Director

Once hailed as a huge marker in Tucker County, the railroad traveled through many of the major towns such as Parsons,&nbsp;Thomas and&nbsp;Davis. While the&nbsp;trains primarily transported coal and lumber, companies like Southern States and the Woolen Mill shipped their products as well.&nbsp;&nbsp; In the years following 1888, lumber replaced farming as the chief industry in Parsons and the population skyrocketed.&nbsp;The National Register of Historic Places identifies the Western Maryland Depot as a "surviving remnant of this&nbsp;"boom" period,"&nbsp; The last train ran out of the Western Maryland Depot in 1958.&nbsp;

This late-Victorian Stick-style structure was a transportation hub of railroad passengers and commercial goods from Parsons, starting with the opening of the West Virginia Central and Pittsburgh Railway in 1889. Commercial goods associated with this railroad included mined coal and coke, as well as lumber.

Western Maryland Depot

In the early Americas Native American societies developed a vast network of trails and pathways that connected societies from New York into Canada all the way into the Southeast and Southwest, into Mesoamerica. Archaeologists have found evidence of trade goods traveling between the Great Lakes and Gulf Coast, and large trading centers such as Cahokia (near modern St. Louis) facilitated long-distance trade between various regions in North America. Trails were also used as warpaths and many other uses. The Seneca Trail roughly follows the route of U.S. 219 through West Virginia from Silver Lake on the Maryland border to Princeton on the state’s southern border with Virginia. Today, U.S. 219 stretches more than 500 miles from Buffalo, NY to Princeton, WV. In the early 1900s, with the creation of state and national road networks, modern Route 219 was pieced together by connecting several pre-existing roads. First the section that runs through Maryland, known as Garrett Highway, was established as part of the state road system and then in 1926 this was connected to a section through Pennsylvania that extended to the state’s boundary with New York. This was the original extent of U.S. 219. In the 1930s, the route was extended north and south to its current length. When 219 was extended through West Virginia it followed closely the route of the earlier Seneca Trail.

Peter L. Milkint, a Lithuanian immigrant, and his wife created a summer oasis surrounding Our Lady in the Pines Catholic Church in Silver Lake. In it's heyday, the grounds housed a lake, rental cabins, the church, and the post office. Today the lake has overgrown with nature, but the church and the post office still get hundreds of visitors each day who are traveling along Rt. 219.&nbsp; Within
the church, visitors can marvel at the handmade alter crosses, tabernacle,
candle holders and 14 Stations of the Cross. The infant of Prague is draped in
a red velvet garment that was donated by a close family friend. The altar linen
cover was woven by the couple's Lithuania grandmother&nbsp;over a
century&nbsp;ago. There are six pews that can hold 12 worshipers, 24 if the
aisle is filled and standing room taken. The church is located near
unincorporated Horse Shoe Run and Eglon, West Virginia. Adjacent to the church
is "the world's smallest mailing office," a post office that is
smaller than the church. The Milkint's created a non-profit organization to take care of the church prior to Peter's death in 1979. Today, the Milkint's neice and her husband open the church each day for visitors to experience the smallest church in 48 states. Traveling priests will sometimes hold mass in the tiny church, and there ten weddings a year on average.&nbsp;

Christened “Our Lady in the Pines” in 1958, this unique chapel was built by Mr & Mrs. P.L. Milkint (a childless couple) as a lasting memorial to their parents. Measuring 24’x12’ outside and 16’x11’ inside. Before Alaska and Hawaii were adopted into the United States, the church was promoted on old postcards and signs as the “Smallest Church in 48 States.” Guests can mail postcards to their loved ones from the smallest post office with it's own zip code located on the property as well. 

Our Lady in the Pines Catholic Church

This small bed and breakfast is located on the edge of the Monongahela
National Forest near&nbsp;Blackwater Falls. In addition to visiting many of the historic mining communities in the area, guests also enjoy&nbsp;opportunities to hike,
fish, kayak, and enjoy a variety of other outdoor recreation opportunities. The town of Thomas includes several&nbsp;historic buildings and also offers antique
shops and art exhibits. 

Co-owner Dawn Smith&nbsp;named the business in honor&nbsp;of her granddaughter Primrose, who is named after&nbsp;the first
flower of Spring. The Inn’s website references a German legend of the primrose which tells the story of a&nbsp;girl who came upon a doorway covered in flowers. When she
touched the doorway with a primrose, the door opened for her and revealed a path that led&nbsp;to
an enchanting fairy castle. The Inn’s website also states another legend about
primroses. It states hanging primrose on a door is an invitation for fairies
to come into one's home and bestow fairy blessings upon residents and guests. 

Each room is color
coded a different shade of the primrose flower, and each bed has a patchwork
quilt. Dawn Smith makes homemade pastries and breakfast daily for guests. She operates the inn with her mother, who joined her in moving to the area from San Diego. The&nbsp;owners selected Thomas from&nbsp;many other possible communities after discovering this house and moving to West Virginia in 2015 with the goal of&nbsp;opening the bed and breakfast.&nbsp;

This bed & breakfast opened in 2015 and is located in a historic structure that was built in 1910  to serve as a boarding house for coal miners in. Mother and daughter Thelma and Dawn Smith moved from San Diego to Thomas after selecting this property as the ideal location for a bed and breakfast given this location near the Monongahela National Forest and Blackwater Falls. The Inn is named in honor of 

Mountain Primrose Bed & Breakfast

Thomas is a small-incorporated town in the north central portion of Tucker County, West Virginia. It is one of many Appalachian boom-bust towns. The town is named for Thomas B. Davis, brother of Henry Gassaway Davis, who owned the West Virginia Central and Pittsburgh Railway with his father-in-law, Stephen B. Elkins. The town's location was originally part of a larger tract of land granted to Lord Fairfax in the eighteenth century. George Washington was hired to survey the land in 1747. It was not until 1880, however, that the first known resident of Thomas, Jacob C. Pase, settled in the area. Thomas' growth begins when the West Virginia Central &amp; Pittsburgh Railway extended to Thomas in 1884, due to the number of coalmines and timber operations that had opened in the area from 1883 until 1884.Entrepreneurs followed the railroad and a post office, hotel, bakery, and general store opened in Thomas. The town was incorporated in 1892 with a population of just 693, but grew quickly with the nearby Davis Coal and Coke Company, the company town Coketon, and the new Western Maryland railroad depot. With the plethora of jobs, population peaked in 1910 at 2,354 in Thomas proper (with around 7,000 people in the surrounding area). To accommodate a growing town, a water system was installed in 1899, electricity was made available by the Davis Coal and Coke Company in 1904, and eventually the Thomas Central Power Plant Dam was built in 1911 to power the coal company.The coal company and railroad employed many immigrants, especially from Italy and Eastern Europe. The state’s first Italian newspaper, La Sentinella del West Virginia, was founded and printed in Thomas. At the town’s population peak, Davis Coal and Coke Company hired a Polish interpreter who could speak eight different languages and 18 nationalities were represented in town. European immigrants influenced architecture downtown with big porches above storefronts for socializing on weekends and weekly band parades.Population declined steeply (1920 - 2,099, 1930 - 1,660, 1970 - 713, 2010 - 586) due to dwindling resources and the national decline of the railroads and coal. In June of 1998, the Thomas Commercial Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The district reaches from Spruce Street and East Avenue to the North Fork of the Blackwater River. All streets and buildings from 1st Street to one block north of 3rd street are contained within the district as well. Today's town has an outcropping of small businesses, such as the Purple Fiddle, TipTop Café, the Cottrill Opera House, and several contemporary art galleries. These storefronts attract tourists looking for small town culture and heritage and supplement nearby tourism centers like the town of Davis, Canaan Valley State Park, local ski resorts, Blackwater Falls State Park, and the Monongahela National Forest. Today, Thomas is entering a new phase of its history, an eclectic, creative gathering place nestled in the midst of the Allegheny Mountains.

Thomas is a small town of 596 in Tucker County, West Virginia. Incorporated June 16, 1892, it was a typical Appalachian town that thrived on the coal and railroad industries. Today, Thomas is an important tourism stop for nearby ski resorts, the town of Davis, Canaan Valley, State Park, Blackwater Falls State Park and the Monongahela National Forest. The downtown riverfront area became the Thomas Commercial Historic District in 1998 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Thomas Commercial Historic District 

On November 12, 1901 a fire destroyed the city's original Opera House, along with eight other two-story buildings. In 1902, saloon owner Hiram Cottrill rebuilt the Opera House with the help of the Clarksburg, West Virginia architectural firm Holomboe &amp; R.C. Lafferty. The new fireproof Renaissance Revival building featured a high façade that was designed to appear as if the entire building was four stories tall. The interior includes a large auditorium with balcony seating to better accommodate live performances.  The Opera House was home to a wide range of entertainment such as vaudeville tours, concerts, recitals and dramatic readings from authors and actors. Jack Benny, George Burns and Gracie Allen performed on the stages of Cottrill’s Opera House. Tucker County also used the building for community dances, weddings, and political meetings.  Around 1915 Cottrill’s Opera House was sold to the Sutton Family. It was then renamed the Sutton Theater. Under new ownership, the Opera House became a theater with ‘moving pictures’. It later housed stores, barber shops and apartments.  Thomas County’s population declined significantly, which led to a decline in attendance at the Theater. Additionally, television became popular and contributed to the Theater’s reduced role in the community. In 1972 the Sutton family closed the Theater’s doors. From 1927 until 1977 St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church managed the site. In the 1980s until early 2000s, different groups used the auditorium for live performances. Cottrill's Opera House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 29th, 1979 by the Alpine Festival, a local group in Thomas.  Throughout the years the Theater has seen wear and tear such as water damage and snow loads resulting in roof problems. Recently groups such as Alpine Festival, Alpine Heritage Preservation and Thomas Commercial Historic District have raised funds to restore the building. Tucker County has joined in the efforts to restore the Opera House. The final reconstruction is to include a 425 seat state of the art theater (George, Elaine). It will function as a ‘center of cultural and civic activities’.

Cottrill’s Opera House, also known as Sutton Theater, dates back to 1894. The original Opera House was destroyed in a fire seven years after its completion. Saloon owner Hiram Cottrill built this theater in its place and sold the building to the Sutton family in 1915. The family operated the theater until the 1970s. The building has served a variety of purposes in recent decades, and preservationists and community groups in Tucker County are working to restore the building.    

Cottrill's Opera House 

Blackwater Canyon Rail Trail
follows a 14 mile section of the old Western Maryland Railroad. The trail is
included in the section built by Henry Gassaway Davis, a self-built mogul who
established Thomas and nearby town of Davis in the 19th century boom
era in the Blackwater Canyon. &nbsp;Other
worldly in appearance and with a unique beauty, Douglas Falls is still a beautiful site
to see alongside the trail. The remnants of the beehive coke ovens are located along the Coketon portion of the trail. Coketon was founded by Henry Gassaway Davis and was the&nbsp;Davis Coal and Coke Company mining town&nbsp;along the&nbsp;North Fork Blackwater River and&nbsp;the West Virginia Central &amp; Pittsburgh Railway.&nbsp;Coketon was a 1.5-mile coking facility that began with two experimental “beehive” ovens in 1887. The company converted coal into coke, the purest form of carbon and a byproduct of coal that was used to smelt iron ore into steel through the Bessemer process. Coke was&nbsp;produced by baking coal in brick ovens until the impurities were burned, regulated by the amount of oxygen allowed into the oven via exterior steel doors.1&nbsp;The process produced one ton of coke&nbsp;per two tons of coal. Coketon contained 600 ovens, employed over 150 men, and&nbsp;produced 200,000 tons of coke by 1904. For each year between 1915 and 1921, 15 coal mines near Coketon shipped over one million tons of coal, making it the sixth most productive operation in the state.1A&nbsp;new type of mining technology was&nbsp;introduced&nbsp;in 1915, and allowed the need for coking ovens at the mine site. By 1919, all coking operations at Coketon were abandoned. Coal mining continued; between 1920 and 1940, the Davis Coal &amp; Coke Company operated the vast underground mines until they were exhausted. By 1950, after some restarts, only two mines were in operation: No. 36 and No. 40, with&nbsp;production falling&nbsp;to 100,000 tons per year by 1954.1&nbsp;All underground mining had stopped by 1956, although a few small surface mines continued until 1965.

The copper tinted water still
visible today leaves little doubt as to the extent the coal and coke industry
left on the environment for generations to come. Below the coke ovens at Douglas, visitors can view a cranberry bog on the right of the trail. Cranberry bogs normally are native to the Northern&nbsp;United States and&nbsp;Canada but are a unique feature due to the higher elevation of the region. The trail passes large shale outcrops as well as railroad ties, telegraph poles and many other historic artifacts.

The Blackwater Canyon River Rail Trail dates back to 1888 when it was used to haul coal and timber through the canyon. The trail reflects changes in the economy over the past century, as it now serves as one of the leading attractions in a county that now focusses on heritage tourism and outdoor recreation. The trail still contains many of the former coke overns and other remnants of the region's past and connects the community of Thomas with Coketon, Douglas, Hendricks and Parsons. Many of these communities were once robust mining towns and visitors to the region can enjoy this trail for its natural beauty as well as historical markers that share the story of a previous era. The trail begins along the North Fork of the Blackwater River in Thomas and winds past steep-walled strip mines and rows of beehive coke ovens that have been reclaimed by trees and wildflowers for nearly a century. The trail is accessible in Thomas, WV at the juncture of Rt. 32 and 27 or from Hendricks, Rt. 73. 

Blackwater Canyon River Rail Trail

In the early Americas Native American societies developed a vast network of trails and pathways that connected societies from New York into Canada all the way into the Southeast and Southwest, into Mesoamerica. Archaeologists have found evidence of trade goods traveling between the Great Lakes and Gulf Coast, and large trading centers such as Cahokia (near modern St. Louis) facilitated long-distance trade between various regions in North America. Trails were also used as warpaths and many other uses. The Seneca Trail roughly follows the route of U.S. 219 through West Virginia from Silver Lake on the Maryland border to Princeton on the state’s southern border with Virginia.

Some historians claim that the Seneca Trail was also used as a colonial boundary between British settlers and Native lands, in both the Treaty of Albany (1722) and the Proclamation of 1763. The Treaty of Albany recognized the Blue Ridge Mountains as the boundary between Virginia and Native lands; later treaties, such as the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, pushed that line further west. The Proclamation Line of 1763 was created in the aftermath of the French & Indian War to regulate relations with Native Americans and restrict white settlement in the west (hoping to manage some of the violence occurring between Native Americans and white settlers). The watershed of the Appalachian Mountains was the boundary line, with all land with water flowing east towards the coast marked for the Virginians and all land with water flowing west towards the Mississippi marked for the Native Americans. The Seneca Trail lies west of these two marked boundaries, but it may have been an understood boundary for local travelers. 

In the 1920s, West Virginia historian Hu Maxwell located and followed the Seneca Trail to find the missing pieces to link the route together from Oakland, MD and Elkins, WV and map the trail through WV.

History of the Seneca Trail

Built in the center of Parsons, WV from 1901-1903, the Tucker County Bank Building is a three-story commercial building constructed of red brick. The building stands on the corner of First and Walnut Streets in the commercial center of the town. The third floor of the building still retains the original pressed tin ceiling in the meeting room and many other features of the upper floors remain unchanged.    The Tucker County Bank opened in 1900 and was originally operating out of the county courthouse. Parsons was in the midst of an economic boom and the bank grew quickly. It was clear from the beginning that the bank would need its own property, and plans for the building began the following year. When the building was completed in 1903, the bank relocated and began doing business from this location. The property was home to the bank until they relocated in 1969.   In addition to holding the Tucker County Bank, at times the building hosted a Masonic Lodge, the Board of Education, a variety of businesses, and a drug store. The Freemasons occupied the third floor of the building from 1905 until 2002 and traces of the Masonic seal are still visible on an attic window. The building's drug store was popular for its soda fountain which was added to the store after being purchased for $200 in 1917. The drug store was a community hub as both a popular gathering place and a central bus stop.   When the bank began planning its move in 1966, the company searched for a new owner. The building was sold in 1967 to W. Del Roy and Doris E. Harner, two local lawyers. The property was sold for only $1, on the condition that the bank would not have to pay rent unless they had not relocated by 1969. From the 1970s onward, the building frequently changed hands; until, in 2006, the building was purchased by the Parsons Revitalization Organization. The group is working on restoring the building to its original design where possible and revitalizing the interior. The Tucker County Bank Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.

