27th. I left Mr. Logston’s a little after day-break. At 4 Miles thro’ bad road, occasioned by Stone, I crossed the Stony River; which, as hath been before observed, appears larger than the No. Branch. At ten Miles I had by an imperceptible rise, gained the summit of the Alligany Mountain and began to desend it where it is very steep and bad to the waters of Pattersons Creek which embraces those of New Creek.1 Along the heads of these, & crossing the Main [Patterson’s] Creek & Mountain bearing the same name (on the top of which at one Snails I dined) 2 I came to Colo. Abrahm. Hites at Fort pleasant on the South Branch about 35 Miles from Logstons a little before the Suns setting.3
My intention, when I set out from Logstons, was to take the Road to Rumney by one Parkers; 4 but learning from my guide (Joseph Logston) when I came to the parting paths at the foot of the Alligany (abt. 12 Miles) that it was very little further to go by Fort pleasant, I resolved to take that Rout as it might be more in my power on that part of the Branch to get information of the extent of its navigation than I should be able to do at Rumney.
1. The headwaters of New Creek and of the North Fork of Patterson’s Creek nearly coincide east of Allegheny Front in present-day Grant County, W.Va. New Creek roughly parallels the main branch of Patterson’s Creek, flowing northeast to join the North Branch of the Potomac at present-day Keyser, W.Va. GW probably followed the North Fork of Patterson’s Creek east through New Creek Mountain at Greenland Gap.
2. William Snale (Snall) appears on the 1782 Hampshire County census list as the head of a household consisting of two white persons and on the one for 1784 as head of a household of four whites (, 25, 70). Patterson’s Creek Mountain generally parallels the upper waters of Patterson’s Creek, separating them from the waters of the South Branch of the Potomac which lie to the east.
3. Fort Pleasant (also called Fort Van Meter) was built on the river near present-day Old Fields, W.Va., in 1756 as a link in the chain of forts designed to protect the Virginia frontier during the French and Indian War. Although the fort apparently had been abandoned for many years, at least part of its “cabins, palisades, and blockhouses” still stood (, 139–40).
Abraham Hite (1729–1790), a son of Jost Hite, settled in this part of Hampshire County (now Hardy County, W.Va.) about 1762 when he obtained two grants in the area, including one of 110 acres on the South Branch of the Potomac. In succeeding years he received four more Hampshire grants and one in Kentucky. He apparently became county lieutenant of Hampshire about 1765 and represented the county in the House of Burgesses 1769–71. He was a member of the Virginia Convention of 1776, raised a company of Hampshire rangers during the early months of the War of Independence, and later served as a commissioner for purchasing Continental Army provisions in northwestern Virginia. Hite moved to Jefferson County, Ky., about 1788 (, 196; , 1:62, 2:65–66; , 186–88).
4. GW traveled part of this more northerly route 10 Oct. 1770. Several Parkers lived west of Romney at this time on Mill, Patterson’s and New creeks (, 217–18; , 26–27, 70–71).