A History of Pocahontas County: From Ancient Trails to the Iron Horse
Introduction: The Mountain Crucible
The history of Pocahontas County, West Virginia, is a narrative fundamentally shaped by its geography. Possessing the greatest elevation of any county in the state, its rugged terrain serves as the headwaters for a multitude of significant streams, including the Greenbrier, Elk, Cheat, Williams, Cranberry, and Gauley rivers.1 This landscape, historically blanketed by vast and valuable forests of pine and hardwoods, is not merely a backdrop to human events but the central force that has dictated the patterns of migration, the challenges of settlement, the nature of conflict, and the very course of economic development. The county's story is one of human adaptation to, and eventual exploitation of, this dominant mountain environment.
The river valleys, carved through the formidable Allegheny Mountains, served as pre-ordained corridors for movement. These natural pathways were first trod by aboriginal peoples, later followed by European pioneers, and ultimately traced by the steel rails of the railroad that would shatter the county's profound isolation.1 This geographical reality created a fundamental tension that defines the region's history: Pocahontas County was simultaneously a barrier, fostering a unique and self-sufficient culture in its secluded valleys, and a conduit, funneling traffic, trade, and conflict along its riverine arteries. From the ancient Seneca Trail to the modern Greenbrier Railway, the flow of water has directly mapped the flow of human history.
Part I: The Ancient Landscape: Aboriginal Habitation and Legacy
Long before the arrival of European settlers, the land that would become Pocahontas County was a developed and strategically important region, bearing the deep imprint of millennia of human activity. The evidence refutes any notion of a pristine, empty wilderness, pointing instead to a dynamic and layered history of successive cultures and sophisticated land use.
Evidence of Pre-Colonial Occupation
Tantalizing clues suggest a connection to the ancient and complex Mound Builder cultures. An excavation of a mound on the Douglas McNeill farm near Buckeye yielded five sheets of mica, a material compositionally similar to specimens found in authenticated Mound Builder structures and believed to have been used as a form of currency.1 This mound, like others in the region, contained a significant heap of ashes, which could be the remains of cremated bodies or, alternatively, the remnants of a collapsed sod hut's fireplace—a theory supported by the discovery of deer shanks and stone utensils in similar mounds.1
In the more recent historical period, the Greenbrier area was a vital seasonal territory for Shawnee, Delaware, and Mingo tribes. From spring until late fall, they occupied the valleys to hunt and fish, preserving their catch through a smoking and drying process.1 Furthermore, a persistent local tradition holds that peaceful Huron tribes once made the area their permanent home until they were violently driven out by marauding Mohawk warriors from New York around the year 1670. This event, if accurate, would have left the land largely uninhabited, creating a temporary vacuum that European settlers began to fill in the 1750s.1
Strategic Use of the Landscape
Aboriginal life was concentrated in the fertile lowlands along the Greenbrier River and its tributaries. The dense distribution of artifacts in these areas—arrowheads, pipes, pestles, tomahawks, and other Stone Age instruments—points to the existence of established villages at sites like Marlinton, Clover Lick, and Old Field Fork. The settlement at Marlinton appears to have been the largest, judging by the sheer volume of relics still found in the vicinity.1 In stark contrast, the rugged uplands and higher mountains yield only occasional arrow points, suggesting these areas were primarily used for hunting excursions rather than permanent habitation.1
The region was also a critical center for resource extraction, part of a large, inter-regional trade network. Pocahontas County was a primary source for flint, a mineral of immense value to Native peoples. On the Tom Beard farm on Stamping Creek, near Millpoint, hundreds of pits remain as evidence of extensive mining operations where miners, using crude spades of horn and bone, traveled from as far as Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania to dig for the precious flint nodules.1
The Native inhabitants pioneered a comprehensive transportation network that would later be adopted by settlers and modern engineers. The age-old Seneca Trail, also known as the Warriors' Road, was a major north-south artery that extended over 500 miles from New York to Georgia; today, U.S. Route 219 generally follows its path.1 Other crucial trails, which survive today as state roads, followed the valleys of Knapps Creek, Indian Draft, and Clover Creek, connecting the region to the broader Ohio and Virginia landscapes.1
