From William T. Price's Historical Sketches of Pocahontas Co, WV (reprinted by McClain Publishing, Parsons, WV, 1963; originally published by Price Brothers, Marlinton, WV, 1901):
"The compiler of these memorials, deeply impressed that something should be attempted to perpetuate the memory of these persons - Jacob Warwick and Mary Vance, his wife - has availed himself of such facilities as have been in reach. He is largely indebted to John Warwick, Esq., Judge James W. Warwick, and Mrs. Elizabeth McLaughlin for the information from which these sketches were compiled. All these persons have since died, at a very advanced age. This article first appeared in the Southern Historical Magazine for August, 1892. Mrs. McLaughlin, a daughter of William Sharp, lived with Mrs. Warwick at intervals, as a friend and visitor of the family, and for whom Mrs. Warwick manifested special attachment.
The father of Jacob Warwick came to Augusta County from Williamsburg, VA during colonial times, between 1740-50. He was a Lieutenant in the service of the British Crown, and was employed in surveying and locating land grants in Pocahontas County, which included territory of which States have since been formed.
Lieutenant Warwick located and occupied the Dunmore property for his own use. He married Elizabeth Dunlap, near Middlebrook. He was one of the English gentry whose families settled in Virginia in consequence of political reverses in England, and whose history is so graphically given in Thackeray's Virginians.
After operating extensively in lands, and securing the Dunmore property in his own name, Lieutenant Warwick concluded to visit England. He never returned, and being heard of no more, he was given up for dead. In the meanwhile, Mrs. Warwick settled on the Dunmore property, had it secured by deed to Jacob and afterwards married Robert Sitlington, but remained at Dunmore a number of years after her second marriage. Jacob Warwick seemed to have remembered little of his own father, and always cherished the highest filial regard for Mr. Sitlington. When Jacob attained his majority, Mr. Sitlington moved to his own property near old Millboro, the estate now occupied by Mrs. Dickenson, daughter of the late Andrew Sitlington. Upon her decease, Mrs. Sitlington left a bequest of one thousand dollars to Windy Cove Church the annual interest of which was to be paid to the pastor of that congregation. For a long while it was managed by the Messrs Sloan. In the hands of Stephen Porter it was finally lost through financial failure.
Upon reaching legal age and coming into possession of his estate, Jacob Warwick was married and settled at Dunmore. Just here let it be stated, that when it was decided that Lieutenant Warwick was dead, the grandfather of David Bell, of Fisherville, VA, was appointed guardian of Jacob Warwick. William and James Bell were the sons of this guardian, and James Bell was the father of William A. Bell and David Bell, well remembered citizens of Augusta County.
Dunmore was Mr. Warwick's first home after his marriage. His wife was Miss Vance, daughter of Colonel John Vance of North Carolina. He died on Back Creek, at Mountain Grove, VA. Colonel Vance's family moved to the vicinity of Vanceburg, KY, except Samuel Vance, Mrs. Warwick and Mrs. Hamilton. The last named was the mother of Rachel Terrel, of the Warm Springs, and John Hamilton, Esq., of Bath County. Governor Vance, of Ohio, and Senator Zeb Vance of North Carolina are of the same family connection. The Vances, originally, from Opecquon, near Winchester, VA.
In business trips to Richmond, to sell horses or cattle, Mr. Warwick formed the acquaintance of Daniel Warwick, a commission merchant, who attended to business for Mr. Warwick, and thus became mutually interested and were able to trace a common ancestry.
Mr. Warwick remained at Dunmore a number of years. His children were all born there. He was industriously and successfully occupied in accumulating lands, and managing large herds of cattle and droves of horses. His possessions on Jackson's River were purchased from a certain Alexander Hall, of North Carolina. Mr. Hall owned from the Byrd place to Warwickton. One of his sons, being charged with horse theft, the penalty being death by hanging, refugeed to Bath County. The elder Hall came to Dunmore to see Mr. Warwick, and proposed to sell this land to provide means to send his refugee son to Kentucky so as to elude arrest. Mr. Warwick had sent out one hundred head of cattle to be wintered in the cane brakes. This herd was taken by Hall as part payment for the Jackson Rover lands. The cattle rated at eight pounds a head (about forty dollars). The Clover Lick lands were rented from the Lewises.
