CHARLESTON, W.Va -- When the Virginia Rangers built Fort Lee on the banks of the Kanawha River in 1788, one of the privates who helped build and man the fort was John Cavender II.

For his service, Cavender was given 1,000 acres near Coopers Creek. The Cavenders would become one of the founding families of Kanawha County.

"They weren't the rich ones," said Tom Thumm, a local genealogist who is married to Becky Cavender Thumm, a descendant of the original Kanawha County Cavenders. "All the rich ones ended up living on Kanawha Boulevard and in Malden."

Fort Lee, built where present-day Brooks Street meets Kanawha Boulevard, was the first permanent settlement in Kanawha County. Col. George Clendenin, who commanded the fort, would later found Charleston, which he named for his father.

On Saturday, one of the remaining pieces of Cavender family history will go on the auction block when Mountaineer Auction Gallery sells a former family dairy farm at 10 a.m. The property, most recently owned by Edith Ashcraft, is on Five Mile Fork near Coopers Creek.

Thumm said the 90.7-acre farm was part of a dairy farm originally developed in the Civil War era by Wilson Cavender. A stone-block milk house built at the time still stands on the site, as does an older barn that nestles up a tree-studded hollow.

"At the time, it was the largest dairy in Kanawha County," Thumm said. When Wilson Cavender died in 1913, though, two of his sons squabbled over the property, eventually setting up competing dairy farms that put each other out of business by the beginning of World War II, he said.

By all accounts, Wilson Cavender was a fiery individual, a hulking 6-foot-4 and 250 pounds.

Family legend has it that Charleston city police once tried to arrest him for speeding - on a horse. According to the story, Cavender had gone into Charleston when he committed the alleged offense. Police trailed him to a livery stable, where they arrested him and started to bring him in.

Cavender, apparently upset at not being told what crime he was being charged with, sought an opportunity to escape while he and the officers were crossing a bridge over the Elk River.

CHARLESTON, W.Va -- When the Virginia Rangers built Fort Lee on the banks of the Kanawha River in 1788, one of the privates who helped build and man the fort was John Cavender II.

For his service, Cavender was given 1,000 acres near Coopers Creek. The Cavenders would become one of the founding families of Kanawha County.

"They weren't the rich ones," said Tom Thumm, a local genealogist who is married to Becky Cavender Thumm, a descendant of the original Kanawha County Cavenders. "All the rich ones ended up living on Kanawha Boulevard and in Malden."

Fort Lee, built where present-day Brooks Street meets Kanawha Boulevard, was the first permanent settlement in Kanawha County. Col. George Clendenin, who commanded the fort, would later found Charleston, which he named for his father.

On Saturday, one of the remaining pieces of Cavender family history will go on the auction block when Mountaineer Auction Gallery sells a former family dairy farm at 10 a.m. The property, most recently owned by Edith Ashcraft, is on Five Mile Fork near Coopers Creek.

Thumm said the 90.7-acre farm was part of a dairy farm originally developed in the Civil War era by Wilson Cavender. A stone-block milk house built at the time still stands on the site, as does an older barn that nestles up a tree-studded hollow.

"At the time, it was the largest dairy in Kanawha County," Thumm said. When Wilson Cavender died in 1913, though, two of his sons squabbled over the property, eventually setting up competing dairy farms that put each other out of business by the beginning of World War II, he said.

By all accounts, Wilson Cavender was a fiery individual, a hulking 6-foot-4 and 250 pounds.

Family legend has it that Charleston city police once tried to arrest him for speeding - on a horse. According to the story, Cavender had gone into Charleston when he committed the alleged offense. Police trailed him to a livery stable, where they arrested him and started to bring him in.

Cavender, apparently upset at not being told what crime he was being charged with, sought an opportunity to escape while he and the officers were crossing a bridge over the Elk River.

"He picked up one cop in his left hand by the neck and one in the right hand and dangled them over the water," Thumm said. Cavender then threatened to drop the officers in the river.

By that time, Thumm said, a crowd had gathered and pleaded with Cavender not to carry out his threat. Cavender let the policemen go, saying he was just trying to teach them a lesson.

"They never tried to arrest him again," Thumm said.

The original house at the dairy farm was destroyed, possibly by a massive windstorm that swept through Kanawha County in the early 1900s, but a second house was built on the foundation of the old one, as well as a barn built about the same time.

The structures still stand.

Roger Mullins, an auctioneer and one of the founders of Mountaineer Auctions, believes the old house, outbuildings and surrounding property will bring about $200,000 on the auction block.

"That's about $2,000 an acre," he said.

For more information about the property, call 304-548-4056 or 304-965-5200 or visit the Mountaineer Auction Gallery Web site at www.mountaineerauctions.com.

Reach Rusty Marks at rustyma...@wvgazette.com">rustyma...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1215.