Transcript:Haymond, Henry. History of Harrison County, West Virginia/p355

Source

Haymond, Henry. History of Harrison County, West Virginia: from earliest days of northwestern Virginia to the present. (Morgantown, West Virginia: Acme Publishing, 1910).

Overview

William Haymond, Jr. was the son of Major William Haymond. He submitted a series of letters about the life and times of his father and family to his nephew, Luther Haymond. Eight of these letters were included in the source above. This transcript is part of a series of transcripts that provide the text for those letters. The text is presented as accurately as possible and hyperlinks to werelate pages for individuals are provided. This is a work in progress.

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Transcript - Letter No. 2.

p 355 - William Haymond's Letters.
Letter No. 2,

Palatine Hill, Marion County, Va., March 18th, 1842. Luther Haymond,

Sir: — In my first letter I informed you that I had a brother who died at Roger's Fort. On examination an extract from the record of our family I find my recollection was right, although I suppose I had not noticed it for fifty years. Walter, a brother was born in May 1774 and died in November of the same year. I am not able to say where your father was born. He was born in January, 1776, I suppose in the Glades or in Kearn's Fort, perhaps he can tell. Your Aunt Sarah Bond was born in 1778, and sucked when her mother had the small pox. "We then lived in the Fort

I omitted to tell you that in 1782 my father bought 330 acres of land I live on, for which he paid one hundred pounds. He intended to settle on it, and I suppose would have done so, had he not got the sur- veyor's office in Harrison County.

I will now commence my narrative. At Clarksburg where we arrived in the fall of 1784 we stopped at a house nearly opposite James P. Bart- lett's tavern. I have no recollection how long we stayed there; perhaps, but a few days, as my father bought 60 acres of land for sixty pounds, about three-quarters of a mile above town where we moved with Slider and Prince and built a house for an office.

You have heard, I suppose, that my father always kept an open house, we had considerable of company strangers, &c., coming to the office. While here my father purchased Dick, I suppose you remember him, and also a negro girl named Patience. On this place we farmed some with Slider and Prince, but it was but little. Here I laid my bow and arrows aside and used the rifle. We often had Company, Col. Lowther, J. Custard and others shot matches. I was not able to shoot them off hand. I took a rest the others shot off hand. I nearly always shot cutting shots, about 25 or 30 yards was the distance.

Sometime about the year 1787 there was a law passed to make a road from the mouth of the Little Kanawha to some point on Cheat or further East. My father was one of the commissioners. The first part of the road was I believe made from Clarksburg eastward. I was once with the Commissioners as far as Minear's on the Valley River viewing and mak- ing the road. The commissioners then commenced viewing from Clarks- burg to the Ohio River, but would get lost in coming back. They then started with a compass at Clarksburg, and ran a due west course and struck the Ohio River six or eight miles below Marietta. They then marked the road back to Clarksburg keeping the west line for a guide. The road was then cut out. On my father's return from one of these trips he found my mother sick in November or December, 1788. He also came home sick. A few days after my mother died. I can say but little about her as I scarcely had sense to know I had a mother before she was gone. Old Mr. Morgan Morgan has told me that she understood the scriptures better than any other person he ever knew. She, I believe, held to the Church of England. She was buried at the west end of Clarksburg. Two years past when I was at Clarksburg I went to see if I could find any sign of the grave. I hired a man to pale it in, which had been done about 53 years before. She, I believe, was a woman of strong mind and high temper. I had by this time become familiar with a gun and the woods. Killed turkeys and some deer. For some years the Indians had not been very bad or done much mischief. Once in Clarksburg I was at a draft to furnish men to be stationed on the frontier. My father stood draft but got clear. Some little I went to school, but spent much of my time in Clarksburg playing ball &c. But I never could find agreeable company with those high frolicking people, for I never attempted to dance more than two or three times in my life. I believe that in the fall of 1789 my father married again.

I believe in the year 1790 I went with the commissioners to the Ohio River to view the road made. While at Isaac Williams' opposite to the mouth of the Muskingum and Marietta I laid out a town for Mr. Williams, for which he gave me a lot. By the by I neglected to get a deed for it and lost it, though after I moved to the place where I now live, I sent him a plan of the town with my name on the lot with the request that he would make me a deed, but he failed. This shows what a person may lose by neglecting at times to do a little writing.

On our way home we camped on the flat just this side of the lower crossing of Middle Island Creek, built flres to keep off the gnats. I had laid down and fallen asleep when one of the Company came to me and said the Indians were around or near the fire. We moved off a small dis- tance and stayed until near day when we started. I suppose they had heard some animal walking. This was the greatest alarm I ever had before or after, being awakened out of sleep was the reason I suppose.

Yours &c.,

Wm. Haymond.