The accounts from Kentucky were so flattering that Mr. Warwick decided to settle there. He actually set out for the purpose of locating and securing a new place for a new home. The persons in advance of the party with which he was going were slain by Indians near Sewall Mountain, and when Mr. Warwick and those with him came up and saw their slain friends, all returned home. Mrs. Warwick thereupon became so unwilling to emigrate from her Pocahontas home, that her husband concluded to exchange his Kentucky possessions with one Alexander Dunlap for a portion of the Clover Lick lands. The Dunlap patent called for four hundred acres of land; the actual survey made six hundred. There was a suit between Lewis and Dunlap about this possession. When matters as to these lands became satisfactorily arranged, Mr. Warwick moved to Clover Lick and lived in a row of cabins. After a few years, he and Mrs. Warwick thought it might be better for their children to live on the Jackson River estate. They moved to Bath, and remained there until the marriage of their son Andrew.
Upon their return to Clover Lick, the log cabins were deemed unfit for occupancy, and arrangements were made to build a spacious mansion. Patrick Bruffey was employed to prepare the material. He began work in Mr. Warwick's absence. Mrs. Warwick instructed Mr. Bruffey to hew the timbers so as to have a hall or passage, as it was then termed. He did so. When Mr. Warwick returned, and found what had been done, he was not pleased with his wife's plans, and had the logs changed accordingly. Mr. Bruffey hewed the logs and dressed the plank, but did not build the chimneys. Mr. Wooddell, near Greenbank, furnished the plank for sixty pounds (nearly three hundred dollars). The nails were forged by hand at the Warm Springs.
Several mounds have been discovered near the Clover Lick. IN searching for the material for the foundation of the new house, the builders gathered some stone from a rock pile. They found human remains, and when Mr. Warwick heard of it he emphatically ordered the stones to be replaced, and told them not to molest anything that looked like a burial place. Greenbrier Ben often spoke of the opening of a grave just in front of the Chapel; and from the superior quality of the articles found with the remains, all were of the opinion it was the tomb of a chief. Mr. Warwick ordered it to be carefully closed, and the relics were not molested.
One of the main objects in having the new house so spacious was that it might be used for preaching services, and there was preaching there more frequently than anywhere else in this region, during a number of years. This historic mansion was finally removed to give place to the handsome residence reared by Dr. Ligon, and which was burned in 1884.
The main route for emigration from Maryland, Pennsylvania, and other points north and northeast, passed by Clover Lick into Kentucky and Ohio. As many as forty or fifty would be entertained over night. This made the Clover Lick one of the most public and widely known places in the whole country. The approach from the east avoided hollows and ravines, keeping along high points and crests of ridges, so as to be more secure from ambuscades and Indian attacks. The original way out from Clover Lick, going east, after crossing the Greenbrier near the mouth of Clover Creek avoided Laurel Run, kept along the high point leading down to the river, and passed close by the McCutcheon residence. Mrs. Warwick had the first road cut out, up the Laurel Run, in order to bring the lumber for the new house from Wooddell's in the Pine Woods, now Greenbank and vicinity. She gave the enterprise her personal attention.
Quite a number of interesting incidents are given by tradition illustrating the character of Mrs. Warwick. While renting Clover Lick, her husband and others were making hay. A shower of rain came up very suddenly and dampened their guns and horse pistols. Late in the afternoon the men fired them off, so as to load them with fresh charges. Someone hearing the report of fire arms in quick succession brought the word to Mrs. Warwick, at Dunmore, that the Indians were fighting the men at the Lick. She at once mounted a large black stallion, put a colored boy on behind, and went at full speed and swam the swollen river in her effort to see what happened. This colored boy is old "Ben," who died at Clover Lick, and is remembered by many of the older citizens.
Upon another occasion, when the Shawnees were returning from one of their raids to the east, forty or fifty of their warriors were sent by Clover Lick with the intention, it is believed, to pillage and burn. A scout from Millboro warned Mr. Warwick of their movements. With about twenty others he waited for them in ambush on the crest of the mountain south of Clover Lick. The fire was very effective, and every man killed or wounded his victim. The Indians in their surprise hastily retreated, and were pursued as far as Elk Water in Randolph County. Upon hearing of the result, Mrs. Warwick at once followed her husband and friends, attended by servants and carrying provisions for them. She met them all at the Big Spring on their return, and the weary hungry party were greatly refreshed by her thoughtful preparation.