Cultural and Spiritual Footprints
The numerous burial mounds scattered across the county reveal complex and varied mortuary practices. Near the Marlinton courthouse, a mound contained the commingled skeletons of at least seven adult males, their remains piled together in a manner suggesting a hasty burial after a battle or a later disturbance of the site.1 This contrasts sharply with a mound on the Warwick estate at Clover Lick, where the well-preserved bones of a single adult male were discovered carefully placed in a sitting posture, facing west, and accompanied by several articles of stone and metal, indicating a high-status or ceremonial burial.1 The immense labor and communal effort invested in these structures is underscored by a large mound near Swago Creek, built with an estimated thirty to forty tons of stone that had to be conveyed from several hundred feet away.1
Perhaps the most remarkable cultural remnant is the "Magic Circle" on the Gibson farm on Old Field Fork. Discovered in 1860 after the land was cleared, this 132-foot diameter ring is formed by prairie grasses not native to the immediate area. Authorities on Western Indian customs interpret the circle as a sophisticated pictograph composed of two snakes swallowing each other: a rattler formed by yellow grass depicting light, and a black one representing darkness. Their eternal consumption of one another portrays the Indian conception of the succession of night and day, suggesting a deep astronomical and philosophical understanding.1
The landscape encountered by the first white settlers was, therefore, not an empty void but one that had been shaped, utilized, and imbued with deep cultural meaning for centuries.
Table 1: Key Aboriginal Sites in Pocahontas County
Part II: The Frontier Crucible: Settlement, Conflict, and Community (1749-1821)
The mid-18th century marked the beginning of a new chapter in the history of the Greenbrier region, as European settlers began to push west across the Allegheny range. Their arrival initiated a period of intense struggle, not only against a formidable wilderness but also against the Native inhabitants who considered the land their own. This era of conflict and hardship forged a distinct frontier culture defined by fierce independence, profound resilience, and a communal loyalty born of shared danger.
The First Pioneers
In 1749, Jacob Marlin and Stephen Sewell became the first recorded European settlers, making their home at the mouth of Knapps Creek on the Greenbrier River—a site already known by that name, indicating they were following established paths rather than venturing into a completely unknown wilderness.1 Their now-famous feud over religious differences, which culminated in Sewell abandoning their shared cabin to live in a nearby hollow tree, exemplifies the rugged individualism and ideological fervor of the early pioneers. When surveyors for the Greenbrier Land Company, John Lewis and his son Andrew, arrived in 1751, they found the two men still waging their lonely dispute.1
Early land acquisition was formalized through such surveys or by establishing "tomahawk rights," a practice where settlers blazed trees along the boundaries of a desired tract and built a rudimentary residence. John Warwick used this method to establish a claim on Deer Creek.1 The narrative of settlement is told through the stories of these founding families: the Warwicks at Dunmore, and the McNeels and Kinnisons who established homes in the area known as the Little Levels.1
The extreme hardihood demanded of pioneer life is vividly illustrated by the story of Martha McNeel. In 1774, while her husband was away with the militia fighting at the Battle of Point Pleasant, she bore a child which soon died. Entirely alone, she was forced to build a coffin, dig a grave, and bury the infant unassisted.1
The Scotch-Irish and German Influx
The vast majority of settlers who arrived before 1800 were of Scotch-Irish extraction. Their ancestors had settled in Ireland following the defeat of O'Neil of Tyronne in 1611, but political and religious upheaval in the early 18th century subjected them to unbearable suppression.1 Their migration to the New World and subsequent push to the frontier was inspired by a desperate longing for freedom. Many were unable to pay for their passage and bound themselves as indentured servants in the colonies, heading for the mountains to establish their own homes as soon as their terms were served.1 A 1766 letter from a Mr. Sitlington in the Greenbrier region to his brother in Ireland powerfully captures their motivation: "I live on a branch of the Mississippi Waters... but have been long in a dangerous situation from the incersions of the savages... yet were I in Ireland... I would bind myself and them before I would stay to be so oppressed".1
