Researching The Leatherman Gravestone

Chronicles of the Tucker County Highlands History and Education Project
A project supported by the Friends of the 500th, the volunteer organization of the Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge
No. 39
October 2011
Canaan Valley, West Virginia
Researching The Leatherman Gravestone
Elaine George
Early this year, I drove from Canaan Valley northeast to New Creek, twenty miles as the crow flies. As
I dropped off the Allegheny Front, the air warmed and dried and the blooming flowers attested to the
longer, friendlier growing season of New Creek. I was struck by how much more socially developed
this area might have been in the late 1800s compared to the isolated highlands of Tucker County. I was
searching for information around which to build a Tucker County Highlands and History Project
(TCHHEP) article and was hoping to find it in the family graveyard of one of Canaan Valley's original
settlers – the Leathermans.
Land Speculation
efore the Civil War, the highland area of Tucker
County, the area southeast of Backbone Mountain “Canada” - was intimidating wilderness. The towns of
Davis and Thomas did not exist. There was the
occasional hunting party (elk were said to roam the
Valley until 1861) or band of explorers but very few
were hardy enough to attempt to settle the area. The
bulk of Tucker County's 1400 residents lived on or near
the lower Cheat River and its gentler tributaries.
B
The wild area was not to remain untouched. Surveying
for a railroad into the highlands was “well advanced”
until the Civil War broke out and stopped everything. In
1866, the Potomac and Piedmont Coal and Railway
Company, led by ubiquitous capitalist Henry Gassaway
Davis, was given the right by the new state of West
Virginia to build a rail line into the area. P&PC&R may
have been stymied by Davis' election to the US Senate.
There was no progress until 1881 when a new company,
chartered by the State of West Virginia, took over; the
West Virginia Central and Pittsburg [sic] Railway, also
led by Henry Gassaway Davis. WVC&P's charter
authorized it to construct a railroad from any point on
the existing Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) line which
would follow the North Branch of the Potomac and
connect to any other railroad in the state. The company
could buy and sell land with no limit, harvest timber,
and mine coal, iron ore, and any other mineral. From
this charter, the company in 1882 planned to build its
line from Piedmont, WV which sat at the bottom of the
B&O's “seventeen mile grade” up the Allegheny Front.
The line would climb southwest fifty to sixty miles
New Creek, post 1886
Patterson Creek, pre-1879
The George W. Leatherman
family left Patterson Creek
to come to Canaan Valley in
1880 then returned to
Canaan Valley ~1880-1886 settle at New Creek
in 1886.
into Tucker County. Long-term plans were to
then continue south to connect the B&O with
the Chesapeake and Ohio and the Richmond
and Alleghany [sic] railroads.
By early 1883, the WVC&P had decided to
terminate the line at a new town being built on
the Blackwater River at Beaver Creek – Davis
– fifty-three miles uprail from Piedmont. In
the future, spur lines might go further south
into Canaan Valley but the idea of a mainline
railroad was dead.
First Settlers
In 1864, the Solomon and Catherine (Schell)
Cosner family moved into Canaan Valley, as
the first long-term settlers. Six years later,
John and Margaret (Miller) Nine became the
second family known to settle the area. There
was even a Sunday school, run by (soon to be)
Reverend William F. Cosner, for the meager
population.
But soon, the idea of a railroad line and the
potential for lumber and coal brought speculators.
By the early 1880's there were eighteen
households containing ninety-two people living in
the Valley. (Of those, twenty-four were
immediate descendants of Solomon and Catherine
Cosner).
turn out to be when GWL was in Tucker County
buying land). And, they had six children – Warner
Washington (b. Oct 28, 1859), John William (b. Jan
17, 1862 while the family was in Indiana), Zedekiah
Amos (b. Apr 20, 1867), Mary Elizabeth (b. Jul 24,
1869), George Sandford (b. Nov 11, 1871), and
Daniel Robert (b. Aug 20, 1875). But then a common
tragedy occurred. Only six days after Daniel's birth;
Mary Susan died. She was buried in the Whipp
Family Cemetery in Burlington and GWL was left
with six children, including a newborn, to care for.
The Leatherman Family
George Washington Leatherman (GWL) was born
on his family's farm on Patterson Creek,
Hampshire County, (West) Virginia on July 2,
1835.
His great-great-grandfather, Nicholas
Leatherman, had resettled to Patterson Creek from
Bucks County, Pennsylvania in 1790. The family
had been in Bucks County since 1727, when Hans
Dewalt Lederman came to the New World from
Germany.
