(Editor's Note: A Roane county lynching of 1875 is described in detail in the following report by C. E. Douglas, of Vienna, a Wood county resident since 1922 and one time officer of the U.S. Treasury Department. A Roane county native, he has been interested in early history of West Virginia since he was a boy and this is the first in a series of columns he will write for The Sunday News.)

About the year 1875 a band of lawless men began terrorizing Roane and adjoining counties. Stores, homes and it has been said that even a train was robbed by them. Silas "Si" Counts who owned a store in Harper district, Roane county and for whom the post office of Countsville was named had been robbed on more than one occasion, his brother Wade Counts it was alleged killed a Jackson county man whom rumor said was connected with the robberies. Upon being arrested Counts furnished an alibi but this was nothing new.

In the year of 1812, Samuel Tanner and his family, along with Jonathan Wolfe, traveled from Harrison County to Roane County, to the site of what is now the city of Spencer, West Virginia. This piece of land laying on the waters of Spring Creek, a branch of the Little Kanawha River, seemed an ideal place to settle. Samuel established a home for himself and his family in a cave, under the cliffs where Spencer Middle School now stands. Jesse Hughes may have been the first white man to see Roane County, but he did not settle here until much later. Jesse Hughes was so impressed with the area and painted such a beautiful picture of the place, his brother-in-law, Samuel Tanner, decided to make the journey from Harrison County. It seemed to be an ideal place to homestead. There was a huge overhanging rock shelf, a beautiful spring, a nearby creek, and abundant game in the surrounding forest. The cave, long used by both white men and Indians as a camping spot, seemed like a perfect place to set up housekeeping. Logs were cut and split, then stood up along the edge of the overhanging rock for an outside wall. A crude fireplace was constructed at one end and the smoke was allowed to go up through a crevice in the rocks. Leaves were piled into the back corners of the living room, a table and stools were added and they were ready for housekeeping. The cave consisted of two rooms, side by side with a partition of rock in between. The larger room must have been some fifteen feet deep and thirty feet long with a eight foot ceiling. The smaller room was just as deep but perhaps only half as long and served as a stable for livestock. The cliffs are no more than a shadow of their original selves. Because of the danger to children, much of the shelf has been broken off deliberately. It was while living under this rock their first daughter, Elizabeth, is supposed to have been born. It is said that she was the first white child born in Roane County.

In 1885, the state legislature began hearings on the need for a Second Hospital for the Insane. The first hospital for the insane was built at Weston in 1859. Because of overcrowded conditions, it was determined that a second facility was needed. They appointed a commission to choose several sites and present their findings at the next session in 1887. John G Schilling, a Spencer attorney, was among the members of the commission.

Some of the first families to come to the area of what is now called southeastern Roane County were John Kelly, Ware Long and Francis Garner. They with their families settled along Big Sandy Creek in 1809 about three miles below the mouth of Left Hand Creek. John Ashley and his family followed the next year and the area became known as Ashley's Settlement. These families probably came westward by the Kanawha and Elk Rivers and then up the Big Sandy.

Publications for sale by the Roane County Historical Society and friends.