A center of business enterprises in Parsons from its earliest days, the Tucker County Bank was the first bank in the area. The three-story building built in 1903 displays elements of the Romanesque Revival style of architecture. Housing a variety of businesses and the local Freemasons for many years, the building was a social and economic hub. Currently owned by the Parsons Revitalization Organization, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2010. 

Tucker County Bank

Following the Civil War and the creation of West Virginia as a state, dramatic social, cultural, economic and political changes swept the
state as industrialization emerged by way of natural resource extractions in
the Mountain State. As new towns formed that resulted from railroads traversing
the mountainous state, these new communities often
vied for the distinction of being the county seat, which significantly
increased the chances of economic prosperity. After Reconstruction ended, and
industrialization grew in West Virginia, the political culture of the state
reformed to some degree that reflected
national trends of a new industrial society. For West Virginia, the changing
industrial atmosphere blurred the traditional political
and cultural lines that paralleled the vestiges
of Unionists and Confederate alignments.
Industrialization, that is, offered more prosperity than the traditional agrarian life that predominated West Virginia
(then Virginia) in its antebellum years. The political changes that took place
in West Virginia during the late
nineteenth century marked a turning point in the state’s young history, as new
towns competed with old towns for the distinction and benefits of having the county
seat and courthouse. One such example is the Tucker County Seat War between the
old town of St. George and the planned town of Parsons beginning in the early
1890s. 

In 1856, Virginia formed Tucker County and named the small town of St. George
as the county seat, and in the subsequent decades, the town witnessed minimal
growth. In 1888, St. George&nbsp;was devastated&nbsp;by fire, and much of the small town burned as a result. Furthermore, St. George
experienced more bad luck as Henry Gassaway Davis bypassed the county seat
while building his railroad, the West Virginia Central and Pittsburgh Railroad and built to Parsons while heading for Elkins, West Virginia.
Meanwhile, as St. George’s population declined, the new town of Parsons
population began to increase. Ward Parsons, the booster and namesake for
Parsons, West Virginia began petitioning
the state for the county seat despite having only a population of roughly 50
people in 1889 according to historian Ronald L. Lewis. Over the course on the
next couple of years, Ward Parsons petitioned to the state, collected
signatures, but failed to get a majority vote for moving the county seat to the
town of Parsons on two different occasions. In a special election held in 1893,
Parsons finally gained the votes and was granted the county seat, but residents
of St. George did not stand for the vote and proceeded
with legal action. Adam C. Minear, the former sheriff of St. George, “filed a bill of exceptions with the
county court protesting election irregularities” and when that motion failed,
Minear and William M. Clayton, the county clerk filed an injunction with the state supreme court. 

When Ward Parsons heard the news of the injunction filed with the state supreme court,
he became worried about the amount of time that the injunction could delay
Parsons gaining the county seat position,
and decided to take action in another manner. As Ronald L. Lewis noted: “Ward
Parsons and his trusted partners formed an armed mob of about 200 men and
headed to St. George to remove court records, documents, and furniture from the
courthouse in St. George.” At the same time,
the Parsons mob headed to St. George, former Confederate, Robert Ward Eastham, and 70 men arrived on a train from Davis to help Parsons in liberating the court records. Residents of St. George caught wind of
the arriving mob and quickly armed themselves and prepared to defend their
town. As the Parsons mob entered St. George, they were met by a small group of
armed residents, and the sheriff ordered the mob to leave town. The St. George
mob, significantly outnumbered, dispersed and the Parsons mob broke into the
courthouse. Once inside the courthouse, the mob took court records, documents,
furniture, and the bell which hung in the tower. The mob proceeded to load the materials from the
courthouse in their wagons and headed back to Parsons. The next morning on August 2, 1893, Parsons was
officially the county seat of Tucker County, West Virginia. Throughout the next
few days, newspapers from West Virginia and across the country reported the
event as the Tucker County Seat War, declaring the incident, “a disgrace to
law, order, and decency,” the Wheeling
Intelligencer noted on August 4, 1893. 

Within a week, the Wheeling
Intelligencer ran an article describing the tense atmosphere in Parsons as
Ward Parsons, and his partners patrolled
the town anticipating retaliation from
St. George. While St. George did not physically retaliate against Parsons
physically, they did so in a legal manner
and took their case to the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. In Hamilton et al. v. Tucker County et al.
the court of appeals ruled in favor of Parsons. “Justice Henry Brannon, writing
for the court, declared that no matter how the records were removed, the people of Tucker County had voted, and the county
court had declared Parsons the new county seat. These proceedings had been
lawful, and an earlier, forcible removal did not change the fact.” From this
point, Parsons became the undisputed county seat of Tucker County, West
Virginia. More importantly, the Tucker
County Seat War’s anticlimactic skirmish is not necessarily
the most significant aspect of the whole incident, rather the complexity of the
situation illustrates a much more multifaceted string of sociocultural and economic dynamics that set in motion the event. 

While traditional landed agrarian farmers held onto
their social and economical way of life,
industrialists in West Virginia also adapted to the changes sweeping the country and tried to steer West Virginia in the
same industrial direction. In West Virginia, during the late nineteenth
century, the state was politically divided and sectionalized by alignments
leftover from the Civil War. However, industrialization blurred those sociocultural alignments, due to the potential
economic prosperity that lied in West Virginia’s natural resources. Though traditionally a very difficult state to traverse, once railroads
penetrated the state’s interior and became more accessible, industrializing enhanced
a promising future. The composition of men involved with Ward Parsons and his
partners illustrates the changing sociocultural nature of West Virginia as industrialization
formed in the state. Ward Parsons and Robert Eastham were former Confederates
wealthy landowners, while the other partners
comprised of a doctor, lawyer, newspaperman, and farmers the consisted of an
eclectic mix of former Unionists and Confederates. Industrialization not only
changed the political dynamic of West Virginia as bother Republicans and
Democrats supported the economic change, but cultural associations also
shifted, mainly because industrialization offered economic prosperity for all
willing to invest. Old political alignments did not define the Tucker County
Seat War according to Ronald L. Lewis. Rather industrialization represented the
dramatic changes that shifted the political culture of the state. 

Economic opportunity superseded
political factionalism, that is to say, political factionalism did not cease in
West Virginia because of industrialization, but was certainly minimized as a
result of economic opportunity. The Tucker County Seat War is not solely unique
in West Virginia's history of industrialization and political atmosphere. Ronald
L. Lewis notes that “more than twenty West Virginia Counties experienced such
county seat warfare to some degree. Counties torn by divided loyalties during
the Civil War accounted for some of them, but economic development played a
dominant role in most of these battles during the late nineteenth century.” Industrialization
and the railroads provided the catalyst for the county seat wars in West
Virginia that when mixed with a combustible political atmosphere, and economic
prosperity, local leaders were willing to straddle the fringe of legal boundaries
to accomplish their goals.

When Virginia formed Tucker County in 1856, the Virginia General Assembly named the small town of St. George as the county seat. Following the Civil War, and the formation of the state of West Virginia, St. George remained the county seat and experienced a string of bad luck from a fire in 1888 along with a population decrease. Tucker County resident Ward Parsons formed the new town named after him that the West Virginia Central and Pittsburgh Railroad went directly through. Ward Parsons, seeking greater economic opportunities, petitioned the state for Parsons to become the county seat. By 1893, the town of Parsons gained enough votes and became the county seat, and as a result of the election, residents of St. George sought legal action to stop the transfer of the county seat to Parsons. As a result, Ward Parsons mustered a group of 200 armed men, and they marched to St. George and took the court records, documents, furniture, and even the bell hanging in the tower and brought the materials back to Parsons. 

The Tucker County Seat War 

Carrie Williams was represented by J.R. Clifford, an African American lawyer who would become one of the most important activists on behalf of racial equality in West Virginia. Together, Clifford and Williams ended the policy of ending the school term for Black children three months sooner than the term for white children. <blockquote>“She told him what had happened, that the school board was only going to pay her for three months — they were going to stop her term — even though the white kids were continuing,”  ... “He gave her this great piece of strategic advice, he told her ‘I want you to keep on teaching and live on your savings, and then after you’ve completed that, bring me all your records and we’ll file a suit against the Tucker County school board’ and that’s what Clifford did. And that’s what led to the Carrie Williams versus the Tucker County Board of Education, with JR Clifford as her lawyer and that was the case that was tried in Parsons and it all started right here in this little valley…” -Tom Rodd, Co-Creator of the J.R. Clifford Project.1</blockquote>Prior to 1887 when Clifford because the first African American Attorney in the state of West Virginia, he was a Civil War veteran, teacher, principal, and newspaper publisher. His newspaper, The Pioneer Press, was one of the longest published African American newspapers from 1887-1913. J.R Clifford was one of the first attorneys in the United Stated to challenge the segregated school system. After his success in Williams v. The Board of Education, he became a founder of the Niagra Movement along with W.E.B. DuBois in 1906 where he served as vice president of the organization. Clifford practiced law until he died at age 85, he was the most senior active lawyer in the state.

This historical marker shares the history of a landmark 19th-century civil rights case in the state of West Virginia. In response to a school board policy that created a much shorter school term for African American children in Tucker County, Black educator Carrie Williams challenged the board's racially discriminatory policy and won her case. As a result, Black children were able to spend the same number of weeks in school as white children, in the decades before the schools of Tucker County were integrated. This was also an important decision for Black educators who had previously earned much less than their white counterparts. In 2013, this historical marker was erected in honor of the landmark court case. The marker is located next to the courthouse where the trial occurred. This case was the first of its kind and helped to pave the way for other court decisions that challenged the existence of policies that limited educational opportunities on the basis of race. 

Carrie Williams vs. Tucker County (1892) Historical Marker 

The courthouse was designed by architect Frank Piece Milburn. Milburn also designed the McDowell County and Berkeley County courthouses in West Virginia. The courthouse was built by P.O. Shrake in a late 19th-century design with exposed brick and stone. The structure has high-pitched roofs and tall windows. It was inspired by Victorian-era architecture. At the time, many counties in West Virginia built separate residences from the courthouse for the sheriffs or jailors. Those structures would also contain the jail. The jail and sheriff residence was designed by the Franzheim, Giesy and Ferris architectural group from Wheeling, West Virginia. The jail and residence were built in 1896 by William D. Bumgarner. The structure was built in a Renaissance and Romanesque style of architecture due to the high windows and engraved decorations.The courthouse was permanently placed in Parsons after a rivalry between the towns of St. George and Parsons. In 1856, St. George was chosen to be the county seat when Tucker County had formed from a section of Randolph County. Parsons’ population was growing due to its lumber industry. It was reported that in 1893, a group of residents from Parsons went to St. George and stole county records and all other important documents. Official business operated out of Parsons from then on.The namesake of Parsons was Ward Parsons. He built the first home in Parsons and owned the most land. He was elected sheriff of Tucker County in 1876, and he was sheriff until 1881. He wanted the county seat to be moved to Parsons from St. George. He and other men petitioned for the courthouse to be moved to Parsons from St. George in February of 1889. The courthouse was officially built in 1898-1900, and Parsons became the permanent location of the Tucker County courthouse. The courthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

Built in 1898, the Tucker County Courthouse in Parsons, West Virginia was built by P.O. Shrake. It was designed by architect Frank Piece Milburn. The jail and sheriff’s residence was built beside the courthouse in 1896 by William D. Bumgarner. It was designed by the Franzheim, Giesy, and Ferris architectural group from Wheeling, West Virginia. The jail no longer holds inmates, but it is used for county government offices. The courthouse still serves as Tucker County’s courthouse, and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. 

Tucker County Courthouse and Jail

The route it followed through West Virginia was an old one, and well-traveled. Long ago, it had been a major Indian footpath. The Seneca Trail, known also as the Great Indian War and Trading Path, was a part of a network of trails stretching from the Deep South to modern day New York that was used by the Catawba, various Algonquian tribes, the Cherokee, and the Iroquois Confederacy.As European settlers began moving westward through this area, King George III drew a boundary in the Proclamation of 1763 that followed sections of the Seneca Trail. No settlers were to move west of this line. The explorers and pioneers could not be held back, however, and some of the roads left by their great westward push still intersect Route 219 today. Today’s US Route 60 approximates the James River and Kanawha Turnpike, a route proposed by a young surveyor named George Washington seeking to give Virginia access to trade in the West.It was Thomas Jefferson who, in 1809, authorized the construction of the Cumberland, or National, Road. This road, the first major improved highway built by the US government, connected the Potomac and Ohio Rivers and further opened the settling of the West. The Northwestern Turnpike was completed at about this same time, and was one of the first major roads crossing the Appalachian Mountains. Both the Cumberland Road and the Northwestern Turnpike are followed approximately by today’s Route 50. Shortly after, the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike (now US 250) was engineered through the steep terrain by Claudius Crozet in order to connect the upper Shenandoah Valley to the Ohio River.The modern wayfarer may know nothing of this history as they zoom along Route 219. Yet they may find that they ease off the gas a little as they drive this mostly rural, scenic highway. This road has been traveled before, and a trip down it is meant to be savored.

This historical marker along U.S. Route 219 was dedicated by the state of West Virginia and recognizes the history of the Seneca Trail, a path that generally follows present-day U.S. Route 219. It entered the present state a few miles west of Bluefield and followed the Bluestone River to the New and Greenbrier rivers to the vicinity of White Sulphur Springs. It then followed Anthony Creek down to the Greenbrier River near the present Pocahontas – Greenbrier County line which then ascended to the vicinity of Hillsboro and Droop Mountain. It then made its way through present Pocahontas County by way of Marlinton, Indian Draft Run, and Edray. Passing into present Randolph County, it descended the Tygart Valley River from its headwaters and passed through the vicinity of present-day Elkins, after which it proceeded north by ascending Leading Creek. It exited Randolph County when it crossed Pheasant Mountain. Descending the Left Fork of Clover Run into present-day Tucker County, it crossed the Shavers Fork of the Cheat River and exited that county by way of Horseshoe Run northeast of St. George. Here it also exited the present state of West Virginia near Oakland, Maryland.

Seneca Trail Historical Marker 

Henry Gassaway Davis was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1823. Although forced to leave school to obtain work before finishing elementary school, Davis would become a leading supporter of higher education. After working as a farmhand, Davis secured a position with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad as a brakeman. From this humble beginning in 1842, he slowly worked his way through the organization, first by becoming a conductor, and later being promoted to station agent. Thanks to his wife's inherited land in what would eventually become the town of Elkins, and his capacity to live within his means, Davis was able to invest his earnings in real estate. Though his efforts, Elkins became a booming railroad town by 1890.<blockquote>"When he was on the railroad as a brakeman, he spent many, many cold hours riding on the top of a coal pile on a coal car. He probably escaped death just by a whisker many, many times over. That was life out on the railroad. Who better to represent a state like West Virginia than someone who has come from the bottom, made his fortunes, knows what West Virginia is all about?" - Historian, John Hankey1</blockquote>Davis left the B&amp;O railroad in 1858 to pursue a career in the coal and timber industries. Davis and his brother recognized that these resources would be the key to industrial development in Appalachia long before the timber and coal booms of the the late 19th and early 20th century, Davis also found himself in position to provide resources to the Union army as the the nation went to war in 1861.  As his business interests grew, Davis turned to politics, where he focused on issues related to the development of the railroad. As he gained political influence, he was able to exert some control over the location of railroads which allowed him to support the economic interests of his constituents while also supporting his interests in the coal and timber industries. Davis was elected to the House of Delegates in 1865 and then the West Virginia Senate in 1868. After helping the Democratic Party take hold, Davis became the first West Virginian Democratic U.S. senator in 1871 and served until 1883. Throughout this period, Davis joined other white Southern Democrats in opposing Republican efforts to reconstruct the South and promote political rights for former slaves.2 After his voluntary retirement from the Senate, Davis again focused on the railroad. Through his efforts and influence, the West Virginia Central and Pittsburgh was extended through Tucker, Barbour and Pocahontas Counties until he had connected his road with the Baltimore and Ohio on the western side of the mountains, and also with the Chesapeake and Ohio. This development led to founding of Elkins. Davis soon returned to politics, becoming the Democratic Party's vice presidential candidate alongside Alton B. Parker in 1904. Parker chose Davis primarily on Davis' wealth, connections, and ability to secure funds for the campaign. However, the two Democrats lost to Republican candidates Theodore Roosevelt and Charles Fairbanks. The statue sits adjacent to the entrance of Davis and Elkins College, and was placed there in 1927. Davis died in Washington, D.C. on March 11, 1916 at the age of 92 following a short illness. He is buried in Maplewood Cemetery in Elkins. The statue commemorates West Virginia’s ‘‘Grand Old Man,’’ best remembered as a politician and business leader who dedicated his life to promoting industrial development in West Virginia via railroads, timber, and coal.

