At a very early period Great Britain developed the policy of settling the country West of the Allegheny Mountains in order to forestall the French who laid claim to the valley of the Ohio.
     The Ohio Land Company was chartered in 1749 and King George the second grated to it 500,000 acres of land on the South side of the Ohio River between the Little Kanawha and Monongehela Rivers.
     The charter required that the Company should build a fort and settle one hundred families on its lands within seven years.
     Christopher Gist was appointed agent of the Company to survey and locate its lands and to attend to its affairs West of the mountains.  He established a trading Post at Wills Creek now Cumberland and stocked  it with goods to trade to the Indians.  He also commenced a settlement in a valley west of Laurel Hill in what is now Fayette County, Pennsylvania.
     The opposition of the French and Indians checked the efforts of the Company to locate settlers and subsequent treaties with the Indian tribes and the war of the Revolution put an end to all land schemes on the upper Ohio, and the new country of Indiana as it was called faded away.
     In 1752, the Virginia Assembly passed an Act releasing all settlers from the payment of taxes for the period of ten years, who would locate on lands west of the mountains.
     In 1754 the Governor of Virginia by proclamation promised lands to the soldiers who would enlist to serve in the French and Indian wars.
     After the capture of Fort Duquesne by General Forbes in 1758, adventurers began to cross the mountains and cluster around the walls of the Fort now called Fort Pitt, seeking the protection of its garrison and gradually extended up the streams and to the surrounding neighborhood, composing the skirmish line of civilization.
     In the peace of Paris in 1763 France ceded the Ohio Valley to England, and in the same year King George the III issued a proclamation forbidding any of his subjects from occupying lands on the western waters until they were purchased from the Indians, and ordered the settlers already there to withdraw.
     The settlers paid no attention to this proclamation as it was considered by them that the land on the east side of the Ohio did not belong to the Indians as they had no villages in that territory and had not occupied it for many years if ever, but used it in common as a hunting ground.

[Drawing of John Simpson Discovering Elk Creek]

     At one time about 1766 the authorities sent soldiers to dispossess the settlers on the Monongahela of their holdings, but if they performed this unpleasant duty the inhabitants moved back as soon as the soldiers were gone.
     The colony of Pennsylvania in 1768 made some kind of treaty with one or more tribes of Indians for the purchase of lands west of the mountains in order to keep them quiet, but Virginia never purchased any title from them.
     In 1754, an attempt was made to settle the Tygart Valley by Files and Tygart, but they failed through the hostility of the Indians.
     In the fall of 1758 a small colony headed by Thomas Decker attempted a settlement on the Monongehela just above the site of Morgantown at the mouth of the creek which still bears his name, but in the spring of 1759 it was broken up by a party of Delawares and Mingoes and the greater part of its inhabitants murdered.
     In 1766 Zachel Morgan, James Crew, and James Prickett made a permanent settlement at the site of Morgantown.
     After the close of the French and Indian war a treaty of peace was made by the English and various tribes of Indians in the Ohio Country in 1765, which brought comparatively peace and quiet to the Virginia frontier and emigration began to flow over the mountains to the virgin lands of North Western Virginia.
     It was during the continuance of this exemption that settlements were made on the waters of the Monongahela and Ohio rivers.
     The first of these in order of time was that made on the Buckhannon river, a branch of the Tygart's Valley river, and was induced by a flattering account of the country as given by two brothers who had spent some years there under rather unpleasant circumstances.
     Among the soldiers who formed part of the English garrison at Fort Pitt (now Pittsburgh) were William Childers, John Pringle, Samuel Pringle and Joseph Tinsey.  In 1761 these four men deserted from the Fort and ascended the Monongahela as far as the mouth of Georges Creek near the present town of Geneva, Pennsylvania.  Here they remained a while but not liking the situation crossed over to the head of the Youghogany encamped in the glades and remained there for about twelve months.
     In one of their hunting rambles Samuel Pringle, came on a path which he supposed would lead to the inhabited part of Virginia.
     On his return he mentioned the discovery and his supposition to his comrades, and they resolved on tracing it.  This they accordingly did, and it conducted them to Looney's creek, then the most remote western settlement.  While among the inhabitants on Looney's creek they were recognized and some of the party apprehended as deserters.  John and Samuel Pringle succeeded in making their escape to their camp in the glades where they remained until some time in the year 1764.
     During this year and while in the employ of John Simpson, a trapper, they determined to move farther west.  Simpson was induced to do this by the prospect of enjoying the woods free from the intrusion of other hunters, the glades having begun to be a common hunting ground for the inhabitants of the South Branch, while a regard for their personal safety caused the Pringles to avoid a situation in which they might be exposed to the observations of other men.
     In journeying through the wilderness and having crossed the Cheat river at the Horse Shoe, now in Tucker County, a quarrel arose between Simpson and one of the Pringles, and notwithstanding that peace and harmony were so necessary to their mutual safety and comfort, het each so far indulged the angry passions which had been excited, as at length to produce a separation.
     Simpson crossed over the Valley river near the mouth of Pleasant creek, and passing on to the head of another water course gave it the name of Simpson's creek, which still bears his name.  Thence he went Westwardly and came on to the waters of the stream which he called Elk Creek because of the number of animals of that name which he encountered.  On the opposite side of the West Fork River from the mouth of Elk Creek, and not far from the Fair grounds on what is known as the Stealy farm he established his camp and pursued his occupation of a trapper.
     After remaining for a year, in which time he neither saw the Pringles nor any other human being, and getting scarce of ammunition he journeyed to the South Branch valley taking what furs he could carry with him to trade for supplies.
     The Boarder Warfare states that he returned to his encampment and continued there until permanent settlements were made in the vicinity.
     It is hardly to be supposed that he resided constantly at the mouth of Elk Creek, but used it as a head quarters for his trapping expeditions, as it was several years before settlers came into the neighborhood.
     At the time of Simpson's arrival at the site of Clarksburg there was not an acre of land in North Western Virginia under cultivation.  all was a dreary wilderness occupied by buffalo, elk, deer, bear and turkeys and the streams swarming with fish.  So far as is known John Simpson was the first man who stood upon the banks of the West Fork River.
     A stray trapper or a prisoner to the Indians may have passed along its waters, but history or tradition makes no note of it, and the credit must be given to him.
     It can be imagined that Simpson had a lonely time of it with no companion but his own thoughts, no sounds greeting his ear but his own voice and the howls of wild beasts quivering upon the slumbering sea of the forest night and living in hourly dread of the approach of a savage foe.  But this sturdy pioneer preferred to brave all of these perils and discomforts rather tan be hampered by the restraints of a civilized life.  He was one of the outer pickets of civilization, the vanguard ever in advance of that grand army of emigration that was soon to roll around and thousands of miles beyond his humble cabin.
     But little is known of the subsequent history of John Simpson.  Like many frontiersmen when settlers began to come in to his neighborhood he moved further on, most likely into Ohio.
     The commissioners appointed to settle the claims to unpatented lands at its session in 1781 granted a certificate of ownership to John Simpson

