HISTORY OF THE SWAGO COMMUNITY
Retyped by the Dulcimber Man

     C O N T E N T S
    I-Geographic Conditions and Their
      Influence.  

   II-The First Settlers.

  III-The Establishment of the church.

   IV-The Schools..

    V-The Industries.

   VI-Transportation.
 
  VII-Communality Activities. 

 VIII-Swagoiars in Public Life.
  
   IX-Some Indian Reminiscences.




        HISTORY OF THE SWAGO COMMUNITY

  Geographic Conditions and Their Influence.- 

The Swago Community lies within a natural 

bowl formed by lofty mountains. As may be seen 

on the sketch map,the Greenbrier river flows 

through the eastern edge of the bowl. Swago 

creek-the English abbreviation for the 

Indian Uswego-flows eastward through thc bowl 

from the western mountains to empty into 

the Greenbrier. The level lands forming '

the bottom of the bowl have an average 

altitude of about 2300 feet, while some of 

the mountains marking the community

boundaries upon the west reach a height of

4000 feet. 

    The big lime traverses the section at an 

altitude of 2500 feet. In many places this    

ledge of limestone is five hundred feet in

thickness. The most desirable farming section 

of the community is in the level lands 

immediately below this outcrop of limestone, 

and it was here that the first settlers 

naturally located.

  Geographic conditions were also responsible 

for the location of the Indian trail which led 

the first settlers into the level lands near 

the mouth of Swago. At what is now known as 

the "Red Mill"  Swago has a considerable fall, 

and it was here that the pioneers built the  

rude mill about which the community grew. 

(hand wrote) Labor, a provider mill and

a sawmill were erected to be driven by power

furnished by the waterfall.



   THE FIRST SETTLERS.- Marlln and Sewall,the 

first white men to reach the Geenbrier, came 

to the mouth of Knapp's  creek in 1749. The 

Lewis family made a survey and laid
       
claim to the land about the present town of 

Marlinton in 1750.  When the desirable land 

about Knapp's creek was taken, immigrants 

sought locations along the Indian trail to the 

southward. Thus it was that Joshua Buckley 

who, with his wife and ch1ld, came from the 

vicinity of Winchester in 1759,  proceeded 

southward until they came to the level land 

where  the Seneca trail, or "Warrior's 

Road" crossed Swago. Here the Buckleys found a 

hunter's camp already erected,and this camp 

became the first prominent home in the Swago 

community. The following year, 1770, Thomas

McNeill established his home at the head of 

Rush Run, adjoining the Buckley survey.  

Later, Moses Moore the noted pioneer, appears 

to have occupied the lands near the present 

Red Mill as other settlers come,they made 

their homes on the mountain spurs which put 

down to level lands.  Among these later 

settlers were the Ewings, Youngs, Kees, 

Adkinson, Auldridge, Rogers and Lightner 

Families

   THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CHURCH.- The early 

settlers of the community were inclined to be 

religious.  Tradition has it that the first 

minister to visit the community conducted 

services in a log barn near the Red Mi11. For -

many years all religious services  were held 

in the homes or in the barns. For many years 

Sabbath School was conducted by Mrs. Sampson 

Mathews at her home now occupied by Withwow 

McClintic. Other religious services

were held at the home of Mrs. Phobe McNeill at

the mill.   Finally, when a schoolhouse was 

erected near the mouth of Dry Creek, this 

building was used as a church. It seems

that a Methodist Protestant minister visited 

the community.  By way of protest, the non- 

church people hastily erected a  log structure 

on the Buckley land neat the mouth of Swago.

Thus the M. P. Church, which had not a single

member in the neighborhood, came to own the 

first church built in the community.  

Later the Methodist Episcopal built a 

church near the mouth of Dry Creek.

     THE SCHOOLS.- As early as 1790, the 

sparsely settled community was supporting a 

short term "pay school" which was held in the 

log barn at the mill.  Later, a school was

conducted in the home of Jonathan McNeill, who 

had acquired the Mill Property. 

     Just when the first school building was 

erected is unknown, but it is certain that 

Such a building existed in 1820. It was

located near the mouth of Dry Creek, and on 

the playground of the present Dry Creek 

school. Prior to the Civil War a number of  

short terms were taught in the "Log Church.' 

