History of Monongalia County, West Virginia

buddies of Deckers Creek (FODC) were only available in 1995 with the thought that Deckers Creek is breathtaking, but abused, as well as in need of some buddies. An informal group of kayakers, rock climbers also creek enthusiasts began organizing clean-ups of unlawful dumps and tracking liquid quality. By 1997, this team began obtaining small funds to support its work. FODC then received 501(c)(3) nonprofit standing in 2000 and held its first account drive-in 2001.

In 1998, their state Department of ecological Protection and federal Natural sources Conservation Service committed ten dollars million to completely clean up acid my own drainage when you look at the Deckers Creek watershed, an endeavor that remains guided by FODC nevertheless.

FODC features set a remediation schedule of: "Fish by 2015, swim by 2020."

Below are several accounts of the history of the Deckers Creek watershed.

Deckers Creek is a tributary of the Monongahela River flowing from Preston County into Monongalia County, western Virginia. Local Americans lived and hunted in the region for many thousands of years prior to the very first European settlers came, however the stream is termed for European family that settled at its lips when you look at the spring of 1758. In the colony were brothers Tobias (or Thomas), Garrett, and John Decker, their loved ones, at minimum 19 other grownups and numerous children.

In accordance with one account, the little colony was attacked in 1759 by a party of about 30 marauding Delaware Indians which killed eight associated with settlers, ruined their livestock, harvested their particular crops, and burned their particular cabins. Although 39 individuals escaped the carnage as well as the settlement apparently disbanded following the physical violence, the flow became called Deckers Creek.

Because of the 1760s European settlers gone back to lower Deckers Creek near present-day Morgantown. The creek’s value to Morgantown had been evident right from the start, as economic growth came from companies which used the creek as a source of water-power for a forge and iron furnace, grist (grain) mills, saw mills, and a pottery and a paper mill. These early enterprises signaled the beginning of business in Deckers Creek valley.

In 1886 the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad reached Morgantown across the Monongahela River. This exposed the tired college hamlet and fueled area development. After a few false begins, industrialist George Sturgiss led your time and effort in 1899 to build the Morgantown and Kingwood Railroad up Deckers Creek.

This line reached Masontown by 1902 additionally the area's wealthy reserves of timber, coal, and limestone began to be harvested. Within a somewhat small amount of time, mines, quarries, and coke ovens dominated the landscape associated with the Deckers Creek valley from Reedsville to Rock Forge. In 1903 a tin dish mill unsealed in Sabraton and a large contemporary electric plant was built over the creek in Morgantown.

Rapid industrialization in the 1st 50 % of the 20th century took much toll on the once-pristine Deckers Creek, as liquid high quality declined and aquatic life diminished. Recreational fishing and sailing in the creek fundamentally ceased after acid my own runoff and open sewage fouled water.

Conditions got so incredibly bad by 1935 that Morgantown town officials had been warned by the condition health division to clear the stream of sanitary waste. But at that time lower Deckers Creek was terminally sick through the ravages of uncontrolled development: by the time the creek reached Morgantown the contamination killed it.

In the late 1930s Morgantown recognized it needed an interceptor sewer along Deckers Creek. After waiting 25 years as a result of a shortage of funds, the sewer was finished in 1962. Although this eliminated smells emanating from the lower achieves of the stream, mine acid and raw sewage still entered the watershed from things upstream. By 1964 the Morgantown Sanitary Board is made because of the duty of creating and maintaining a sewage disposal system.

While much development happens to be built in the last 2 full decades to wash within the creek, a lot stays to be done. Luckily, Deckers Creek happens to be rediscovered by a robust group of outside enthusiasts and location residents which refuse to accept the idea that the flow is beyond restoration. Just like the European settlers and the indigenous Us americans before them, area residents are once again trying to Deckers Creek for opportunities, just now the motivating factor is recreational development.

But first we must reverse the ravages of this final 100 years and change the indifferent mindset which has developed with time. We should learn to consider the stream as a full time income element of the tradition and reputation for Preston and Monongalia counties, and not simply as an open dump or a convenient socket for real human and manufacturing waste.

Friends of Deckers Creek is devoted to reversing the unfortunate plight of Deckers Creek and ensuring that record will not duplicate itself in the twenty-first century.

— Billy Joe Peyton

And a free account from another view (by Terry L. Falls):

The Decker family arrived in New Amsterdam using patriarch Johannes de Decker as supercargo from the ship Ebony Eagle in April 1655. Whilst the western frontier had been checking the Decker family members moved west with Abraham Decker founding Monongahela City, PA. Gerrit, Tobias, Thomas, alongside traveled in to the South department Potomac River area and began farming.

In-may, 1757 Reuben Cox; the brothers Garret and Tobias Decker, David Morgan, Nathaniel Springer, John Ice, Henry Falls, Samuel Bingaman, among others trailed about twenty Indians and two Frenchmen through the South Branch for the Potomac River — where these Indians had murdered six white males and transported off another, George Delay — throughout the Allegheny Mountains and onto the Cheat River, where they overtook and skirmished together with them, killing seven Indians and another Frenchman. This occurred about five or six kilometers above where the Ice family held a ferry.

Wait had been wounded and died of their injuries while being carried across the hills. Cox and Morgan, and others, pursued the fleeing French and Indians to Bingaman Creek, on the western Fork River. Right here they lost the enemy's trail. David Morgan, Nathaniel Springer, Cox and also the other individuals camped for about two weeks in the lips of Deckers Creek.

During this period, they hunted, gathered ginseng, and explored the Deckers Creek valley. They discovered documents regarding French soldier buying the attacks on English settlements. Then they came back house to the South Branch valley.

Thomas Decker had been the first to ever settle in your community of Deckers Creek and the Monongahela River in 1758. Other individuals inside settlement were brothers Tobias, Garrett, and John, and their spouses and children; the Deckers’ brother-in-law William Zern, wife and children; Garrett Decker’s son in law Richard Falls, spouse and boy Robert Falls; the Thorn brothers, Tobias, Henry, and Lazarus, their particular spouses and kids and their particular stepmother and her boy, Michael, aged about couple of years; the lady brother-in-law, William Westfall, their sibling, Abel, their particular spouses and children; Reuben Cox along with his ten-year-old son, George Cox; and just one man, John Statler.