Q. How many caves and caverns are there in the County?
A. Unknown – more than 500.
Q. Name the state parks in our County.
A. Watoga, Cass Scenic Railroad, Droop Mountain Battlefield, Beartown, Greenbrier River Trail.
Historical Sketches of Pocahontas County ~ 1901
By William T. Price
Distinctive Natural Features
Dr. J. B. Lockridge had Professor Mallett, of the Virginia University, to make a qualitative analysis of the Driscol Spring. Like the Capon Springs, the Driscol Spring has been found to contain silicic acid, and therefore good for bathing and drinking, promising relief for rheumatism, gout, dyspepsia, dropsical affection, calculus and renal troubles. Within the radius of a mile of Dunmore are the Moore Blue Sulphur spring, the Kerr Magnesia and chalybeate water.
Near Edray, several mineral springs are known and for more than fifty years have been used with beneficial results, such as the Warwick sulphur, Duffield chalybeate, Duncan’s chalybeate, and Smith’s magnesia, on the west branch of the India Draft; Clover Lick Salt Spring, Moore’s magnesia Spring, near Marlinton; Moore’s alum spring, or as some call it, natural lemonade spring on Brown’s Creek. On Laurel Run, four or five miles east of Hillsboro, is a remarkable group of springs, consisting of a fresh water spring and a purple sulphur spring welling up from the same rock within a radius of a yard of so. The effects of these springs used to be the wonder of the gossips and wet nurses fifty years ago.
BIOGRAPHIC
JOHN SLAVEN
One of the notable families in our local annals was the Slaven relationship, whose ancestor was John Slaven, who came from Tyrone, Ireland, about the middle of the previous century. He first settled in Rockingham County, and then came to what is now Highland County, Virginia, and located permanently at Meadow Dale, on property now held by Stuart Slaven and James Flesher. His wife was a Miss Stuart. Traces of the old home are still to be seen near James Flesher’s residence, who is a descendant by the fifth remove…
John Slaven, son of John from Tyrone, was twice married. The first wife was a Miss Wade. There was one son, John Slave, who never married. The second marriage was with Elizabeth Warwick, a sister of Andrew and William Warwick, on Deer Creek. Not long after this marriage he settled on the head of Greenbrier, and he is the ancestor of the Pocahontas branch of the Slaven relationship. By the second marriage there were five daughters and two sons.
John (son of John from Tyrone) was a person of remarkable muscular powers, and was a Revolutionary veteran, a noted hunter and successful trapper. He had thrilling descriptions to give of the many bloody engagements he passed thro, the hazardous risks he ran, and the bitter privations he endured in the service of his country. He lived to an advanced age, and was so weakened by the infirmities of age as to make use of crutches in moving around in his closing days…
William Slaven, son of John Slaven, the pioneer, was born July 6, 1798, and was married in 1819 to Margaret Wooddell, daughter of Joseph Wooddell, at Green Bank.
They were the parents of six sons and two daughters…
William Slaven’s second marriage was with Nancy Cline, of Lewis County, and there were five daughters and four sons by this marriage…
While living in Pocahontas County, William Slaven was a person of marked prominence – a member of the Virginia Legislature, magistrate, and assessor…
Jacob Gillespie Slaven, son of the pioneer of that much named regions, Head of Greenbrier, Upper Tract, and Travelers Repose, married Eleanor Lockridge, daughter of Lanty Lockridge, Senior, on Knapps Creek.
These person passed the most of their married lives on the head of the Greenbrier, in a widely known and attractive home. In their time there was an immense travel along that road, Staunton to Parkersburg Pike. The most of communications between the western and eastern parts of Virginia was by this route…
Everything seemed prosperous and pleasant with Jacob Slaven until the terrible ravages of war laid his home in ashes, and exiled the happy inmates…
John Slaven and wife, the ancestral pioneers, that had their home on the beautiful banks of the upper Greenbrier, had a married life of fifty-two years, ten months and twenty-one days…The story of their lives helps us very much toward a proper understanding of what it cost to make it possible for the comforts that gladden our lives.