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Eagle District:
The
first entry of land in this district was made March 12, 1785. The
first actual settlement was made on Jones Run; Thomas
and Edward Cunningham, John Hull, Captain Thomas Harbert, John Wood, Benjamin
Robinson, Samuel Harbert, Peter, John and Elizabeth Cornelius, and Nathan
Reece, first settlers. The first abode of civilization in
this wilderness was a rude log cabin, built more than one hundred years
ago.
Ten-Mile Creek, a considerable
stream, runs easterly though the middle of the district; in the northern
part is Bingamon Creek, running easterly. Cunningham Creek empties
into Bingamon, and Jones Run empties into Ten-Mile at Lumberport.
There are two mills doing a good business in Eagle district, on Ten-Mile.
The land of the district
is very hilly, but remarkably fertile, producing blue grass in abundance.
Limestone is found, and there is a good ten-foot vein of coal. The
timber is the best quality of tough white oak.
The first grist mill of
the district was built about 1800 by Benjamin Robinson,
at the present site of lumberport. It was a stone mill, and was washed
out in 1820. The earliest and most primitive milling was done by
Edward and Thomas Cunningham, who, about 1785,
settled a short distance from the mouth of Cunninghams Run. They
put in a dam to work a piston over a beam that had an iron wedge in the
end. The wedge was worked to strike against a rock, and in this way
corn was founded fine. These mills became quite common in this section
during the pioneer days. The first saw mill was also built by
Benjamin Robinson, commonly called
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"Major Robinson",
and was a No. 1 mill for it's time, built of stone, with two sets of buhrs.
It was erected in the closing years of the eighteenth century. In
1809, Benjamin J. Copeland
built some salt
works at the Fork of Ten-Mile, three miles from Lumberport, which were
operated about twenty years.
The first school in the district
was taught in a little log hut on Ten-Mile Run, in 1802,
Gabrielle
G. Wilkinson, teacher. The first school house was built 1818,
with the usual pioneer expedients in way of architecture. It was
located on Robinsons Run. There are now twelve good good-houses,
with an attendance of 660 pupils.
The first post office
was established at Lumberport, and is still in existence; there is one
other in the district, at Prospect Valley.
The first sermon was preached
at the fort on Jones Run, by the Rev. Mr. Cooley,
in 1785. The first church was established about 1816, on Robinsons
Run, by the Rev. Mr. Poole, Methodist.
Among it's members were David Masters, Bazul Lucas,
and Bazul Harvey. The Methodist Church at Lumberport was organized
in 1840, the church building erected in 1845. Benjamin
Ison was the clergyman in charge, and among the first members were:
Jacob Bowman, Thomas and Daniel Robinson, Mary Sandy,
and Dorcas Steer. The Baptist, Methodist, and United Brethren
churches all have places of worship now in the district.
The first Sabbath school in
the district was organized in 1830 by John Flowers,
and soon had an attendance of forty. The Methodist Protestant Church
at Lumberport has a Sabbath School with fifty scholars,
Ed. Denham, Superintendent.
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