Taken in part from:

Border Settlers of Northwestern Virginia

Written by Lucullus Virgil McWhorter

Year 1769

A youth of about nineteen -Jesse Hughes. He was of Welsh extraction, slight in his proportions, and light and active in his movements. He possessed a form as erect as that of an Indian, and had endurance and fleetness of limb that no man of his day surpassed.
His height was about five feet and nine inches, and his weight never exceeded one hundred and forty-five pounds. He had thin lips, a narrow chin, a nose that was sharp and inclined to the Roman form, little or no beard, light hair, and eyes of that
indefinable color that one person would pronounce grey, another blue, but which was both -and neither. They were piercing, cold, fierce, and as penetrating and restless as those of the mountain panther.

Said one who knew him: "Hughes had eyes like a rattlesnake." It has been averred, and without contradiction, that Jesse Hughes, like the famed "Deaf Smith" of Texas, could detect the presence of an Indian at a considerable distance by the mere sense of smell.
He was of an irritable, vindictive, and suspicious nature, and his hatred, when aroused, knew no bounds. Yet it is said that he was true to those who) gained his friendship. Such was Jesse Hughes in character and appearance when he arrived in that country destined to become his future home, and where he became the noted hunter, the great scout and famous Indian fighter of Northwestern Virginia.
In an interview with an intelligent and reputable lady, now deceased, who, in her childhood, had known Jesse Hughes, and had been intimately acquainted with some of his family, I was given this vivid description of the characteristics and personal appearance of the great Indian fighter: "Hughes' countenance was hard, stern and unfeeling; his eyes were the most cruel and vicious I ever saw. He was profane and desperately wicked. He was very superstitious, and a firm believer in witchcraft.  He told horrible stories of how witches would crawl like spiders over the naked bodies of babies, causing them to cry out from pain and misery; and he would conjure to counteract the witches, and offer incantations to overcome their evil influence. His temper was fierce and uncontrollable, often finding vent in the abuse of his family. In a drunken brawl near West's Fort, he and a Mr. Stalnaker nearly killed Ichabod Davis, his neighbor, leaving the unconscious victim for dead. Hughes fled from the settlement, but returned after Davis recovered. He never worked, but spent his time in hunting and scouting: His clothing was colored in the ooze made from the bark of the chestnut oak; he would wear no other color, this shade harmonizing with the forest hues and rendering him less conspicuous to game and Indians.
When scouting, his dress consisted only of the long hunting shirt,  belted at the waist, open leggins, moccasins, and a brimless cap; or a handkerchief bound about his head. Thus dressed, he was ever ready for the chase, or the trail of the Indian foe."  When further questioned as to his traits of character, the lady bluntly closed the interview by saying, "I would not tell all I know about Jesse Hughes for this much gold," designating the amount she could hold in her doubled-hands. "There are," she continued, "too many  of his descendants living about here." Nor could she be induced to speak further on the subject. His mode of dress, as above described, has been amply verified from other sources. When Indian incursions
were expected, Jesse Hughes wore his hunting shirt both day and night, without regard to weather. Mrs. Catharine Simms-Allman remembered that when she was a little girl, Jesse Hughes came to her father's house on Hacker's Creek, one mile below West's Fort, early one morning, and ordered them to run to the fort. Upon that occasion his dress consisted of the hunting shirt and moccasins only. He was riding a pony without a saddle, and mounted her mother behind him, and with one of the children in his arms, galloped to the fort. This incident occurred while Hughes lived at the mouth of Jesse's Run. At the end of his cabin, Hughes erected a "lean-to," where at all times he kept his pony ready for instant use in case of an Indian alarm. Of the 
pioneers who came with Pringle into the Buckhannon country, Withers says: "The others of the party (William Hacker, Thomas and Jesse Hughes, John and William Radcliff and John Brown) appear to have employed their time exclu- sively in hunting, neither of them making any improvement of land for his own benefit. Yet they were of considerable service to the new settlement. Those who had commenced clearing land, were supplied by them with an abundance of meat, while in their hunting excursions through the country, a better knowledge of it was obtained, than could have been acquired, had they been engaged in making improvements. " In one of these expeditions they discovered and gave name to Stone Coal Creek, which flowing westwardly, induced the supposition that it discharged itself directly into the Ohio. Descending this creek, to ascertain the fact, they came to its confluence with a river, which they then called, and has since been known as the West Fork. After having gone some distance down the river, they returned by a different route to the settlement, better pleased with the land on it and some of its tributaries, than with that on Buckhannon."  The hunters evidently returned to the settlement by way of Hacker's Creek. The Indian name for this stream signifies "Muddy Water." 

If you visited this page without going through my  "Home Page" 

There are two ways to navigate my site:

If your browser supports JAVA and Frames, please click here to go to my Home Page...Java and Frames

If you prefer non-frames, select this link...No Frames

Both sites are best viewed with Internet Explorer