This statue on the corner of Randolph Avenue and Sycamore Street commemorates the life of Henry Gassaway Davis, an early political leader who represented West Virginia in the Senate from 1871-1883. Davis' greatest influence was promoting the development of railroads, perhaps appropriate given the fact that his first job was working as a brakeman for a rail company in 1842. Davis worked to connect the West Virginia Central & Pittsburg Railway which connected Elkins to Charleston, WV. Davis & Elkins College is named after Henry Gassaway Davis due to his early support of the institution and his many efforts to build the city of Elkins. Davis may be best remembered as Alton B. Parker's running mate in 1904, the year that Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt became President. An identical statue to this one appears in Davis Park in Charleston.

Henry Gassaway Davis Statue (Elkins)

Before the late nineteenth century, the area that is now Elkins, West Virginia was sparsely populated compared to the Randolph County seat of Beverly seven miles to the south. After the formation of the state of West Virginia during the American Civil War and gradual industrialization of the region over the same period, however, this began to change. West Virginia Senators and wealthy industrialists Henry Gassaway Davis and Stephen B. Elkins founded the town in 1890 to service the West Virginia Central and Pittsburgh Railway, connecting the area to major industrial hubs to the north and east in Pennsylvania and Maryland. The new town’s economy grew rapidly, as did its population, and the community’s Presbyterian congregation just as quickly outgrew the “Old White” Church building that had served as its house of worship since 1869. Himself a Presbyterian, Davis soon realized the need for more spacious accommodations and offered to fund the construction of a new church building on the condition that it be dedicated in memory of his mother. Davis played an active role in the new church’s design and construction, writing over ninety letters between 1894 and 1895 with specific instructions to the architect Charles Cassell as well as the various furniture, glass, tile, hardware, and lumber companies that supplied the building materials. He also arranged for his son-in-law and fellow town founder Stephen B. Elkins to donate the prominent Tiffany stained glass windows now located on the structure’s western side. When it was completed in 1895 as a combination of Cassell’s and Davis’s visions, the new church building offered visitors a unique blend of Gothic and Romanesque Revival architectural styles. The pointed archways in the structure’s windows and entrance as well as its castle-like tower (with pyramidal cap) are particularly representative of the Gothic Revival style popular in the nineteenth century. The fact that the windows and entrance are recessed and the façade is composed of stones of various textures, on the other hand, is indicative of Romanesque influences. Together with the Randolph County Courthouse nearby, these design elements make Elkins a unique entrepot of medieval revival architecture in the region. The church’s associations with individuals like Charles Cassell and Moses Drury Hoge also make it a unique window into the process by which former Confederates reintegrated into American society following the Civil War. While Davis himself had favored the Union during that conflict and played a key role in maintaining service for Federal forces on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, Randolph County had supported secession by a narrow margin when its original state of Virginia left the United States in 1861. Because it lay along the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike, however, Union leaders deemed it of too much strategic importance to allow it to join the Confederacy uncontested. As a result, Federal troops occupied the area throughout the war and Randolph County joined the new state of West Virginia when it seceded from Virginia in 1863. In consequence the relationship between former Confederates from what was once western Virginia and those of their neighbors that remained loyal to the United States was a complex one, strained by the violence and loss of the war and rising tensions of the subsequent Reconstruction period. By the 1890s, however, many West Virginians had joined a growing majority of white Northerners in choosing to embrace their former Confederate enemies at the expense of the war’s legacy of civil rights. This most likely played a role in the selection of Cassell as architect in 1894 and Hoge as minister at the church’s dedication ceremonies the following year. Cassell, a native of Portsmouth, Virginia who served as an engineer under General George Pickett, had primarily designed buildings in his home state prior to the construction of Davis Memorial. In the period following its construction, however, he went on to serve as architect for a number of prominent buildings further north, most notably in Baltimore. The Reverend Moses Drury Hoge, meanwhile, famously ran the U.S. Navy’s blockade of Charleston, South Carolina to deliver a donation of Bibles from London to the Army of Northern Virginia and preached to the likes of Generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. After his role in the dedication ceremonies at Davis Memorial, Hoge went on to serve in a number of notable capacities for both the national and international Presbyterian Church. The fact that Henry Davis, a Unionist, was willing to work with individuals like Cassell and Hoge and that both went on to prominence outside the South afterwards, indicates that by the 1890s Randolph County and West Virginia had begun to follow in the footsteps of the rest of the United States in moving toward reunification.

Located at the intersection of Sycamore Street and Church Lane in Elkins, West Virginia, Davis Memorial Presbyterian Church is the first sight that greets visitors to the nearby Davis and Elkins College. While the church itself was not built until the mid-1890s a Presbyterian congregation had existed in the area since 1869, meeting in the “Old White” Church (one of two buildings that existed in the town then known as “Leading Creek” prior to the foundation of Elkins in 1890). The new church built for the Presbyterian congregation of Elkins between 1894 and 1895 was largely the brainchild of West Virginia Senator Henry Gassaway Davis, one of the town’s founders along with Senator Stephen B. Elkins. In addition to its connection to Davis the church also has associations with a number of prominent former Confederates, most notably its architect Charles E. Cassell and the minister who led its dedication ceremonies Moses Drury Hoge. The church is currently open every Sunday for services at 11:00 AM as well as for regularly scheduled community events.

Davis Memorial Presbyterian Church

Walter F. Martens, the architect who designed the Governor’s executive mansion in Charleston, designed the church using a Romanesque Revival style. The building features locally quarried sandstone blocks on the outside, with a border of stone relief angels around the entire building.

Built in 1928, St. Brendan’s Catholic Church served the Catholic community until 1999.  In 2000, the Randolph County Community Arts Council purchased the building and following renovations, the center opened in 2001. The former sanctuary of the church is now referred to as the "Great Hall" and includes the original lighting fixtures and religious icons. The Arts Center hosts 16 exhibits, 24 concerts, and more than 100 art and music classes each year.

Randolph County Community Arts Center

The Randolph County Courthouse in Elkins, West Virginia was a center of local controversy before it even existed. When the county was founded as part of the state of Virginia in 1787, the town of Beverly seven miles to the south of modern-day Elkins was the most prominent community in the area and thus became the county seat. That seat’s regional prominence grew over the course of the early nineteenth century as a result of the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike, which Beverly’s residents convinced state authorities to construct on an indirect route that hooked northward to bring business through their town. In the second half of the nineteenth century, however, railroad activity quickly outpaced turnpike travel, and Beverly’s economy and demographic growth began to stagnate. The population and trade of Elkins, on the other hand, expanded rapidly after its foundation in 1890 as a town specifically intended to service the West Virginia Central and Pittsburgh Railroad, and with the backing of its founders Senators Stephen B. Elkins and Henry Gassaway Davis soon eclipsed Beverly in regional influence. In response to this shift the citizens of Elkins began efforts to move the county seat from Beverly, efforts that resulted in rising tensions between the two communities that are known locally as the “Randolph County Courthouse Wars.” Ultimately, this conflict was resolved in the courts in 1898 in Elkins’ favor and plans moved forward for the construction of a new county courthouse. After several years of planning, construction began under the direction of Uniontown, Pennsylvania architect John Charles Fulton in 1902. Fulton, a prominent Pittsburgh-area architect who played a role in the construction of a number of courthouses throughout the state (among them those of Doddridge County, Barbour County, and Monongalia County), designed the Randolph County Courthouse in the style popularized by Henry Hobson Richardson during the late nineteenth century. Richardson, recognized along with Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright as one of the three most influential architects in American history, is perhaps best known for his work on Trinity Church in Boston’s Back Bay. Like that building, the Randolph County Courthouse features prominent rounded arches, a recessed entryway, contrasting masonry textures, and towers with conical caps, characteristics borrowed from Roman and Byzantine buildings that came to define Richardson’s work and the Richardsonian Romanesque architectural style named for him. While examples of that style can be seen across the United States, however, it largely failed to take hold in West Virginia. Only a few dozen public and private structures were built with its features and of those the Randolph County Courthouse is among the most prominent, making it a unique architectural contribution to the region. The courthouse is equally unique as a site with connections to prominent individuals from the state’s history. Two future West Virginia governors practiced law there in its first year in operation. The first, Ephraim F. Morgan, was the Republican Party’s candidate in the gubernatorial race of 1920 and after winning with a plurality of the vote served as head of the state from 1921 to 1925. A descendent of prominent early colonist to western Virginia Morgan Morgan and native of Marion County, West Virginia, Ephraim Morgan ran as a pro-business candidate in one of the most hotly contested elections in the state’s history. In that election, Morgan received less votes than the combined total earned by pro-labor candidate Samuel B. Montgomery and Socialist Matthew S. Holt, but because his opposition was split between those two candidates and Democrat Arthur B. Koontz he was able to eke out a narrow victory. During the campaign Morgan had run as an opponent of labor unions in the state and friend to the coal mining industry, and his term as governor was largely reflective of those priorities. Morgan’s opposition to the United Mine Workers of America resulted in an escalation of the West Virginia Mine Wars, a series of increasingly violent conflicts between unionized mine workers and mining industrialists backed by government troops and armed vigilantes. Eventually, after repeated requests from Morgan, President Warren G. Harding dispatched federal troops to intervene in the conflict, an action that prompted a series of court cases that ultimately bankrupted UMWA. The second West Virginia governor to practice law in the Randolph County Courthouse in its first year of existence, Herman G. Kump, was considerably less conservative than his predecessor. After winning the 1932 election as part of the political wave that brought Democrats to office across the United States in response to the Republican Party’s slow response to the Great Depression, Kump was the first member of his party to lead the state since 1894. Although he endorsed the party’s presidential nominee Franklin D. Roosevelt, however, Kump failed in many respects to endorse the policies of Roosevelt’s New Deal. While he worked to salvage the state’s depleted treasury with a series of tax increases that ultimately increased the state government’s authority over local affairs and unintentionally paved the way for later New Deal reforms, Kump opposed any expansion to the welfare system and endeavored to curtail the influence of labor unions. The growing conflict Kump’s fiscal conservatism prompted between his supporters (known as “Statehouse Democrats”) and New Deal Democrats culminated in the election of the more progressive Matthew M. Neely, which cemented an alliance between the Democratic Party and labor unionists that dominated state politics for the rest of the century. Through its connections to two of the most prominent governors of West Virginia in the first half of the twentieth century and its status as an example of Richardsonian Romanesque architecture, the Randolph County Courthouse serves as a window into some of the most impactful processes in the history of West Virginia and the United States. As a product of the Randolph County Courthouse Wars of the late nineteenth century, the structure is also a unique testament to the progress of local and regional affairs during the same period. With a little bit of something for everyone, the building is thus a must-see during any visit to the city of Elkins.

Built after the county seat moved from its former home in nearby Beverly in 1898, the Randolph County Courthouse on Randolph Avenue in Elkins, West Virginia is one of the most prominent examples of Richardsonian Romanesque architecture in the state. While the structure is notable for its architecture, however, it is also noteworthy as the site of legal proceedings involving not one, but two West Virginia governors. These individuals, the state’s 16th governor Ephraim F. Morgan and 19th governor Herman Guy Kump, both appear in county court records from the building’s first year in operation, 1905. Through these figures, the Randolph County Courthouse is connected to much broader historical processes, particularly the history of the West Virginia Mine Wars and Great Depression. The courthouse remains in operation today, and is open from Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM.

Randolph County Courthouse

Herman Guy Kump was a West Virginia native, born in Capon Springs in 1877. Kump grew up on a stock raising farm and went to local schools until the 8th grade, when he attended the Shenandoah Normal School near Winchester, Virginia. He returned to Hampshire county to teach and later worked as a deputy county clerk before becoming the paymaster for the Consolidation Coal Company’s Monongah mine. At the age of 26, Kump started law school at the University of Virginia. He moved to Elkins following graduation and opened up his own law practice. Like many other leading attorneys of the era, Kump's practice led him to the political sphere when he became the prosecuting attorney in Randolph County in 1908, a position he served for two terms. During World War I, he and other attorneys utilized their legal skills to help the army, serving as a Captain in the Judge Advocate General's office in Washington. Following the end of the war, Kump returned to his law practice for two years before seeking the office of mayor. After a successful election, he served as the mayor of the city from 1921 to 1923.  Kump began his candidacy for Governor of West Virginia in 1932, just as the full effects of the Great Depression were being felt throughout the state and nation. Kump defeated Republican T. C. Townsend and became the Governor of West Virginia in 1933. He was the last Governor to be inaugurated in March, and the first to be inaugurated at the current state capitol. During his tenure in office, West Virginia faced one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation. His inaugural address as governor identified the need to stabilize the banking sector while also stimulating private businesses, but much of his time in office focused on promoting public works projects throughout the state.  Upon taking office, Kump called for a special session of the state legislature; The legislature met for 240 days- the longest session in West Virginia history. During this session, the legislature reorganized the State Road Commission and passed legislation authorizing the transfer of authority for maintaining 31,000 miles of secondary roads from the counties to the state government.  To meet the revenue needs of the growing state government, the Kump administration enacted the first state-wide consumer sales tax. His administration also established unemployment insurance, state personal income tax, and the creation of a county unit school system and a unified nine-month school term.2 The Depression did not end while Kump was in office, however his efforts to secure unemployment insurance and promote federal works projects helped many throughout the state whether some of its leanest years. Kump left office in 1937 and returned to Elkins, WV where he continued practicing law. He attempted to run for United States Senate in 1940 and 1942, but was defeated both times.  Kump passed away in 1962 and was interned in the Beverly Cemetery in Randolph County. Mary Gamble Kump, Kump's youngest daughter, took control of this historic house. In 2008 Mary gifted the home to the city of Elkins with the understanding that it would be used for educational purposes, with programs that promoted citizenship and education for children and youth. In 2010, The Kump Education Center was established and maintains its headquarters in this historic home. The center maintains a schedule of events and programs designed to fulfill Mary Kump's vision for promoting education and citizenship by collaborating with the faculty of several local colleges and other educational institutions.

Completed in 1925, the Kump House was home to the family of Herman Guy Kump, a leading attorney and the 19th Governor of West Virginia. Kump was in office from 1933 to 1937 and is best known for his work promoting public education and working with the federal government to promote public works projects throughout the state during the Great Depression. Today the Kump house is owned by the city of Elkins and is home to the Kump Education Center, an organization that focuses on historic preservation and sustainability. 

