FORT LEE
(1788-1796)
From time to time, I like to write about history that expands beyond our fair county to include our proud West Virginia as well as our National heritage. I read a book this week titled, ‘The Annals of Fort Lee’ written by Roy Bird Cook in 1935. The book was published by West Virginia Review Press in Charleston, WV.
Of course, if you are a WV history buff like me, you already know that Fort Lee was located within the bounds of what is now Charleston and is our state capital. Our capital city was named such in honor of Charles Clendenin who was the father of George Clendenin, Charleston’s founder.
I hope you enjoy this article as much as I enjoyed reading the small 119-page testament to our rich WV capital city. You can find it on Amazon in Kindle format for just a couple of dollars if you’re interested. (Personally, I like the feel of a real book in my hand when I read, but modern tech is also great.)
I’ve been to Charleston many times, but this time I was on a mission to see it through the eyes of our early pioneers. I believe firmly that we cannot know where we are, or where we’re going, without knowing where we’ve been and how we got to where we are. Now, enough lecturing… let’s move on.
Arriving in Charleston about 7 a.m. I found the city waking to another bustling day of activity. People going to work and not really thinking about all this rich history surrounding them. I had to smile to myself… if only they could see Charleston, WV through my imaginative eyes.
Standing along the mighty Kanawha River at 1205 Kanawha Blvd East about 125 feet above what is now the intersection of Brooks St. and Kanawha Blvd., I could see she was “smoking” as the morning sun kissed her gingerly. I could almost see the giant wilderness filled with trees like the massive oaks, unwavering hickory, papery sycamores, tulip poplars, the powerful spruce, and so many others caressing the riverbank and offering me a rich earthy scent as only mother nature can. I could see a flatbottom boat tethered to the bank. It had probably been used to bring supplies downriver and was waiting to be disassembled. The wood would be used for building material, everything was valuable, and nothing went to waste.
The smell of smoke, coffee and maybe some food that had been prepared earlier would still be lingering, horseflesh and male flesh in need of a bath began creeping into my imagination. (Could have done without that.)
Along the riverbank, fish were so plentiful that I could smell them as easily as I could see them. What a great source of food for the soldiers, I thought.
Suddenly, a 21st century car horn blew and brought me back to the present. I was a little disappointed, but enough of my adventure and back to our story…
Fort Lee
Fort Lee was really more of an outpost than a fort as we would think of the ones in the old western movies many of us grew up on. Still, it was part of the recognized system of the Virginia frontier defense offering protection which afforded a degree of safety to the pioneers ever migrating in the great western movement.
Though some have called it Clendenin’s Fort, that name would be incorrect. It has been called “Clendenin’s Station” and “Clendenin’s Mansion House” in some reports and newspapers, but never “Clendenin’s Fort.” Historically, it has always been Fort Lee. So named in honor of the famous Revolutionary War general, “Light Horse Harry” Lee who was also one of George Washington’s most trusted officers. He was also the father of General Robert E. Lee, the famous Civil War hero of the South. and a future governor of Virginia.
It all began in January of 1788 when Colonel George Clendenin was in Richmond. The discussion of safety for the settlers who had been steadily moving south of the Potomac since about 1719 and were now on the western frontier of the Commonwealth of Virginia was before the Assembly.
Proof that some things never change, a committee was appointed. Reports were made, and then presented. Clendenin insisted that something had to be done to protect that country which was west of what was then Greenbrier County. He stated that the new western country was overflowing with fish in the streams, and wild game in the wilderness. He emphasized that there were also valuable salt licks which attracted the Native Indians and gave them a highway to the east. He stressed that by creating this security for the Kanawha Valley area it would shorten the distance to the Ohio by the way of Pittsburg then being used.
The decision was made to create the fort. Clendenin was directed to organize 60 rangers to build a fort to protect the Kanawha Valley region and to erect the fort at a location of his choosing near the confluence of the Kanawha and Elk Rivers. He appointed his brother, William Clendenin captain and chose to utilize the area of land Clendenin had purchased from Judge Cuthbert Bullitt of Prince William County, Virginia, much to the dissatisfaction of some of the surrounding landowners.
On April 1, the little army left Lewisburg. The supplies were carried on 10 pack horses. The trip took 5 days. Among the rangers and future founders of Charleston were: Col. George Clendenin, who commanded in person; under him was his brother, William, captain of the Rangers; Lt. George Shaw; Ensign Francis Watkins, Sgt. Shadrack Harriman and Sgt. Reuben Slaughter. Under these officers were the following privates:
John Tollypurt, Samuel Dunbar, John Burns, Isaac Snedieer, William Miller, John Buckle, James Edgar, Michael Newhouse, Robert Aaron, William Carroll, Thomas Shirkey, Nicholas Null, Archer Parice, Benjamin Morris, Levi Morris, Joseph Burwell, William Boggs, William Morris, William Turrell, William Hyllard, John Cavinder, Henry Morris, Charles Young, William George, Alexander Clendenin, and John Moore. There were 2 scouts whose names have been lost to time. Other men joined the formation as they moved onward.