These were all pay schools. At the close of 

the war, when the new State went about 

organizing a system of public education, 

Jonatan McNeill was chosen as the first county 

superintendent of schools, and John E. Adkison 

taught the first term of public school in the
 
old log Church at the mouth of Swago.  For 

some yars following the Civil War, the school 

alternated between the Log Church 

and the Dry Creek building. Later, when the 

Increased population demanded, new buildings 

were erected at Dry Creek and Rush Run. At 

this time the Rush Run school is a standard 

two-room graded school, and boasts the best 

library contained by such a school in West 

Virginia. This was the first standard school 

in Pocahontas county and one of the first in 

the state. 
 
Well equipped and flourishing one-room 

schools are located Spruce Flat,Buck's     

Mountain,and Dry Creek.

   The community has a1ways been interested in 

education,  and it is doubted whether any 

community of like size in West Virginia

has sent more of it boys and girls to 

college, or given more of its citizens to 

public life.

  THE INDUSTRIES.- The early settlers gave 

their time to agriculture, hunting, and

trapping.  None of these first settlers were

wealthy. It is told that the total food supply 

brought by the pioneer Buckley family 

consisted of a bushel and a half of corn 

meal, and this scant store was made to feed

the fully for half a year. While land was 

being, cleared and a crop raised, some means 

must be provided for the purchase of the 

supplies which were to be brought across the 

mountains from Staunton and Winchester. 

Clothing made of fur was in demand by the 

aristocracy of Europe,so the colonial merchants

east of the mountains were glad to exchange 

salt, cloth, powder, and fire-arms for the 

pelts of bear, mink, and otter which the Swago 

pioneers were able to secure.

  It Is probable that the first mill was

erected on Swago about 1780 by Moses Moore.  

About 1798, Jonathen McNeill, who married 

Phoebe, a daughter of Moses Moore, acquired the 

mill site and erected a substantial mill which 

continued to serve the community until about 

1890, when H. H. McClintic replaced it with the 

present "Red Mill." Jonathan McNeill also built 

a powder mill and at one time supplied powder 

to the settlers within the limits of the 

present counties of Randolph,

Pocahontas,and Greenbrier. The sulphur required 

in the manufacture of the powder was brought by 

pack-horses from  Staunton, while the saltpeter 

was obtained from the "saltpeter

caves" near the head of Swego. Remains of the 

hoppers used in the manufacture of this 

saltpeter are still to be seen.  One day when 

Jonathan was grinding powder, he left the mill  

running while he went to dinner.  Some 

neighboring boys with a scientific ben sought 

to experiment by placing some flints in the 

hopper. Shortly after the boys were gone, the 

flints went through the rollers and struck 

fire. The pioneers in the surrounding community 

were disturbed some what by a shower of locust 

logs, iron slugs, and sandstone boulders.   When 

Jonathan returned,he found that the powder mill 

had gone away from the Swago community.

   The present population is chiefly engaged in 

agriculture.  The level lands are fertile and 

well adapted to the usual

crops. The limestone hills provide an abundance 

of pasture.

    The land was originally timbered with a 

splendid growth of oak. chestnut,maple,and 

black walnut. Maple sugar is still made by 

some farmers who have preserved their"sugar 

orchards.  Great amounts of valuable timber 

has been destroyed in clear cutting and fencing 

land.

   At an early date an up-and-down sawmill 

was erected on Swago near the present res-

dense of N. C. Rogers.  Later, a number

of small portable mills cut some small bodies 

of timber.  About 1914 the largest area of 

timber in the community was purchased from the 

McClintic heirs by the American Column and 

Lumber Company.  A large band mill was erected 

on the Greenbrier and the logs were brought to 

the mill over a railroad built up Swago.

     The first store was opened by A. L. 

McKeever in his dwelling at Buckeye.  Later, 

John Wanless built a store on the old pike

north of the creek. At present, A. W. McNeill 

has a store on the new State Road south of the 

Creek.

TRANSPORTATION.- The original "Warrior's Road," 

or Seneca Trail ran directly through the Swago 

section and may yet be followed without 

difficulty.  This trail was the highway over 

which the first settlers came to the Swago 

country.  This Tail was widened in some places 

and its location changed in others so that it 

was made to serve as the main public road for

half a century.  In 1856, the Marlingon and 

Lewisburg Pike Was built through the community 

on a location almost parallel to the original 

Warrior's Road.    For many years, all supplies 

were to be hauled over this road from the C&O 

station at Ronceverte. In 1900 the Greenbrier 

division of the C & 0 was built through the 

community and a station known as Buckeye 

established on the cast side of the river 

opposite the mouth of Swago. Just here it may 

be noted that the post office has never been 

known as Swago.  The first office was known as 

Buckeye Cove  because of the growth of buckeye 

trees in the valley near where the first

office was established.  This name has since 

been shortened to Buckeye.

  COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES - Though its first 

settlers came to the Swago community more than 

one hundred-fifty years ago, the neighborhood 

is not yet thickly settled. This may

be accounted for by the fact that the pioneers 

were a home loving breed ,and it has been  

regarded as indicative of shiftless ways if 

an acre of the original land were allowed

to pass out of family control. Much of the 

land within the  community is still owned by 

the descendants of the pioneers.

   The schools and churches have always been 

the centers of  community activities. The 

annual "Presidential Meeting" and basket-

dinner at the Buckeye church vas for twenty-

five years a county rather than a local event. 

Our 4-H Clubs have been maintained almost 

continuously since the plan was introduced

PAGE 9

in West Virginia.  An old-fashioned iterary 

society, organized in 1882 in Connection with 

the Dry Creek school was made a community 

affair and Continued to hold its semi-Monthly 

meetings until 1900. Community singing was 

conducted on a sort of circuit so arranged as 

to include every part of the community.


     SWAGOIANS IN PUBLIC LIFE.- The Swago 

community has never included more than forty 

families,and for the first century after its 

settlement it did not comprise half that 

number Notwithstanding its small population, 

the community has given a number of its native 

sons to public life.  Among these may  

be mentioned the following:

   Joshua Buckley, minister;Jonathan McNeill, 

county superintendent of schools; George W. 

McClintic, Federal Judge; L. M. McClintic, 

prosecuting attorney and member House of 

Delegates; A. L. KcKeever, D. D., President W. 

Va. M. P. Conference: Otto D. McKeaver,  

lecturer;t, N. C. McNeil, Member W. Va. State 

Senate; D. C. Adkinson, clerk  of circuit 

court; Douglas McNeill, prosecuting attorney, 

county superintendent, principal Edray 

District High School;  J.E.Buckley,  

postmaster Marlinton,West Virginia; George 

Duncan,county surveyor, Moore McNeill, 

minister,  (hand wrote) John Kellison, ____and 

Coach

     SOME INDIAN REMINISCENCES- The first 

settlers had their  share of difficulty with 

the Indians- From the standpoint of  

historic interest the killing of the BRIDGER 

BOYS at Bridger  Gap in 1786 deserves to be 

first mentioned. This was on the occasion of 

the Drinnen Raid when a war-party of Iraquais

swept down upon the Greenbrier Settlement form 

the north.	

   When the attack was made upon the Drinnon 

cabin, which stood near the Pocahontas County 

Fair-Ground. the alarm was spread among the 

settlers of the Swago community,  and haste 

was made to reach the fort at Mi11 Point. When 

a party of the refugees had reached the top of 

the hill about a mile south of the present 

Buckeye poet-office, it was decided that while 

the main party followed the road around the 

end of the mountain, a few scouts should take 

the Warrior's Road which led across the 

mountain. These scouts were the Bridger boys-

John and Jim and Nathan,a Negro slave 

belonging to Drinnen. When the little party 

neared  the "gap"-since known as Bridger's 

Notch - Nathan paused to tie his moccasin.  As 

the Bridgers came into the "notch"  they -were 

fired upon from ambush. John was instantly 

killed. James ran southward down the mountain 

toward Mill Point, but was overtaken and shot 

at the foot of the mountain. Nathan escaped to 

join the the main party at the Waddell Place 

where James Cook now lives. Next day the 

bodies of the  Bridgers were brought to Mi11 

Point and were buried on the knoll near where 

Lanty McNeill now resides.

    While the Drinnen Raid was on, "Swago" 

Bill Ewing ventured out from the fort to see 

if all was well at his home, which was on 

lands now owned by W. McClintic. He reached 

the cabin safely and found that nothing had 

been disturbed. As he was leaving on his 

return to the fort, he passed the field where 

he had been plowing when the Indian alarm was 

spread. He thought it wise to remove his new 

plow to a place of safety so he shouldered it 

and was carrying it to the woods, at that 

moment he heard the rasping of the flintlock 

rifles. Turning, he saw three Indians lying 

behind a log. Their powder was damp and the

guns had missed fire. Ewing dropped the plow 

and ran with the Indians in pursuit.  The path 

followed by Ewing led by what is known an the 

Marony Place, near the head of Rush Run.

Where the trail crossed the Run,  the swampy 

land was covered with willows and rushes. 

Ewing turned up the run, and so deceived the 

Indians who continued to follow the path. The 

large buckeye tree behind which Ewing hid was 

standing until a few years ago.