The Kump House

According to the&nbsp;Historic Beverly Preservation Association,&nbsp;&nbsp;the Beverly cemetery is the oldest public cemetery west of the Allegheny Mountains. The earliest burials at this site were&nbsp;Nicholas Wolfe and Isaac Springfield in 1768. James Westfall's land patent in 1772 included the cemetery. Colonel Archibald Earle purchased the land in 1832 and transferred the cemetery site to the town of Beverly&nbsp;before his death in 1842.&nbsp; Veterans of almost every war (excluding recent conflicts) and many early pioneers are buried at the site,&nbsp;including Lemuel Chenoweth,&nbsp;famous covered bridge builder, and Herman Guy Kump, 19th governor of West Virginia. The Beverly Cemetery is listed in the National Register as a contributing resource to the Beverly Historic District.The cemetery is divided into sections, with the newest graves located on the northern side of the property, and the oldest graves located in the center, and along the western side near the Tygart river. Many of the oldest graves are in poor shape, with a majority of the gravestones being knocked over and without legible inscriptions. However, there are many gravestones still legible, and are burial sites for soldiers of all wars. In 2009, vandals were reported as spray painting and knocking over historic gravestones. The Beverly Cemetery has been raising funds to restore these headstones.&nbsp;

The Beverly Cemetery is located in the town of Beverly, WV, a short distance north of the commercial center, and is located within the Beverly Historic District. It is surrounded by few residences and vacant lots surrounding it to the north, east and south. The rippling Tygart Valley River and wooded areas are on the western side of the property. Beverly Cemetery is a rectangular section of land containing over 300 graves dating from 1768 to the modern era.

Beverly Cemetery

The Methodist congregation of what is now Beverly, West Virginia formally organized in 1786, the same year that the Virginia Assembly voted to form Randolph County and name Beverly as its seat. Although the congregation’s first church, a log building on Court Street, was built at an unknown date it was most likely shortly after the congregation’s formation since early records indicate it was in this structure that Bishop Francis Asbury preached during his visit to the town in 1788. One of the Methodist Episcopal Church’s two first bishops in the United States, Asbury was a key figure in the Second Great Awakening, a period of religious revival characterized by enthusiastic faith gatherings, a deemphasis on traditional church hierarchies, and the prioritizing of a more personal relationship to the divine. Asbury traveled throughout the borderlands of the British colonies and later United States over the course of forty five years as a preacher in North America, during which time he founded several schools for Methodist ministers and kept a detailed journal that remains one of the best sources on life in the Appalachians in the late eighteenth century. In one such journal entry he records his visit to the area that is now Beverly, characterizing the community’s inhabitants in starkly negative terms: “good moralists they are not, and good Christians they can not be unless they are better taught.”<a href="#_ftn1" target="_blank">[1]</a> After Asbury’s visit to Beverly the next itinerant Methodist preacher in the town was the Reverend Lorenzo Dow, who traveled extensively throughout the region in the early 1830s. Dow, another prominent figure of the Second Great Awakening, traveled first across the Atlantic to the United Kingdom before returning to preach across the Appalachian region. During his time in the UK Dow caused considerable controversy for his hypnotic manner of speaking and unkempt dress, as well as the enthusiastic response of the worshippers who attended the camp meetings he held in both England and Ireland. Upon his return to the United States Dow began preaching across the southern United States, where he was noted for appearing without warning in towns from Virginia to Georgia simply to announce that he would return for a revival on the same date the following year. While his staunch opposition to slavery often made him unwelcome in such towns, it appears from local accounts that he was welcomed enthusiastically by the residents of Beverly on the several occasions that he appeared there. Shortly after Dow’s visits to the area, the Reverend Samuel Clawson arrived to preach a sermon to the Methodist congregation there. Noted for his eccentricities in the pulpit, Clawson preached across the Pittsburgh area before joining the West Virginia Conference after the new state’s formation in 1863. During his time in the Beverly area, Clawson made a particularly strong stand against the spread of Primitive Baptist Universalism in the community. Practitioners of this theology (which argued against the existence of Hell) were known colloquially as “No Hellers” and could be found in entrepots across Appalachia, where they were noted for interrupting the sermons of preachers who threatened their congregation with the torments of eternal damnation. Upon hearing that one of those entrepots was located in Beverly, Clawson proclaimed in his sermon to the Methodists of the town that if the “gang here who call themselves ‘No Hellers’…speak to me here tonight or any other time, I will knock you higher than the Tower of Babel.”<a href="#_ftn2" target="_blank">[2]</a> So, on that occasion, apparently, the No Hellers held their tongues. The Methodist congregation to which these preachers spoke lost their original church building during the American Civil War when federal troops occupying Beverly dismantled it and used the materials to build small wooden huts as their winter quarters. After the war the congregation constructed a temporary replacement for their original church at the same location, which in turn lasted over two decades before Beverly’s Methodists could afford to build better accommodations. This they did in 1890 on Main Street across from the Beverly Presbyterian Church. This church, the structure still in use today, was built in the Gothic Revival style. The decorative finials on the columns at the church’s front is especially representative of this style, as are the pointed arches and drip molding over the structure’s windows. <a href="#_ftnref1" target="_blank">[1]</a> Bosworth, 274.<a href="#_ftnref2" target="_blank">[2]</a> Bosworth, 272.

The Beverly United Methodist Church is the third structure to serve as a house of worship for the Beverly, West Virginia’s Methodists since European colonists arrived to the area in the late eighteenth century. The first, a log structure built on Court Street at an unknown date, was dismantled by federal troops occupying the town during the Civil War for use as building material in the construction of winter quarters. The second, at the same location, rose shortly after the war in 1867 and lasted until the construction of the current building on Main Street in 1890. The Methodist congregation of Beverly has hosted a number of prominent preachers during its time in existence, most notably Bishop Francis Asbury in 1788, the Reverend Lorenzo Dow in the 1830s, and the Reverend Samuel Clawson shortly thereafter. Through its connection to these individuals, the Beverly United Methodist Church and its congregation serve as a window into the development of the Methodist denomination in the area and nationwide. The church is currently open during regular services on Sundays.

Beverly United Methodist Church

Laura Jackson was born on March 27, 1826, in Clarksburg, Virginia (West Virginia) to Jonathan and Julia Beckwith Neale Jackson. The Jacksons had four children, but lost one to disease. Jonathan Jackson died of typhoid fever a day before Laura’s birth. Laura Jackson was alone to care for their surviving children, Thomas (Later known as "Stonewall”), Laura, and Warren. Laura Jackson married Blake Woodson. The new family struggled financially and Laura and Thomas were sent to live with uncles on the late Johnathan’s side of the family in Jackson Mill (West Virginia). Warren was sent to live with some of Julia’s family members. Julia Jackson passed away during childbirth in 1831 and Warren passed away in 1841 after suffering from tuberculosis. This left Laura and Thomas the only living members of the original Jackson family. Laura and Thomas formed a bond as they endured an insecure and sad childhood. Thomas left home in 1842 to enroll in the United States Military Academy at West Point, but the two remained close for some years and wrote to one another often. In 1844, Laura Jackson married Jonathan Arnold and they bought this home in 1845 for $1500. The couple had four kids and opened their home as a private school for several area families. The children were instructed by a governess that stayed in the home. Once the Civil War broke out their home became more than a school for the children. Several of the people living in the town of Beverly were sympathetic to the southerners, including Jonathan Arnold, who was originally a Whig. Therefore, when the Union took control of the town after the Battle of Rich Mountain just five miles away on July 11, 1861, several people moved away. Despite her husband’s new political leaning, Laura stayed a Unionist and provided medical attention to the wounded Union troops inside her own home. Union soldiers stayed in Beverly during most of the war and Laura continued to help heal Union troops wounded in any conflicts that occurred close to the town throughout the war. Union troops talked fondly of her and praised her for her loyalty to the Union.Prior to the Civil War, Stonewall visited the Arnolds in their home on several occasions. However, when the war broke out Laura and Stonewall’s close relationship ended when she remained a Unionist and he became a general for the Confederate Army. The two never settled their differences before Stonewall’s death in 1863 at the Battle of Chancellorsville. It is not clear if Laura had any regrets about the deterioration of the close relationship she had with Stonewall and his death because she never spoke of it. She never stopped being a Unionist and did not speak to any Jackson relatives.The differences in political opinions between Laura and her husband became too much for the marriage and in 1870, Jonathan divorced Laura. Laura left Beverly and went to live in Buckhannon, WV; her ex husband continued to live in the home they had shared until he passed away in 1883. Laura was remembered and honored for her wartime efforts in the years after the war. In 1897, she was named an honorary member of the assembled Society of the Army of West Virginia. In 1905, she went to a gathering of the 5th West Virginia Cavalry, who resided in Beverly after the Battle of Rich Mountain. The veterans gave her the title of Mother of the Regiment, due to the medical attention she gave to their wounded comrades. On September 4, 1911, Laura passed away at her daughter-in-law’s house and was laid to rest in Heavner Cemetery in Buckhannon, WV. Today, the house Laura shared with Jonathan is part of Historic Beverly. In 1883, A.D. Barlow purchased two lots from Jonathan Arnold’s relatives, adding a store above the south wing of the house. A fire burned this part of the home in the 1940s and Barlow’s daughter disposed of the south wing. His daughter also added a porch, made changes to the windows, and blocked a door that was on the second story of the home. Four rooms that were a part of the home when the Arnolds lived in it are still there today.

The Jonathan Arnold House was the home of Laura Jackson Arnold, sister of Confederate General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. A strong Unionist, Laura opened her home to Union troops during the Civil War. Laura helped heal the wounded while also providing shelter and food. Prominent figures, like Union General George McClellan, passed through the home during the Civil War. Laura and her brother Thomas had once been very close, but due to their differing views on the question of secession, their relationship became antagonistic and the two never resolved their differences before Thomas's death in 1863. Because of her assistance to federal forces, Laura was praised by Union troops during the war and remembered with great respect and admiration by Union veterans after the war.

The Jonathan and Laura Jackson Arnold House 

The small town of Beverly, nestled in the Allegheny Mountains, was the gathering point for Confederate troops early in the Civil War. The Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike connected to the B&amp;O Railroad, which made Beverly a strategic crossroads between the North and South. As a result, both armies were anxious to control the territory. In 1861, Union General George B. McClellan led a surprise attack at the Battle of Rich Mountain. Although he demonstrated what would become a common tendency to fail to push his advantages into a stunning defeat of the Confederacy, his forces were able to secure control of the region. The Union controlled Beverly throughout the remainder of the war. The four buildings that make up the museum are connected by a gallery with an enterance in the back of the building that makes the heritage center handicap accessible. The Beverly Bank opened at this location in 1900, but was not able to survive the banking crisis of the early 1930s and closed without reopening. The neoclassical building and with its signature arched windows and doorway survives to the present thanks to the efforts of local citizens and preservationists.The 1854 Bushrod Crawford building is a frame residence built shortly before the Civil War, and has significance as Union General McClellan’s headquarters after he won the Battle of Rich Mountain. The Hill Store building was built connecting the Courthouse and the Crawford building around 1907, and represents commercial development in the Beverly in the early 1900s. Last, but not least is the Randolph County Courthouse in the center of the complex. This building cost approximately $1200 to build, including $35 for hinges and other ironwork paid to Solomon Collett when he completed the building in 1815.1Two of the earliest settlement families in the Beverly area were the Robert Files and David Tygart families. They arrived in 1753, but soon conflicts originating from the the French and Indian War forced these families to flee the area. Settlers of European descent returned in 1772, when Caption Benjamin Wilson led a group of nine families to the area. James Westfall was one of the nine original patriarchs, and in 1790, his twenty-acre plat was divided into one-half acre town lots. Planning for what would become the town of Beverly included the construction of a jail, courthouse, business district, and schoolhouse. Construction of the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike began in 1840. By 1847, Beverly was a town that sat at a major crossroad. It was also destined to be a strategic point during the Civil War due to its connecting point to the North and South. Beverly became a gathering and staging point for Confederate troops at the start of hostilities. General Robert E. Lee ordered 1,000 muskets to be sent to Beverly to support the pro-Confederate volunteers being recruited in that area. The shipment never made it to Beverly, however, as the Union Army captured Confederate supplies when they routed Confederate partisans in the Battle of Phillipi on June 3, 1861. On July 11, 1861,  General George B. McClellan's successful surprise attack on Rich Mountain and his army's ability to control the turnpike led to the withdrawal of Confederate troops from the area. Union troops dug trenches around Butcher Hill (Mt. Isner) and built numerous fortifications around the town. Troops also utilized homes and public buildings throughout the town, especially during the winter months of occupation. The Lemuel Chenoweth House was one of many used to house officers and care for the sick and wounded. This home is located next to the Beverly covered bridge and is open for tours. Despite the Southern sympathies of many residents throughout the area, Beverly and the surrounding area would be controlled by the Union for most of the war. However, Confederate raiders were able to persist throughout the area, making the Civil War in this section of West Virginia a local affair that divided residents during and after West Virginia secured statehood on June 20, 1863.  The museum offers exhibits the history of Beverly, West Virginia is preserved by the Historic Beverly Preservation Group, Beverly ONTRAC Community Development Program, Rich Mountain Battlefield Foundation, Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike Alliance, and the Randolph County Historical Society. Bi-annually the Historic Beverly Preservation organization hosts Beverly Heritage Days, which features home tours, food, music, and a living history of the town. More information can be obtained at the Rich Mountain Visitors Center on Court Street or at the Blackman-Bosworth Store/Museum located on Main Street.

Beverly Heritage Center preserves and operates a museum complex composed of four neighboring historic buildings: Beverly Bank, Randolph County Courthouse, Hill Building, and the Bushrod Crawford building. The idea to create this historic complex by connecting these four buildings by adding walkways and creating museum exhibits began in the 1990s, when local citizens and historic preservationists considered a variety of plans to revitalize the historic town and promote heritage tourism. Thanks to grants and donations, construction began in 2004 and was completed in 2012. Visitors to the complex are now able to tour each of these four buildings and view exhibits related to the area's Native inhabitants, the arrival of pioneer settlers, the Battle of Rich Mountain, the creation and importance of the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnmpike, the Civil War battles of central West Virginia, and daily life in this small community throughout the late 19th and 20th century. 


Beverly Heritage Center

When Aries Hill had his general store constructed on Court Street in 1907, he sought to participate in ongoing efforts to promote trade and business in the town after the “Randolph County Courthouse War” of the 1890s, a struggle between the rapidly growing town of Elkins and Beverly itself for control of area politics. His store, built in the Neoclassical Revival style, evidently did well, and when Hill died from pneumonia in 1923 he was one of the most prosperous and influential men in Beverly. Hill’s experiences are representative not only of the efforts of former Confederates to reintegrate into West Virginia society after the Civil War, but also those of Beverly more generally as it worked to find a new place for itself in the changing political landscape of an Elkins-led county government. Aries Hill arrived in Beverly, West Virginia shortly after it lost its status as the seat of Randolph County to nearby Elkins, which rose to that position in 1899 after years of political strife, occasional violence, and the presumed 1897 arson of a new courthouse building constructed in Beverly three years earlier. Eager in the wake of that conflict’s resolution to head off their town’s anticipated regional diminution, Beverly’s residents sought to encourage an economic revival in their town with the construction of a series of prominent new buildings that effectively reworked the architectural landscape of the area. Among these structures were the Masonic Lodge, the International Organization of Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F.) Hall, the Beverly Store, and the Hill building itself. While these structures embraced a variety of architectural features, the Hill building is in the Neoclassical Revival style. The pediment (triangular shape at the top of the building’s facade) and metal cornices (ornamental molding) are particularly representative of this style, as are the pressed metal “stones” on the left and right edges of the building simulating pilasters (rectangular columns). Together with the structure’s double storefront, these features made the Hill building an eye-catching sight on Court Street during its heyday in the early twentieth century. As a result Hill’s business prospered, and he eventually became one of the town’s most notable citizens.Aries Hill was not always as fortunate as he had become by the end of his life. After his service in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War, Hill struggled to establish a successful business in Randolph County. He tried and failed on a number of occasions to obtain a liquor license in the area, where the temperance (anti-alcohol) movement had evidently gained considerable traction in the post-war years. In a particularly low point, Hill shot himself in the finger while inspecting a revolver. After moving to Beverly in 1902 to serve as the clerk of local tavern-keeper John Feight, however, his luck began to turn, and within five years he had opened the new general store next to the Old Beverly Courthouse that would eventually come to bear his name. In a particularly symbolic design choice, Hill’s new store not only replaced the clerk’s office that once occupied a wing of the courthouse but obscured a portion of the courthouse itself as well. The new county courthouse in Elkins had replaced the one in Beverly and the town’s residents, it seemed, were ready to move on.While a slight majority of the Randolph County electorate supported the Confederacy in the Civil War, the post-war years in that area progressed in much the same manner as they did in others throughout the new state of West Virginia. Hill’s struggles to find a place for himself as a Confederate veteran in a Union state were fairly typical of those experienced by many of his compatriots, especially during the years of Reconstruction. A majority of West Virginians were at the very least Unionists, often members of the Republican Party, and increasingly supportive of the efforts of Progressive reformers who supported temperance. Hill’s eventual decision to move away from the liquor business reflected an acknowledgment that such enterprises were becoming less and less popular not only in Randolph County but across the state. The success he experienced after that decision, early in the twentieth century, was in large part a result not only of his choice to become the proprietor of a “respectable” business but of a larger shift in West Virginia’s political landscape as well that tended toward support for the reintegration of former Confederates into society.The Hill building thus serves as a window into the history of both Beverly in the wake of the “Courthouse War” of the 1890s and West Virginia at large in the wake of the Civil War. As part of the Beverly Heritage Center, however, it also serves as a central component in the area’s historical community. Formed in the early twentieth century through a cooperation between Historic Beverly Preservation, the Rich Mountain Battlefield Foundation, and the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike Alliance, the Beverly Heritage Center is key to local efforts at historical education and preservation.

