This book traces the economic, social and political life of the people of Lewis County from the time the first settlers came to the Hacker’s Creek Valley in the 1700s up to the early 1900s. Beginning with background information on the physical geography, geology and natural history of the area, as well as the archaeological evidence of Indian inhabitation in the distant past, the book explains that some of the earliest white settlers of Lewis County were deserters from the troops fighting against the Indians. The book continues to explain the county’s role in Dunmore’s War, the Indian Wars and the Revolutionary War, then the geographic adjustments to the boundary which brought the county’s area closer to what it is today, a fraction of its original size. Also described herein are pioneer life, the extension of settlements and economic beginnings.
There are chapters on individual settlements such as the Collins Settlement, Freeman’s Creek District and Weston. Later chapters describe early transportation, the Irish and German immigration, the Great Business Boom (1845-60), the development of education, the secession from Virginia, Civil War military operations, post-war political reconstruction and economic development, the coming of the railroad, progress from 1880 to 1900, oil and gas development and the 20th century. An appendix provides a sketch of Col. Charles Lewis, the unsurpassed border scout and Indian fighter for whom the county is named. Another appendix provides a list of justices of the peace, both under Virginia and after secession. The every-name index includes places and subjects as well.
Edward C. Smith
(1920, 1996), 2015, 5½x8½, paper, index, 456 pp.
ISBN: 9780788405877
101-S0587