The party arrived at the chosen site on April 5, 1788. The site chosen was considered to be the best suited for several reasons. Number one, the bank above jutted out making a good vantage point from which to view the river downstream. Number 2, below, the bank extended some distance beyond the present location of Kanawha St., so much so that there was plenty of room for the 2-story houses which stood between the present street line and the river. And number 3, between these two sections was a ravine or gully that broke the uniform rim of the riverbank. It made a good and easy landing for canoes and afforded easy access to the river from the higher ground.
According to the words of ‘The Annals of Fort Lee,’ construction of the fort structure was as follows:
“Supplies brought along were all kinds available in that day. The men chosen for the duty included experienced woodsmen and some carpenters and joiners. Some of the men set to work at once, cutting trees and hewing them into shape. Others selected logs to be split into halves for the stockade or fence which had to be erected. Some lumber was “whipsawed,” with great labor for use in floors, from the green timber of some of the fine poplar trees found on the site. The logs for the squared and double hewed with a broadaxe and adz, then dovetailed. Then, came the raising. The whole building was underpinned. The outside walls were thirty-six feet long in the clear and eighteen feet wide, rising perhaps to a height of eighteen feet from the sill to the wall plate. The rafters were whipsawed and fastened with wooden pins. In front and back were small windows, but not clear if supplied with shutters. The roof was of clapboards. At each end stood a chimney built of field stone, well “daubed,” each of which had an open fireplace on the first floor. The first floor was of sections of trees, smoothed with an adz; such a floor was known as a “puncheon” floor. The second floor then, or at least a few years later, was made of whipsawed poplar boards, about 10” wide nailed with handmade nails, resembling horseshoe nails. There were 2 rooms and a small hallway on the first floor, and 2 rooms on the second floor. At first it seems that entrance to the second floor was gained by a ladder leading up from the first floor. This structure, well-built and bullet proof, was in a short time the “mansion house” of Colonel Clendenin, mentioned in contemporary records, and officially known in the records of Virginia as Fort Lee, named for Henry Lee, governor of that state.”
The 2-story hewn-log structure which was considered to be both bullet and arrow proof. The “Mansion House”, as it was called, was 36 feet by 18 feet in size.
Even with the April heavy rains and major flooding, the small fort was completed in May 1788. The standard plans used for a stockade at that time were used for the construction of the fort. Unhewed logs which were placed upright and set side by side in ditches were used. The stockade was about 250’ x 175’.
The rangers that accompanied Clendenin established a small blockade a mile above the fort, which was where Clendenin’s brother, Captain William Clendenin lived. It stood on the riverbank by the side of the later State Road near present 1710 Kanawha St. The majority of the rangers were among the first permanent residents of Charleston.
After the establishment of Fort Lee, Clendenin convinced the VA State Legislature to form Kanawha County from land then owned by Greenbrier and Montgomery Counties. The first county court was housed in the Mansion House, while the first session was held on October 5th, 1789. The justices present at the first session decided to establish a courthouse at the mouth of the Elk River. Clendenin’s establishment of Fort Lee guaranteed him a permanent position in local government, and he was appointed the county lieutenant. In 1790, Clendenin and Andrew Donnally Sr. became the Kanawha County representative for the Virginia House of Delegates.
After Fort Lee was constructed and achieved its purpose in protecting the settlers and helped to establish the Charleston settlement. Col. Clendenin was able to persuade the Virginia Legislature to create Kanawha County from the western parts of Greenbrier and Montgomery Counties.
Prior to the building of Fort Lee, Native Americans claimed this area as tribal hunting grounds. The Treaty of Fort Stanwix opened up the trans-Allegheny region to settlement. The local Indians to retaliate to prove that they would not be moved easily.
A local legend was created during one of the attacks on Fort Lee when “Mad” Anne Bailey, who was widowed during the battle of Point Pleasant and began to wear men’s clothing and drinking whiskey to ease her pain rode through Indian infested territory to retrieve ammunition and gunpowder. The legend says that Bailey saved Fort Lee during an attack when she rode her horse back to the Greenbrier settlement, obtaining gunpowder, and rushing it back in time to defeat the attackers. Since the Indians thought she was crazy, they were afraid to harm her for fear of retaliation from the Great Spirit. Ann Bailey could pass through them without fear of harm coming to her and it is said that she did just that.
Joseph Ruffner purchase Fort Lee from the Clendenin brothers in 1796, which shortly fell into disrepair. The blockhouse was purchased by John P. Hale in 1872 and moved the structure. On April 1st, 1891, the blockade house belonging to Fort Lee was destroyed by fire. There is a table constructed from the remains of the structure in the State Department of Archives and History.
The stockade stood until 1815. The blockhouse was used as a residence for many years. John P. Hale purchased the original lot and the fort (blockhouse) in 1872. The building was moved to the corner of Virginia and Brooks Streets. It later burned down in 1891. This marker and another monument erected in 1915 at the site marking the site of Charleston’s beginnings is all that remains.
Everything else speaks for itself.
God Bless
Patricia Richards Harris
Doddridge County Historical Society