorized to pay $2.00 a head for young wolves and $4.00 a head for an adult. Records indicate several hundred dollars were paid out. D:\Docs\2017-12-29\0d46546d0905ee246a95000a9b50ab99.doc