O History of West Virginia. IN TWO PARTS, BY Anson VIRGIL A. LEWIS, CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE VIRGINIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY. "A moment, and the pageant's gone; PHILADELPHIA. HUBBARD BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS. PREFACE. IN thus presenting to the public the present volume the author disclaims any merit for it except that of accuracy. All he dares to assert is that he has brought to the task of its preparation an enthusiastic admiration for his subject-an admiration for the men who first dared the perils of the western wilds, and crossing the Rocky Barrier, reared their cabin homes amid the hills and vales of the solitudes of what is now West Virginia an admiration for these same men who, during the American Revolution, warred alike against the savage from the wilderness and the Briton from the seaan admiration for their descendants who in later years laid a firm foundation and reared thereon the perfect and enduring Commonwealth. Throughout the work will be found hundreds of the names and many biographical notices of these men-men from whom have descended a large proportion of the population of the State, now numbering nearly three-quarters of a million. The first inhabitants of West Virginia were as hardy |