She was eminently pious, and was a member of the Windy Cove Presbyterian church. She never felt herself more honored than when ministers would visit her home and preach. The visiting minister would receive a nice horse, or something else as valuable, as a token of appreciation. She was conscientiously rigid in her domestic discipline. Her brother once made this remark: 'Mary, I used to think you were too strict with your family, and you have been blamed for it. I see now you are right. You do not have a child but would knee in the dust to obey you. I let my children have more liberties, and they do not care near so much for me.'
The Reverend Aretas Loomis came from Beverly, for a time, every four weeks, and preached at the Warwick residence. She was highly emotional, and during the services often appeared very happy. As to her personal appearance she was tall and slender, and blue eyed, hair tinged slightly with auburn, and lithe and agile in her carriage. So she was distinguished for symmetry of person, beauty of feature, and force of character, all of which she retained even to an advanced age. She was very benevolent, and her kind deeds were done upon the principle of not telling the left hand what the right might be doing. Persons in her employ would always be overpaid. Polly Brown, whose lot it was to support her blind mother, received two bushels of corn every two weeks, and no one knew where the supply came from at the time. A person named Charley Collins, who was renowned as an athlete, and whose name is given to one of the meadows of Clover Lick, did a great deal of clearing. It was reported that he was but poorly paid, but before Mrs. Warwick was done with him his family was doubly paid by the substantial gifts dispensed with her open hands.
Among her many other generous deeds, it is told how a rather worthless character, disabled by frozen feet, was received into her house, clothed and fed until he could walk. His name was Bosier. This man afterwards died from the effects of a burning tree falling on him, against which he had made a fire, while on his way from Big Spring to Mace's in Mingo flats. George See, and grandson of Mrs. Warwick, heard his cries and came to him. In his efforts to rescue him, he exerted himself so laboriously that he was never well afterwards.
It should be remembered also that Mrs. Warwick, in her old age, gathered the first Sabbath School ever taught in Pocahontas County. In the summer her servants would lift her on her horse, and she would then ride about four miles to a school house where the Josiah Friel cabin stood, now in the possession of Giles Sharp. The exercises would begin about nine o'clock. There was no prayer, no singing; but she would read the Bible, talk a great deal, and give good advice. The scholars would read their Bibles with her. The exercises would close at two in the afternoon. After this continuous session of five hours Mrs. Warwick would be so exhausted as to require assistance to rise and mount her horse. It was her custom to go to William Sharp's, dine and rest a while, and then go home later in the day. To use the language of one of her scholars, the late Mrs. Elizabeth McLaughlin, who died near Huntersville in 1895, aged over ninety years: 'She would give such good advice. If all would do as she told them, how well it might have been. She was the best woman to raise girls I ever saw, if they would take her advice how to act and how to do. She has talked to me for hours, and it was often thrown up to me that old Mrs. Warwick made me proud because I tried to do as she advised me.'
The school was mainly made up of Josiah Brown's family, John Sharp's, William Sharp's, and Jeremiah Friel's. The lamented Methodist preacher, Reverend James E. Moore, once belonged to her Sabbath School, and received from her his earliest religious instructions. By common consent it is agreed that he did more for his church than any two ministers who have ever preached in this region.
Not a great while before her death, during one of Mr. Loomis' ministerial visits, she received the communion. Upon receiving the elements, her emotions became so great that her husband and children, fearing results, carried her to her own room. For four weeks she was helpless from nervous prostration. All her children from Bath and Pocahontas were sent for. She died at the ripe age of eighty years, in 1823, at Clover Lick, and there she was buried. There were no services of any kind in connection with her burial.
The purpose of these sketches is already manifest to the discerning reader - to rescue, if possible, from total oblivion the name and services of an obscure but eminently worthy person. Jacob Warwick was one of the persons who made permanent settlements in what is now Pocahontas and Bath Counties Virginia and West Virginia.
It has already been stated that he commenced his business life at Dunmore; purchased Clover Lick, where he resided for a time; then moved to his immense possessions on Jacksons River, then returned to Clover Lick. In addition to these estates he acquired some equally as valuable. He endowed his seven children with ample legacies, and besides bequeathed a competency to ten or fifteen grandchildren.
