taken to raise by a neighbor, who gave bond to the county court, guaranteeing that he would treat them properly. He usually agreed to pay them a few dollars when they should become of age. The State of Virginia did very little for Almost every other State in

the cause of popular education.

the Union did better.

8. Churches and Religion.-Church buildings and religious services were not common. Occasionally an itinerant preacher visited the settlements and exhorted the people. These preachers were sometimes able men, and they were always earnest. The evidence available on the subject does not warrant the statement that the frontiersmen of western Virginia were religious as a class. At least, religion was not a characteristic so common as it was with the settlers of the Shenandoah Valley. Drunkenness was not a prevailing vice, yet it was not so uncommon as many suppose. Western Virginia, and especially the Monongahela Valley, distilled much whisky and brandy before the close of the Revolutionary war. All of the whisky was not exported. It was the levying of a tax upon the product which caused the Whisky Insurrection. soon after the close of the Revolution. The trouble, however, was confined principally to Pennsylvania.

9. Mills. The corn grown in the fields of the pioneers was sometimes prepared for food by pounding it on the hominy block. In other cases it was ground on hand mills. But one of the first enterprises in each community was the building of a custom mill for grinding corn. A few of the mills made flour of wheat and rye. The stones used in grinding corn were usually made from hard stone found in the neighborhood. The buhrs for wheat were generally imported and were for that reason scarce and expensive. Mills were driven by water power where such power was obtainable. Where water was not available, treadmills, run by horse power, were the best the people had. The horse which carried the grist to the mill must, in accordance with the customs of the country,

help to grind it. was sufficient.

One mill to each one hundred square miles These mills were the meeting places for the

The

men. There they heard the news of the neighborhood. Newspapers were not then in circulation on the frontiers. county court was of equal importance with the mill as a place for hearing the news. It was not unusual for men to travel fifty miles to attend court, where their sole business was to meet their neighbors and hear the news.

Men, morals, society,

He was

10. The Past and Present. The belief is common that men, and morals, and health, and everything connected with them, were better a long time ago than now. No historian believes this. Facts do not warrant the belief. opinions, doctrines, and all belonging with them or to them, are better now than they were a few generations ago. There is a constant growth of good and an unceasing diminution of evil all the time. The grandfathers were not better than their grandsons. The frontiersman was brave, industrious, and generous, but he had his faults and failings. He did not enjoy better health than men do now; not so good. often rheumatic, because he wore moccasins which let in the water, instead of shoes which kept it out. He slept often in the woods and was cold. That made consumption prevalent on the frontiers. He ate coarse food, poorly cooked. That made him dyspeptic. His eyesight was frequently poor, because it was injured by the pine-knot light of his cabin. His sensibilities may not have been dulled by the hard life he led, but certain it is that fatigue and suffering, either of the body or of the mind, never elevated character or purified life. The frontiersmen had arduous labor to perform, difficult duty to do. They were fitted for the work. But let not the erroneous belief continue that they were better than the men of this generation.

I.

CHAPTER VI.

HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY.

The Subject Stated.-History cannot be properly understood without a fair knowledge of the geography of the country under consideration. It is presumed, however, that the pupil who enters upon the study of history, has already become sufficiently acquainted with geography to enable him to understand all the terms descriptive of the features, natural and artificial, of sea and land. In its form West Virginia is one of the most irregular of States. Its boundary lines are broken and curved. Nearly every one of the many lines which circumscribe its 24,000 square miles, has a history of its own.

2.

Mason and Dixon's Line.-The line on the north, between our State and Pennsylvania, is called Mason and Dixon's Line. These were the names of two engineers who surveyed the line westward from the Delaware River to western Maryland. After much controversy, and after several years of delay, the line was finally extended to the point which is now the southwestern corner of Pennsylvania. By the establishment of that line, the long and bitter quarrels between that State and Virginia were brought to a close. Territory which Virginia had claimed and which had been divided into counties, was found to be on the northern side of Mason and Dixon's Line, and thus became a part of Pennsylvania. The courthouse of Monongalia County was found to be in Pennsylvania, and the county seat was moved to Morgantown. From the western extremity of Mason and Dixon's Line, another line was run due north to the Ohio River, and became the

boundary between western Pennsylvania and the northern Panhandle of West Virginia.

3. The Ohio River Boundary. In 1784 Virginia ceded to the United States all of its territory northwest of the Ohio River. The western bank of the Ohio, at low water, is the line. Virginia gave up this large territory at the request of other States. They were jealous of Virginia, fearing that she would become so large and powerful, when her lands beyond the Ohio should become populated, that her influence in Congress, and elsewhere, would become so predominant that it would imperil the welfare of the other States. North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York also ceded to the United States their western lands. But none of them, or all of them together, gave up so much as Virginia.

4. The Potomac River as a Boundary. -In fixing their common limits Virginia and Maryland had trouble. Each consented, at a very early date, that the Potomac River should be the line between them; but when the time came for defining that river they could not agree. From the mouth of the stream to the mouth of the South Branch, there was no occasion for quarrel; but at that point the disagreement began. Maryland claimed that the South Branch was the real Potomac; Virginia insisted that the North Branch was the river. By substantiating her claim, Maryland would gain about two thousand square miles. Engineers surveyed the streams, measured the water flowing in them, and ascertained that the North Branch was the larger. A commission which investigated the matter, reported that the North Branch is the real Potomac, and it was fixed as the line. Lord Fairfax's surveyors had reached the same conclusion as early as 1736. Maryland acquiesced temporarily, but has never regarded the matter as settled; and she is now endeavoring, in court and out, to obtain a large portion of West Virginia's territory lying. north of the South Branch.

5. The West Virginia Plateau.—As already explained, our State is very irregular in outline. It is also unusual in its topographical form. One portion of it rises into a plateau, which in shape may be compared to a large bubble, covering a third or more of the State. Its highest part is in Pendleton, Pocahontas, and Randolph counties. It slopes in all directions from its highest part. The chief rivers of the State have their rise there, and they flow off in all directions. The tributaries of the Monongahela flow north. The streams emptying into the Potomac and the James flow east. The Elk and the Little Kanawha take their way westward. Branches of the Kanawha follow a southern and southwestern course. A high arm of this table-land curves round toward the southwest. The New River, with its source in North Carolina, sweeps up from the south. It is at first on the eastern side of the plateau, but it turns toward the west, cuts through the table-land from side to side, and joins the Kanawha. All of the principal rivers of West Virginia, as well as some of those of Virginia, have their sources in this plateau.

6. Stony Lands.-The mountainous portions of West Virginia are often very stony. It is not impossible for the active minds of the young to learn useful lessons from what appears to be the dullest part of nature, the stones, the rocks, the cliffs which obstructs our paths, direct the course of our rivers and give form to our mountains. We walk over their broken fragments. We observe upturned edges protruding from the soil. We see ledges in the lowest valleys, and cliffs on the higest mountains. They all teach us lessons, if we will but learn and understand. Only the simplest facts can be com

prehended by the young.

Yet so vast is the field for research

that the greatest scholars in the world can never explore it all. The West Virginia hills and valleys will show new beauties and hold greater interest if we will learn the simplest lesson which the rocks may teach us.

7. Sand and Lime. In the first place, the rocks found in West Virginia are of two kinds, sandstone and limestone,