[drawing of Home of the Pringles]

for 400 acres of land on the West Fork river, opposite the mouth of Elk Creek to include his settlement made in 1772.  This tract included the Fair Ground and the Stealy lands.
     Simpson never perfected his title to this land, but as was the custom sold and assigned the certificate to Nicholas Carpenter, and it was patented to him.  Carpenter built a house on it in 1786 that stood for more than one hundred years.
     He appears once upon the surface of affairs as a principal in a quarrel with one of the Cottrils about a peck of salt, which resulted in Cottril being found dead near the cabin of Simpson with his gun cocked, having been shot by him.  As there were no courts established at the time there is no record of any legal proceedings being taken against Simpson on account of this affair.
     John and Samuel Pringle after they had separated from Simpson continued on up the Valley river to where it is joined by the Buckhannon river, and continuing up to and at the mouth of a small branch called Turkey Run, they took up their abode in a hollow sycamore tree, not far from the present town of Buckhannon.  The hollow tree in which they lived stood about two and a half or three miles from the Court House  in Buckhannon on the Southerly or right bank of Turkey Run about one hundred yards from where it empties into the Buckhannon river on the westerly side.  The tree has long since disappeared.  Tradition says that a fence rail could be turned around inside of it without striking the sides.  This would have made a tree about thirty feet in circumference.
     The site is till well  known to the inhabitants of the neighborhood
     The situation of these men was not an enviable one, remote from their fellow men, with no salt, bread or garden vegetables and fearing arrest as deserters from the army.  They remained in this condition for three years and not until they were reduced to two loads of powder could they be driven to venture to the Eastern settlements to replenish their supply.
     In the latter part of 1767 John Pringle left his brother and intended to make for a trading post on the Shenandoah, and appointed a period for his return.
     Samuel Pringle in the absence of John suffered for food, one of his loads of powder was expended in a fruitless attempt to shoot a deer.  His brother had already delayed his return several days beyond the time fixed for his return and he was apprehensive that he had been recognized, taken to Fort Pitt and would perhaps never get back.  With his remaining load for powder he was fortunate enough to shoot a fine buffalo, and John soon returning with news of peace with the French and Indians, the two brothers agreed to leave their wilderness home, but also resolved to return with others and settle permanently in that region.  they accordingly left their humble home with many regrets and returned to the Eastern settlements, but with the determination to return and permanently reside in the neighborhood of their Sycamore Tree.
     The settlers on the head waters of the Potomac listened to the description of the western country by the Pringles, its fertility, climate and quantities of game with delight, and with that restless spirit that characterizes the pioneers, quite a number of them agreed to move to this newly discovered country.

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