Website-ing not only affords the opportunity to post scrapbooks of individuals and individual families but also presents as a forum for mingling!
In fact, some of the earliest communications on the Internets was all about GENEALOGY. Back then it was "bulletin boards" and emails. Then "portals" were collections of links and the possibilities seemed an endless profusion.
We want to understand the Miracle Run of about 1850-1950 so we needed a post place in this part of Mama's Quilt for seeing who else was around during Grandma Pearl's childhood and Ida Mae and Elias' elder years.
I find this information about the Foster family, for example. You can click on the "links" which are differently colored throughout the text--to go to different websites. And this tells us more about the early days of Grandma Pearl's childhood home.
Just because things are not in one book doesn't mean "the book" doesn't exist. So this post place is like making a quilt in that way...maybe by compiling the information in one place, we'll see how it could make a book!
Nancy Olive Anderson also posts relatives in Miracle Run.
And we see the Shumans.
Woodruffs too... "Samuel Burns WOODRUFF was born about 1856 in Miracle Run, Monongalia County, Virginia. He appeared in the census on 2 May 1910 in Wetzel County, West Virginia. On 2 May 1910 he was fruit tree agent in Wetzel County, Virginia. In 1920 he was laborer in a coal mine in Marion County, West Virginia. He appeared in the census in 1920 in Marion County, West Virginia. Before 1929 he was Hobo in West Virginia. He died about 1935 in Salem, Harrison County, West Virginia. He was buried in Salem, Harrison County, West Virginia.
Parents: Abraham B. WOODRUFF and Susanna HINEGARDNER. Spouse: Malinda HENNEN. Samuel Burns WOODRUFF and Malinda HENNEN were married about 1888. Children were: Verna WOODRUFF, Charles Ray WOODRUFF. Spouse: Florence HENNEN. Samuel Burns WOODRUFF and Florence HENNEN were married about 1895. Children were: Belle WOODRUFF, Bertha M. WOODRUFF, Sarah Blanche WOODRUFF, Anna A. WOODRUFF, Cecil Burton WOODRUFF, Robert Darwin WOODRUFF Sr., William WOODRUFF, James WOODRUFF."
I found some Woodruffs in Jack's Hill cemetery in old Oxford, New Haven, Connecticut.
Here's record of William Jobes who died in Miracle Run.
And in here...the Temple family...we find mention of a Blaker! Sarah Blaker. Wonder if that's where our Rebecca Blaker came from?!
There's a treasure trove of family and local information called the "Descendants of Richard Tennant." What an amazing compilation and a very enjoyable read.
And we've got Wilson notes mentioned in an online history of Blacksville...
Leroy Core married Elvina Fox 22 August 1878
Calvin Wilson married Sarah Wilson 16 February 1879
Noah Fluharty married Luverna Wilson 28 October 1841
Eli Wilson married Jane McCurdy 15 October 1844
Alva Mason married Catherine Fox 13 May 1866
Josephus Wilson married Hellena Kennedy 12 July 1866
E.W. Wilson married Elizabeth Clayton October 1866
Fletcher Wilson married Elba E. Brookover 22 August 1867
The Foxes and Wilsons were two families in the fabric of the area.
We do know that in 1905 there was a "Baptish" marriage between Thomas A. Delaney and Mary A. Watson in Miracle Run.
Thomas Arlington Delaney.
Thomas had parents named John and Rebecca Delaney, too, but his mother's maiden name was CALVERT.
Here's an old, old cemetery in Miracle Run. It's the Denny Tennant Cemetery. Mama's relatives are not buried here.
Okay here's some mention of Miracle Run...
"WILLIAM JOBES, Junior, born probably in or near Trenton on 5 June 1763 and died 13 June 1851 at Miracle Run, Monongalia county, (West) Virginia. NSDAR file cases state that WILLIAM JOBES, Junior, served with his father, after he was wounded and after the death of his mother (spouse of WILLIAM JOBES, Senior). Records published in PORTRAIT and BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD of OKLAHOMA (1901) regarding an ELIAM LEMASTERS (grandson of WILLIAM JOBES, Junior), states that (WILLIAM JOBES, Junior) "...the maternal grandfather....was twelve years old when Trenton was taken, and he served as dispatch-bearer in the war of the Revolution until the close of hostilities." Submitted by Michael Jobes, michaeljobes@hotmail.com
This found at: www.usgennet.org/usa/nj/state1/military/revol/revo.htm "Revolutionary War Veterans of New Jersey"
I've had good luck in finding a copy of Samuel T. Wiley's HISTORY OF MONONGALIA COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA: From It's Settlements to the Present Time with Numerous Biographical and Family Sketches (Kingwood, West Virginia: Preston Publishing Co., 1883). Found it at the University of Pittsburgh's digital library, The Darlington...it's an amazing resource center.
Of particular interest to us is the chapter on Battelle District, named for a Reverend Gordon A. Battelle.
Created as a District in 1863, same year as the creation of West Virginia as a State. It seems to have remained a District throughout some re-destricting that seems to have been rather rocky.
To the north of Battelle is Pennsylvania; to the east--Clay District. Marion County is just south, and it's Wetzel County to the West.
Geographically, Wiley writes, "The slope of the main portion of the district is to the north and north-east in the direction of its principal streams, Miracle Run and other headwaters of Dunkard Creek. Big Paw Paw rises in the south-western part of the district" (757). The land is said to be good soil, and, "with good culture, returns large crops."