Mr. Warwick was an alert and successful Indian fighter, and had a series of conflicts, narrowly escaping with his life on several occasions; yet he was never sure of killing but one Indian. Parties now living remember seeing a tree on the lands of John Warwick, near Greenbank, where Jacob Warwick killed that Indian in single combat. It always grieved him that he had certainly sent one soul into eternity under such circumstances.
Owing to his accurate knowledge of the mountain regions far and near, his services were in frequent demand by land agents and governmental surveyors. He and others went to Randolph County as an escort for a land commission in the service of the colony. It was during the period when Killbuck scouted the mountains with his party of Shawnees and Mingoes. Colonel John Stuart, of Greenbrier, says: 'Of all the Indians, the Shawnees were most bloody and terrible, holding all other men - Indians as well as whites - in contempt as warriors in comparison with themselves. This opinion made them more fierce and restless than any other savages, and they boasted that they had killed ten times as many white men as any other tribe. They were a well-formed, ingenious, active people; were assuming and imperious in the presence of others not of their nation, and sometimes very cruel. It was chiefly the Shawnees that cut off the British under General Braddock in 1755 - only nineteen years before the Battle of Point Pleasant - when the General himself and Sir Peter Hackett, the second in command, were both slain, and the mere remnant only of the whole army escaped. They too defeated Major Grant and the Scots Highlanders at Fort Pitt, in 1758, where the whole of the troops were killed or taken prisoners.'
At the time Mr. Warwick went over to Randolph with the commissioner, the season had been inclement, and it was believed the Indians would not be abroad. Indeed, such was the sense of security the party did not think it worthwhile to arm themselves on setting out on their business. While in the lower valley about Huttonsville, however, it was reported by one Thomas Lacky, a person of somewhat questionable veracity, that he had seen fresh Indian signs. As Mr. Warwick and his party were unarmed, six citizens and friends of the escort and proposed to go with them to the place where Lacky had seen the Indian trail. Upon coming near the place, Andrew Sitlington's horse showed fright, thereupon his rider saw Indians, but for a moment could not speak. This attracted Mr. Warwick's attention, and looking in the same direction he saw the Shawnees creeping along to find a suitable place to cut them off. He gave the alarm - 'Indians! Indians!' Finding themselves discovered, the warriors fired hastily, wounding one of the party and Mr. Warwick's horse. The horse sank to the ground as if dead, but as Mr. Warwick was in the act of throwing off his cloak for flight, the horse rose and darted off at the top of his speed, and carried his rider safely home to Dunmore before night. Those that were mounted all escaped - Jacob Warwick, James McClain, Thomas Cartmill, and Andrew Sitlington. Of those on foot, John Crouch, John Hulder, and Thomas Lacky escaped. The following were killed: John McClain, James Ralston, and John Nelson. When these were attacked they were near the mouth of Windy Run. One man was killed running across the bottom. Three of the men escaped by climbing the bank where they were; two others, in looking for an easier place to get up the bank, were overtaken, killed and scalped. Not very far from this place is the Laurel thicket where Colonel Washington was killed in 1861.
The horse was found to be wounded in the thigh. The ball was extracted, and the noble animal lived long and became very valuable for useful endurance. Most of the way home the day he was wounded, the horse carried two persons a distance of thirty miles.
Upon a subsequent occasion, Mr. Warwick went to Randolph County. It was night when he returned. His horse shied at something in the road, which he at one recognized as the fresh husks of roasting ears. The presence of Indians was at once suspected, and upon approaching the house cautiously it was found that the row of cabins were burned and the premises ransacked. In their glee, the Indians had caught the chickens, picked al their feathers off, and let them go. The place had been left in the care of a colored man named Sam and Greenbrier Ben, aged ten or twelve years. Sam made good his escape to the woods, but Ben hid in a hemp patch so near the cabin that when it was burned he could hardly keep still his buckskin breeches were so hot. From his retreat, Ben saw the Indians pick the chickens, leaving their tails and topknots, and laugh at their grotesque appearance. He saw them run the wagon into the fire, after the cabin near the spring had become a smouldering heap of coals. This wagon was the first that ever crossed the Alleghenies. It was brought from Mountain Grove, up Little Back Creek, about three miles above where the Huntersville road first crosses the stream going east; and then across Knapp's spur, along to Harper's Mill; and then straight across to Thorny Creek, through the Lightner place, past Bethel Church, to the Sanders place on Thorny Creek; thence up the ridge to the top, and then along down to the Knapp place on the Greenbrier River; thence to Clover Lick.
