Person:Thomas Foster (6)

Cabin Creek district lies on both sides of the Kanawha. On the south side of the river it extends from Loudon, below Field's creek, up to Fayette county at Montgomery and includes the waters of the Kanawha. This takes in Paint creek, Cabin creek, Slaughter's creek and Field's creek. On the north side of the Kanawha, it includes Witcher's creek, Kelly's creek and Buffalo fork of Simmon's creek. There is a corner of Rock Camp fork of Bell creek where Nicholas, Fayette and Kanawha join and the line runs from thence to the Kanawha river at the mouth of Simmon's creek at Cannelton; thence down the middle of the river to lower end of Montgomery; and thence to Raleigh county, crossing Paint at the mouth of Laurel branch. The old road came down to Gauley river at the mouth of Twenty-mile and then up Bell creek and thence down Hughe's creek, or Kelly's creek, their heads being near. The first white man who dared to attempt to settle in the Kanawha valley was Walter Kelly. In the early part of the year 1774 he removed his family to the mouth of the stream which has ever since borne his name now within the limits of this district. His settlement was eighty-five miles west of Donnally's fort in Greenbrier, and was at the time the most western English settlement in America. Its destruction by Indians and the tragic end of some members of the family have already been narrated in this volume. The murder of one individual or a dozen families did not deter the sturdy pioneer from his onward march in the conquest of the wilderness, and accordingly, before a year has passed after the destruction of Kelly's settlement, we find Leonard and William Morris both residing almost in sight of the fatal spot. Their settlement is elsewhere noticed. Among those who here found homes and become actual settlers in the next years were John Hansford, Sr., Thomas Foster, Ransom Gatewood, Robert Perry, John Jarrett, John D. Massey, Gallatin G. Hansford, William Johnson, John Wheeler, Shadrach Childers, Peter Likens, Spencer Hill, William Pryor, Barney Green, Thomas Trigg and Shadrach Hariman. The latter was an Englishman, who came to the Kanawha valley and married Susan Pryor; this was, most probably, the first marriage contracted on the banks of the Kanawha. They had to go to Fort Savannah (now Lewisburg) for license. He was killed by a roving band of savages, on the 7th day of March, 1791, on what is now known as Donnally farm, near Charleston. Taken from History of Charleston and Kanawha County West Virginia and Representative Citizens, W.S. Laidley, Richmond Arnold Publishing Co., Chicago, 1911. The formation of Kanawha County was authorized by the Virginia General Assembly on November 14, 1788. It was created from parts of Greenbrier and what was then Montgomery counties, and officially formed on October 5, 1789. Kanawha County was named in honor of the great Kanawha River that runs through the county. The river was named for the Indian tribe that once lived in the area although the spelling of the tribe’s name has varied from Conoys to Conois to Kanawha. From 1789 to 1865, nineteen counties were formed, either in total or in part, from land that was Kanawha County. The original French word for the valley, according to a lead plate found in Point Pleasant, was “Chinodahichetha”. The 1500 block of Virginia Street is considered to be the longest city block in the world. The first brick street was laid in Charleston. -- Early Settlement of Cabin Creek, Kanawha, West Virginia, USA