Historical Sketches of Pocahontas County – 1901
By William T. Price
In 1765 the Indians raided the Mayse home in Bath County, a few miles from Bath Alum. Joseph Mayse, aged 13 years, his mother, an unknown white girl and Mrs. Sloan and her infant were taken prisoners.
About five or six miles from the Mayse residence the party halted on top of a high ridge by a large rock to rest awhile. The Indian leader, an old man, sat on this rock. Around his shoulders hung a bear’s intestine filled with cornmeal mush. This he would squeeze out and eat for his lunch. Thence the Indians proceeded on a beeline westward over the Warm Springs Mountain, and on the evening of the first day camped on Muddy Run, about five miles northeast of the Warm Springs.
On the second day they crossed Jackson’s River near Warwickton, Back Creek Mountain, and camped near the mouth of little Back Creek, now Mountain Grove…
The third day they crossed the Alleghany and camped about halfway between Marlinton and Huntersville. Early on the fourth day, just after crossing the Greenbrier River at the Island ford, the Indians and their prisoners were overtaken by a pursuing party.
The young prisoner was on a pack horse, and it becoming frightened when the skirmish opened, ran off and became entangled in some grape vines. The boy was pulled off into a thicket of nettles. The Indians were so closely pressed they had no time to turn and kill the boy. The Indians were pursued some distance up Stony Creek and Indian Draft, but could not be overtaken. On their return, the pursuing party picked up the young prisoner, still in the nettles near the fording, and took him back to the settlement. The late George Mayse, Esq., of Warm Springs, was a son of this prisoner.
The infant had been dashed to death against a tree on the first approach of the pursuers. It was buried near the crossing of the Marlin Run in Marlinton…
Eight or nine years after his captivity Joseph Mayse was a soldier in the battle of Point Pleasant, and was severely wounded…
When her son was wounded at Point Pleasant, October 11, 1774, and [Mrs. Mayse] heard where he was, she went, with a led horse, two hundred and fifteen miles and brought him home early in November.
BIOGRAPHIC
JOHN McLAUGHLIN
For the past seventy-five or eighty years, the McLau-ghlin name has been a familiar one among our people. For this reason the relationship so long identified with our county history deserves special mention.
This relationship will be considered in groups as it is so numerous and widely distributed and derived from a varied, though related ancestry.
John McLaughlin, the ancestor of several Pocahontas families of that name, was a native of Ireland, and settled on Jackson’s River, seven or eight miles below Monterey, and was one of the pioneer settlers of that vicinity previous to the Revolution…
His family consisted of six sons and five daughters. In reference to these persons, the following particulars have been mainly learned from Mrs. Morgan Grimes, one of the descendants by the third or fourth remove.
Margaret became Mrs. William Carpenter and lived on Deer Creek, near Greenbank; Nancy was married to John Carpenter and lived on Thomas Creek, near Dunmore, where Peter Carpenter now lives; Jane became Mrs. Alexander Benson and settled in Illinois; Mary was married to John Beverage and lived on Straight Creek, near Monterey; Susan became Mrs. Holcomb, and went to West Virginia; Abigail was married to Thomas Galford and lived near Dunmore on lands lately owned by J. H. Curry…
John McLaughlin, Jr. was widely known for his jovial ways and amusing expressions, and was also somewhat eccentric in his ideas. When about to be overcome by the infirmities of an advance age, he pointed out a spot overlooking his dwelling that is well nigh inaccessible, and gave positive orders to have his body buried there. He seemed to abhor the idea of being trampled upon, and appeared to feel that his head would be secure from such indignity if he could have his grave in a spot almost impossible to reach… It was his boast that when he was alive he generally came out “on top,” and so he seemed to wish to be on top when not alive.
His friends saw to it that his wishes should be complied with to the very letter.
A more unique burial scene was never witnessed in that region. The pallbearers on their knees and holding to the bushes and rocks with one hand and the coffin handles with the other, and the procession following on all fours, composed a scene the like of which may never be witnessed while the world stands…