The Kanawha Trace by Merle C Rummel
[Mr Argus Ogborn was a Quaker Historian in Richmond,
Indiana. He gave me a copy of his copy of the Bill of the
Road, which he had found in a collection (unspecified) some
years ago. He saw it for what it was, the mile by mile
progress a Quaker settler would walk with team and wagon to
travel to Richmond, but I recognized many of the named places
in the Way Bill from travel, residency and research in these
regions. From this I drew up and gave him a map tracing the
path of the Trace. In researching families on this trace for
my book on the Four Mile Church, I recognized that the Brethren
used this as a major path from Virginia to Ohio. -I had
frequently asked myself a question about the route of the
Dunkers in Virginia to Ohio and the West, since I had early
found that most of them did not use Daniel Boone's Wilderness
Road. (The Flat Creek Mission, Church of the Brethren, is right
on the Old Wilderness Road - Goose Creek, mouth of Mudlick,
near Manchester KY, my parents lived there at the mission,
Mudlick Station, head of Mudlick. I occasionally visited
there, and I followed the path and story of Daniel Boone and
the early Dunkers in the Kaintuck lands.) Only a few of the
Carolina Brethren who followed the Wilderness Road into
Kentucky, came up into Ohio. I've followed Forbes' Road and
Braddock's Road in Pennsylvania, when I pastored at Beaver Dam
(Maryland) and with my brother, who still pastors in Western
Pennsylvania. Maryland and Pennsylvania Brethren, including
some in the upper part of the Valley, would have used those
routes and come down the Ohio on flatboats. But many early
Dunkers lived much farther south in the Valley, and there was
a major early settlement of the Brethren below Roanoke, on the
front of the Blue Ridge in Franklin and Floyd Counties, the old
Carolina Road, (Elder Jacob Miller families and neighbors) who
came from there to western Ohio. The Kanawha Trace was their
route. Virginia Dunker Family Names are found along it.]
The Kanawha Trace Bill of the Road, or Waybill, begins in
the north central part of North Carolina where the Moravian
Brethren, Friends (or Quakers) and German Baptist Brethren
(Dunkers, Church of the Brethren) had major settlements. Early
Dunker Churches were along the Yadkin River starting in Wilkes
County, going east to Winston Salem, then south through
Salisbury, this was the area from which Daniel Boone came. [So
there were Two routes from there, through the mountains, to the
west.]
The Waybill that we have, begins at New Garden Friends
Church on the Northwest side of Greensboro, near Guilliford
Battlefield. (Another New Garden Friends Church, there are
several of them, is north of Richmond IN, this waybill was for
a specific family group). Clemmons was likely at Guilford, a
small town on NC 66. By distance, Beesons would be the town of
Colfax; and Kernersville, east of Winston Salem, is Kerners.
Continuing on NC 66 to US 52, Bittings would likely be at
Stanleyville or Rural Hall, Gordings would be at Pilot
Mountain, and Unthanks at Mount Airy. Following the route of
US 52 into Virginia, Perkins would be at Cana VA and Mankins at
Ward's Gap might be the modern Fancy Gap on US 52 at the Blue
Ridge Parkway. Going west the Trace went to Road's Fork at
modern Hillsville on top of the ridge, where US 52 and VA 100
each continue their own route down into the New River Valley.
The Trace followed VA 100 down Little Reed Island Creek through
Popular Camp Mountain. It crosses Reed Island River at
Patterson and then the New River (Fugat's Ferry, now a bridge).
VA 100 does not cross Draper's Mountain to Pulaski, and John
Feeley's would be at McAdam or possibly Draper. Crossing
Walker Mountain, VA 100 comes to Poplar Hill, which would be
Shannon's and comes back to the New River, which has taken a
big loop, at Pearisburg, old Giles Court House, and US 460.
Peter's Ferry could be located at Narrows, where they could
recross the New River. (It must be remembered that in these
early days, the lack of bridges in the frontier areas meant
that obstacles that we now ignor drastically effected travel
patterns. A Traveler sometimes went longer, or worse, routes,
because there was no way they could cross a River. This is
true of the routes here, and across West Virginia.)
[Remember, also, that in those days Virginia went clear to
the Ohio River.] Across West Virginia, the Kanawha Trace, by
tradition, followed the Shawnee Indian War Path close to the
New or Kanawha River. Peterstown is just in West Virginia at
US 219 and WV 12. Christian Peter's home would have been out
of Peterstown on WV 12. There Bozoo Road goes left and down
into the old river bottom, a shorter route than WV 12.
Bluestone Lake floods this area, but the Indian River enters
the New below Indian Mills, coming down the valley from the
Northeast. The Blue Stone River comes up the valley from the
Southwest about 15 miles down stream and Pack's ferry would
have been out in the lake, between them (before Wolf Creek
Mountain). Unless there was a bottom land route (now flooded),
the mountains push in close to the New River and the Trace
would have followed a trail up to Pipe Stem, and followed the
Pipestem Creek down to the Blue Stone River crossing.