Built in 1907 to serve as a general store for Randolph County businessman Aries G. Hill, the Hill building was one of four adjacent structures on Court Street combined with a rear addition to become the Beverly Heritage Center in 2012. The building, which includes design features characteristic of the Neoclassical Revival architectural style popular at the time, replaced a wing of the Old Beverly Courthouse that served as a clerk’s office during Beverly’s time as the seat of Randolph County. After his service as a Confederate soldier during the American Civil War, Hill bounced around Randolph County searching for new economic opportunities before settling in Beverly as saloon-keeper John Feight’s clerk in 1902. By the time of his death in 1923 Hill had become one of the most prominent citizens of the area, and his former business (opened five years after his arrival in the town) is noteworthy as a product of the architectural renaissance in Beverly at the turn of the twentieth century. The Hill building became part of the Beverly Heritage Center in the early twenty-first century, which is open Sundays to Thursdays from 11 AM to 5 PM and Fridays and Saturdays from 10 AM to 6 PM.

Hill Building

The Bushrod Crawford House, named for its original occupant, served in both commercial and residential capacities in the early years of its existence, built to capitalize on the booming trade that came to Beverly with the arrival of several turnpikes during the period and to house one of the town’s most prominent citizens. The house also played a prominent role in the American Civil War, however. Because Beverly and the surrounding county stood at the intersection of several strategically important thoroughfares between eastern and western Virginia (and the north and south), the Federal government made a particularly forceful effort to keep it from joining the rebellion. After his victory in one of the earliest actions of the war, the 1861 Battle of Rich Mountain, Union General George B. McClellan utilized Crawford's home as his headquarters during his brief stay in Beverly. Crawford himself had fled south with the arrival of Federal troops to the area, but when the Confederacy surrendered he returned to his home and remained until his death in 1893. Over a century later, in the early twenty-first century, the building gained new life as part of the Beverly Heritage Center.The Bushrod Crawford House has a number of architectural features that make it a fairly representative example of the Federal style popular in the mid-nineteenth century. The unornamented, symmetrical façade and gabled roof are particularly noteworthy, as were the multipaned windows included in the design prior to its renovation in the early twenty-first century. Built in a front-facing “L” shape, the four-bay portion of the two-story structure facing Court Street served as the Crawford brothers’ store while the remainder functioned as Bushrod’s residence. Brick chimneys in the center of each wing heated the building prior to the addition of modern upgrades and store patrons had access to a front porch on both levels. When the building was constructed circa 1850, the Crawfords no doubt hoped to profit from the increased trade and traffic brought to Beverly with the construction of the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike in 1847 and the Beverly-Fairmont Turnpike five years later. Given the store’s prime location on Court Street and the Crawford brothers’ prominence in Beverly, it is likely that they were able to do just that. After all, the Crawfords had deep ties to Beverly as one of the earliest families in the area and Bushrod himself had served in a number of public capacities throughout the 1840s (among them the position of tax, collector, constable, and captain of militia). With the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States in 1860, however, the Crawfords’ luck took a dramatic turn. As slave states in the south began to secede from the Union in the months after Lincoln’s election in November, calls to follow suit in Virginia succeeded in forcing the establishment of a special convention to address the matter in the state capital of Richmond. While the eastern counties of Virginia largely supported secession, the issue was more muddled in the west and Randolph County was no exception. Like many of the western counties large-scale agricultural slavery had failed to take root in Randolph, where the mountainous terrain had precluded the establishment of grand plantations like those in the east. As a result, most of Randolph County’s slaveholders purchased slaves as house servants rather than field laborers. Consequently the electorate was almost evenly split on the issue of secession, with a slight majority favoring separation from the Union as a means of ensuring the institution’s survival and a slight minority believing that the Constitution contained sufficient safeguards to ensure the failure of any challenge the new president might pose to its continuance. When the state government called the Secession Convention in 1861 Bushrod Crawford stood as candidate for the pro-secession faction in Randolph County, ultimately losing to John N. Hughes (a Conditional Unionist who eventually voted in favor of secession after Lincoln called for the raising of 100,000 militia troops to quell the southern rebellion). In the plebiscite that followed the secession convention’s resolution in favor of joining the Confederacy, Randolph County’s citizens supported the decision by a majority of nineteen votes.Because of its location along the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike, however, Randolph County (and Beverly in particular) was of too much strategic importance for the Union to allow to join Virginia in the Confederacy. By controlling that road, which ran from the Shenandoah Valley to the Ohio River, Federal troops could cut one of the most prominent rebel states in half while keeping a key route between the eastern and western theaters of the war open for the transport of soldiers and supplies. So, when General Robert E. Lee (then commanding the Virginia militia) assigned General Robert S. Garnett to organize Confederate forces in western Virginia and Garnett in turn occupied strategic positions at Rich Mountain and Laurel Hill along the turnpike, Union General George B. McClellan (then commander of the Department of the Ohio) marched to meet him. After a detachment of Union soldiers under General William Rosecrans routed the Confederate forces under Lieutenant Colonel John Pegram at the Battle of Rich Mountain by launching an attack through the woods at their rear, Garnett withdrew with the majority of his men from Laurel Hill and McClellan moved to occupy Beverly. During his few days in the town, he utilized Bushrod Crawford’s house as his headquarters and afterwards the building continued to serve as the telegraph office for the Union troops stationed in the area. With a few notable exceptions (the Jones-Imboden Raid of 1863 and the Rosser Raid of 1865) those troops held the town for the large majority of the war, ensuring the area’s inclusion in the new state of West Virginia formed in 1863. Throughout this period Beverly residents were prevented from leaving the town without official passes from its military occupants, though according to Thomas Arnold (General Stonewall Jackson’s nephew and a local Confederate sympathizer) the Federal soldiers generally treated residents relatively well. Regardless, the occupation ended with the closure of hostilities in 1865, and those who had fled the occupation were permitted to return. Among them was Bushrod Crawford, who took up residence in his former home once more and lived there until his death in 1893.In the early twenty-first century the house became part of the Beverly Heritage Center, which combined it with three adjacent buildings (the Old Beverly Courthouse, Hill building, and former Bank of Beverly) through the construction of a rear addition. The center, which came out of plans set in motion in 2004 by a group of local organizations that included Historic Beverly Preservation, the Rich Mountain Battlefield Foundation, and the Staunton-Parkersburg Alliance, opened in 2012 as a museum and community center dedicated to historic education and preservation in Beverly and the surrounding area.

Built circa 1850 in the Federal architectural style popular in the mid-nineteenth century, the Bushrod Crawford House is one of four buildings owned and operated by the Beverly Heritage Center on Court Street in Beverly, West Virginia. Bushrod, along with his brother Absalom, operated a store in the portion of the building facing the street, while Bushrod resided in the other half. The Crawford brothers were both strong secessionists in the leadup to the American Civil War, with Bushrod running as the pro-secession nominee to represent Randolph County at the 1861 Virginia Secession Convention (an election Conditional Unionist John N. Hughes ultimately won). When Federal forces under General Gorge B. McClellan occupied Beverly after the Battle of Rich Mountain that same year, the Crawfords fled to eastern Virginia and McClellan claimed Bushrod’s home as his headquarters during his brief stay in the town. After the war, Bushrod returned to reclaim the building and lived there until his death in 1893. The structure is now part of the Beverly Heritage Center, a museum and community center dedicated to historical education and preservation in Randolph County. The center is open Sunday to Thursday, 11 AM to 5 PM and Fridays and Saturdays from 10 AM to 6 PM.

Bushrod Crawford House

Constructed at a cost of approximately $1200 in 1815 (around $16,600 now), the two-story brick structure that once served as the courthouse for Randolph County became part of the Beverly Heritage Center in 2012. From 1815 to 1894, all county court business took place at the courthouse. When West Virginia senators Henry Gassaway Davis and Stephen Benton Elkins founded the nearby town of Elkins in 1890 to service the West Virginia and Pittsburgh Central Railway and it began to outpace Beverly demographically, however, calls to move county business out of the by then outdated facilities of the Beverly courthouse quickly mounted. In an effort to keep the courthouse in their town Beverly’s residents constructed a new courthouse in 1894, but it burned down three years later. By the end of the century, the conflict over the location of the courthouse and county seat resolved in Elkins’ favor. The building gained new life, however, as part of the new Beverly Heritage Center in the early twenty-first century. A product of cooperative efforts beginning in 2004 between Historic Beverly Preservation, the Rich Mountain Battlefield Foundation, and Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike Alliance, the Beverly Heritage Center opened its doors in 2012 after combining the old courthouse with the adjacent Hill building, Bushrod Crawford House, and former Bank of Beverly with a rear addition. The center serves as a museum and community center dedicated to historical education and preservation in Beverly and the surrounding area.  Prior to the completion of the Old Beverly Courthouse in 1815, court sessions for Beverly and the surrounding area took place in a log structure built between 1788 and 1798. The needs of the local legal community quickly outpaced that building, however, and it remained in use for only three years after its construction. From 1803 to 1808 court sessions were held in various houses around town, including those of John Wilson and Nicholas Gibson. In 1808, Jonathan Hutton, Samuel Ball, and Matthew Whitman received appointments as a committee to contract for the construction of a more permanent home for the county’s court. Their specifications for the building were exacting: the new courthouse was to be thirty feet wide with stone floors, brick walls, and joint shingles that formed a circle at the back, the first floor was to be twelve feet high and the second eight, and there was to be a fifteen-foot square clerk’s office on the southwest corner. When construction completed in 1815, those expectations had largely been met, and the new courthouse in Beverly stood as one of the earliest such structures built in what is now the state of West Virginia. At the time of its construction the Neoclassical architectural styles popularized by U.S. President Thomas Jefferson had largely failed to reach the western counties of Virginia and as a result the courthouse in Beverly followed the Federal style (evidenced by its plain features and absence of pilasters, or rectangular columns). Upgrades in 1826 and 1838 added a cupola at the center of the courthouse’s roof and an office for the circuit clerk, though the cupola was later removed and the clerk’s office replaced by the Hill building next door in 1907. The construction of the Hill building not only replaced the clerk’s office but obscured a portion of the old courthouse’s façade as well, a development that in many ways reflects the changes in the structure’s fortunes in the preceding decade. Those changes came about in large part with the founding of Elkins by Senators Henry Gassaway Davis and Stephen Benton Elkins in 1890. Davis and Elkins were both prominent figures in the railroad, coal mining, and timber industries in the late nineteenth century, Davis as a self-made millionaire who began in the railroad business as a brakeman and Elkins as the husband of Davis’ daughter Hallie. The two worked together to expand Davis’ business ventures throughout the region that encompassed Randolph County and the neighboring counties of West Virginia, Virginia, and Maryland, but increasingly focused on the town of Elkins after Davis retired there from the U.S. Senate. Though they did not officially form the town until 1890, the community of Leadsville had existed at the same site for quite some time and had already begun to grow in size with their construction of the West Virginia and Pittsburgh Central Railway there in 1889. Within a few short years Elkins’ population had outpaced that of Beverly and showed little sign of slowing, a fact that translated into growing calls for the relocation of the county seat to the new town. The conflict that arose between Elkins and Beverly over the issue reached a fever pitch late in the decade when the matter was taken into the courts and the residents of the former began to fear that it would not be resolved in their favor. Acting on that fear, they gathered weapons and marched on Beverly to physically remove the county’s court records from the Old Beverly Courthouse. Their opponents responded in kind, resulting in a tense standoff in which bloodshed was avoided only through the efforts of a group of Beverly citizens led by Dr. Humboldt Yokum that convinced the Elkins party to return home and await the decision of the court. Ultimately, that decision fell in Elkins’ favor and when the county seat moved out of Beverly the old courthouse remained as the only reminder of its town’s former status.The history of the Old Beverly Courthouse reflects the larger narrative of its community’s progress over the course of the nineteenth century. Built in the first decades of that period during the town’s early prosperity and vacated over eighty years later as industry began to shift to other areas of the county, the courthouse serves as a window into the political and economic history of Randolph County and West Virginia more generally in the early years of their existence. The structure is also noteworthy as an early example of courthouse architecture in what was then the western portion of the state of Virginia and offers a unique opportunity to consider the Federal style’s popularity prior to the spread of Neoclassicism. While these characteristics make the building a central feature in the history of Beverly, Randolph County, and the surrounding state, however, its inclusion in the Beverly Heritage Center in the early twenty-first-century has ensured its status as an integral component of the local historical community.

Completed in 1815 in the Federal style, the Old Beverly Courthouse is one of four buildings owned and operated as part of the Beverly Heritage Center on Court Street. The building remained in use from the date of its construction until 1894, when the residents of Beverly constructed a new courthouse in a bid to keep the seat of Randolph County from moving to Elkins during the “Courthouse Wars” of the 1890s. After the new courthouse burned down under suspicious circumstances three years later, however, the county court records returned to the old courthouse, where they remained until the county seat moved to Elkins permanently at the end of the century. The history of the former courthouse reflects the fortunes of the town in the nineteenth century from its most prosperous years in the early decades to its eclipse by other communities in the decades that followed. 

