Smyth County History and Traditions
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SMYTH COUNTY HISTORY AND TRADITIONS By GOODRIDGE WILSON P11'1i1'1111 ill Co11111t1io11 tQ///, 1}11 CBNTBNNIAL CELEBRATION OF SMYTH COUNTY. VIRGINIA, 1932 CoPYllJGHT, 1932, 1v GOODRIDGE WILSON MANUFACTUlED COMPL&T& BY KINGSPORT PRESS, IHc. l:INGIPOIT1 T&NN&lllt& U,rlttd Statt, of Amtritt1 :\LEX,c\NDER SMYTH DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OP B. FRANK BUCHANAN WHOSE LOVE FOR SMYTH COUNTY and KEEN INTEREST IN ITS HISTORY WAS LARGELY RESPONSIBLE !'OR THE WRITING OP Tms BOOK PREFACE This book, written in commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of the organization of Smyth as a county, is an attempt to preserve some of its history and traditions and show in readable form the development of its life, indus tries, and institutions. In treating the period prior to the formation of the county the aim has been to show how occupation of the territory was effected and to record interesting incidents and major historic events occurring within the county limits, and to In dicate at least to some extent the names and character of the earlier settlers. For this last purpose the list of early surveys culled from Summer's Annals of Southwest Virginia is given, which is a fair but incomplete index of landowners before 1800. Col. John Buchanan's journal is included be cause it is an interesting original document believed never to have been published before which gives an account of the nearest settlement to Smyth at the time of first explorations and shows what manner of business led this first of the sur veyors to come into Smyth territory. Other documents copied directly from the originals and supposed to be published for the first time are Capt. John Buchanan's letter from Gwyn's Island, William Campbell's letter to his wife, and the Tory warning to Campbell. For other documents and much in formation concerning this period acknowledgment is due the publications of the Wisconsin Historical Society, and Pilcher's Historical Sketches of the Campbell and Kindred Families. It will be noticed that after leaving this preliminary period the aim has been to make each chapter a complete survey of V vi PREFACE tl1e phase indicated in the chapter heading from the beginning to the present time. While this work ~·: ·1.ot intended to be in any sen~ a refer ence book for geneaiogy, much family history is recorded in one way or another. Such family data as was supplied the author has been worked into the narrative. This sort of data was repeatedly requested through the county papers. Those who supplied it thereby rendered a distinct service in compiling the history. Those who failed to respond to these requests for family data will please remember their failure ff it should seem that their families have not been accorded due recognition. Grate{ ul acknowledgment is made to Mr. L. P. Summers and Col. W. C. Pendleton for information derived from their books and given in person; to Mr. Herbert Kent, the efficient Clerk of Smyth County Courts, for invaluable help in search ing out information from the court records; to Mr. J. P. Sheffey for searching and copying extracts from the court records; to Mr. John P. Buchanan for photostatic copies of original documents; to Miss Nellie C. Preston for access to official records of the War between the States and to original family documents; to Hon. J. W. Flannagan and Hon. J. Tyler Frazier for securing data from government files in Washington and in Richmond; to very many interested persons within and without the county too numerous to mention for supplying information verbally or by letter; to Dr. S. W. Dickinson, Rev. J. W. Cassell, Rev. Elridge Copenhaver, and Miss Miriam Sheffey for the sections writ ten by them; to "Alkalite," a publication of the Mathieson Alkali Co., from which the greater part of the material about that company is taken; and to Miss Eleanor White, the very efficient stenographer who copied the entire manuscript. The author also desires to record that the cost of publica tion has been subscribed by the following persons: B. F. PREFACE vii Buchanan, H. P. Copenhaver, R. T. Greer, J. D. Buchanan, George A. Wright, W. H. McCarty, Walter S. Johnston, J. A. Eller, Q. A. Eller, R. L. And~rson, W. F. Culbert and Sons, Mrs. C. C. Lincoln, W. H. Copenhaver, J. L. C. Anderson, H. L. Kent, Beattie Gwyn, Crockett Gwyn, I. W. Hutton, John D. Lincoln, C. C. Lincoln, Jr., Miss Nellie Preston, James D. Tate, J. Tyler Frazier, W. N. Neff, M. M. Seaver, Frank Sanders, C. S. Wassum, 'T. E. King, E. A. Holmes, B. E. Copenhaver. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I HEAD OF HOLSTON SURVEYS • • • • . 1 II COL; JOHN BUCHANAN'S JOURNAL . 