Historical Sketches of Pocahontas County, West Virginia

Pocahontas County, West Virginia is situated in the southeastern portion of the Mountaineer State. It was formed in 1821 from portions of Randolph and Pendleton counties and what is today Bath County, Virginia. William Price's vast collection of sketches of Pocahontas County pioneers will interest anyone with ancestors in this region inasmuch as fully five-sixths of the volume consists of accounts of their exploits and the lives of family members. To be sure, the volume commences with one valuable treatise on Pocahontas geology and geography and another on the methods and customs of early settlers, yielding interesting tidbits about the local topography, climate, methods of agriculture, the establishment of the county, and so forth. The heart of the volume, however, consists of genealogical and biographical sketches of hundreds of Pocahontas founders and their families--many of them of Scotch-Irish descent--the lion's share of which are listed as follows: Arbogast, Auldridge, Baker, Barlow, Buckley, Beard, Burgess, Brown, Baxter, Burner, Beale, Bradshaw, Busard, Bright, Burr, Bridger, Craig, Clendennin, Cackley, Curry, Cleek, Conrad, Cassell, Collins, Cochran, Callison, Cooper, Curry, Crouch, Crabbottom, Dilley, Daugherty, Duffield, Drinnon, Dilley, Ervine, Edmiston, Friel, Flemmens, Grimes, Gay, Gibson, Galford, Gum, Gay, Humphreys, Hughes, Hill, Hannah, Herold, Harper, Hudson, James, Jordan, Killbuck, Kinnison, Kee, Kerr, Lewis, Lightner, Lockridge, Marlin, Mayse, Moore, McNeel, McCollam, McLaughlin, McClintic, McCutchan, McNeil, McCarty, Matthews, Nottingham, Poage, Price, Ruckman, Rodgers, Sewall, Slaven, Saunders, Sharp, Smith, Sutton, Tallman, Varner, Warwick, Waugh, Webb, Wanless, Waddell, Whiting, Wilson, Young, and Yeager.