The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1876-07-06

lfSlnlA COnVenLlOH I'D JuiS, 100 ch-
tiled IAN ordinance Tor regulating the
,lectIon oil delegates and ascertaining
heir allowances, and also for regulating
he election of committeeman in. the
several counties and corporations within
his colony, and for other purposes here
in mentioned" provides that this fact
should not prevent them from sharing In
Young Zane did not linger. long, but
home to make the necessary
for final settlementin his
home. In company with his
brothers Jonathan and Silas and one
j ohm Caldwell, he returned in the sum-
mer of 1772, when clearing
was made by them at the
mouth of Wheeling creek. These were
the original settlers Of Wheeling, and
they formed the nucleus oil community
which shortly afterwards was composed
principally Of the Wetzels, McCollochs,
Bradys, Biggses, Poes and Sheppards,
which had rapidly gathered together.
In the beginning of the year INA the
tranquility which had prevailed from the
year l765 down to the first named year
by virtue OF the treaty entered into BY
Col. Bosquet before mentioned, was now
interrupted. This was occasioned by
the cruel massacre. at Yellow Greek OF
the family of Logan, chief OF the
Mingo tribe, who had been uniformly
friendly to the whites prior TO the period
of this unjustiaable outrage. Some time
after this bloody alliance was
entered into betweenG the British and
Indians, which inaugurated protracted
border warfare. The settlers heresbouts
anticipating tie results which would soon
follow, determined as far as possible to
make themselves secure. And so in the
spring of liza the fort was erected by
the settlers, surveyors and land jobbers,
and when completed it was named "Fort
Fincastle" IN honor of Lord Dunmore
then Governor of Virginia, whose second
title was Viscount Fincastle. But owing
to the difficulties brewing at this time
between the mother country and the
Colonies, the name of Dunmore in l776
was not so highly honored as it had been
in IVA, so in that year the name
of the Fort was changed from Fin.
cas,le to Henry" in honor of
Patrick Henry, Governor of Virginia.
The first mention we find made OF this
Fort IN the proceedings of the Virginia
Convention is OH the 25th day of July,
1875, when in accordance with q report
of committee which had been appointed
few days previously, resolution was
adopted ordering that twenty-men with
all convenient speed should be stationed
at Fort Fincastle, at the mouth of
Wheeling creek. In 1776 the Convention
ordered the garrison to be increased to fifty
men, but is it doubtful whether the or
der was ever complied with. 1t was
situated on high bank or bluff of the
river Immediately in the rear of the
buildings on the west side OF Main street,
between the corner of Eleventh Tor old
Union) and the house now occupied by
DR.. Wingerter rs a dwelling, Former
ly known as the Knox mansion,)
and was in shape paralielo-
rram with wooden towers at each corner
pierced for maskets and surrounded by
pickets from twelve to fifteen feet in
height with large solid wooden gate
opening to the eastward. At the foot OF
The bluff on which it was situated and
accessible from the fort was never fail
ing spring of bubbling water.
To the east of the Fort and perhaps
not distant from it more than eighty or
one hundred yards stood the residence OF
Col. Ebenezer Zane situated on a COM
nanding elevation which at the first siege
Of ForlHenry, in the year TIT, was de-
stroyed by the savages, but was afterwards
rebuilt by him, and in the fall of 1882,
when the second siege of the Fort occur.
red he remained in his dwelling, de-
lending it successfully against the
stubborn and repeated attacks of the In
Iians during that memorable siege. The
story of these sieges have so often been
told, we will not spend our limited time
IN describing them.
Two block houses were also erected at
he mouth of the creek, but the date OF
their erection not having been satislac-
torily asccrtained by me. refrain from
fixing it. They were situated, one on
either side of the creek. About 1918 or
1920. the one on the south side of the
creek was destroyed by fire. A portion
,f the one situated on the north side re-
NAMED until within few years compar-
ltively sound, when it was demolished
by the steady strides of the spirit OF
The foremost man in OHIO county
Turing the Revolutionary era was Col.
David Shepherd, native of Berkeley
county, Virginia now Jefferson), who
lived near the Potomac. During the
year III, he was County Lieutenant,
and WAS in actual command of the troops
-aised in Ohio county during the fight
ng period. At the time OF the attack on
he tort when it was besieged by the r.
lians in III, Ohio county was in the de-
oartment commanded BY Brigadier-Gen.
,ral Thomas Hand, who was an officer in
he Continental army, with headquar-
.ers at Fort Pitt. Silas Zane, brother
II Colonel Ebenezer Zane's, to whom we
nave already referred rs being one
If the orig inal settlers of Wheel
ng, held the position of q Cap
ain in the Virginia military service
turing the War Of the Revolution, but
Ebenezer Zane was never an officer in
war times, but subsequently was ap.
pointed Colonel of Militia, although he
bore the title Of Lieutenant. But as an
able and experienced scout and ranger,
and one who was thoroughly conversant
with the habits Of the red men, he was
,qualed by by few and excelled by none.
The Swearingen, Chapline and Hedges
families, so closely identified with the
Early history of Wheeling, and who con-
,ributed in no small degree towards its
development and growth, and whose in.
iueuce was wide and extended, emigrated
% this place from Berkeley county, while
he Mitchells, Gillespies and McCollochs,
families of equal note with those
,;resdy named. emigrsted, the lat.
,er two from Hampshire county and the
former from Pennsylvania. Colonel John
McColloch the father of Major Samuel
McColloch was the first sheriff of Ohio
county.
Ohio county was formed out of por-
ion of the State called the District OF