Following up another trail out of the Blue Stone, Pack's could
possibly be at Nimitz and Jumping Branch, where another old
road (WV 3) goes to Shady Spring. There modern US 19 shows
sections of an old road near it. US 19 goes to Beckley, Mount
Hope and Glen Jean (with Harvey just beyond) and on to
Fayetteville on the downriver side of the New River Gorge.
This is possibly "Road's Fork", where the Trace did not try to
recross the New River, but took WV 16, to Beckwith where it
took the very rugged Falls Creek Road over Cotton Hill. The
creek and trail come out at the Falls of the New River, now
Kanawha Falls (where the Kanawha River Dam now is). The Gauley
River enters the New River at Gauley Bridge above the Dam, and
the River changed, it is larger, and has a more constant flow.
The valley widens. It is now called the Kanawha. Here below
the falls, early settlers built flat boats and floated down the
River to Point Pleasant, then down the Ohio to Kaintuck or
Cincinnati.
The Trace followed a country road along the south bank of
the Kanawha River. It is pressed closely by high rugged
mountains, the only level areas are where mountain streams
enter the river. A couple of these have become towns, Deep
Water, Eagle. Benjamin Morris probably lived where Montgomery
is, where WV 61 comes down off the mountain. There is a better
roadway, and towns of Crown Hill and Cabin Creek. At Chelyan
the West Virginia Turnpike and US 119 come down to the River.
Leonard Morris had a fortified log house ("fort") at Marmet, on
the south side of the River just above Charleston, where the
Toney's and others fled during the Indian raids of 1794.
Venables would have been in the eastern area of South
Charleston called Kanawha City, where there used to be a second
branch of the Kanawha River by that name. Cobb's would also be
in South Charleston near Vandalia. The Coal River enters the
Kanawha at St Albans, where US 35 comes in from downstream and
Ohio. There is quite a ridge, actually a mountain, between the
two nearly parallel rivers for many miles. Hanley's,
M'Collister's and Grice's would have been stops on the lower
river before crossing to Gallipolis OH. The Trace followed the
bank of the Kanawha River clear to the Ohio, then down the bank
of the Ohio to across from Gallipolis, because of high ridges
along both rivers. At Gallipolis, they would have rafted over
the Ohio, landing at the old town dock area, today's City Park.
At Gallipolis, the Kanawha Trace followed Gen. Lewis' Army
Road to Chillicothe (after the Battle of Point Pleasant, 1774,
he pushed the Indians back to their main city, building a road
for his cannon, now US 35: remnants of Old 35, and likely the
Trace, are seen in various places through the valleys either
side of the new road). The Army Road, and the Trace, started
in downtown Gallipolis. Old 35 goes out of Gallipolis north of
the old city and goes along Chicamauga Creek inland almost to
Mills before it crosses the creek. This probably was the
original route. (The creek enters the Ohio River south of
Gallipolis, but swings north behind most of the city before it
turns inland. It is quite swampy. Chillicothe Road, a street
in the south part of Gallipolis crosses the swamps with a
bridge and goes west till it junctions with OH 588 going on to
Rodney. OH 588 starts in Gallipolis at the city park and
bridges the top end of the swamp.) At Rodney, the Jackson Road
is Old 35. Crossing Raccoon Creek at Adamsville, Woods was
certainly Wood's Mill. The Trace then went on to Rio Grande,
where the Adamsville Road is north of US 35, actually the back
drive on Bob Evans farm. Judge Poor's (or Squire Poor) was at
Winchester, south of 35 at OH 327. This is the original Old
35, or Gallipolis Pike, now called Dixon Run Road. Jackson is
still a major Ohio town, the town and trace are both south of
modern US 35. Richmond is now called Richmond Dale, and is on
a stretch of the old road north of modern US 35. Kilgore's
Ferry over the Scioto River is at the bridge on US 35/50, north
of the mouth of Paint Creek. The Trace angled into Chillicothe
on Eastern Ave (Jackson or Gallipolis Road). It then turned up
Hickory Street to Main Street, and went west past the State
Capitol. Chillicothe was the first Capitol of the State of
Ohio. It had been a major Shawnee Indian center and is still
noted for its Hopewell Indian mounds (Mound City). There were
early settlers with Dunker family names along this stretch of
the Trace, but we have no record of churches.