Following this initial wave of Scotch-Irish farmers and hunters, a new group of German immigrants began to arrive. Unlike the first pioneers, they brought with them a variety of specialized manual crafts that were crucial for community development. The arrival of millwrights, cobblers, blacksmiths, and other craftsmen helped raise the standard of living on the frontier. German family names such as Lightner, Harper, Yeager, Arbogast, Herold, and Siple became prominent in the records of this period.1
A Generation of Conflict
The period from roughly 1755 to the 1780s was defined by brutal and sustained conflict. The tensions were not simply a local matter between settlers and natives but were exacerbated by larger imperial struggles. The Albany Treaty of 1722 had recognized the land "lying upon Western waters" as Indian territory, but the growing stream of settlers flagrantly violated this agreement.1 The French, intent on dislodging the English foothold west of the mountains, fanned the resulting unrest into bitter hatred. Later, during the American Revolution, British agents armed and incited tribes to renew their attacks upon the pioneer communities.1
The documents chronicle a series of devastating raids. In August 1755, just one month after General Braddock's catastrophic defeat, a war party struck at the mouth of Knapps Creek, killing twelve people and taking eight prisoners.1 In September of the following year, another invasion of the Greenbrier territory resulted in twelve persons killed and thirty-five taken captive. During a pursuit by a party of men from Rockbridge and Bath counties, a warrior, in an effort to speed the band's retreat, took an infant from its mother and dashed its brains against a tree. The personal trauma of this period is captured in the story of Joseph Mayse, a thirteen-year-old boy captured in this raid. Thrown from a horse into a patch of nettles, he was abandoned by his captors as they fled their pursuers. Young Mayse was rescued and survived to fight at Point Pleasant, later serving as a county magistrate for over forty years.1
In the absence of protection from the colonial government, whose forts were located east of the mountains, the settlers depended on a network of private blockhouses and forts of their own construction. These included Fort Greenbrier (built on the site of the present-day Marlinton courthouse), Fort Warwick on Deer Creek, Fort Buckley at Mill Point, Fort Drennen near Edray, and Fort Cloverlick. These sturdy cabins, equipped with loopholes for defense, served as vital strongholds during attacks, headquarters for scouts, and later as recruiting centers for the forces that fought in the Revolution.1
The Battle of Point Pleasant (1774)
The culmination of these years of frontier warfare came on October 10, 1774, at the Battle of Point Pleasant. Described as both the "last colonial pitched battle on Virginia soil" and a "preliminary battle for American independence," this engagement pitted a Virginian army under General Andrew Lewis against a large force of Ohio Indians led by the renowned Shawnee chief, Cornstalk.1 The battle raged furiously throughout the day with neither side gaining an advantage.1
A company of thirty-seven men raised from the vicinity of what is now Pocahontas County, commanded by Captain John Stuart, played a decisive role in the outcome. As nightfall approached, General Lewis, fearing a massacre, devised a flanking maneuver.
He dispatched three of his most renowned companies—those of Captain George Mathews, Captain Evan Shelby, and Captain John Stuart—to move up a creek and attack the Indian army from the rear. This surprise assault broke the stalemate and caused the Indian forces to retreat, securing a crucial victory for the Virginians.1 The men from the Greenbrier settlements, including Charles Kinnison, William Clendenin, and Thomas Ferguson who were wounded in the fighting, were credited with helping to deliver the "knock out blow".1 This battle significantly weakened the power of the Ohio tribes and helped secure the frontier during the ensuing Revolutionary War.
Part III: Forging an Identity: County Formation and Antebellum Life (1821-1860)
Following the turbulent frontier period, the communities of the Upper Greenbrier Valley began to consolidate and develop a distinct regional identity. This era saw the formal establishment of a new county, the transition from a subsistence economy to a more commercial one, and the growth of a prosperous, if paradoxical, antebellum society.
Political Formation
As the population grew, the settlers of the Upper Greenbrier came to see themselves as a united group with common interests, distinct from the distant seats of justice in Franklin, Beverly, and Lewisburg.1 This sentiment was officially recognized in March 1821, when the General Assembly of Virginia passed an act to create a new county from parts of Bath, Pendleton, and Randolph counties. The new political entity was to be named either Allegheny or Pocahontas.
