The Pringle Tree: An Old Tale Leads Me Home

I'm not referring to the crunchy chips in tubular containers here, but to one of West Virginia's most interesting stories: the tale of two brothers who once lived in a tree.

Pringle Tree--this is the third generation tree, growing in the same location as the original tree

The Pringle brothers were very early settlers in what is now West Virginia, and the pair of them attained some notoriety over the years. I've written a bit about them before, but recently when browsing a big book of local county history, I happened on something that surprised me. Apparently descendants of the famous brothers ended up in my county (Jackson) and operated a grist mill here. That unexpected local connection to their story sent me off to do more research to verify the claims in the history book.

But first, let me introduce you to the Pringle Brothers. Of Scottish descent, Samuel and John were the sons of one William Pringle. They boys were born in Philadelphia; later they were to live in what is now the eastern panhandle of West Virginia on the South Branch of the Potomac River. As young men they enlisted in the British army during the French and Indian War and were stationed at Fort Pitt in western Pennsylvania. Apparently the Pringle brothers did not enjoy militay service and in 1761 the two of them, along with their friends William Childers and Joseph Lindsey, left the fort and struck out into the wilderness.

The men traveled around a bit, exploring the country around the Monongahela and Youghiogheny rivers. By 1762 they were living in a settlement along Looney's Creek in Grant county where they were captured. The Pringles escaped and eventually ran into a a trapper named John Simpson, for whom they worked for a few years. But after a violent quarrel in 1764 at Horseshoe Bend of the Cheat River, the brothers and Simpson parted company. Simpson continued south and west to the headwaters of a river he called the Elk, and the river retains that name to this day.

The Pringles also went south and found themselves in a pleasant valley where they decided to stop and settle along a little creek they named Turkey Run. The area was uninhabited by European settlers at the time and there was still danger from the native population, but the hunting was good and the brothers found a large hollow sycamore tree which would work well for them as a home. The only problem was that the tree was already occupied by a female wolf and her cubs! The wolf moved on, however, and the brothers moved in. According to stories passed down, the tree was about 10-11 feet in diameter inside; a man could, one account said, swing a split rail in the space without striking either side of the tree.

image from http://fourkings.freeyellow.com/Pringles.html 

So there the brothers settled. As time passed, their supplies dwindled and they realized they needed to find more. John offered to go back to the South Branch area to restock. There was some worry about being captured as a deserter, but the brothers had little choice--without ammunition they would surely starve. John took a good many animal pelts with him to sell, and he left his brother with two of their remaining shells so that Samuel could restock his meat supply if needed. Imagine having only two bullets between you and starvation! It speaks well of the brothers' marksmanship if they felt this would be enough. As for John, he had no road and was traveling over unknown territory inhabited with mountain lions, bears, wolves and hostile natives. But his years as a backwoodsman stood him in good stead.

Old postcard of the tree

On reaching civilization John learned that the war was over and there was no need to stay in hiding. He stayed the winter on the South Branch and returned to Samuel in the spring with the good news about the war being over. I imagine Samuel was glad to see John; his supplies were running low and he had used one of the bullets trying and failing to shoot a deer. Fortunately he'd had better luck with the second bullet and felled a large buffalo so he'd had enough food to tide him over. 

The brothers returned to the South Branch and told about the beautiful land where they had been living; several families decided to go back with them with a view to settling in the area. By now it was fall of 1768, however, so some of the men went with the Pringles to see this land rather than risk taking their families on the journey with winter approaching. Those who went with the Pringles were William and John Hacker, Alexander and Thomas Sleeth, John Jackson (grandfather of Stonewall Jackson) and his sons George and Edward, Thomas Hughes and his son Jessie (who would later gain renown as an Indian fighter and scout), John and William Radcliff and John Brown. 

These men liked the valley of the Buckhannon River so much that they stayed long enough to file claims for their chosen land. Then they returned to the South Branch and made plans to return in the spring. The men did return, cleared land, planted crops and erected shelters before once again returning to the South Branch. They came back in the fall to harvest their plantings, but sadly found the crops destroyed by buffalo.  Finally in Spring 1770 settlers began arriving in the Pringle brothers' wilderness paradise. 

Samuel Pringle's grave (from findagrave.com)

Among those settlers was one Charity Cutright, who was to become Samuel Pringle's wife. Samuel and Charity remained on the land along Turkey Run and even lived in the sycamore tree for a few years after their marriage. They had five children. Samuel lived to be 101 years old and was buried at Philadelphia Church Cemetery in Upshur county, West Virginia. (apparently this cemetery was later renamed Hampton Cemetery). John married Rebecca Simpson, sister of the trapper John Simpson, and moved to Kentucky. 

Samuel Pringle and Charity had three sons and two daughters. The oldest son, William married Nellie Rollins and had 15 children Their son John married a woman named Rhoda Casto and moved to Jackson county in 1818. John owned a grist mill at the foot of Salt Hill near Fairplain, and also made furniture. Another son of William Pringle, Aaron Pringle, also moved to Jackson county. Perhaps the fertile land here and lack of too many people in the county at that time made it attractive to these sons of the wilderness.

Pringle Cemetery, Fairplain, WV. From wvgenweb

So a story that began in the time of the French and Indian War took me down a trail that led right here to my home county. Some descendants of the famous Pringle Brothers of the Sycamore Tree probably still live here in Jackson county, and I hope they continue to pass down stories about their fascinating ancestors. After all, how many of us can say we are descended from men who once lived in trees?

Sources:

Bice, David. The Pringle Tree. Illus by Charles Fry. Jalamap, 1977.



Comstock, Jim. West Virginia Heritage Encyclopedia, vol 19 (POC-REV), pp 3901-3902.

Cutright, W.B. The History of Upshur County West Virginia From its Earliest Exploration and Settlement to the Present Time  1907  Chapter XVIII.

Jackson County Historical Society. Jackson County West Virginia Past and Present, pp 178-179. Walsworth Publishing, 1990.

McWhorter, Lucullus and Connelley, William E. The Border Settlers of Northwestern Virginia from 1768 to 1795: Embracing the Life of Jesse Hughes and Other Noted Scouts of the Great Woods of the Trans-Allegheny  1915.

Tenney, Noel W. "Pringle Tree." e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia. 22 October 2010. Web. 15 September 2018.

Gilchrist, Joy. The Pringle Brothers and the Sycamore Tree. JaHacker's Creek Pioeer Descendants

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.