The most memorable event of his life, however, was his being in the expedition to Point Pleasant, under General Andrew Lewis. The march from Lewisburg to Point Pleasant - one hundred and sixty miles - took nineteen days. It is most probable he was in the company commanded by Captain Mathews. This conflict with the Indians was the most decisive that had yet occurred. It was fought on Monday morning, October 10, 1774.
It is a matter of regret that the recorded history of the battle does not accord justice to the memory of a very deserving person. It is conceded by all, so far as there is any record, that up to the time where there occurred a lull in the battle the advantage was with the Indians. The question arises, why should a warrior as skillful as Cornstalk call a halt in the full tide of success, and suddenly cease firing and pressing upon a receding foe, with victory just in his grasp?
Had it not been for this, no troops could have been safely detached for a flank movement. Flank movements are only a good policy for those who are pressing the enemy, and not for the retreating party. When Cornstalk ceased to press, the victory was decided in favor of the Virginians, and lost to him. Had the battle been lost to our people and the army sacrificed, unspeakable disasters would have befallen all settlements west of the Blue Ridge mountains; the revolution would have been deferred for al time, possibly, and the whole history of America far different from what it has been.
How is that lull in the battle to be accounted for, which resulted in a victory to the Virginians? Dr. Foote says, in his account, which is one of the most minute and extended of all in reach of the writer, that 'towards evening, Lewis seeing no signs of retreat or cessation of battle, dispatched Captains Shelby, Mathews, and Stewart, at their request, to attack the enemy in their rear. Going up the Kanawha, under the cover of the banks of Crooked Creek, they got to the rear of the Indians unobserved, and made a rapid attack. Alarmed by this unlooked for assault, and thinking the reinforcements of Colonel Christian were approaching, before whose arrival they had striven to end the battle, the savages became dispirited, gave way, and by sunset had recrossed the Ohio. Colonel Christian entered the camp about midnight, and found all in readiness for a renewed attack.'
Colonel Kercheval, who claims to have derived his information from Joseph Mayse and Andrew Reed, of Bath County, stated on their authority 'that about two o'clock in the afternoon Colonel Christian arrived in the field with about five hundred men and the battle was still raging. The reinforcements decided the issue almost immediately. The Indians fell back about two miles, but such was their persevering spirit, though fairly beaten, the contest was not closed until the setting of the sun, when they relinquished the field.'
There were persons recently living in Bath, and the writer conversed with one (September 1873), almost in speaking distance of the residence where Joseph Mayse lived and died, and who are certain that Mr. Mayse gave the credit of that cessation in battle and falling back two miles on the part of the Indians, to Jacob Warwick and the persons with him. According to Judge Warwick's statement - and the writer's impression is that Mr. Mayse's statement was emphatically confirmed by Major Charles Cameron, a lieutenant in the battle - Mr. Mayse often repeated the fact that Jacob Warwick, an obscure private in the ranks, was detailed with a number of others, perhaps fifty or sixty in all, to bring in a supply of meat, that rations might be supplied for a forced march to the Indian towns, as Governor Dunmore had so treacherously given orders. These persons crossed the Kanawha about daybreak, and while at work on the hunting grounds and slaughter pens, they heard the firing beyond the limits of the camp, and so far up the Ohio they supposed it to be a salute to Governor Dunmore, who was expected at any time by the soldiers generally. But the firing continued too long for this, it was surmised the troops were putting their arms in order for the contemplated march over the Ohio. Finally they suspected it was a battle. Mr. Warwick was one of the first to ascertain this to be so, and immediately rallied the butchers and hunters in order to return to camp and join the battle. This was noticed by the enemy, and Cornstalk was of the opinion that Colonel Christian was at hand. He ceased in the reach of victory, and took measures to withdraw from the field, unobserved by our exhausted troops. For nearly two hours they had been falling back, and when the flank movement was made to communicate with the hunters, supposed it to be Colonel Christian's advance to join them. What fighting occurred afterwards was with the rear guard of Cornstalk's retreating army of demoralized braves.