Through a clerical error, the names were reversed, and the county lying atop the Allegheny Mountains received the name of the historical Indian princess.1 Initially comprising 760 square miles, its area was increased to the present 904 square miles after a boundary change in 1824.1 Huntersville, first settled by William Sharp, quickly became the county seat and the center of commercial and social activities.1
The Antebellum Economy and Society
The simple pioneer economy, based on the barter of furs, meat, and ginseng for salt and other necessities brought from the east, gradually evolved.1 The arrival of German craftsmen with their specialized skills was a key catalyst for this change. Michael Daugherty and Peter Lightner built grist mills, tanneries were established for local leather production, and skilled gunsmiths like Evick and Nathan Burgess produced high-quality rifles.1 John Bradshaw, a renowned Indian spy, established a trading post at his home in Huntersville, which became a vital commercial hub where hunters and farmers could trade their goods for necessities brought over the mountains on pack horses by merchants like John Harness of Staunton.1
The period from 1840 to 1860 was the most prosperous the Greenbrier Valley had ever known. A study of wills probated during this era reveals that residents had accumulated "comparatively large fortunes in livestock and cash".1 The rich blue grass pastures of the county produced high-quality horses and cattle that found a ready market in eastern trading centers.1
The population remained almost exclusively of Scotch-Irish, English, and German descent. There was a constant westward migration, with so many local families—including the McNeels, Beards, Callisons, and Poages—moving to a single county in Missouri that it became known as "Little Virginia".1 An attempt to establish a Dutch settlement on the Williams River in the 1840s, led by Rev. William Schimmerhorn, ultimately failed as the community was poorly prepared for the rigors of frontier farm life. Most returned east or moved further west, though a few families remained, including the Stultings, who were the grandparents of the author Pearl Buck.1
The Institution of Slavery
This antebellum prosperity was built, in part, on the institution of chattel slavery. While Pocahontas County's mountainous geography and pattern of small-scale family farms precluded the development of a large-scale plantation economy like that of Tidewater Virginia, slavery was an integral part of life for the wealthier members of the community. These families frequently owned as many as eight or ten enslaved individuals, who were considered valuable assets valued at $500 to $1,200 each, depending on their age and condition.1
The available records suggest a complex and paradoxical relationship with the institution. Enslaved people were reportedly "well treated," and there are documented instances of manumission as a reward for faithful service. One widely known example was Jacob Warwick's freeing of a man known as "Old Ben," to whom he also gave a small plot of land.1 This hints at a version of slavery that may have been less rigid than in the lowland South.
Furthermore, a "rising sympathy for emancipation" was evident in the county, with several instances recorded in which heirs of wealthy estates refused to accept enslaved people as part of their inheritances.1 This moral ambiguity within a society of fiercely independent people, many of whom had themselves fled oppression, created deep-seated tensions that would contribute to the bitter divisions that erupted with the coming of the Civil War.
Part IV: A House Divided: The Civil War in Pocahontas County (1861-1865)
The American Civil War was not a distant conflict for the people of Pocahontas County; it was an intimate and brutal civil war that tore the community apart. Situated in the buffer zone between North and South, the county became a "mingling frontier of feeling," where the war was fought not only by armies but by neighbors and even within families. The conflict resulted in a complete societal collapse, destroying the prosperous antebellum order and leaving a legacy of devastation and bitterness that would last for generations.
A Frontier of Feeling
The war caused a profound and bitter division of loyalties. "Families who had helped each other build homes in the new country divided bitterly in support of the two causes," and in many cases, the division was internal, with sons going off to join opposing forces.1
The county's entry into the war was marked by a moment of communal pride and patriotic fervor. On the morning of May 18, 1861, the "Pocahontas Rescuers," a local militia company, marched out of Huntersville on their way to Philippi for what would become the first land battle of the war. The entire village turned out to kneel in prayer as the Reverend Flaherty blessed the departing soldiers.1 Commanded by Captain D. A. Stofer, their initial advance became known as the "Tin Cup Campaign" for its rustic self-sufficiency; the men supplied their own firearms, were provided with tin cups, and lived off the land, with the entire multi-week campaign costing the county just $68.68.1
After being routed at Philippi, the company was reorganized as Company I, 25th Virginia Infantry. In this capacity, the men of Pocahontas fought in some of the most significant battles in the eastern theater, including Second Manassas, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and the Wilderness. At the Battle of the Wilderness, the entire 25th Virginia was captured. The survivors of Company I, by then reduced to just 17 men, were sent to the notorious prison camp at Elmira, New York. Six more died in captivity. In the end, only eleven men came home as survivors of the original Pocahontas company.1
Table 2: Muster Roll of the Pocahontas Rescuers (Original Company)
Source: 1
The War on the Home Front: Atrocity and Guerrilla Warfare
Much of the destruction in Pocahontas County was caused not by the regular armies but by "countless bands of irregular guerilles" who terrorized the countryside, using the war as a pretext for looting, burning, and murdering.1 The conflict devolved into personal vendettas and score-settling. January 1862 was a month of particular atrocities.