Old Beverly Courthouse

In 1900,&nbsp;Dr. Humboldt Yokum founded and opened the Beverly Bank, which is now a part of the Beverly Heritage Center on Court Street.&nbsp;The bank&nbsp;was not able to survive the banking crisis of the early 1930s, but Humboldt passed away&nbsp;on September 29, 1920 and did not see the demise of his bank. His resting place is located in the Beverly Cemetery in Randolph County, West Virginia.&nbsp;&nbsp; Dr. Yokum's house was located on the west side of Main Street in the town of Beverly.&nbsp; The house was built in 1890 with 2 1/2 stories. Some of the many features of the house included a slate hip roof with a three-sided hipped gable dormer, a two-story cylindrical turret with scallop fishscale shingle siding and a one-story wrap-around porch. Dr. Yokum's office was located just south of his house with a wood shingle mansard roof with gable dormers. The concrete porch which is now on the house was a modern-day addition to the location. He did not put windows on this house due to the fact that he wanted to provide privacy for whoever he was caring for inside. After Dr. Yokum died, this house was turned into a residence by his wife and was used for rental income.&nbsp; Dr. Yokum was a key figure in the Randolph County Courthouse War of the 1890s. Beverly, WV, had been the&nbsp;Randolph&nbsp;County seat since the county's founding in 1787, but with the development of the railroad junction in Elkins, the county seat had to be moved. Industry and commerce flourished after the incorporation of Elkins in 1890, therefore there was a movement to replace the county seat. In hopes of keeping the county seat position, Beverly built a new courthouse in 1894, however the new building was destroyed by fire&nbsp;in 1897.&nbsp;This fire was extremely&nbsp;suspicious seeing as there was a second movement to relocate the county seat immediately after the building burned down. The Elkins community felt so strongly about moving the county seat that they gathered with weapons and fire with the intent of moving the records themselves.&nbsp;<blockquote> “Bands of armed men were trained to defend their towns,” says the Elkins version of the story. “Beverly residents heard of the plan and gathered to defend the courthouse and town” is the view from Beverly.1</blockquote>Dr. Humboldt Yokum was able to talk down the Elkins protesters, and ultimately avoided bloodshed. It seems as though Dr. Humboldt was neutral to the situation because he owned properties in both Beverly and Elkins and did not want to see harm done in either town. In the end the county seat was moved to Elkins in 1899. The Beverly courthouse is now a prominent feature in the Beverly Heritage Center.&nbsp;

This Queen Anne style home was built by Dr. Humboldt Yokum, a son of Dr. and Mrs. George W. Yokum, in 1890.  Humboldt went to West Virginia University and Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia to further pursue his studies, graduating from Jefferson in 1885.  Humboldt grew up in the house next door to this two story home in Beverly, WV. The building just south of the Humboldt House was Dr. Humboldt's office and was built to mimic the style of his home. The Humboldt Yokum House is located in the Beverly Historic District and has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Humboldt Yokum House

Many Confederate leaders considered retaining control of what was then western Virginia key to the success of their rebellion. Losing the region would not only leave the Shenandoah Valley from which the Army of Northern Virginia received much of its food vulnerable, it would also give Union forces a more direct route from east to west between the two main theaters of the war. As a result, Confederate troops had spent considerable time and effort attempting to secure it for their cause, most notably in the campaigns of Stonewall Jackson in 1862. The plans for the Jones-Imboden Raid in particular, however, began as early as the winter of 1862 with Confederate leaders hoping to execute a lightning fast surprise attack against the Baltimore &amp; Ohio Railroad bridge at Rowlesburg in Preston County. Over the course of the following spring, however, the plans expanded to envision parallel attacks through the counties that became West Virginia: the first, under General John D. Imboden, would march through Beverly before turning northward toward Oakland, Maryland; the second, under General William E. Jones, would march toward Charleston as a diversion. By late March, however, the roles had switched, Jones using his greater influence and higher rank to claim command of the main attack, which would now target Rowlesburg and Oakland while Imboden’s men attacked Beverly and Buckhannon. Imboden set out for Beverly from Staunton, Virginia on April 20, 1863, the same day that President Abraham Lincoln gave his formal approval for West Virginia’s statehood. His men traveled on what was then the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike, now US 250. With some clever political wrangling, the leaders of Randolph County had convinced the Virginia Assembly to route the turnpike through the then county seat of Beverly when the road was built in the 1830s and ‘40s. As a result, the turnpike does not follow a direct route from Staunton to Parkersburg but rather fishhooks north to enter the town of Beverly before continuing westward. Imboden followed this route over the course of three days, a 100-mile trek that took his troops through rain, sleet, and snow. On the night of April 23, he camped in Huttonsville a little over ten miles south of Beverly on the turnpike. Convinced that the Federal troops in Beverly had already learned of his arrival in the area, he sent a scouting party toward the town under Captain Joseph French Harding in order to confirm his suspicions. Instead Harding’s party encountered the Unionist sheriff of Randolph County Jesse Phares, who managed to escape to warn the unsuspecting Federals despite receiving a gunshot wound through the lung from Harding himself. Upon receiving news of Imboden’s proximity the Federal commander at Beverly, Colonel George R. Latham, sent word to his commander General Benjamin S. Roberts at Clarksburg. Upon hearing back that he should defend the town as best as possible but withdraw his men if they were in danger of being overwhelmed, Latham arrayed the bulk of his 878 men on a plateau a mile south of town that overlooked the turnpike while keeping some on the northern edges of the town as a reserve. When Imboden saw these defenses upon nearing the town on the morning of April 24, he chose not to engage for fear of suffering catastrophic losses. He had already sent a contingent of cavalry under his brother Colonel George Imboden west across the Tygart Valley River to march north in order to cut off Latham’s retreat toward Buckhannon. Seeing Latham’s preparations, he then ordered another contingent to swing eastward and then northward to cut off any retreat by the Federals toward Philippi. While the flanking movement to the west succeeded, George Imboden’s men fighting house to house to secure the road to Buckhannon, the one to the north got lost and was unable to block Latham’s retreat when he chose to execute it after several hours of skirmishing with the Confederates to his front. When the Confederates entered Beverly, they were immediately set to work putting out the fires Latham’s men had started in an effort to destroy the Federal supplies there. Though the Federals had only put the torch to their supply depot, the flames quickly spread to engulf a full third of the town. With the help of Beverly’s citizens, the rebel forces just as quickly doused them and managed to keep the entire town from being destroyed. Imboden remained in the town until April 26 and though initially welcomed by the majority secessionist locals soon alienated residents by requisitioning food for his perennially ill-supplied men using notoriously inflated Confederate paper currency. After two days of occupying the town, however, the general ordered his men to begin the march toward Buckhannon, where he was meant to rendezvous with General Jones and proceed to an attack against General Roberts.

Near this site on April 24, Federal troops under Colonel George R. Latham skirmished with Confederate soldiers led by General John D. Imboden in the first confrontation of the Jones-Imboden Raid of 1863. The raid, which endeavored to sabotage the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and disrupt Union efforts to create the state of West Virginia, identified the nearby town of Beverly as a primary target because of its location along the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike. After taking Beverly, which he eventually did, Imboden was instructed to march west to Buckhannon and meet the other half of the raiders marching to the north under General William E. Jones, after which they would move as a combined force to attack the Federal troops under General Benjamin S. Roberts stationed there. Though successful in damaging a number of key railroads and bridges in the region, the raid ultimately failed to confront Roberts or impede West Virginia statehood, which became a reality on June 20 of the same year. Regardless, the battle for Beverly had been a resounding Confederate success, and though no historical interpretation exists at the site it can still be viewed by travelers on what is now US 250.

Skirmish at Beverly during the Jones-Imboden Raid

The Tygart Valley Homestead is an area located in Randolph County, West Virginia in the small town of Dailey, about ten miles south of the county seat of Elkins. This area assisted those who had been impacted the most by the effects of the Great Depression in the state by providing the proper housing, appliances, and living services to those who had lost everything in this dark time in history. These houses were built across 2,500 acres of farmland on Route 219 between the Rich and Cheat mountains and consisted of three small communities of houses, which were Dailey, East Dailey, and Valley Bend.	In the 1930’s, the Great Depression hit West Virginia hard. The effects of the Depression left hundreds of thousands across the state unemployed, homeless, and famished. In 1933, the Federal Subsistence Homestead Division was established by the Roosevelt Administration under strong encouragement from First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. This group helped to develop self-sustaining communities for people who had been hit the hardest from the effects of the time period. Three of those that were developed in West Virginia were the Tygart Valley Homestead in Randolph County, Eleanor in Putnam County, and Arthurdale in Preston County.&nbsp;&nbsp;	One of the most recent accounts of how the area was laid out comes from Beth Kittle, who was ten years old when she and her family moved into one of the houses on this homestead. &nbsp;Prior to this, she and her family had moved from Pittsburgh to live with her grandmother in the town of Montrose in Tucker County. She discusses in the article below how her father had lost his job on the railroad and how they had lost all of the furniture in their house because of it.	Kittle recalls how she had first lived with her grandmother in a brief stint before moving to the homestead site. She said that she had received a letter from her brother, who was already there with the rest of her family, and he said that the homes provided machines that made ice cubes. Prior to moving to the site, she had never heard of this machine called ‘refrigerator’, but was excited to see what it was and how it worked once she was able to move into the house.In 2001, the Tygart Valley Homestead Association was formed to help preserve these sites in each of the three communities. It is an association that is available to anyone and everyone who is interested in preserving these sites and others like it for a monthly membership fee.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Located along US 219 in Randolph County, West Virginia, is a historical marker to designate the area where the Tygart Valley Homestead was built in Great Depression-era West Virginia. During this time, families moved to housing along this area of land whenever they became too deep in poverty to live in their own homes. Most of them came here after they had lost everything. This area lies within the Rich and Cheat mountains (about 10 miles south of Elkins) and was made up of three small surrounding communities  - Dailey, East Dailey, and Valley Bend. Over the years, there have been many moves to preserve this community.  In 2001, the Tygart Valley Homestead Association was formed to help this goal of preserving such a historical landmark.  

Tygart Valley Homestead Marker

Jonathan Hutton settled in West Virginia in 1795. Finally in 1805, he had cleared enough land and gained enough money to construct a two-story log structure on what is the site of the present day Hutton House. Huttonsville had southern sympathies during the Civil War, and was often caught between both armies moving along the valley. Jonathan Hutton's original log structure was burned down by Union troops around 1861, and the land stayed vacant until around 1898. Eugene E. Hutton, Sr., a great grandson of Jonathan Hutton, then constructed the Hutton House which currently stands at this location. The E.E. Hutton House, prominently sitting upon a hill, overlooks the town of Huttonsville, WV, and the old Parkersburg and Staunton Turnpike.<blockquote>"Set on a steep hill overlooking Huttonsville and its major highway connections, - the E.E. Hutton House stands as a majestic example of\the transplanting of Victorian styles to the countryside of West Virginia."1</blockquote>The Hutton House is a Modified Queen Anne-Victorian style home. Also on the property, built at the same time as the Hutton House, are a chicken house and a carriage house. Built in the same style as the main house and still in use as their original intended function. One of the most notable features of the house is the repeated pattern in the over 40 windows of the house. The original gas lines inside of the house are still in place, and are still used to heat the house and for gas lighting. Electricity was added in 1923.The Hutton House was last used as a bed and breakfast by the last owners, Dean Ahren and Loretta Murray. Ahren and Murray bought the house in 1987 and went through four years of renovating until they could provide B&amp;B services to the community. Dr. Hutton, who grew up in the Hutton House, made a visit to the B&amp;B, and was dissapointed when he found out that the original furniture had been removed. Arhen and Murray closed the Hutton House B&amp;B in 2011 and put the house up for sale. As of 2013, the house was still on the market, although it looks as if it has sold. The current owners are not known, and neither are plans for the house.

The E.E. Hutton House is located in Huttonsville, WV with a view of the Tygart Valley. The Hutton House, also known as Place Called Hutton, played a prominent role in the history of the valley and the town of Huttonsville, WV. The town and the house were named after the founding family, the Huttons. Before the war, the town of Huttonsville was the educational center of Randolph County. On June 11, 1975, the E.E. Hutton House was posted to the National Register of Historic Places. The Hutton house was a B&B, but was placed on the market in 2011.

E.E. Hutton House

“We are in a lovely little valley on a fine clear trout stream, with high mountains on all sides and large trees over us. A perfect camp, perfectly protected by entrenchments…Several regiments are in sight, and the enemy under Lee so near that our outposts have fights with his daily.” – Major Rutherford B. HayesGeneral George McClellan ordered the Elkwater Camp and the Cheat Summit Fort to be built in 1861. Elkwater Camp fell under the command of General Joseph Reynolds and Cheat Summit Fort under the command of General R. Milroy, The purpose of these fortifications was to secure the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike and protect the Baltimore &amp; Ohio Railroad from additional Confederate attacks. Major Rutherford B. Hayes, future President of the United States said it best, the Elkwater site was 'perfectly protected.'General Robert E. Lee arrived at Valley Mountain with his new Confederate troops to combat the growing Union Army presence in central Randolph County. General William Loring, after Union defeat at Rich Mountain, set bases in preparation to seize the Turnpike and Railroad controlled by the Union. Controlling the Railroad would limit additional Union troops from northern or western states.General Lee devised a three-pronged approach against Union Federal sites at Elkwater, Cheat Pass, and Cheat Mountain. The offensive failed due weather, terrain, the inability to communicate between the Confederate Brigades, and a strong defense in the Union lines. After several days of battle, the Confederate troops were forced back to their bases. Lee terminated the attack and withdrew from Valley Head on September 17th 1861.The Union Army and Confederates had varying experiences in this part of present day West Virginia. How could Major Rutherford B. Hayes describe the land as ‘perfect’ yet the Confederate Army suffer? This is likely due to the elevation of the terrain. Valley Head was occupied by the Union Army, at an elevation of approximately 2300 ft had milder weather. Confederate controlled Valley Mountain at approximately 3200 ft, would have provided harsher, hypothermic weather earlier and more frequently . General Lee’s plan to climb to defeat Fort Milroy at an elevation of 4085 ft as part of the Cheat Mountain Campaign (Cheat Summit) was unsuccessful. General Lee’s strategy with the Cheat Mountain Campaign failed for a myriad of reasons and would end Lee’s quest for Confederate control of West(ern) Virginia. Lee was ordered back to Richmond soon after, however Union and Confederate battles and skirmishes would continue in the area.

Camp Elkwater, in Valley Head, near Huttonsville, WV was constructed after the Union won the Battle of Rich Mountain in July of 1861. Under General Joseph Reynolds's leadership, the troops built the camp and fortifications. In conjunction with Cheat Summit Fort,  Camp Elkwater provided a much-needed defense of the Tygart Valley. 

Camp Elkwater

In late July 1861, Confederate General Robert E. Lee rode west into the mountains of western Virginia. He was to coordinate the efforts of several generals in the area in hopes of driving U.S. forces from the region, or at the very least stabilizing an uncertain front. General Lee and the various Confederate command coalesced at Valley Mountain in Randolph County. Although grazing was plentiful and the views striking, Valley Mountain proved a miserable home for the few weeks Confederate soldiers were stationed there. Cold weather, seemingly endless rain, and supply shortages plagued the Rebels camps. As one Virginia soldier complained, "In all my experience of the war I never saw as much mud. It seemed to rain every day." In damp and cold conditions, disease swept through the camps. A soldier in the 12th Georgia Infantry lamented, "There is nearly half the regiment sick, some getting well, some getting sick every day...we are more subject to die by disease than bullet." General Lee admitted the number of sick "would form an army."[4] Many sick soldiers died and were buried. Confederate troops left Valley Mountain in September, striking at fortified Union forces at Cheat Mountain. Poor communication, continued rainfall, and low morale led to Confederate defeat, and they retreated. Union forces thought the Rebels "too wet and too hungry to fight."[6] The environment at Valley Mountain and Cheat Mountain decisively contributed to the campaign's outcome. Embarrassed by defeat, Lee would leave the hills of western Virginia in October. Federal forces passed through Mingo (sometimes called Mingo Flats), just a few miles from Valley Mountain. As they marched through, they looted and burned the store of local citizen Jacob Marshall, who later enlisted in the 19th Virginia Cavalry. On July 23, 1913, a crowd gathered at Mingo in Randolph County, West Virginia for the dedication of a Confederate monument. The monument was placed on the former farm of Jacob Marshall, where some forty Confederate soldiers are buried in the vicinity. Erected by a local chapter of the United Confederate Veterans, the monument was dedicated "to the memory of the Confederate Soldiers of Randolph County and Vicinity. This includes all soldiers who died on Valley Mountain in 1861 while Gen. Lee was encamped there."[3] On July 23, 2013, a re-dedication ceremony was hosted by the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

In August 1861, General Robert E. Lee took command of Confederate forces in western Virginia. The Rebel army encamped around Valley Mountain, near Mingo, in Randolph County. The soldiers endured cold temperatures, incessant rain, and mud. Sickness ravaged the camps and many died. The Confederates left to assault Cheat Mountain, where they were defeated in September. In 1913, the United Confederate Veterans dedicated a monument to the Confederate soldiers of Randolph County and those who died in the camps at Valley Mountain. It was rededicated in 2013 by the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

Mingo Confederate Monument

A two-story, rectangular frame Italianate style commercial building, this structure measures approximately 106ft by 56ft. The first floor has two storefronts. The I.O.O.F. occupied the second the floor. Built in 1905, the architects were Yeager, Brown McLauren. Nominated by Michael Gioulis in 1999, the building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 24, 2000. NRHP reference number 00000249. Other locations in Marlinton that are on the National Register of Historic Places are the Frank and Anna Hunter House, the Marlinton Opera House, the Pocahontas County Courthouse and Jail and the Pocahontas Times Print Shop. The I.O.O.F. Building is often referred to as the old Peacock Building by local residents. J&amp;P Furniture Company, owned and operated by the Peacock Family, was the most prominent business to occupy the main floor throughout the years. The building is situated beside a green space with a gazebo designated for community functions. The building is presently privately owned and is not open for interior public viewing. However, public access is afforded 360 degrees around the building. It is located on the corner of 8th Street and 2nd Avenue. For historical reference, 2nd Avenue was once called Camden Avenue.