Authentic tradition preserves some incidents that illustrate some of Major Warwick's personal traits. Soon after the affair at Point Pleasant, he went among the Shawnees on a trading excursion to secure skins and furs. On the last excursion of this kind he traveled as far as Fort Pitt, where he found little Gilmore, a boy who had been carried a captive from Kerrs Creek, Rockbridge, VA. To put him out of the reach of the mischievous boys, his master had lashed him to a board and laid him on the roof of a log cabin. Mr. Warwick tried to ransom the captive, but too much was asked by the Indian foster parent, and so he planned to rescue the boy and bring him home to his surviving friends in the Virginia valley. He went with the Indians on a hunting expedition, and while moving from place to place he would frequently carry the Indian children behind him on his horse, and by turns he would carry the Gilmore boy too. Sometimes he would fall behind the party, first with an Indian boy and then with the white one, but still come up in time. Finally the Indians placed so much confidence in the trader as to be off their guard, whereupon he withdrew from the party with the captive and started for the settlements, and before the Indians became suspicious of his intentions, his swift horse had carried them safely beyond their reach. After an arduous journey he arrived home in safety and restored the captive to his friends.
Mr. Warwick was once at a house raising in the vicinity of Clover Lick. A young man made himself unpleasantly conspicuous boasting of his fleetness of foot. The Major took one of his young friends aside and told him that if he would beat that youngster at a foot race and take some of the conceit out of him he would make him a present. The race came off in the afternoon, and it was won by the young friend. Mr. Warwick was delighted, and told him to come over to the Lick soon as convenient and see what there was for him. When he did so, the Major gave him one of his fine colts.
That youth became a distinguished Methodist minister, Reverend Lorenzo Waugh; traveled in West Virginia, Ohio, and Missouri, and finally went overland to California where he died in 1899 at the advanced age of 95 years. During the greater part of this extended itinerancy he used horses that were the offspring of the horse presented to him by Major Warwick.
In a controversy about land on Little Back Creek in Bath County, a challenge passed between him and Colonel John Baxter. This was about the only serious difficulty he ever had with anyone, but the affair was amicably and honorably settled by mutual friends.
His grandson, the late John Warwick, Esq., remembers the last visit paid to the old home in Pocahontas. He would have Greenbrier Ben, a faithful servant, to mount a large black mule; take his grandson, a lad of four years, in his arms and carry him from Jacksons River to Clover Lick - between thirty-five and forty miles - the same day. The party of three rested at noon in the home of John Bradshaw, the pioneer and founder of Huntersville. Squire Warwick remembered seeing the hands at work upon the courthouse, then in course of erection, and the interest manifested by his venerated grandfather, then more than eighty years of age, is what was going on.
In person Jacob Warwick was tall, stoop shouldered, and exceedingly agile and muscular. His grandson, the late Jacob See, is said to have resembled him more than anyone in personal appearance.
Mrs. Mary V. Warwick was a person of highly refined taste, and took all possible pains to make home attractive. When there was preaching at her house, all present were pressingly invited to remain for dinner. Her table service was really elegant, and a prince might well enjoy her dinners. She had a well supplied library of books in the nicest style of binding, and she made good use of them, too.
Mr. Warwick was jovial in his disposition, and extremely fond of innocent merriment. He delighted much in the society of young people, and even children. His pleasant words and kindly deeds to young people were vividly and affectionately remembered by all who ever knew him.
After the decease of his wife, most of his time he passed at the home of Major Charles Cameron. He died at the breakfast table. When apoplexy came upon him he was merrily twitting Miss Phoebe Woods about her beau, young Mr. Beale. This occurred January 1826 when he was nearing his eighty-third year.
They carried his venerable remains about a mile up the west bank of the Jacksons River, and in a spot reserved for family burial, he was buried. When the writer visited his grave several years since, the place seemed to be in danger of forgetfulness. A locust tree stood near it and marked the place. Since then it has been nicely and substantially enclosed, and the grave marked by a neatly sculptured marble. In that lonely but beautiful valley retreat the strong, busy man has found repose."