Boone County History

Boone County was formed from an act of the Virginia General Assembly on March 11, 1847 from Cabell, Kanawha, and Logan counties. The county was named in honor of Daniel Boone (1734-1820), the famous hunter and explorer, founder of Kentucky, Lieutenant Colonel of the Virginia militia, and member of the Virginia General Assembly representing Kanawha County (in 1791).

Although Daniel Boone was known as a son of Kentucky, he was born on November 2, 1734 in the Schuylkill Valley in Pennsylvania. He moved with his parents to Yadkin Valley, North Carolina in 1750. He later married and started a family there, and was active as an Indian trader in that area. He visited the present site of West Virginia in 1755 as a member of General Braddock's army that was defeated by the Indians on the Monongahela River. A few years later, he explored the future site of Kentucky and moved his family there. In 1788, he lost his Kentucky property because he failed to properly enter his land grants. Homeless, he moved to Point Pleasant, in West Virginia, for nearly a year, and then moved to present-day Charleston. He lived in Charleston for seven years (1788-1795). In 1789, he was named a Lieutenant Colonel of the state militia, and, in 1790, he was elected to the Virginia General Assembly. He left West Virginia in 1799, moving to Missouri, where he had been granted 1,000 acres of land by the Spanish government and given a government position overseeing the area. He died on September 26, 1820 in Missouri.

The idea of naming the county after Daniel Boone came from St. Clair Ballard, a member of the Virginia General Assembly. In an eloquent speech before the Virginia General Assembly, Mr. Ballard recounted the story of how Daniel Boone saved Mr. Ballard's mother from the Shawnee Indians. When St. Clair Ballard's mother, Cloey, was five and one half years old a group of Shawnee Indians came onto her father's farm. They killed her parents, and took her and her older brother, John, prisoner. Her older sister was not seen by the Indians and escaped. Several months later, John escaped and, knowing of Daniel Boone's reputation as an Indian fighter, sought his help in rescuing his sister. Boone listened to John's story and said he would see what he could do. While John rested, Boone disappeared into the woods.. The next afternoon, he returned with Cloey at his side.

When St. Clair Ballard finished telling the story, he moved to name the new county Boone County. The Virginia General Assembly then agreed to the motion, creating Boone County on March 11, 1847.

First Settlers

The first native settlers in southern West Virginia were the Mound Builders, also known as the Adena people. Remnants of the Mound Builder's civilization have been found throughout West Virginia, with a high concentration of artifacts located at Moundsville, West Virginia, in Marshall County. The Grave Creek Indian Mound, located in the center of Moundsville, is one of West Virginia's most famous historic landmarks. More than 2,000 years old, it stands 69 feet high and 295 feet in diameter.

According to missionary reports, several thousand Hurons occupied present-day West Virginia during the late 1500s and early 1600s. They were driven out of the state during the 1600s by members of the powerful Iroquois Confederacy (consisting of the Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga, Oneida and Seneca tribes, and joined later by the Tuscaroras tribe). The Iroquois Confederacy was headquartered in New York and was not interested in occupying present-day West Virginia. Instead, they used it as a hunting ground during the spring and summer months.

During the early 1700s, southern West Virginia, including present-day Boone County, was used as a hunting ground by the Mingo, who lived in both the Tygart Valley and along the Ohio River in West Virginia's northern panhandle region, the Delaware, who lived in present-day eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, but had several autonomous settlements as far south as present-day Braxton County, and by members of the Iroquois Confederacy, especially the Seneca, one of the largest and most powerful members of the Iroquois Confederacy.

The Mingo were not actually an Indian tribe, but a multi-cultural group of Indians that established several communities within present-day West Virginia. They lacked a central government and, like all other Indians within the region at that time, were subject to the control of the Iroquois Confederacy. The Mingo originally lived closer to the Atlantic Coast, but European settlement pushed them into western Virginia and eastern Ohio.

The Seneca, headquartered in western New York, was the closest member of the Iroquois Confederacy to West Virginia, and took great interest in the state. In 1744, the Seneca boasted to Virginia officials that they had conquered the several nations living on the back of the great mountains of Virginia. Among the conquered nations were the last of the Canawese or Conoy people who became incorporated into some of the Iroquois communities in New York. The Conoy continue to be remembered today through the naming of two of West Virginia's largest rivers after them, the Little Kanawha and the Great Kanawha.