The Independent Order of Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F.) lodge building is located at 109 8th Street in Marlinton, WV. It housed the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Lodge 102/Modern Woodmen of America (Pocahontas Marlinton Camp No. 5992) meeting hall. The lodge continued to use the building until it was sold in 1999.

The Independent Order of Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F.) Lodge Building

The Pocahontas Times Print Shop is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and stands in Marlinton, West Virginia. In 1900, this building was constructed specifically for the newspaper’s use. The Pocahontas Times had been a fixture in the county since its first publication in 1882. It was and remains the primary source of local news in Pocahontas County and the surrounding area.   The paper’s founders were James “Buck” Canfield and Hezekiah B. Marshall who wrote and printed the first issue – an eight-page paper published in Huntersville. After ten years of weekly publications under a variety of owners, the paper was bought by the Price family patriarch Rev. William T. Price. The paper remained in Huntersville until it relocated to the newly constructed Pocahontas Times Print Shop in Marlinton in 1900. The decision to move was made around the time that Marlinton had been named the county seat. The Price family has owned and operated the paper since their initial purpose and continue to be involved in the production today.   The Pocahontas Times and print shop are notable for their use of machinery. The times used a handset type press from their conception, almost completely skipping the “hot metal” period. Though the press used a linotype metal-casting typesetting machine from 1901-02, they quickly returned to their original methods of printing. This adherence to the handset style made Pocahontas Times one of the last papers in the U.S. to be utilizing this method. Despite resisting change in the past, a flood in November 1985 which damaged their equipment led the times to be one of the first papers in the state to fully use computers.   Though the Pocahontas Times Print Shop is no longer used by the paper, it still contains much of the equipment from the early 20th century. The building as it has been preserved exemplifies printing practices from this period. It contains a variety of press tools, type-setters, desks and other items from around 1901. The Pocahontas Times Print Shop was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.

Built in 1900 specifically to house the paper, the Pocahontas Times Print Shop remains an example of early twentieth-century printing practices. The original handset press tools and furniture from 1901 are still held in the building. The National Register of Historic Places added the print shop to their database in 2010. Though no longer used by the Pocahontas Times, this structure is occasionally open to visitors and for school field trips. 

Pocahontas Times Print Shop

&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;The Pocahontas County Opera House, once called the Marlinton Opera House, was built in 1910 and opened in 1911. The Opera House was intended to replace one of Tilton's earlier projects which he built and opened in 1907. This first opera house was called The Grand and offered plays, movies, and&nbsp;other theatrical acts. Just three years after The opening of The Grand, Tilton felt he needed more space and started plans for the Marlinton Opera House. Built and owned by J. C. Tilton, the building's concrete walls are 25 feet high. It was one of the first structures in West Virginia to use reinforced concrete and railroad rails were used as the supporting material. &nbsp; &nbsp; The theater had a main floor and balcony and was used for a variety of productions including traveling performers, Chautauqua presentations, minstrel shows, graduations, church services. It was even used as a basketball court and roller skating rink at times. In addition to his property holdings, Tilton also owned and ran The Marlinton Messanger from 1911-14. During that time the newspaper offices were housed in the Opera House.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Financial struggles were an issue from the beginning and the Tilton family sold the property in 1914, after defaulting on a loan. It was bought by Floyd Dilley, Tilton's&nbsp;brother-in-law in 1916.&nbsp; The Opera House was converted to a car dealership within a few years and later into a warehouse for building supplies. The property changed hands among the Tilton family until sold to the Fertig family in 1977. It remained a commercial or storage space until the Pocahontas County Landmarks Commission bought and restored the property in 1991. Since the property's restoration, it has been serving as a theater. The name was changed to the Pocahontas County Opera House when bought by the Landmarks Commission and the site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.&nbsp; Today visitors to the Opera House can still hear local artists and attend other community events. &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;

Built in 1910, this Victorian building with reinforced concrete walls was the first of its kind in West Virginia. Railroad rails of steel were used to reinforce the concrete. Interior woodwork includes beadboard wainscoting and a beautiful American chestnut railing along the balcony. Locally produced plays, minstrel shows, Lyceum Courses, and solo artists were also part of its theatrical world. The Opera House was more than a performance space; it saw use as a basketball court, rollerskating rink, and religious sanctuary. After the late 1920s, the building was used as an automobile dealership and lumber storage warehouse. Now restored to its early glory, the Pocahontas County Opera House hosts a variety of performances. It is open to the public during scheduled events and is also available for private functions.

Pocahontas County Opera House

Both of the buildings were built in 1901 and featured vertical
board batten siding and decorative brackets in the wide eaves of their gable
roofs. While the station was in use, there was a loading platform that extended
across the west and south sides. The station is brightened by beautiful Victorian
millwork and has two brick chimneys that were used with wood and coal burning
stoves. 

The foundations of the buildings are big, wooden piers that
are set on concrete footers and hidden from view by vertical boards skirts at
the building’s sides and rear. This kind of supporting structure was highly
uncommon for the time period in which the station and bunker were built. A
gabled bay embellished with wood tracery and fitted three windows formed the
station agent’s office. It once contained a colored semaphore which was used to
help the trains navigate. It was in use until the advent of electricity, when a
lighted semaphore was put into place to better serve the engineers trying who
were navigating their way towards their destination.

The station is no longer in use today and is one of the few
remaining buildings of sort that were built throughout the C&amp;O Railroad
system. The company built many of these structures for terminals, passenger
use, and freight depots in populated areas. These buildings were a necessity
for traveling people and served as a trademark of the railroad company. The
station, once a trademark for the C&amp;O Railroad, still stands today as a
symbol of the company’s willingness to bring commerce and business to the area.

&nbsp;

The Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad Station and Bunkhouse are located at the corner of 8th Street and 4th avenue, in the town of Marlinton, West Virginia. The station is a small rectangular one story building that measures 76 by 16 feet; built for the handling of freight and for passenger use. The bunkhouse, a dependent building of the railroad station, is located a short distance to the northeast and is also a one story building that measures 24 by 16 feet. The buildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 because of their architectural features which were new for their time and for their importance to the town of Marlinton.

Marlinton Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Station and Bunkhouse

Seebert Lane Colored School was located on Seebert Road was a one room building for colored students in Pocahontas County. Students would have to go outside of thee county for higher level education. There was no place in the area for African-American students who wished to obtain a high school education.&nbsp; There is no reliable date in which the school stopped operating. Seebert Lane Colored School played a&nbsp;significant role in educating the local Black youth around the Pocahontas area. Students would have to go to Riverside High School in Randolph County. Riverside High School served African American students from 1906-1954.&nbsp; Through the 1939-1940 the Board of Education report listed seven operating African American schools. It was not until the Brown v. Board of Education&nbsp;that led to the integration of public schools. After this decision Black schools were abandoned as students relocated to previously all-white schools. Seebert Lane was one of the only surviving schools buildings for African American students.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The Seebert Lane Colored School also known as the Pleasant Green School and Hillsboro School was a historic one-room school for African- American. It is located in Seebert in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. The school was built in 1898 and was a one-story building. 

Seebert Lane Colored School 

Pearl S. Buck wrote prolifically during her time in both China and the U.S. Her life in America was also marked by her fearless activism for civil rights and equal rights, as well as her continual efforts on behalf of the Chinese people and of interracial children. Buck's novel The Good Earth was the best-selling fiction book in the United States in 1931 and 1932 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. In 1938, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. A world-renowned author, she wrote over 100 books and hundreds of short stories and magazine articles. Her books have been translated into 69 foreign languages.1Pearl's maternal family, the Stultings, fled religious persecution in Holland and settled in the Appalachian Mountains on a 16-acre farm outside of Hillsboro in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. When they arrived, Pearl S. Buck's great grandfather, Cornelius Stulting, aimed to build a house like the one they had in Holland.2The modest two-story, hand-built home contains period antiques that represent the lifestyle of a late-19th and early 20th-century working family. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on June 15, 1970. In addition to the house, the museum property contains a period-era carpentry shop and barn with over 100 historic farm and woodworking tools, 13 acres of scenic Appalachian farmland surrounded by the Monongahela National Forest, and the log home of Buck's paternal family, the Sydenstrickers. Pearl Buck's mother, Caroline, was born in the house. She eventually married Absalom Sydenstricker and, shortly after their marriage, the couple left for China to become missionaries. They visited the family home frequently on their trips back to the United States. During one of these visits, on June 26, 1892, Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker was born in her grandfather's home. 3 She only remained there for three months before accompanying her parents to China. Buck learned of the house through her mother's stories while they were living in various villages in China as missionaries. Pearl was captivated by the stories, and came to think of the house as all that was good about her birth country. In her words, <blockquote>"It became the symbol of security and peace in a world where there was neither security nor peace."4</blockquote>She returned to the house twice during her youth, spending the summer of 1901 and August of 1902 there before returning to China. Buck next returned in 1909, after her Grandfather had died, and an uncle had taken charge of the house. She spent the summer there before starting college at Randolph-Macon. She vacationed there briefly the next summer, but that was the last time she visited while the house was still in the family. She saw the house again in 1963 during a visit to celebrate WV's 100th anniversary of Statehood, and at that time had the idea to buy the house and present it to the State so that they could make it into a park or memorial. That idea never came to fruition. The cause for the house was taken up by Jim Comstock, the editor the WV Hillbilly, a weekly newspaper with a distribution in 40 states and six foreign countries. Comstock organized the beginnings of what was to become the Pearl S Buck Birthplace Foundation (PSBBF), solicited donations from around the world, and finally bought the house and presented it to Pearl under the stewardship of the foundation in 1965. In 1968, a $100,000 grant was received for the restoration of the birthplace and grounds. Robert Jacobson served as the first volunteer executive director of the foundation, followed by David Corcoran, who became the first paid director in 1972. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and opened as a museum in 1974, a year after Pearl's death. The PSBBF continues to function as the overseer of the birthplace and grounds. The foundation is governed by a 12 member Board, of which a 5 member Executive Board, consisting of 4 elected officers and one member at large, conducts the day-to-day administration. During the summer months, the house is open for tours. Currently, there is no Executive Director.

Located in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains, the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace showcases the home in which the Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author was born in 1892. Located in Hillsboro, West Virginia, the structure has been restored and maintained by the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace Foundation. The home interprets the early experiences of Pearl's life that helped shape some of the major characters and plotlines of her books. 

Pearl S. Buck Birthplace

Following the Union defeat at Chancellorsville, Union Brigadier General William Woods Averell was transferred to West Virginia and put in charge of the Fourth Separate Brigade in May 1863. While the assignment was most likely intended as a punishment by General Joseph Hooker for the failure at Chancellorsville, as Hooker used Averell as one of the scapegoats, Averell transformed the West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio troops he commanded into a well-drilled outfit. Following the <a href="https://www.theclio.com/web/entry?id=21636" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Battle of White Sulphur Springs</a> on August 26-27, 1863 against Colonel George S. Patton, a grandfather of the World War II general, and his confederate troops, Averell withdrew his troops of 1,300 the following morning and evaded several Confederate ambushes back to Beverly. Averell and his men had failed to capture Lewisburg. Averell learned from this battle and two months later, he and his increased troops, 3,800 cavalry and infantry supported by two artillery batteries, traveled south to cut the railroad from Beverly on November 1st. In addition to his own increased troops, Averell was set to meet up with General Alfred Duffie in Lewisburg on November 7th as his 2,500 Federal troops as they traveled from Charleston.Contact was made between Averell’s troops and Confederate forces on November 4th halfway to Lewisburg at Huntersville. These Confederate troops were the 19th Virginia Cavalry commanded by Colonel William “Bill” Lowther “Mudwall” Jackson, a cousin the late Lieutenant General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson. Jackson alerted Confederate commander Brigadier John Echols in Lewisburg. Echols quickly prepared to come to Jackson’s aid. Averell began pushing Jackson’s skirmishers back at a leisurely pace so not to outpace Duffie to Lewisburg. Jackson broke contact with Averell on November 5th and retreated to the formidable height of the flat top of Droop Mountain. Averell would need to secure the mountain before moving south. With limited troops, Jackson could not hold out for long. Fortunately for him, that night Echols finally decided to join him and his 1,110 troops set out at 2 a.m. on November 6th. Echols had held back out of concerns that he and his men would be caught in a pincer movement by Averell and Duffie.Averell’s plan was put into motion at dawn on November 6th. Averell’s victory would be a nearly flawless textbook victory, a rarity of Civil War battles. Upon receiving reports from scouts that Jackson and Echols were positioned at the top of Droop Mountain, Averell knew that a frontal attack would bring heavily casualties. Averell split the 28th Ohio and 10th W.Va. onto the southwest Lobelia Roach toward the Confederate left flank. Averell’s’ artillery were to cause a distraction on the main approach and thus convince Echols that the main attack would come from there, the Hillsboro Road. Echols ignored warnings from troops stationed on the flank of the dangers of leaving Lobelia Road. Averell’s lieutenants, who held synchronized watches over the difficult terrain, pulled off a perfectly coordinated attack. Around 2 p.m. Colonel Agustus Moor and his 28th Ohio Infantry crashed into the Confederate’s extreme left. Then the 3rd, 2nd, and 8th W.Va regiments, who had crept up the steep slopes and through the brush, began their attack when Moor’s men began firing. Their combined attack quickly left the Confederate left flank buckling. Echols was forced to pull troops from his center and right to even it up. Averell’s distraction on Hillsboro Road had been a success.           With the movement of Echols’ troops to deal with the left flank, Colonel J.M. Schoonmaker and his Pennsylvanian troops rushed Echols’ now weakened center. Echols was outnumbered during the fierce fighting in the dense brush and Averell’s maneuver deprived the Confederates of Droop Mountain’s natural advantages. After two hours of frenetic struggle, the Confederate line broke and the troops fled. With a rearguard protecting the fleeing Confederates from the pursing Union troops, Echols managed to keep his command from disintegrating over the trek back to Lewisburg. Both sides suffered high casualties with Union losing 119 soldiers to the Confederate’s 275 soldiers. Echols and his men fled Lewisburg the following day. Interestingly, the pincer movement that Echols had feared from the Union troops never materialized as Duffie stopped seven miles from Lewisburg on November 6th. Averell arrived at Lewisburg on November 7th, as planned. The following day, he was incorrectly informed that Confederate troops were beginning to mass against him. Averell moved his troops to White Sulphur Springs and began to march northward to Beverly. Due to scare supplies, prisoners and captured livestock, and perhaps a career consideration, prevented Averell from continuing onto Salem to destroy the Virginia &amp; Tennessee Railroad. While this second attempt was a failure, Averell would lead a successful third attempt the following month.Noted Civil War historian Terry Lowry has disputed the long-held claim that Averell’s victory at Droop swept the last Confederate resistance from the state, pointing out larger conditions in the theater of war that may have prevented the Confederate government from investing more time and effort into reclaiming West Virginia. Nevertheless, Rebel troops did not return to the area in force for the duration of the war. Lowry also disputed the claim that the battle of Droop Mountain was the most significant Civil War battle in West Virginia, claiming that the 1862 capture and siege of Harpers Ferry was. However, Lowry did agree that the Battle of Droop Mountain was one of the more important Civil War battles in West Virginia.On July 4, 1928, the site of the Battle of Droop Mountain was dedicated as West Virginia’s first state park. Many of the battle’s living survivors were present at the dedication, along with about 10,000 spectators. Over 1,000 automobiles were also present. While the 125-acre park was popular, very little construction was done until 1935 when a Civilian Conservation Corps group was camping at the park and constructed several monuments that are still in use today. Recent scholarship and preservation efforts have allowed for a museum to operate in the park and for new markers to be erected. Today the park is also home to several recreational facilities such as playgrounds, hiking trails, picnic areas, and even a lookout tower that provides a wondrous view of the surrounding area. The park is also part of The Civil War Discovery Tail. Reenactments of the battle are held every other year.

