THE WESTERN FRONTIER IN 1772.
Eight years had passed away since the close of the French and Indian
war. During this time the savages had remained faithful to the terms
of Boquet's treaty, and emigration was fast pouring over the mountains;
the cabin of the pioneer dotted the wilderness along the western declivities
of the Alleghanies. The great object of the western emigrant has
ever been to obtain land, and wherever that object could be accomplished,
there arose the log cabin, and there was the home of the pioneer.
The result of the last war had forever settled the title of Virginia to
all that portion of country lying between the Blue Ridge and the Ohio
river, and she now freely granted portions of it to any or all who would
undertake to found a home in the then "far west." From her eastern
part, from Pennsylvania, and from Maryland, came the conquerors of
the wilderness, either a single family, or in companies of a dozen or more,
and from Southern Pennsylvania to the Big Sandy river settlements were
being made.
As early as 1754, the first settlement in North-western Virginia was
made. In that year David Tygart and a man named Files brought
their families across the mountains and located themselves—Tygart in
the beautiful valley which still bears his name, and Files near where
Beverly, the county seat of Randolph, now stands. These were the
first settlements in that part of Virginia, and the family of Files was
to be the first in the long list of those who were to fall victims to
savage cruelty. The Tygart family escaped and returned east of the
mountains.
In the above year, Christopher Gist, the agent and surveyor of the
Ohio Land Company, and who was the first to make surveys west of the
Ohio river, settled upon a tract of land in what is now Fayette county,
Pennsylvania, but was then supposed to be in Virginia. His was the
first actual settlement on the waters of the Upper Ohio, and his presence
there soon induced several other families to come out and settle around
him.
In 1758 Thomas Decker and several others located at the mouth of
Decker's creek, but early the next spring they were all murdered by a
party of Mingo and Delaware Indians, who were determined that their
hunting-grounds should not become the home of the invaders with
whom they had disputed possession for more than a hundred years.
The next attempt at settlement was made in 1768 by a number of
persons on Buckhannon, a tributary of Tygart Valley river. Among them
were Samuel Pringle, John Pringle, John and Benjamin Cutnight, Henry
Rule, John Hacker, and John and William Ratcliff.
In 1770 many emigrants reached the Monongahela and Ohio rivers.
In that year Captain Cresap erected a cabin at the mouth of what is
now Dunlap's creek. Captain Parsons settled on the Horse Shoe bottom,
on Cheat river, and many other enterprising men, whose names
were to be rendered prominent by their posterity, "took up" large
tracts of these fertile lands. Among them were Cunningham, Butler,
Minear, Goff, Fink, etc.