The Seneca, and other members of the Iroquois Confederacy often traveled through the state to protect its claim to southern West Virginia from the Cherokee. The Cherokee were headquartered in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee and rivaled the Iroquois nation in both size and influence. The Cherokee claimed present-day southern West Virginia as their own, setting the stage for conflict with the Iroquois Confederacy.

In 1744, Virginia officials purchased the Iroquois title of ownership to West Virginia in the Treaty of Lancaster. The treaty reduced the Iroquois Confederacy's presence in the state.

During the mid-1700s, the English had made it clear to the various Indian tribes that they intended to settle the frontier. The French, on the other hand, were more interested in trade. This influenced the Mingo to side with the French during the French and Indian War (1755-1763). Although the Iroquois Confederacy officially remained neutral, many in the Iroquois Confederacy also allied with the French. Unfortunately for them, the French lost the war and ceded the all of its North American possessions to the British. Following the war, the Mingo retreated to their homes along the banks of the Ohio River and were rarely seen in southern West Virginia.

Although the war was officially over, many Indians, especially the Shawnee who resided in Ohio, continued to see the British as a threat to their sovereignty and continued to fight them. In the summer of 1763, Pontiac, an Ottawa chief, led raids on key British forts. Shawnee chief Keigh-tugh-qua, or Cornstalk, led similar attacks on western Virginia settlements in present-day Greenbrier County. By the end of July, Indians had captured all British forts west of the Alleghenies except Detroit, Fort Pitt, and Fort Niagara. Then, on August 6, 1763, British forces under the command of Colonel Henry Bouquet retaliated and destroyed Delaware and Shawnee forces at Bushy Run in western Pennsylvania, ending the hostilities.

Fearing more tension between Native Americans and settlers, England's King George III issued the Proclamation of 1763, prohibiting settlement west of the Allegheny Mountains. However, many land speculators, including George Washington, violated the proclamation by claiming vast acreage in western Virginia. In 1768, the Iroquois Confederacy (often called the Six Nations) and the Cherokee signed the Treaty of Hard Labour and the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, relinquishing their claims on the territory between the Ohio River and the Alleghenies to the British. With the frontier now open, settlers, once again, began to enter into present-day West Virginia.

In 1772, a series of incidents between settlers and Indians in West Virginia ended what had been nearly eight years of peace. During the spring of that year, several
Indians were murdered on the South Branch of the Potomac River by Nicholas Harpold and his companions. About the same time, Bald Eagle, an Indian chief of
some notoriety, was murdered while on a hunting trip on the Monongahela River. In the meantime, Captain Bull, a Delaware Indian Chief and five other Indian
families were living in Braxton County in an area known as Bulltown, near the falls of the Little Kanawha River, about fourteen miles from present day Sutton.
Captain Bull was regarded by most of the settlers in the region as friendly. But some settlers suspected him of providing information to and harboring unfriendly
Indians. While away from home in June 1772, the family of a German immigrant named Peter Stroud was murdered, presumably by Indians. The trail left by the
murderers led in the general direction of Bulltown. Peter's brother, Adam Stroud, had a cabin nearby and seeing smoke rising into the sky, raced to his brother's
cabin. He gathered up what was left of the bodies and buried them. He then headed for Hacker's Creek where he met with several other settlers who agreed to join him in an attack on Bulltown. They killed all of the Indians in the village, including Captain Bull, and threw their bodies into a nearby river. News of Captain Bull's murder quickly spread across the western frontier.

Following what the Indians referred to as the Bulltown massacre, Shawnee Chief Cornstalk, who had led numerous raids against West Virginia settlers in the past,
began to organize the Indians in a concerted effort to drive the whites from their territory.

In 1773, land speculator Michael Cresap led a group of volunteers from Fort Fincastle (later renamed Fort Henry) at present-day Wheeling, murdering several
Shawnee at Captain Creek. Among other atrocities, on April 30, 1774, colonists murdered the family of Mingo chieftain Tah-gah-jute, who had been baptized under the English name of Logan. Although Logan had previously lived peacefully with whites, he killed at least thirteen settlers that summer in revenge.

