Letter to the Editor
March 24, 1927
Mr. Calvin W. Price, Editor;
It was with much interest “The History of Dunmore Community,” by Miss Ella Pritchard was read.
As I grow riper in years, my heart inclines more and more to the place of my nativity, recalling to my mind so many hallowed associations. I can recollect my first day at school, when I was five years old. The sawed log school house stood on the bank of the race above Uncle Chesley’s and his son, Anderson, was the teacher. Some pupils I remember are Indiana Jackson, my classmate; Peter and John Warwick, Robert McLaughlin, Luther McCutcheon and my older brother and sister.
Father took me to the door the first morning of the first session of school and old “Maje” laid down by the steps and that continued to be his place while we three children were at the school…
Miss Pritchard is perfectly right about naming the place Dunmore. I have heard my father say it was called Mathewsville when he and Mr. Duncan made the purchase from Mr. Andrew Mathews. I don’t remember whose suggestion it was, but they agreed on the name as suitable for the new owners. The Colonial Governor of Virginia may have been suggestive, but he never mentioned it to me.
I heartily agree as to the delightful scenery. Father named his home place “Pleasant View.” …
C. R. Moore
HISTORY OF DUNMORE COMMUNITY
By Ella Pritchard
Published
February 3, 1927
The Pocahontas Times
Sometime between 1740 and 1750, the King of England sent a young man to America to survey for him. He surveyed, and bought for his own, a large boundary of land east of the Greenbrier River, west of the Alleghany Mountain.
This brave Englishman was Lieut. Warwick. His boundary included all the land owned now by H. M. Moore, E. M. Moore, the Pritchards, McLaughlins and many other landowners who have bought off of these larger farms.
Lieut. Warwick married Miss Elizabeth Dunlap, making his home at Dunmore, three miles east of the C & O Station Sitlington, on the Greenbrier Division. Five miles west of the Virginia line, just north of the center of the county. Lieut. Warwick returned to England, leaving his wife and little son, Jacob.
Lieut. Warwick died on this trip. His widow married Robert Sitlington, of Bath county, Virginia, making their home at Dunmore until Jacob Warwick, Jr. was twenty-one years old. His mother had secured a deed for him covering all the land owned by his father, Lieut. Warwick.
Sitlington Creek was named for Robert Sitlington.
A fort was built near where the Dunmore post office now stands, for the protection of pioneer settlers against Indian raids. A covered walk was built from the fort to the creek so they could always get water in safety.
The Warwick property descended to Jacob Warwick’s grandsons, Jacob and Andrew G. Mathews. Jacob Mathews owned the E. M. Moore place. After the death of his wife, the land was sold to B. F. Jackson, who sold the property to E. A. Smith, and from him it came into the possession of E. N. Moore. Andrew G. Mathews lived on the land now owned by the Pritchards and H. M. Moore, and named it Mathewsville, and it is thought that he established a post office by that name.
Andrew Mathews sold to William L. Duncan and Isaac Moore. Both families occupied the house S. C. Pritchard replaced by a new house, now the Pritchard homestead.
Duncan and Moore combined their names and changed the name of the post office from Mathewsville to Dunmore…
Dunmore is the birthplace and home of the first wife of Uriah Hevener, Sr. She was the daughter of Andrew Mathews, and only lived a few years after their marriage, leaving two very young daughters, known today as Mrs. Ella Summerson and Mrs. S. B. Hannah, Sr.
The only flour mill for a number of miles was located at Dunmore and run by splendid water power, which never froze nor went dry, making it dependable. The older mill was run by what is called an overshot wheel. Later another mill was erected by Col. S. C. Pritchard, who used the turbine wheel for power which was a great improvement. Our present mill, an up-to-date roller mill, was built by Winfred McElwee.
On the old water power location, there was also an up and down sawmill, also a carding machine which did splendid work and a planing machine, which made it a very busy business center.
The first store building was built of logs. It still stands on the bank of the creek, and is owned by Fred Pritchard.
First merchants who kept this store were Duncan & Co.
Newton & George Wilson later kept store in the same building. After this, Richard Jennings was in the mercantile business in a new and more up to date building on the bank of the mill race. The building was destroyed by fire a few years ago.
To be continued…