Buchanan County History Project - Early History Notes

Unfinished Historical Notes by Ed Talbott - 2002:

Native American History:

Human habitation has extended back at least 9000 years and possible as long as 20000 years.  

Many people feel this area was not used as a place for permanent settlement but a vast hunting ground for various tribes – the Shawnee to the North and west and the Cherokee to the south.  The area was rich with game and seasonal settlements may have been created by both sides for the purpose of hunting. 

By 1750, most of the Indian settlements in this region were gone.  Many historians have speculated that a combination of a dramatic drop in population due to diseases introduced by the Europeans as well as fear or uneasiness about the approaching settlements caused the settlements of the Shawnee and Cherokee to be abandoned.  In 1768, the first settlers of Crab Orchard in Tazewell County reported on a battle between Cherokee and Shawnee Indians at Rich Mountain. 

Spanish Visitation:

There has been some speculation that Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto reached as far as Southwest Virginia in his exploration of the waters of the Tennessee River valley – this was 67 years before the English even landed at Jamestown.

Regardless of whether or not De Soto ever reached Virginia or not – his presence in the region had a profound effect on English settlement.  The introduction of European diseases, against which the Native Americans had no natural defense, devastated the sophisticated mound-building Native American cultures that existed prior to 1600.  By 1700, the Native American population of the region had dropped drastically and the large cohesive Nation states had dissolved into splintered tribes that warred amongst themselves as much as they did with the European settlers of the region.

Long Hunters:

The earliest explorers of this area were hunters and trappers called “long hunters”.  They would sometimes live off the land for a year or more before returning to civilization to sell their hides and pelts.  The hunters would normally go into the mountains in parties of anywhere from 2 to 5 members, complete with pack mules on which they brought home their pelts.  They carried their rifles, ammunition and power, a knife or tomahawk, some tobacco and salt and little else.  Their dress normally consisted of wool pants and jacket, buckskin leggings and vest, a beaver skin or otter skin hat. 

These early hunters undoubtedly were the first European explorers of this area and surely passed through what is now Buchanan County many times before the first documented explorations.   These were usually young men lured by adventure, the thrill of hunting and living off the land, and finally for the profits that could be made.  It was not uncommon for a hunter to realize $1700 dollars from a season’s hunt – many times the amount that could be earned in any other job.  These men were the first true “mountain men” of America. 

One local notable long hunter was James Burke, who supposedly found Burke’s Garden in Tazewell County as early as 1748.

Dr. Thomas Walker

Although Daniel Boone gets much of the credit for being the first to explore Southwest Virginia – that honor should go to Dr. Thomas Walker.  Undoubtedly, many Indians, long hunters, trappers, etc. traveled through SW Virginia before 1750, Dr. Thomas Walker was the first person to document his trip in a journal and was the first to attempt making a crude survey of the region.

Born on Jan. 15, 1715, in Williamsburg, Walker followed in his father’s footsteps in becoming a physician.  In 1741, he married Mildred Thornton, cousin of George Washington.  Now Mildred was from a family of some means, and they acquired an 11,000 estate called Castle Hill near Charlottesville, Virginia.  Walker became friends with Col. Peter Jefferson and upon Mr. Jefferson’s death, he became the guardian of his son, Thomas Jefferson.  Dr. Walker became a member of the House of Burgesses and the Virginia General Assembly, but what he really wanted to do was be an explorer.  During this time the Virginia Assembly was making huge land grants in order to promote the settlement of the western regions of the state.  John Lewis, founder of Staunton, Virginia, obtained a grant for 800,000 acres and appointed Walker to determine the feasibility of settlement.  The Loyal Land Company was formed.  On March 6, 1750, Dr. Walker set out with 5 men, several horses and dogs and traveled to the uncharted areas of Southwest Virginia.  He traveled through the present day counties of Tazewell, Buchanan, Wise and Dickenson Virginia.  He renamed Cave Gap as Cumberland Gap, in honor of a son of George II of England.  Hr reported on finding a river called Clinches River – named for a long hunter who first found it.  He found the coal deposits of the Pocahontas coal fields and traveled deep into what is now Kentucky.  Upon his return he reported back that the land was generally unfavorable for settlement – full of rugged terrain and tangled woods.  He did note that the game was plentiful – his band had killed 13 buffaloes, 8 elk, 53 bears, 20 deer, and 150 turkeys during their expedition. 

Col. John Buchanan was also a member of this expedition – for which Buchanan, Virginia (just north of Roanoke) is named. 

Christopher Gist:

At the same time that the Virginia Legislature gave the Loyal company 800,000 acres – it granted 500,000 acres to the Ohio Land Company in the region south of the Ohio River.  This put two, strong rival companies in the field at the same time and in charge of roughly the same territory – it was basically a first come, first served situation – and it served the intentions of the Virginia legislature to populate the region west of the Blue Ridge with Virginians before someone else did.  The Ohio Company engaged the services of Christopher Gist as their agent and surveyor.  He was instructed to gather a corp of men and explore the regions bordering the Ohio River.  Gist left in October of 1750 – only 4 months after the return of Dr. Thomas Walker from the Loyal Company expedition.  Now the big difference between the two expeditions was that Gist was a professional surveyor and his expedition spent also an entire year exploring this region.  Historically, the Christopher Gist expedition was supposed to have traveled to the fork of the Guest and Clinch River – and then traveled to what is now Pinnacle Rock near present day Bluefield, West Virginia.  But if you trace out his surveyor's directions on a map, it appears that he traveled through what is now Buchanan County on his return from Kentucky and not past Norton and Coeburn Virginia.   If this is the case then several state historical markers in these towns would have to be moved to this county.  There has been some local speculation that Guesses Fork in Hurley could have originally been Gist’s Fork. 