At the start of the Civil War, GWL was twentysix years old, married to Mary Susan (Whipp)
Leatherman and the father of one son. He had
bought out the other heirs and was the sole owner
of the family farm on Patterson Creek, real estate
valued at $1200. However, he was drafted to
fight for the Confederate Army (this still being
Virginia) and “it did not suit his inclinations to
fight for that side” (Maxwell) so he and the family
absconded to Indiana. By the time the family
returned to Patterson Creek in 1862, there had
been two recorded battles in the immediate area:
New Creek on June 17, 1861 and Springfield on
August 23, 1861. Guerrilla bands from both sides
roamed the area which was torn between Union
and Rebel sympathizers.
Through the late 1860s and 1870s, the family
appeared to thrive. They owned 200 acres of
good, flat land on Patterson Creek. GWL and
other members of his father's family became
acquainted with and made land transactions with
Henry Gassaway Davis. GWL and Mary Susan
were active members of the Beaver Run Church
of the Brethren in Burlington where GWL was on
the Communion and Treasury Committees. From
1871 to January of 1879, the family tithed to the
Beaver Run church at every recorded Communion
meeting except one. (That missed meeting would
This is a section of a map that appeared in
an article titled, “By-Paths in the Mountains”,
by Rebecca Harding Davis, in Harper’s
magazine, July 1880. It is at about this time
that the Leatherman family forged their way
through the wilderness to make a new home
for themselves in Canaan Valley, shown at
the bottom center of the map as “Land of
Canaan”. Little is known of the area at this
time; there are no roads in the Valley and
Canaan and Brown Mountains are totally
missing from the map. The towns of Davis,
Thomas and Parsons don’t exist. The
nearest settlements are St. George to the
west and Petersburg (Grant C.H.) to the
east, each nearly a full day by horseback
from the Leatherman home in the wilds of
Canaan Valley.
This apparently didn't slow GWL down for too
long. In October of 1876, he bought 1,436
acres of heavily wooded and swamp land listed
on the deed as on the “headwaters of the Black
Fork of the Cheat in Canaan”. The land was
bought from the Sheriff of Tucker County for
$60.36 for the collection of delinquent taxes.
GWL now owned land right along where his
business acquaintance, Henry Gassaway Davis,
had been hoping and planning to build a
mainline railroad since 1871. Five months
later, on March 21, 1877 near Patterson Creek,
he married Caroline Thrush. Caroline, an old
schoolmate of GWL's,
was thirty-eight years
old.
It's difficult to know
exactly when GWL
and Caroline moved
their family to their
new
property
in
Canaan Valley. We
have
located
the
following records:
January 23, 1878
GWL and Caroline's first
child, Emma Margaret Leatherman, was born at
Patterson Creek.
January 24, 1879
The family made their last tithe to Beaver Run
Church of the Brethren until 1886.
October 13, 1879
GWL and Caroline's second child, Joseph, was
born and died. His vital records were listed at
the Mineral County courthouse but someone
later apparently tried to change the birth
location to “Cannan” [sic] .
1880
Hu Maxwell, in his History of Tucker County,
wrote that GWL moved his family to Canaan in
1880. “It was the work of nineteen days to cut a
road to get his wagons into the country”. GWL
was probably the source of this information.
From this, we determine that sometime after
January 1879, the family moved to Tucker
County. On June 1, 1880, S.S. Lambert
recorded GWL and Caroline's family in the US
Census of Dry Fork District of Tucker County.
GWL was 44 years old and a farmer who had been
unemployed for three months in the previous year.
Lambert records that Caroline, his wife, was 31 years
old and “kept house”. (According to other records,
Caroline would have been 42). Their children included:
Warner (20, “worked at home”), John (18), Zedekiah
(13), Mary Elizabeth (11), George Sandford (9), Daniel
(4) and Emma (2).
On December 5, 1880, George Sandford Leatherman,
GWL's fourth son, died. He was buried on family
property in Canaan Valley and his grave was marked
with a sandstone headstone and footstone.
Engraving on young
George’s headstone
faces to the west;
there is no
engraving on the
footstone. Tradition
has it that a body is
buried with feet to
the east and head
to the west so that
the resurrected
dead could arise to
face the dawn of
judgment day.
Engravings were
done on the west
side of the
headstone so that
an observer could
read the stone
without walking on
the grave. TCHHEP
has failed to locate
other gravestones in
the area with the
distinctive “L” and “&”
of the GSL Stone. The
gravesite is located off
trail on Canaan Valley
National Wildlife
Refuge.
George
Sandford
Leatherman's Died Dec 5
headstone.
Photo by the
author,
Age 9 yr &
March 2011.