Virginia Governor John Murray, Earl of Dunmore, worried about the escalating violence in western Virginia, decided to end the conflict by force. He formed two
armies, one marching from the North, consisting of 1,700 men led by himself and the other marching from the South, comprised of 800 troops led by western
Virginia resident and land speculator Captain Andrew Lewis. Shawnee chieftain Keigh-tugh-qua, or Cornstalk, along with approximately 1,200 Shawnee, Delaware, Mingo, Wyandotte and Cayuga warriors, decided to attack the southern regiment before they had a chance to unite with Lord Dunmore's forces. On October 10,
1774, the Indians attacked Lewis' forces at the confluence of the Kanawha and Ohio Rivers, at present-day Point Pleasant, in Mason County. During the battle, both sides suffered significant losses.

Although nearly half of Lewis' commissioned officers were killed during the battle, including his brother, Colonel Charles Lewis, and seventy-five of his
non-commissioned officers, the Indians were finally forced to retreat back to their settlements in Ohio's Scioto Valley, with Lewis' men in pursuit. In the meanwhile,
Lord Dunmore arrived and joined forces with Lewis. Seeing that they were now outnumbered, Cornstalk sued for peace.

Although western Virginia's settlers continued to experience isolated Indian attacks for several years, Cornstalk's defeat at Point Pleasant was the beginning of the
end of the Indian presence in western Virginia. The Indians agreed to give up all of their white prisoners, restore all captured horses and other property, and not to
hunt south of the Ohio River. Also, they were to allow boats on the Ohio River and promised not to harass them. This opened up present-day West Virginia and
Kentucky for settlement. Cornstalk was later killed at Fort Randolph near Point Pleasant in 1777 in retaliation for the death of a militiaman who was killed by an
Indian.

During the American Revolution (1776-1783), the Mingo and Shawnee, headquartered at Chillicothe, Ohio, allied themselves with the British. In 1777, a party of
350 Wyandots, Shawnees, and Mingos, armed by the British, attacked Fort Henry, near present-day Wheeling. Nearly half of the Americans manning the fort were killed in the three-day assault. The Indians then left the Fort celebrating their victory. For the remainder of the war, smaller raiding parties of Mingo, Shawnee, and other Indian tribes terrorized settlers throughout West Virginia. As a result, European settlement in the state came to a virtual standstill until the war's conclusion.
Following the war, the Mingo and Shawnee, once again allied with the losing side, returned to their homes. However, as the number of settlers in the region began to grow, and with their numbers depleted by the war, both the Mingo and the Shawnee moved further inland.

Early European Settlers

John Peter Salley was the first European to set foot in present-day Boone County. In 1742, he explored the county and is credited for discovering coal along the Coal River. Other Europeans to pass through the area during the late-1700s included Mitchell Clay who passed through the area while tracking a band of Indians who had killed his children, and Richard Hewett, who was exploring in the county when he was killed by Indians at the mouth of Hewett Creek in 1782.

In 1792, settlers on the Blue Stone River, led by Captain Henry Farley, chased a group of Indian raiders through present-day southern West Virginia, including Boone County. The chase ended in a large fight at the headwaters of the Coal River that lasted several hours.

Important Events of the 1800s

Four engagements took place within the county during the Civil War (1861-1865). The first was called the Battle of Boone County Courthouse. When Brigadier General Jacob Cox, in command of the Union Army in the Kanawha Valley, heard that a Confederate regiment was forming in Boone County, he sent Colonel J. V. Guthrie from Charleston to destroy it. On August 29, 1861, Colonel Guthrie sent two companies, Company G, 26th Ohio Infantry, and Company A, 1st Kentucky Infantry, to Boone County. On the following day, he dispatched Company K, 26th Ohio, to reinforce the first two companies. On September 1, 1861, Companies G and A, and some local militia, were in the process of crossing the river on their way to the Boone County Courthouse in Madison when the Confederate militia, commanded by Colonel Ezekiel S. Miller, opened fire on them. However, after twenty minutes of fighting, the Confederate troops were forced to retreat. Twenty-five Confederate soldiers were killed, wounded, or captured during the engagement. One Union soldier was killed and five more were wounded. In retaliation for supporting the South, before returning to Charleston, the Union soldiers burned the court house, and several other buildings in the town, to the ground.