Christopher Gist died in 1759 of smallpox.

Daniel Boone:

Daniel Boone was born in 1734 in Pennsylvania.  The family lived at three different locations in Virginia before moving to the Yadkin Valley in North Carolina when Daniel was 17.  In 1760, at the age of 26, he made his first exploration west, exploring the area around present day Abingdon, Virginia.

          Boone's next trip westward was in 1767 along with two of his friends.  It was on this trip that Boone traveled through what is now Buchanan and Dickenson Counties in Virginia.  On this trip he discovered the Breaks of the Cumberland or what is now the Breaks Interstate Park.  They proceeded on to a salt lick near what is now Prestonsburg, Kentucky.  This was Boone's first trip into Kentucky.  This was probably Boone's last trip through what is now Buchanan County – he later went on to establish the Wilderness Road through Cumberland Gap, the first settlement in Kentucky at Boonesborough, and served two terms in the Virginia legislature.  He died in Missouri in 1820 at the age of 85.

Swift’s Silver Mine:

The legend of the lost Silver mine of Swift is one that goes back over 200 years.  Legends of the Silver mine exist throughtout many counties in SW Virginia, as well as southern West Virginia, upper east Tennessee, and eastern Kentucky.  These legends seem to fall into two categories – those near the Clinch River in Virginia, and those along the Big Sandy River watershed in Kentucky, West Virginia, and in Buchanan and Dickenson County Virginia.  The legend goes something like this, a man by the name of John Swift, a hunter and trapper, learned of a silver mine on the Big Sandy River being operated by the French and the Shawnee Indians.  In 1860, along with his associates, Hazlett, Ireland, Blackburn, McClintock and Staley, visited the area and located several rich veins of silver in the area between Breaks and Pound Gap of Pine Mountain.  The men worked the as many as 4 mines and smelters in the area between 1760 and 1770.  Fabulous sums of silver were supposed to have been mined during that period – up to 1 million crowns of silver.  Much of it was supposed to have been cached away in various spots around the mine.  Several of the men were killed in an Indian attack in 1768 and by 1769 the operation was stopped.  Later in life Swift became blind and was unable to guide anyone to the location of his now lost mine and horde of silver coins.  Many historians and geologists have refuted the Swift Silver Mine story but that has not stopped the thousands of people over the years who have searched for the lost mine.

Early Settlers:

Settlement of the area that is now Buchanan County was slow.  One would expect that with two different land companies selling tracts of land at the rate of 100 acres for only three pounds that there would be a flood of settlement after the early 1750 expeditions.  The problem was that the French and Indian war started in 1754 and lasted for nine years.  This not only prevented settlement of the Big Sandy or Clinch River valleys but drove most of the settlers from their land on the Holston and New Rivers as well.  The Indians, supported by the French traders of the Ohio valley, commenced hostile raids into the region.  In fact, in 1763, King George II of England issued a proclamation that prohibited anyone from settling in this region.  This was to appease the Iroquois and Cherokee nations and to help bring about an end to the costly French and Indian War.  In 1768 a treaty was signed with the Iroquois Nation for SW Virginia.  In 1770 a similar treaty was signed with the Cherokee Nation.   This opened up the Clinch and Holston valleys for settlement.  As early as 1771, Thomas Whitten and John Greenup settled at Crab Orchard – site of Fort Whitten and the Crab Orchard Museum in Tazewell County.  By 1772 no fewer than 20 families had moved into what is now Tazewell County.   

1773 – noted increase in Indian hostilities – several men killed – most notably James Boone (son of Daniel Boone) and Henry Russell (son of Captain William Russell – for whom Russell county is named). 

Lord Dunmore’s War – increased hostilities with the Indians led to the battle of Point Pleasant

County Formation:

Sept. 20, 1734 – Orange County, Virginia was formed from Spotsylvania County – to give some idea as to the size of the county the northern limit was bounded by the Great Lakes and the western border by the Pacific Ocean.

1738 –Augusta Counties were formed

1769 – Botetourt

Fincastle

On December 19, 1799 – Tazewell County was formed.

Naming of the Levisa Fork River:

Levisa came about because V's in the archaic English at that time, the writing, in the place of a "u" it looked like a "v".  There was a corruption of Louisa. It's named after the Duke of Cumberland's wife Louisa.  They merged there to form what is called the Levisa Fork of the Big Sandy River (Louisa Fork of the Big Sandy River) and the Levisa Fork flowed in a northwestern direction toward the Ohio and that down in Lawrence County in the town of Louisa, it ;met there or merged with the Tug River which is now the present boundary between Pike County and Mingo County, West Virginia, and there it formed the Big Sandy River and from Louisa to the Ohio River to which it empties is the Big Sandy River.