"Wheat is said to average from 8 to 20 bushels per acre; corn, 30 to 85; oats, 20 to 45; potatoes, 80 to 150. Vegetables and small fruits do well, but apples are the leading crop of fruit. Plums, pears and cherries are raised" (757).
I went to an apple butter festival one year in West Virginia in my travels! That was fun.
Grass yields...1 and 1/2 - 2 1/2 tons per acre. "Timothy for meadows and blue grass for pastures do exceedingly well," Wiley tells us.
By 1883, the time he is writing this account, the forests of timber are "mostly cut away."
"The heavy seam of coal passes under the district, but at what depth remains yet to be ascertained" (758).
The evidence of Native Americans at that time was broken pieces of pottery, arrowheads, polished stones, and mussel shells.
Among the pioneer settlers in the area 1771-1775 were John March, Phineas Kellem, Nicholas Shinn, George Shinn, Alexander Clegg, the Honsaker (or Handsucker) family--killed in an Indian raid of 1791, Minor, John Merical, A. Hornback, the William Thomas killed by Indians around 1780, Smith...
John Merical is probably the pioneer Wiley later refers to as the man that Miracle Run is named after. In a footnote on page 761, Wiley writes, "Miracle Run is said to get its name from a man by the name of Maracle or Mericale, an early settler."
The building of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad on the western border of Battelle was an "outlet to market." The usual post-Civil War excitement for the next big easy...the railroads. Rural areas north and south, out west and in-between were supposed to feed the world and everybody was going to get rich.
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We also get word of history/ourstory in the book HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE COUNTY OF MARION, WEST VIRGINIA by George A. Dunnington (aided by notes and memoranda left by the late Richard P. Lott). We have a link below to the Marion County GenWeb which is where we read that book online.
Dunnington's work calls the area's Native Americans Massawomees.
It also tells us about "tomahawk rights" or "land titles" "...made by deadening a few trees upon the premises, and marking the bark of one of them with the initials of the person making the improvement" (Chap. 3, "About the Land Titles Held By the Settlers").
Way back then in the late 1700's building a cabin and raising a crop of grain entitled the occupant to 400 acres of land and a pre-emption right to 1000+ acres-adjoining to be secured by a land office warrant.
This brought hundreds of people from Eastern Virginia and Maryland to the wilds.
They didn't have "professions" as much as they got good at just all-around-survival.
Ground corn was the staple of their diets which was why the first "mills" were created to grind corn (and eventually make other kinds of flour).
They clothed themselves and each other with fabrics made from hunting and handmilling in homes and forts according to Dunnington and Lott.
It is said elsewhere that Thomas Decker led a group of settlers to Decker's Creek--the present site of Morgantown. And the settlement was destroyed by Delaware and Mingo Indians...all of those settlers including Decker, except for ONE, were killed or captured.
This loss of people to territorial war is a common phenomenon in early American history.
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By 1790 we have the first National Census.
The territory of Monongalia had the sixth largest population in what was to become West Virginia.
4768...
But only Heads of Households/Owners really counted as individuals on that first Census. That's one of the reasons that Everybody Else is lumped together in the body count so it's often difficult to precisely locate specific ancestors that far back. But research these days is not limited to Census readings.
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Harriet C was Harriet Clarissa FOX. So her first name was the girl-version of her father Henry's name and her middle name was her mama's first name.
Harriet was born in 1858 and some records say she was born in a place called Indian Creek.
This had us curious about "Indian Creek." In a couple places on the Internet it's listed as a former settlement. Curiously "missing"...like Harriet to us.
It was in the area of continuous dispute between Virginia and all the other states because of typical land entitlements and frontier issues that complicated typical. Way Back When it was hot frontier territory…
Technically it was formed into Botetourt County from August County in 1769 but not "founded" until 1770. We found a snippet of an old, old map on the Wikipedia.
In A HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE NEW RIVER SETTLEMENTS AND CONTIGUOUS TERRITORY by David E. Johnston (1906) we hear of 'settlements" in the area during the years 1769-1774.
Made by the Cooks from the Virginia Valley on Indian Creek which is where we would have found Cook's Fort (3 miles from the creek on the New River);
Made by the Woods on Rich Creek;
Made by the Grahams on the Greenbrier;
And made by others near Keeney's Knobs.
After the Revolutionary War Botetourt's jurisdiction extended (get this) to Mississippi River and was a territory encompassing [now] West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, part of Illinois, and Wisconsin.
We find Harriet C. in the Census of 1870 with her biological family in Miracle Run, WEST Virginia because seven years before that Census, variously named territory turned into State. Her parents were Henry and Clarissa and she was the third oldest girl. In 1870 she was eleven and attending school.
But we don't see her on the family Census of 1880. Maybe because she was 21.
She's clearly listed in this birth registry for 1858 telling us that she was born in Miracle Run.
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| We found it on a film archived with www.wvculture.org |
PEDESTRIAN TRAFFIC ONLY!!!!
The State of West Virginia now owns this covered bridge built by Ray and Oscar Weikel (ages 16 & 18) for the cost of $400. It can get you across the Indian Creek and is also known as the Salt Sulphur Springs Covered Bridge.
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