The second engagement occurred on September 12, 1861 near an area of the county known as Paytona. Four Union companies from the First Kentucky Volunteer Infantry were setting up camp at the mouth of Joe's Creek when they were ambushed by four companies of Confederate cavalry. Forty-two Union soldiers were either killed, wounded or captured. The Confederate Army suffered only minor casualties.

The third engagement occurred at Pond Fork, of the Little Kanawha River, on September 17th, 1861. On that morning, a company of Mounted Confederate Rangers attacked a detachment of Unionist Homeguards at Pond Fork. The Unionist Homeguards retreated, but the Confederate troops captured seventeen of them. Fourteen of them were accused of treason against the Confederacy and were sent to Richmond as prisoners of war.

The fourth engagement occurred on September 25, 1861. The fight started on Trace Fork or Big Creek, approximately five miles from the Logan County line, and ended in the Kanawha Gap, near Chapmanville, in Logan County. Union scouts reported a concentration of Confederate troops in the Chapmanville area, and Colonel Piatt was sent to disperse it. He left on September 23, 1861 with six companies from the 34th Ohio. He was accompanied by Lieutenant Colonel David A. Enyart and three hundred men from the 1st Kentucky Infantry, and two hundred Unionist Homeguards. When the force reached Peytona they camped for the night and the next day separated, with Colonel Enyart moving up the Coal River, and Colonel Piatt moving on to the Boone County Court House. The next morning, near what is now Manila, they met the Confederate advance guard and exchanged gunfire. The Confederate advance guard retreated to within two miles of Kanawha Gap. The then set up on a hill side and fired on the Union Army pursing them. Colonel Piatt deployed his troops on either side of the hill and eventually forced the Confederate soldiers to retreat from the area.

County Seat

Madison, the county seat, was incorporated in 1906. Most historians claim that the town was named in honor of William Madison Peyton, a leader of the movement to form Boone County and a pioneer coal operator. Others have suggested that it was named in honor of James Madison (1751-1836) the 4th President of the United States (1809-1817), a leading member of the Philadelphia Convention that wrote the U.S. Constitution, and life-long friend and neighbor of Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd President of the United States (1800-1809). Still others claim that the town was named in honor of Madison Laidley, a Charleston lawyer who helped to re-organize the civil affairs of the county.

The first meeting of the county court took place at the home of John Hill, then a Justice of the Peace in Logan County. He lived about three-fourths of a mile below the present county court house. The names of three of the four Justices of the Peace in attendance were Adam Cool, John A Barker, and John Hill. By tradition, John Hill, the longest-serving Justice of the Peace residing in the county, was commissioned to be the county's first sheriff. J. H. French was selected to serve as the county's first prosecuting attorney.

Until the county's first courthouse was built at the junction of the Pond and Spruce forks of Little Coal river, court was held in the log church at the mouth of Turtle Creek. Grand juries, when charged, and petit juries, when cases were submitted to them, retired to the bushes surrounding the church to deliberate.

The county has had three court houses. The first was burned to the ground during the Civil War, and the second was condemned in 1913. The foundation for the current county court house was laid in 1919, but construction was stopped when Danville tried to replace Madison as the county's seat of government. Madison eventually won out, most likely because work on a new court house had already begun there. On June 7, 1921, the county court deemed the court house completed enough to be used, although it was not completely finished until 1923.

References

Boone County, West Virginia, History. 1990. Madison, WV: Boone County Genealogical Society.

Kith and Kin of Boone County, West Virginia. 1977. Madison, WV: Boone County Genealogical Society.

Moorhead, Virginia B., editor. 1976. Boone County Then and Now, 1835-1976: A History in Words and Pictures by Her Sons and Daughters to Celebrate

the Bicentennial of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence. Belvidere, IL: Boone County Bicentennial Commission.

Nelson, W. W. 1982. Branches of Turtle Creek: Origins and Extensions of the Families of God and Men at a Place in Boone County, West Virginia,

"Where No Other Creek Would Fit." Hewett, WV: Boone County Genealogical Society.

Rice, Otis K. 1985. West Virginia: A History. Lexington, KY: The University of Kentucky Press.

Williams, John Alexander. 1993. West Virginia: A History for Beginners. Charleston, WV: Appalachian Editions.

Authors

Robert Jay Dilger, Director, Institute for Public Affairs and Professor of Political Science, West Virginia University.

Joseph M. White, undergraduate history major, West Virginia University.

August 1, 2000.

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