Historical Sketches of Pocahontas County – 1901
By William T. Price
In the early summer of 1865, the Rev. M. D. Dunlap and W. T. Price were engaged in the first sacramental meeting held after the war. A detachment of Federal troops from Buckhannon passed through the town, rode around the church, looked in at the broken windows, examined the horses with critical eyes, and religious services were going on all the while without even pausing. Sermon and sacramental service over, Mr. Dunlap, who had rode in from the country that morning and hitched his horse near the church, went to get his horse and found that it had been taken way as a “branded horse.” During Averill’s retreat through the Levels this horse was abandoned as worn out. Mr. Dunlap had taken it up and put it in good condition. The venerable prea-cher had to return to his home at Hillsboro on a borrowed horse.
Ten or eleven years since, the Methodist church was built on its present site, and so far the present town is well provided with churches.
Five or six years ago, the Masonic fraternity of Pocahontas County, represented by the Huntersville Lodge, needed a lodge room. Arrangements mutually satisfactory were made with the trusteeship of the Presbyterian church, and the building was enlarged and renovated in very attractive style. The inception and completion of this arrangement is largely due to James H. Doyle.
Nature seems to have marked Huntersville and vicinity as designed for something of more than ordinary importance. The locality is approachable from the four quarters of the earth by valleys converging here. The beauty of the scenery everywhere displayed is something phenomenal, in the view of all who have eyes to appreciate whatever is picturesque in mountains, forest and streams. The air is pure and exhilarating. Mineral waters abound in profusion, chalybeate, alum and sulphur. The most remarkable, however, are the arsenious-lithia fountains that bubble up in the Curry Meadow, in volume sufficient to meet the needs of a world of health seeking people requiring the benefits of lithia remedies.
BIOGRAPHIC
SAMUEL WAUGH
This paper is devoted to the memory of Samuel Waugh, one of the early settlers of The Hills, seven or eight miles northeast of Huntersville. He was a son of James Waugh, Senior. His wife’s name was Mary.
This pioneer husband and wife opened up their home about 1774, on the place now held by John Shrader, one of their descendants by the third removed.
Samuel Waugh, upon his marriage with Ann McGuire, settled at the old Waugh homestead. Their family consisted of nine sons and five daughters…
Elizabeth Waugh was married to Caleb Knapp, and first settled in Greenbrier county. They afterwards lived awhile on Knapps Creek, thence settled on the Greenbrier, known as the Knapp place, where McCoy Malcomb now resides.
Her daughter, Nancy Knapp married Henry Shrader and they lived several years in Huntersville, where Mr. Shrader operated a tannery, and they finally settled on the Waugh homestead.
Mary Shrader, her dau-ghter, was married to the late William Fertig, of Huntersville, and lived some years on Anthonys Creek, and now lives near Dilleys Mill. Mr. Fertig was a saddler by trade, then a merchant, and was a member of the Pocahontas court, and upon his removal to Greenbrier devoted his time to farming…
Jacob Shrader married a daughter of David Kincaid in Highland County, and lives near Dilleys Mill. Luther Shrader married a sister of Jacob’s wife, and lived in Greenbrier. Ellen Susan Shrader became the wife of Oscar Sharp, a local Methodist minister, and lives at Frost. The names of the other members of the Shrader family are Enoch, William, Charles and Margaret Ann…
Truly, our attention has been given to a family group whose history is suggestive and instructive.
Samuel Waugh and Ann McGuire, his wife, imbued with the faith and energy so peculiar to the genuine Scotch-Irish, endured all that is implied in rearing a family of fourteen sons and daughters, and all living to be adults. The sons all lived to be grown, and not one was ever known to use tobacco or ardent spirits in any form. This seems scarcely credible, yet it is asserted to be a pleasing truth.
Samuel Waugh was one of the original members of the old Mount Zion Church – one of the strongholds of its denomination for so many years.
His history shows that in the face of pioneer hindrances and privations, sons and daughters may be reared that may faithfully serve God and support their country in their day and generation.
