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There is a County just north of Mannington named Wetzel. There is no accidental connection to historic places, such as Fort Henry near Wheeling, and the forests following the Buffalo River, Greene County in PA and Mannington, sitting at the "Forks of Buffalo."
Lewis Wetzel is the first prominent name one runs into, but his uncle, John Bonnett, also made his frontier home along Wheeling Creek. Lewis Wetzel's cousin, Lewis Bonnett, was a very close cousin, with a family bond of such a personal nature which could only be forged by the Native American bloody incursions common especially between 1774 and 1786.
The Yost name was synonymous with the healing arts and the practice of medicine. They were the Doctors of the frontier. Vengence for massacres gave them many to mend and care for. These, and many more, proud families were the original settlers of the Land Along Route 250, as one would travel the road north today from Mannington.
The love for this land and for each other was being tangibly forged while the Declaration of Independence had yet to be penned. The Bowers family was one with a rich heritage and love of Mannington long before George W Bowers made his home here in 1904. The esteem in which George and Sara were held are evidenced by George's SAR attendance framed by wood from Betty Zane's cabin at Fort Henry; but more of that later. The best source of primary materials on Lewis Wetzel is the oral history written by the man in whose father's house Lewis Wetzel lived and who knew Wetzel, his brothers, and their father, Lewis Bonnett, Jr.in his Recollections of the Bonnett and Wetzel Families.
The following newspaper column by Jack Hupp, likely published in 1950, documents John and Lewis Bonnett were ancestors of the 'late George Bowers of Mannington. We present it here in its entirety if only for the tales of the Settler-Indian encounters common to this area's history. If anyone recalls the local newspaper with the telephone number of 3000, please send an email to us with any additional information.
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Bonnett, Bowers, Wetzel and 1774 |