A mob took an enslaved man belonging to John W. Warwick from the Huntersville jail and hanged him. The Reverend Henry Arbogast and Eli Buzzard, both harmless civilians, were taken from their homes and shot to death while being transported for an alleged "trial" as spies. Timothy Alderman of Douthard's Creek was taken from his home and killed in the woods by a party of neighbors posing as Confederate soldiers, who accused him of supplying information to Federal troops.1
Major Military Campaigns
The regular armies also brought devastation. A Union force, the Fourth Separate Brigade under General Roberts, was created to suppress Confederate "bushwhackers" but swept through the region with a "ruthlessness equal to that of the mobs against whom they were sent." Families with men in the Southern forces were subjected to brutal treatment, even when other sons from the same family were serving with distinction in the Union army.1 Roberts' successor, General William Woods Averill, led his half-starved troops on a raid across the Little Levels that culminated in the Battle of Droop Mountain. The plight of his soldiers was pitiful; in one instance, an officer shot one of his own men for refusing to return a piece of stolen bacon to a housewife.1
Two years earlier, Confederate General Robert E. Lee had suffered an ignoble defeat in the county during the Cheat Mountain engagement. Attempting a surprise night raid, the ordinarily cautious general failed to account for the nearly impenetrable spruce jungle covering the mountain. His half-trained soldiers from the lowland cotton and tobacco country became hopelessly bewildered and stampeded in the darkness.1 As the war surged back and forth, numerous points throughout the county—including Huntersville, Marlin's Bottom, Millpoint, and Top Allegheny—were blasted by gunfire.1
The Aftermath
Peace in 1865 revealed a "tattered and desolate countryside." The prosperous farm country of the antebellum era was gone. Huntersville was a "blackened skeleton." Roads had been washed out by rain and cut by heavy artillery wheels for five years without repair. Men returned to find their fields overgrown and their livestock long since vanished.1
The social wounds were even deeper. The bitterness of the conflict lingered, and neighbors who had fought on opposite sides could not easily reconcile. "The color of a man's trousers was a point of dangerous controversy," and trade in blue woolens was unprofitable in lower Pocahontas.1 In the immediate post-war period, former Confederates were deprived of their rights of citizenship. Captain Stofer of the Pocahontas Rescuers took the loyalty oath to resume his law practice but was indicted for perjury; his case was dragged through the courts until the rights of southern sympathizers were restored by the new state government in 1870.1
This societal collapse, however, paradoxically paved the way for the county's modernization. Soldiers returning from campaigns across the country had seen "their first mowers, reapers, kerosene lights and other inovations".1 The war created a vacuum, shattering the old agrarian economy and exposing the population to industrial technology, creating a ripe environment for the external forces of capital and the railroad to enter and completely remake the county in a new, industrial image.
Part V: The Engine of Change: Railroads, Industry, and the Modern Era (1890-1901)
The last decade of the 19th century ushered in an era of transformative change for Pocahontas County, driven by the arrival of the railroad. This single development shattered the county's long-standing isolation, unlocked its vast natural resources for industrial exploitation, and fundamentally reordered its political and economic geography. While this period brought modernization and new opportunities, it also integrated the self-sufficient Appalachian county into a national industrial economy, a process that resembled a form of internal colonialism where local resources were extracted primarily for the benefit of external interests.
