present Ona railway station. In 1804 John Everett of Albemarle County, 

Virginia, settled on the Everett farm near the mouth of Fudges Creek. 

The same year, John Morris, formerly of Culpeper County, with his large 

family of sons and daughters, built his home and moved to the present Ward 

Dairy farm near Bethesda Church. The house stood on the old State Road 

about two hundred yards north of the Ward dairy barn. It is said that part 

of the old Morris house was removed years ago and rebuilt into the present 

residence occupied by William Yates at Yate's Crossing. 

John Morris was said to have been the owner of twenty-two thousand acres 

of land, extending from the Great Falls of Mud River to Teays Valley 

beyond Milton. He was the owner of more land than any other person who has 

ever lived in Cabell County. His son Edmund was a representative in the 

Virginia State Legislature before Cabell County was cut off from Kanawha, 

and he became the first clerk of Cabell County. 

About the same time the Morris and other families settled in the 

neighborhood. Allen Rece, formerly of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 

purchased and settled on the old James Dundas farm about two miles north 

of Blue Sulphur. In 1814 Charles Love and his sons William and Daniel, 

formerly of Prince William County, Virginia, settled on Mud River about 

one mile from HoweIl's Mill on what is now the Pritchard farm, the 

proposed site for a boy's school. 

In 1807, Esom Hannon, said to have been "born in Old Fort Randolph at 

Point Pleasant during the Indian wars, married Miriam Morris, daughter of 

John Morris, and built his home and lived for a time on the site of the 

Burdette home in the Big Bend of Mud River. 

In 1819 Valentine Herndon, son-in-law of James Cox, formerly Fluvana 

County, purchased a part of the John Hilliard farm at Howell's Mill and 

built the first mill at that place. 

In 1826 John Bryan of Culpeper County, grandfather of William Jennings 

Bryan, moved to the neighborhood and lived one year in the James Cox house 

opposite Ona railway station, and then moved to the present Elmer Price 

farm, where he lived two years. After living for three years on Mud River 

he purchased a farm opposite Gallipolis in Mason County, where he died in 

1836. 

In 1826 William P. Yates, of Culpeper County, settled on Mud River, and 

the next year purchased the Esom Hannon farm near Ona Station. Two years 

earlier, John Chapman of Culpeper County settled on Mud River just below 

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