10 III PERMANENT SETTLEMENT • • • • • • • • 16 IV DUNMORE1S WAR • • • • • • • • • • 45 V THE REVOLUTION • • • • • • • • • • 56. VI COUNTY ORGANIZATION • • • • • • • • 73 VII POLITICAL NOTATIONS • , , , • , • • , 101 VIII CHURCHES • • • • • • • • • • • • 120 IX SCHOOLS • • • • • • • • • • • • • 151 X NEWSPAPERS • , • , • , , • , • • • 164 XI INDUSTRIES • • , • • , • , • • • • 170 XII BANKS • • • • • • • • • • • • • 211 XIII TRANSPORTATION • • • , • , • , , • 219 XIV THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES • • • • • • 235 XV NEGROES OF SMYTH • • , • , • • • • , 261 XVI WORLD WAR • • • • • • • • • • • • 266 XVII SOUTHWESTERN STATE HOSPITAL • , • , , , 275 XVIII TOWNS • • • • • • • , • • • • • 282 XIX BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BUCHANAN . • • • 340 XX VILLAGES AND CoMMUNITIES • • • . • 3S0 XXI LAUREL FARM • • • • • • • • • • • 380 INDEX . 391 Ix LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS JPACJNO PAGE Alexander Smyth . Frontlspiue Old Smyth County Courthouse . • • • 72 Present Smyth County Courthouse . 82 Aerial View of Mathieson Alkali Plant . 196 Memorial Bridge at Seven Mile Ford . 218 Covered Bridge on Marion Battlefield . • 252 Marion • . • . • 296 Overflow from Marion Town Spring . • • 304 Aerial View of Saltville . • • • • 332 Benjamin Franklin Buchanan • . • • 340 CHAPTER I HEAD OF HOLSTON SURVEYS GEOGRAPHICALLY and historically Smyth County is on the head of the Holston. Geographically because the triple forks of the Holston take their rise within its bounds; historically because in its territory were made the beginnings of the famous Holston settlements of potent influence in making the nation that was to cross the western seas. Furthermore, some of the most influential leaders of that settlement in its critical, early stages dwelt in this territory. At an unknown date prior to 17 4 7 an adventurous free-lance pioneer with the lure of the wild woods in his soul came alone into the western wilderness and made a corn right claim, pitching his camp within thirty feet of the head spring of the Middle Fork. He cleared and planted in corn thirteen acres of land for which, under Colonial law, he acquired title to thirteen hundred acres. As he thought upon the waters flowing westward, he just had to find out where those waters went. So he sold his corn right title, made him canoes, and voyaged down the present Tennessee, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers to Natchez returning thence by land to his old home in Culpepper County, Virgina, and eventually settling farther down the Holston in Eastern Tennessee. His name was Stephen Hol ston. In the earliest records of this country the river is called the Indian River. The French called it the Cherokee River. The Indians called if Hogoheegee. After this wild adventurous voyage its name has been Holston River. So that the Holston takes its name from one who dwelt by its head spring in Smyth and who from Smyth began the first 1 2 SMYTH COUNTY HISTORY white man's voyage exploring its course to the "Father of Waters." Mountain ranges divide the county into three great valleys, each of which gives birth to and is drained by its own fork of Holston. The North Fork, with one spring across the line of Bland and another in Tazewell, springs from the hol lows and hills of the great Rich Valley and throughout Smyth and \Vashington counties carries off the surplus waters of all that rugged and splendid region. The Middle Fork with head springs near the Smyth-Wythe line drains the Middle Valley, broadest and most populous of the three. The Southern or Rye Valley is drained in its lower portions by the South Fork, which starts from the great springs at and above Sugar Grove and is fed by bold and beautiful moun tain torrents that rush in from either side. In the upper end of Rye Valley Cripple Creek, a beautiful, picturesque stream rises from Smyth's mountains and flows across this corner of the county eastward through Wythe to New River. Documentary history of this head of Holston country may be said to begin with a grant of land to Colonel James Patton of Augusta County in the year 1745. Under this grant, issued in the name of King George II by the Governor and Council of Virginia, he was allowed to take up one hundred and twenty thousand acres of unoccupied land west of the moun tains. He and his son-in-law, Col. John Buchanan, Deputy Surveyor of Augusta County, became immediately and greatly busy locating and surveying lands under this grant. They entered choice tracts along the upper Jamrs and on op posite sides of that stream laid out the town sites of Bu chanan and Pattonsburg; located boundaries in the valleys of Roanoke and of New River; and Buchanan, perhaps alone, perhaps accompanied by Patton or others, made pre liminary explorations that carried him through Smyth County. He entered in the records of Augusta two surveys of land HEAD OF HOLSTON SURVEYS 3 lying in the present Smyth and \Vashington counties dated March 14, 1746, and, therefore, must have passed through this county ascertaining desirable locations in the winter of 1746. In October of 1745 he made a trip to New River which he records in a journal that survives, but apart from the entries in the surveyor's book in the archives of the Augusta County Court there seems to be no written record of the first visits to Holston.