The Catalyst: Colonel John T. McGraw and the Railroad
The agent of this change was Colonel John T. McGraw of Grafton. In December 1890, during the "winter of the deep snow," McGraw visited the county and recognized its untapped potential. He purchased the farms known as "Marlins Bottom" with the express purpose of creating a new town site and then worked tirelessly to interest capitalists in building a railroad into the remote region.1
His efforts were rewarded with the construction of the Greenbrier Railway, which was completed to the new town of Marlinton in 1901. Soon after, the Coal and Iron Railway was built to connect with it at Durbin. In the span of just two years, Pocahontas County was transformed from one of the few counties in West Virginia without a railroad to the one with the greatest railway mileage in the state.1
The Rise of Marlinton and the Decline of Huntersville
The arrival of the railroad signaled a seismic shift in the county's center of power. Marlinton, strategically located on the new railway, experienced explosive growth. An election was held in the fall of 1891 to move the county seat from historic Huntersville to the nascent town of Marlinton.1 The town was officially incorporated in April 1900, and the first train arrived later that year.1
This rapid development is illustrated by a quick succession of "firsts" that cemented Marlinton's new primacy. The county's first newspaper, the Pocahontas Times, moved from Huntersville to Marlinton in 1892. The first telephone line was completed to the town in August 1899. The Bank of Marlinton, the county's first, opened in 1899, followed by the Pocahontas Bank in the same year.1
Table 3: Timeline of Marlinton's Foundational Development (1890-1901)
Exploitation of Natural Resources
The railroad unlocked the county's immense natural wealth for industrial-scale exploitation. A massive timber boom began, with the St. Lawrence Boom and Manufacturing Company floating a quarter of a billion feet of white pine down the Greenbrier River. The rafting of valuable walnut and cherry logs also became a major industry, requiring skilled pilots to navigate the swift, rock-strewn river with rafts containing up to 50,000 feet of lumber.1
In the 1890s, vast deposits of high-quality white, brown, and beautiful green marble were discovered in a formation known as Marble Mountain, which extended into neighboring Randolph County.1 This discovery sparked the interest of outside capitalists. Initially, specialists reported that the marble was not of good quality, a claim local citizens suspected was a tactic to purchase the resource cheaply. This experience fostered a local anxiety about economic exploitation, and a desire for local control over development to prevent "the county's resources and money" from being taken "to some distant city".1
Life in the New Era
The Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike, a key artery through the county, became a bustling thoroughfare. Famous taverns like Traveler's Repose hosted a colorful mix of travelers, including prominent figures such as Henry Clay and the engineer Claudius Crozet, a scene immortalized in the poems of local writer Louise McNeill.1
Despite the profound economic changes brought by industrialization, the county's population characteristics remained largely unchanged from 1860. The people were nearly all descendants of the original Scotch-Irish, English, and German settlers. The lack of heavy transport for coal, the primary driver of industrial immigration elsewhere in Appalachia, prevented the "conglomeration of cheap labor and mixed races" from penetrating the county's mountain barriers. This preserved a degree of cultural homogeneity and what observers described as the "serenity of Pocahontas and its people".1
Conclusion: An Enduring Legacy
The history of Pocahontas County is a powerful narrative of human resilience forged in a mountain crucible. Its story is defined by a continuous and often violent cycle of isolation and integration, conflict and rebuilding. From the deep time of its aboriginal inhabitants, who established sophisticated societies and transportation networks in its valleys, to the brutal birth of the frontier, where Scotch-Irish and German settlers fought for a foothold, the county's character has been shaped by its formidable landscape.
The fratricidal conflict of the Civil War represents the most profound trauma in the county's history, a period of societal unraveling that left deep physical and emotional scars. Yet, this very devastation paradoxically set the stage for the transformative shock of industrialization. The arrival of the railroad in the 1890s shattered the county's isolation, remade its economy, and shifted its center of power, integrating it fully into the fabric of a new state and a "more close-knit nation".1
The county's journey was neither smooth nor painless. The "serenity" observed in the 20th century was a hard-won peace, built upon a foundation of immense hardship and profound historical change.1 The legacy of the hardy pioneers who buried their own children, the divided loyalties that pitted neighbor against neighbor, and the boom-and-bust cycle of resource extraction have all contributed to the unique and enduring character of Pocahontas County, a place forever defined by the mountains that both sheltered and challenged its people.
Works cited
General History.pdf
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