Leaving Chillicothe, the Kanawha Trace followed the Zane
Trace out of town on the Limestone Road (now Western Ave;
Limestone was the original name for Maysville KY, the
destination of the Zane Trace). They went west along Paint
Creek (US 50). Elijah Johnson's would be north of Bourneville,
and the Trace followed an old Indian trail that went west up a
wide valley. The road is called Lower Twin, and goes to South
Salem. From the Covered Bridge on Lower Twin, just west of So
Salem, the Trace went north off the present road and kept to
the highlands (going directly in front of Robt Smalley's house,
which now sits far back a lane from the road) to Greenfield,
where it forded Paint Creek on the rocky bottoms, just south of
town (the old Fall Creek Church was farther south, west of
Paint Creek on Fall Creek). From there, the Trace turned
westward and crossed Rattlesnake Creek at Monroetown (East
Monroe, on OH 28), to Leesburg (US 62 and OH 28), and on west
to Joel Willis', now Highland, where the old Lexington Church
was just south of town. In Highland, the Trace turned north on
Wilmington or Antioch Rd. This is the same old winding Trace
until it gets to Wilmington, where the Antioch Road met old 73,
which turned west on the trace into town. Old 73 now deadends
at the Airport, heading directly toward the control tower.
The Trace went westward from Wilmington to Waynesville,
along OH 73. It crossed Todd Fork Creek and at Caesar's Creek
State Park went north at the Y, going through Harveysburg,
where it wound down to Caesar's Creek (now under the
reservoir). The Trace went to Corwin where it forded the
Little Miami into Waynesville. Corwin is north of 73, the
Trace separated at the Cemetary. It went up into the north
part of Waynesville, and came back out on OH 73 on the west
side of town. The Trace (and OH 73) continue on west to
Springboro and Franklin along the present route (the Old Upper
Springboro Pike to Waynesville coming into Franklin on 2nd
Street). In the 1870's the ferry was replaced by a suspension
bridge on 4th Street, later by the present Lion Bridge on 2nd
Street.
At Franklin, the Trace forded the Great Miami River below
the 6th Street RailRoad Bridge, then William Barkalow started
a ferry at his house in 1804 (at the Tressel). The Trace went
back north along the river and turned west, OH 123, past Rev
Tapscott's house (in front of his Primitive Baptist Church),
just east of the town of Carlisle. The Trace continues on from
Carlisle, until it crossed Twin Creek, there it turns on Sugar
Street to Sunsbury and stayed south of Germantown and Big Twin
Creek. At the five points, it went ahead (to the right) on the
Mudlick and Sigel Road to where Henry Moyer lived, and where it
met the road going west out of Germantown (OH 725). The Trace
continues along 725 to Gratis. Keep right at the Y into
Gratis, and OH 122 is the old winding Trace angling northwest
to Eaton, where St Clair's Fort still stood from the Indian
Wars. From Eaton, US 35 follows the Trace to Richmond IN.
Whitewater Meeting was founded 1809, in a log church at a
cemetary that stood almost directly under the US 27 overpass,
just beyond the railroad tracks (200 feet west of the old brick
church at North G street).
Danuel DuBois traced his route from Monmouth County new
Jersey to Carlisle in his diary in 1804. From Chillicothe to
Franklin his route matches those of the Waybill. He averaged
40 miles per day. This is the first known use of the Trace
across the state.
Dunker settlement here was very early. Some of the children
of Elder Jacob Miller from Franklin County VA, in the 1790's
came up the Great Miami to Dayton, then by 1803, moved west to
the state line. Philip and Anna (Miller) Lybrook followed the
Trace in 1806, when he returned to Virginia and brought his
wife and families of married children back to Indiana (Upper
Four Mile Church). They came by wagon. From Eaton he came
west on the Old Dayton Road (Dayton through Eaton and Boston
IN, to Conners Trading Post, 1803).
The Trace leaving Chillicothe was not in existance when the
first Quaker into Ohio, Nathaniel Pope, settled Leesburg in
1802. He left Chillicothe on the old Indian Path to Old
Chillicothe (now US 35 to Xenia) along the North Fork of Paint
Creek. At Col. Massie's settlement, Frankfort, Pope went
southwest to Leesburg. The path of the Trace from Chillicothe
to Leesburg was a shortend route from his settlement. The
Trace was not in existance in 1802, it was used clear across
the state by 1806. The Waybill was after 1809.
The Kanawha Trace is very important to the settlement of
Southern Ohio. The Quakers and Dunkers, and many others from
Southern Virginia and North Carolina, followed it as they came
to Ohio Country. It was probably the most used land route for
migration into Southern Ohio in the years before the Old
National Road (c1827).
Assistance on this study was given by several people living
in communities along the route of the Trace. Especial thanks
is to be given to Rev. Robert Roller, pastor of the Fraternity
Church of the Brethen, Winston Salem NC; Stan Bumgardner,
Historian, West Virginia Division of Culture and History,
Charleston, WV; and Harriet Foley, Franklin OH. Parts of the
route through Virginia and West Virginia were determined from
known locations, using US Topographical Maps.
Merle C Rummel
Church Historian
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