The engraving 24 Da
reads:
GSL
1880
Life went on and the family established a
homestead in Canaan. They farmed and started an
orchard of which a few trees still remain. Their
location near the Blackwater River and a smaller
stream probably helped them through the severe
drought of 1882. GWL's third cousin, Isaac
Leatherman, his wife Sarah, and their children,
Lucy and Paul, settled nearby. GWL wheeled and
dealed, selling and buying land and leasing timber
rights. George Leatherman “has prospered in his
undertakings...” (Maxwell).
But in early 1883, the WVC&P decided not to
continue a mainline rail south through Canaan
Valley. GWL's land was still valuable; spur rail
lines and the Blackwater could be used to transport
timber from his property but there would not be the
additional benefit of being directly on a mainline
railroad. GWL remained upbeat, stating “…
Cansan [sic] will yet be a great business center as
its sources of mineral, timber and grazing are
developed (Keyser Tribune, February 16, 1884).
Despite this optimistic prediction, in 1885 or 1886
the family moved back to Patterson Creek and then
to a new farm at New Creek in Mineral County. In
1890, after selling 1400 acres in Canaan Valley, he
established the Leatherman Church, “the mother
Church of the Brethren in the New Creek Valley”.
He continued trading land and timber in Canaan and
Davis: “Rev. G.W. Leatherman was in town
Monday on his way to Canaan Valley, where he
owns several thousand acres of land. He intends to
divide it up into small farms and sell them” (Keyser
Tribune, August 15, 1902). It would be 1915 before
all of GWL's holdings in Canaan were sold.
George Washington Leatherman died on October 8,
1905 at New Creek and was interred in the family
cemetery on his New Creek farm. His son Zedekiah
(d. 1895) and daughter Emma (d. 1904) were already
buried there. Sons Daniel (d. 1906), Warner (d.
1921) and John (d. 1922) would also be buried there.
His eldest daughter, Mary Elizabeth Leatherman
Roderick (d. 1958) was buried in Queens Meadow
Point Cemetery in Keyser.
Sketch of the
Leatherman
homestead in
Canaan Valley
drawn by Emma
Leatherman.
Emma lived
here from age
two to seven
years. She died
at twenty-six in
New Creek. Of
the three large
buildings, the
two on the right
appear to be
houses; note
that she drew
the right-most one to look like clapboard while the other is log. The large building on the
left is a barn with paddock. A springhouse faintly shows on the far lower right. The
Leatherman's newly planted orchard is at upper right. Emma's drawing was given by Ben
Thompson to David Downs. Ben related to David that the site was “near the ski area” - a
reference to the Canaan Valley Resort State Park Ski Area at that time.
The remains of one of
the Leatherman
buildings in Canaan
Valley today, probably
the log house in Emma's
sketch. The stone
foundation is open in the
front and is
approximately 15 feet
wide by 12 feet deep. A
good, strong spring is
fifty yards downhill and
to the right of this
foundation and five old
apple trees are uphill
and to the right. This
homestead is approximately eighty yards west of George Sandford Leatherman's grave.
The site was apparently used in more recent years as a camp. Photo by the author,
March, 2011.
The Mystery
Despite all we know about the Leatherman family,
a tantalizing mystery remains. In the Spring of
2010, Robert White of Thomas notified the
Refuge manager that he and a hunting buddy had,
years ago, seen gravestones on the Refuge. He
wanted the Refuge to be aware of the site and
protect it. TCHHEP members interviewed Mr.
White and Daniel “Boone” Pase, his hunting
buddy, and visited the site with Mr. Pase. While
the site was already known to Refuge staff, White
and Pase gave new information: when they first
saw the site, there had been four to six stones and
at least one of these stones was a “factory-made”,
polished stone with the name “Leatherman”
engraved on it. Later a third man reported that
there were “several”stones at the site.
corner
11’ 10”
Today, there are only two definite stones at the site - the GSL engraved headstone and it's apparent
footstone – and possibly a third marker which is a lump of conglomerate stone. But a survey of the
site suggests that it had at one time been fenced and that the area within the fence was large enough
hold up to four graves. Which brings up the mystery: are there other tombs at the GSL grave site? In
Canaan Valley family oral lore, Caroline said that she wanted to be able to sit on the front porch of her
house and look across at “his grave”. Who was the “his” that she referred to – her stepson George
Sandford Leatherman? Or, perhaps did she have a son who lived only a short while and was also
buried at the site? Did GWL’s wife Caroline herself want to be buried at this site? Did the other
Leatherman family – Isaac and Sarah – perhaps lose a child that was buried at the site? And, where is
the “factory-made” stone?
Which is the reason I came to Mineral County hunting a graveyard on that day in early April. Could
there be any clues at the Leatherman Family Cemetery? Anna Mary Spencer would help me find out.
