Martha Community

A BRIEF HISTORY OF MARTHA COMMUNITY

                              By Charles Love

The writer will endeavor to give just a brief history of this particular

part of Cabell County, known as McComas District. This district, with four

other districts was formed some time during the Civil War, about 1862 or

1863. Prior to this time it was only a portion of Cabell County, Virginia,

after the war it was Cabell County, West Virginia. This portion of the

county was owned by just a few men. Sampson Saunders, one of the first

settlers of the county owned practically all of the land in this so-called

McComas District, and a large portion of the land in the other four

districts. He came to this county from eastern Virginia at an early day

and settled with his mother just west of what is now known as the town of

Milton on the farm now known as the Jerry Ball farm. And on the hill just

above the house lies the remains of the mother, daughter, and son Sampson

Saunders.

Mr. Saunders, in the early forties, built the home now owned by Mr.

Browning near Elmwood Church, and lived there until his death. A few years

before his death he freed his negroes about forty in number, and sent them

to one of the free states, Vermont I believe, by Judge Jeff Samuels and

George O. Galliher, with sufficient money to buy each family forty acres

of land and placed them in their new homes, from which none of them ever

returned. Mr. Saunders willed his vast estate to his relatives and

friends. Elmwood Church stands on land included in the estate. He willed

his home to his niece Martha Killgore Morris, wife of C. K. Morris. A

large portion of this land was sold during Mrs. Morris' life and the

remaining portion divided among her children. The only portion of the

Saunder's estate, as far as I can recall that has not paassed out of the

hands of heirs, is the portion that fell to John Albert Morris from his

mother. This property is still owned by John A. Morris' widow and

children.

Martha Killgore Morris was a daughter of Thomas Killgore, senior, and a

niece of Sampson Saunders. Sampson Saunders married Thomas Killgore's

sister, which may be the reason why so much of this estate went to the

Killgore heirs. Mary Killgore, wife of William Simmons, an East Virginian,

received 1800 acres, from this estate, adjoining the Martha Morris estate.

This land was divided between the heirs of Mary Killgore Simmons. Colonel

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