University of Virginia Library

MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.

In 1831, an interesting volume appeared from the press
of Joseph Israel, of Clarksburg, in North Western Virginia,
prepared by Alexander Scott Withers, on the border
wars of the West. It was well received at the time
of its publication, when works on that subject were few,
and read with avidity by the surviving remnant of the
participators in the times and events so graphically described,
and by their worthy descendants.

Historians and antiquarians also received it cordially,
universally according it high praise. Mann Butler, the
faithful historian of Kentucky, declared that it was "a
work to which the public was deeply indebted," composed,
as it was, with "so much care and interest." The late
Samuel G. Drake, the especial historian of the Red Man,
pronounced it "a work written with candor and judgment."
The late Thomas W. Field, the discriminating
writer on Indian Bibliography, says: "Of this scarce book,
very few copies are complete or in good condition. Having
been issued in a remote corner of North-Western Virginia,
and designed principally for a local circulation, almost
every copy was read by a country fireside until
scarcely legible. Most of the copies lack the table of contents.
The author took much pains to be authentic, and
his chronicles are considered by Western antiquarians, to
form the best collection of frontier life and Indian warfare,
that has been printed."

Of such a work, now difficult to procure at any price,
a new edition is presented to the public. In 1845, the
writer of this notice visited the Virginia Valley, collecting
materials on the same general subject, going over much
the same field of investigation, and quite naturally, at that
early period, indentifying very large the sources of Mr.
Withers's information, thus making it possible to reproduce

his work with new lights and explanations, such as
generally give pleasure and interest to the intelligent
reader of border history.[1]

In 1829, a local antiquary, of Covington, a beautiful
little village nestling in a high mountain valley near the
head of James River, in Alleghany County, Virginia,
gathered from the aged pioneers still lingering on the
shores of time, the story of the primitive settlement and
border wars of the Virginia Valley. Hugh Paul Taylor,
for such was his name, was the precursor, in all that region,
of the school of historic gleaners, and published in
the nearest village paper, The Fincastle Mirror, some twenty
miles away, a series of articles, over the signature of "Son of
Cornstalk," extending over a period of some forty stirring
years, from about 1740 to the close of the Revolutionary
War. These articles formed at least the chief authority
for several of the earlier chapters of Mr. Withers's work.
Mr. Taylor had scarcely molded his materials into shape,
and put them into print, when he was called hence at an
early age, without having an opportunity to revise and
publish the results of his labors under more favorable
auspices.

Soon after Mr. Taylor's publication, Judge Edwin S.
Duncan, of Peel Tree, in then Harrison, now Barbour
County, West Virginia, a gentleman of education, and well
fitted for such a work, residing in the heart of a region
rife with the story of Indian wars and hair-breadth escapes,
made a collection of materials, probably including
Mr. Taylor's sketches, with a view to a similar work; but
his professional pursuits and judicial services interposed
to preclude the faithful prosecution of the work, so he
turned over to Mr. Withers his historic gatherings, with

such suggestions, especially upon the Indian race, as by
his studies and reflections he was enabled to offer.

Other local gleaners in the field of Western history, particularly
Noah Zane, of Wheeling, John Hacker, of the
Hacker's Creek settlement, and others, freely furnished
their notes and statements for the work. Mr. Withers,
under these favorable circumstances, became quite well
equipped with materials regarding especially the first settlement
and Indian wars of the region now comprising
West Virginia; and, to a considerable extent, the region
of Staunton and farther southwest, of the French and Indian
War period, together with Dunmore's War, and the
several campaigns from the western borders of Virginia
and Pennsylvania into the Ohio region, during the Revolutionary
War.