She is the great-granddaughter of George Washington Leatherman.
Anna Mary showed me the boundaries of the beautiful farm that GWL had established on New Creek,
now divided into Quail Valley Development and New Creek Estates with some farmland remaining.
She showed me the location of GWL and Caroline's house, the location of GWL's original Leatherman
Church and its subsequent structures, and the barn that her grandfather, Warner, had built.
We went to the Leatherman Family Cemetery sitting on a well-hidden knoll off Pine Swamp Road in
New Creek. There have been no burials since the 1920s and the cemetery is in disrepair. Many of the
stones are toppled and the iron fence is completely down; cattle meander through at will. Polished
granite stones mark the final resting places of GWL and five of his children: Warner, John, Zedekiah,
Daniel and Emma. But, despite her 1915 obituary stating that she was to be buried beside her
husband, there is no stone for Caroline. There is no factory-made stone which says only
“Leatherman”.
In addition to Leatherman graves, there are Cox, Lawrence, Spencer, Steward and Parrish graves. It is
believed that all of these are members of the Leatherman Church of the Brethren. Other than
deterioration, there has been no change in the cemetery since the Works Project Administration's 1938
survey.
George Washington Leatherman's stone sits in the
very middle of the cemetery. It reads:
FATHER
REV. GEORGE.W.
LEATHERMAN
Elder of German Baptist
Brethern Church
Died Oct. 8.1905
Aged 70 yrs. 3mos
& 6 dys.
Wife and children I must leave you, Leave yes leave you
all alone, For my Heavenly Father calls me Calls me to
my heavenly home.
A Final Word
We know that George Washington and Caroline Leatherman's family was one of Canaan Valley's
earliest and believe that their moving to the area was more for land speculation than to escape the
settled area to the east of the Allegheny Front. We know that they established a homestead in the
Valley of which remnants remain and that they buried their (step)son, George Sandford
Leatherman, in a marked grave directly east of their homestead. Whether there are other burials at
this gravesite, remains to be seen. 
Sources for this Chronicles article include:
History of Tucker County, West Virginia; From the Earliest Explorations and Settlements to the
Present Time. Hu Maxwell, 1884.
All Leatherman Kin History; A Brief History and Partial Genealogical Record of Leatherman
Families and Their Descendants in the North America Continent. Compiled by Rev. I. John
Leatherman and Emma Leatherman Candler, 1940.
Biennial Report of the Department of Archives and History. Virgil Lewis, 1906.
Mineral County, West Virginia; Traits, Tracks and Trails.
Early American Gravestones; Introduction to the Farber Gravestone Collection. Jessie Lie
Farber, 2003.
And records and archives of: Tucker County Courthouse, Parsons. Beaver Run Church of the
Brethren, Burlington. Mineral County Courthouse, Keyser. Grant County Courthouse, Petersburg.
Hampshire County Courthouse, Romney. Keyser Tribune. Keyser First Church of the Brethren,
Congregation History. US Census.
About the author: Elaine George has been enthralled with the West Virginia highlands since she
was a child in Stonewood, WV. After retiring from their engineering careers, Elaine and her
husband, Tom Tillman, are enjoying fulfilling their dream to live in Canaan Valley. They enjoy
living in the highlands where they mountain bike, ski, hike and kayak. Elaine is interested in the
history of everyday, unsung people; how they subsisted, prospered or failed . She is a member of
the board of directors of the Friends of the 500th and is active in the operation of the Friends’
bookstore in the Refuge Visitor Center. This is her first Chronicles article. ~ Editor
Friends of the 500th Bookstore News
Nearly all accounts in Canaan Valley history books in print overlook the Leatherman family as
among the earliest settlers here. Elaine George’s research to assemble the information needed to
write this article is a credit to her and the group of historians known as TCHHEP who have been
putting these articles together for the last thirty-nine consecutive editions of Timberdoodle. It is
also worth pointing out that Dr. Ed Michael has written a fictionalized account of the Leatherman
family's time in Canaan Valley. Readers might be interested in reading this book, Death Visits
Canaan, to learn more about the first settlers' experiences in the Valley. Dr. Michael's book will
be available after the first of the year and will be sold in the Friends of the 500th bookstore in the
Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center.
Also a reminder that more than 400 copies of Behold! The Land of Canaan Volume 2 have been
sold since it was published in June. If you’re thinking about buying one, don’t delay. The
bookstore is selling them and they are also available by mail for $20 (includes shipping and sales
tax) if sent to a WV address or $19 to any of the other 49 states. Mail a check made out to Friends
of the 500th to PO Box 422, Davis, WV 26260. We are totally non-profit and all proceeds go to
making the Refuge a more interesting and enjoyable place to visit.