Alexander Scott Withers, for his good services in the
field of Western history, well deserves to have his name
and memory perpetuated as a public benefactor. Descending,
on his father's side, from English ancestry, he was the
fourth child of nine, in the family of Enoch K. and Jennet
Chinn Withers, who resided at a fine Virginia homestead
called Green Meadows, half a dozen miles from Warrenton,
Fauquier county, Virginia, where the subject of this
sketch was born on the 12th of October, 1792—on the
third centennial anniversary of the discovery of America
by Columbus. His mother was the daughter of Thomas
Chinn and Jennet Scott—the latter a native of Scotland,
and a first cousin of Sir Walter Scott.

Passing his early years in home and private schools,
he became from childhood a lover of books and knowledge.
He read Virgil at the early age of ten; and, in
due time, entered Washington College, and thence entered
the law department of the venerable institution of
William and mary, where Jefferson, Monroe, Wythe, and
other Virginia notables, received their education.

Procuring a license to practice, he was admitted to
the bar in Warrenton, where for two or three years he
practiced his profession. His father dying in 1813, he
abandoned his law practice, which he did not like, because
he could not overcome his diffidence in public

speaking; and, for quite a period, he had the management
of his mother's plantation.

In August, 1815, he was united in marriage with Miss
Melinda Fisher, a most estimable lady, a few months his
junior; and about 1827, having a growing family, he
looked to the Great West for his future home and field
of labor, and moved to West Virginia, first locating temporarily
in Bridgeport, in Harrison County, and subsequently
settling near Clarksburg in the same county,
where he devoted much time in collecting materials for
and writing his Chronicles of Border Warfare.

The publisher, Joseph Israel, who took a deep interest
in the work, as his "Advertisement" of it suggests,
must have realized ample recompense for the work, as he
had subscribers for the full edition issued; yet, from some
cause, he failed pecuniarily, and Mr. Withers got nothing
whatever for his diligenee and labor in producing it, save
two or three copies of the work itself. He used to say,
that had he published the volume himself, he would have
made it much more complete, and better in every way;
for he was hampered, limited, and hurried—often correcting
proof of the early, while writing the later chapters.
Mr. Israel, the publisher, died several years ago.

After this worthy but unremunerative labor, Mr.
Withers turned his attention to Missouri for a suitable
home for his old age. He was disappointed in his visit to
that new state, as the richer portions of the country,
where he would have located, were more or less unhealthy.
So he returned to West Virginia, and settled near Weston,
a fine, healthful region of hills and valleys, where he engaged
in agricultural pursuits, in which he always took a
deep interest. He also served several years as a magistrate,
the only public position he ever filled.

The death of his wife in September, 1853, broke sadly
into his domestic enjoyments; his family were now scattered,
and his home was henceforward made with his eldest
daughter, Mrs. Jennet S. Tavenner, and her husband,
Thomas Tavenner, who in 1861 removed to a home adjoining
Parkersburg, in West Virginia. Here our author
lived a retired, studious life, until his death, which occurred,

after a few days' illness, January 23, 1865, in the
seventy-third year of his age.

Mr. Withers had no talent for the acquisition of
wealth; but he met with marked success in acquiring
knowledge. He was an admirer of ancient literature, and
to his last days read the Greek classics in the original. A
rare scholar, a lover of books, his tastes were eminently
domestic; he was, from his nature, much secluded from the
busy world around him. Nearly six feet high, rather
portly and dignified, as is shown by his portrait, taken
when he was about sixty years of age—he was kind and
obliging to all, and emphatically a true. Virginia gentleman
of the old school. His sympathies during the War
of Secession, were strongly in favor of the Union cause,
the happy termination of which he did not live to witness.
His son, Henry W. Withers, served with credit during
the war in the Union service in the Twelfth Virginia
Regiment.

Mr. Withers was blessed with two sons and three
daughters—one of the sons has passed away; the other,
Major Henry W. Withers, resides in Troy, Gilmer county,
West Virginia; Mrs. Tavenner still lives at Parkersburg;
Mrs. Mary T. Owen, at Galveston, Texas, and Mrs. Elizabeth
Ann Thornhill, in New Orleans.

[ILLUSTRATION]