Brigadier General William W. Averell and his Federal troops encountered Confederate troops led by Brigadier General John Echols at Droop Mountain on November 6, 1863. The federal army had encountered Echols while on their second attempt to the Virginia-Tennessee Railroad located at Salem, Virginian. Echols and his troops positioned themselves in on the high ground of Droop Mountain, a tactical advantage to the smaller army. However, despite using artillery to block the road, the Confederate troops were overwhelmed by Averell’s men. The Battle of Droop Mountain served as the final significant Civil War battle for the newly formed West Virginia. The site of the battle was declared West Virginia’s first state park on July 4, 1928.

Droop Mountain Battlefield State Park

Beartown State Park best-known for its peculiar rock formations that make it unique. The rock formations are made out of Pottsville and Sandstone that have eroded due to natural factors giving them their shape. Many of the rocks have pit-like cavities that are due to erosion. The park is open to visitors of all sorts to enjoy a day out in the wild.  Beartown State Parks origins can be traced back to its creation in 1970. Through the funds from Nature Conservancy, and a considerable donation from Mrs. Edwin G. Polan, in the memory of her son, Ronald Keith Neal, who perished in the Vietnam War. The name Beartown originated from local residents who believe the cave-like formations of the rock would be a suitable den for Black bears. From above, the narrow divisions in the rock give off a pattern that reminded locals of streets going through a small town. The state park has restricted the amount of development throughout the park to preserve the beauty of nature. However, the park has basic facilities, and a large boardwalk that brings visitors right up to the rock formations. There are also signs throughout the park to guide visitors. The park is open from April to October each year, although off-season access is permitted by appointment.

Beartown State Park is a 110-acre state park located on Droop Mountain.  Droop Mountain is located in Pocahontas County, seven miles southwest of Hillsboro, West Virginia.  The park is known for its rock formations that draw visitors from all over each year to marvel at the spectacle.  A boardwalk was constructed to allow visitors an easy access directly up to the rock formations.  The park is open from April-October, with the availability to schedule a visit outside seasonal hours. 

Beartown State Park

Among the earliest residents of the house, were Thomas and Phoebe Welch. Thomas Welch (1795-1854), known as "Old Tommie" was a carpenter. His carpenter shop adjacent to the house was burned by Federal troops during the Civil War. Phoebe Welch (1799-1882) became a weaver after her husband died to support her family. The Welchs had twelve children:&nbsp;ten daughters and two sons. The house was later occupied by William Cowan and Virginia Samuel Woodson. William Woodson (1818-1886) was sheriff, Clerk of the Court of Appeals, and Clerk of the Circuit Court of Greenbrier County. He was a stepbrother of General "Stonewall" Jackson. &nbsp;Virginia Woodson (1827-1886) was, &nbsp;at age 91 when she died, &nbsp;the oldest resident of Lewisburg.

This log cabin dates to the early 1800s and is covered with wide board and batten. The lot is part of an early survey by John G. McClannahan. As the house evolved, one can see various stylistic elements, including Federal, Greek Revival, and Victorian.

Welch House

Floyd Estill (1813-1876) was in the mercantile business with Henry Erskine and ran their store in White Sulphur Springs. In her obituary, Susan Rebecca Esltill (1821-1889) was said to have: ...had fine taste, a cultivated mind and very genial manners. The house she presided over was one of the most refined in our village. Later occupants of the house included, John W. Arbuckle (1850-1925) and Mary Tate Arbuckle (1855-1884). &nbsp;John was a lawyer, West Virginia state senator, and mayor of Lewisburg. An active Mason, he was Master of the Grand Lodge of West Virginia. In 1953, the house was bought by Dr. Mavin and Helen Houck. Dr. Houch was a coal company physician for Carbon Fuel in Cabin Creek, West Virginia. The house is still occupied by the Houck family.

Built in 1855 by Floyd and Susan Rebecca Estill, this house and three-acre estate face Arbuckle Lane. This house is an unusually fine example of transitional Greek Revival architecture.  it is said this was the last house in town to have been undergirded with whole tree trunks.

Floyd Estill House

Christian Varner, a hatter,  and his wife, Elizabeth moved to Lewisburg, bought this large lot for $100, and began construction on a brick home. For some untold reason, the house-building ceased and the property was sold in 1829 to Captain Henry Erskine, a prominent local merchant and member of the Virginia Assembly.  The house was bought by Silas Boxley Mason (1847-1911) and his wife Elizabeth Montgomery Mason (1851-1931) after they moved to Lewisburg in 1881. Mason was the son of C. R. Mason who's engineering abilities were utilized by General Robert E. Lee during the Civil War. He was known as the "Napoleon" of railroad contractors. William H. Mason, one of Silas and Elizabeth's nine children became an engineer and inventor, apprenticed with Thomas A. Edison, and invented Masonite in 1924. The house lay vacant and in disrepair for many years until it was restored recently by Florian and Margaret Schleiff and their children. It has been repurposed as apartments and offices.

The original brick structure was built in 1829 for Christian and Elizabeth Varner. It was later purchased by Silas Mason who began a series of enlargements, alterations and architectural changes to the house that came to be known as the "mansion." Mason traveled extensively in his job as a railroad contractor, during which time he discovered new architectural features that he would then incorporate on his house.

Varner-Erskine-Silas B. Mason House

Johnston Reynolds came to Lewisburg as a pupil at the Lewisburg Academy. He became an attorney and was a town trustee, Elder in Old Stone Presbyterian Church, and&nbsp;Clerk of the Court of Appeals in 1858. &nbsp;It was reported that Reynolds saved the court records and valuable documents&nbsp;from destruction during the Civil War in 1862 by loading them into a two-horse wagon and taking them to Pittsylvania County, Virginia. &nbsp;Later occupants of the house were John A. and Sallie Lewis Price&nbsp;Preston.&nbsp;John Preston (1847-1917) served as a private in the 14th Virginia Calvary of the Confederate Army. He attended Washington College (now Washington &amp; Lee University) and became a law partner of Lt. Governor Samuel Price. He served as Greenbrier County&nbsp;prosecuting attorney several times and served in the West Virginia House of Delegates and State Senate. He became a trustee of Washington &amp; Lee and was a ruling elder in the Old Stone Presbyterian Church. &nbsp;He was the prosecutor in the "Greenbrier Ghost" murder trail.&nbsp; Following the death of Sallie Preston, John married Lillie Davis whose brother, John W. Davis, was the Democratic candidate for President in 1924. He died in 1917 on the L&amp;R Electric Railway as it passed by Tuscawilla, the old Preston homestead where he was born.

This three-story brick structure is reported to have been built by John Dunn for Johnston Reynolds.  The house may have served as a school for females. A brick slave quarters and kitchen was moved to the grounds of New River Community and Technical College Library. This former house now serves as offices of the Greenbrier County Board of Education and has seen many alterations and additions.

Johnston Reynolds House

The Withrow House overlooked James Withrow's tannery. James (1776-1843) and his wife, Letitia Keyser Edgar Withrow (1788-1834) had eight daughters and three sons. During the Civil War, it was reported that children hid the family silverware beneath the front portico steps. When Federal troops approached Lewisburg, one of the Withrow children who was a Confederate soldier and home at the time was hidden for several days in a small hidden room in the attic. Following the Civil War, Montwell was the scene of a dinner and reception for General Robert E. Lee on August 3, 1867. Lee rode from White Sulphur Springs to Lewisburg on his horse, Traveler, who was born a few miles west of town. This may have been Traveler's last visit to the western mountains. The house passed to James Withrow, Jr. (1818-1901) who had worked in the tannery with his father. He&nbsp;was a member of the Greenbrier County Court, Master Commissioner of the Circuit Court, served in the Virginia Legislature, and was a Ruling Elder in Old Stone Church. He was married to Mary Jane Kincaid (1823-1910). In 1905, the house passed from the Withrow family to Nancy A. Surgaugh. Known as "Nannie," she was the granddaughter of the noted Greenbrier County cabinetmaker David Surbaugh. She undertook the first modernization of the house, including the addition of an inside kitchen. In 1941, John, who was principal of Lewisburg High School,&nbsp;and his wife,&nbsp;Edith Rothwell Montgomery bought the house at auction and named it "Montwelll." The house was renovated by the Montgomery family. John earn a Ph.D., served as Greenbrier County School Superintendent, and became president of Greenbrier College in 1954. Dr. and Mrs. Montgomery raised five children in the house. In 2002, Dr. and Mrs. Montgomery's daughter, Mary Lindquist, and her husband, Paul, purchased the home. Under the oversight of the Lindquists and their contractor, Clifford Gillian, the house was completely restored. The side kitchen is now&nbsp;a rental house and what was James Montgomery, Jr.'s brick office serves as math scholar&nbsp;Mary Lindquist's office.

Built in 1818 for James and Letitia Withrow by John Weir, a noted architect and brick mason. It was one of the first, if not the first, brick home in Lewisburg. This Federal-style house is distinguished by the large front double portico supported by huge plastered columns. The front door is flanked by side lights and topped by an attractive fan light. The door to the second story is recessed and flanked by side lights and a six-pane transom. 

Beside the house is what was originally a large two-story brick kitchen with a second story that was used as slave quarters. Behind the house are a brick office, wooden barn, and a small log building .

Withrow House (Montwell)

Richard F. Tyree was an innkeeper and had the first boot and shoe business in Lewisburg in 1810. John Dunn was a highly skilled brick mason who built many of Lewisburg's fine homes and the Greenbrier County Courthouse. Later known as the Renick house, this&nbsp;building was vacant for many years and had deteriorated. &nbsp;In 1999 the building was purchased by Ann and John Wade Bell III.&nbsp;It was expertly restored by Mr. Bell, a local contractor, in 2000-2001 and now&nbsp;houses an interior decorating firm. During the restoration, Mr. Bell determined the roof originally had white oak shingles.

This building was originally two houses.  The stone part of the structure was built with local stone by Richard F. Tyree in 1805. The stone mason may have been Christopher Foglesong who is credited with building the Old Stone Church and County Jail.  John Dunn built the brick portion of the house, now covered with stucco, circa 1834. it has been used as a store, dance hall, boarding house and real estate office.

Richard F. Tyree-John Dunn House

This house was built by General Thomas H. and Jennie Johnston Dennis in 1884, and they lived in the house the rest of their lives. General Dennis served as a private in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. &nbsp;He attended Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) and the University of Virginia Law School. &nbsp;He was an attorney, owner-editor of the Greenbrier Independent newspaper, speaker of the House of Delegates, and Superintendent of Schools. He was a Major General Commander in &nbsp;the Division of WV United Confederate Veterans. Gen. Dennis (1846-1933) was a proponent of public education. &nbsp;In 1870 he wrote, "There may be some doubt as to whether the Free School system is the best to educate the masses, but as we have this system, secured in the fundamental law, there can be no doubt that we ought to have such Schools as will secure to the people the full benefits of the School tax paid by them." Jennie Johnson Dennis (1854-1926) was from Monroe County and in her obituary it was written she was "prominent in the religious and social life of the community." Mr. Frank Anschutz purchased the house about 1926.

Built by General Thomas H. Dennis in 1884, this home displays the style of Italianate architecture. The asymmetrical facade features projecting eaves supported by corbels, elaborate columnn capitols, bay windows, and a porte-cochere or carriage port. The wide central hall opens into large high-ceilinged rooms whose tall windows extend to floor levels. The handsome doors are made of solid walnut.

Dennis-Anshutz-Tuckwiller House

Robert Flourney Dennis (1823-1897) graduated from Washington College (now Washington &amp; Lee University) and studied law at the University of Virginia. He settled in Lewisburg where he practiced law, served as Clerk of the Circuit Court of Appeals and of the Court of Appeals of Virginia, and prosecuting attorney of Greenbrier, Pocahontas, and Fayette counties. He was a prominent Democrat and served in the State Senate. He was a trustee of Washington &amp; Lee University. Capt. Dennis raised the first company of volunteer infantry, Greenbrier Rifles,&nbsp;from Greenbrier County that entered the Confederate Army. He was ordered to Harpers Ferry where he was attached to the Stonewall Brigade. After retiring from service in the field due to his age, he took a position in the transport department when he was captured. &nbsp;He&nbsp;was a prisoner of war at Camp Chase in Columbus, Ohio. Martha Jane (North) Dennis (1828-1895) studied at the Flushing (NY) Ladies Institute. In her obituary, she was described as having a cultivated mind to which she added the rarer qualities of a sterling common sense.

John A. North and his wife, Charlotte, conveyed the land upon which this dwelling stands to their daughter, Martha, and her husband, Robert F. Dennis, in 1853. The house was probably built in the same year. The property was conveyed by Dennis' executors to the Caldwell family in 1899 and remained in the ownership of that family until 1994. 

Capt. Robert F. Dennis-Caldwell House

Shanklin's Grand Theatre was built sometime around 1937. Sixty 
tons of steel, 2 miles of wiring, and 15,000 pounds of plaster where used in
the construction of the theater. Built over a cavern that provided naturally
cooled air, owner James C. Shankiln marketed the theater as being "Cavern
Cooled". The buildings facade was made from Vitrolite, a product featured
in many Art Deco structures and manufactured in Vienna, WV.

The facility was
also state of the art. The theater's technical features included a Western
Electric Microphonic Sound System, a Super Simplex projector, and Super
Cinephor lenses.&nbsp;Six of the 158 seats were provided with head phones for hearing
impaired patrons.1

Built during
the era of segregation, Shanklin's Grand Theatre was designed by West
Virginia's second African American architect John C. Norman, Sr. The building
was designed with segregation in mind. Separate stairs were provided for white
and Black patrons. Wyatt Blair, author of one of the sources listed below, provided
a brilliant observation: "Imagine how conflicting it must've been being an
African American architect and having to design a building that was
segregated".1

James Shanklin
died in 1958, the theater continued operations into the 1960s. WRON radio used
the second floor as a study for a time. The theater has since deteriorated and
is now in serious disrepair. Ronceverte Development Corporation is the current
owner and has plans to restore the theater.2

Built around 1937, Shanklin's Grand Theatre was a fixture of life in Ronceverte, WV. Owner James C. Shanklin's vision led to the construction of an Art Deco beauty. The theater was also a state of the art facility. The theater's architect was John C. Norman, Sr., the second African American licensed architect in West Virginia.

Shanklin's Grand Theater

The Confederate States of America (CSA) formed their own Post Office Department on February 21, 1861. John H. Reagan was named as the service's postmaster general. In all Reagan placed 8,535 of the nation's 28,586 post offices under Confederate control and sought assistance from southern-sympathizers in the U.S. Post Office Department. Reagan tried to bring not just employees from the Federal system into his, but also all that they could bring in the way of maps, reports, forms and plans that would build and strengthen the new service.The area included in the present State of West Virginia was never in fact a part of the Southern Confederacy, yet there was a brief period when the Confederacy could claim nominal control over the whole region. That was the brief interlude between May 9, 1861, when Virginia was admitted into the Confederate States, and June 20, 1861, when the secession of the western counties from seceded Virginia was completed at Wheeling as the Restored Government of Virginia, loyal to the Federal Union. Authority of the Confederate government was not respected in the western area and it was at best a paper control.But the organization of a loyal government and, two years later, the creation of the State of West Virginia could not and did not prevent Confederate control, civil and military, over certain areas held for a short time only, while others -- notably Monroe County, as a single unit -- were dominated by Confederates down to the closing days of the conflict. In these counties money for support of Confederate soldiers and their families was appropriated by the county courts; to maintain trade fractional money "shinplasters" were issued under authority of acts of the Confederate Congress, and such essential services as post offices and post routes were maintained.The Confederate postal service did operate in West Virginia, and continued in operation as an organized service at various places after statehood was achieved, and on down until very shortly before the final scene at Appomattox. Official records are lacking -- the story of the Confederate post offices west of the mountains must be patched together from little scraps and mentions in letters, diaries, newspapers, and the recollections of persons who had first-hand knowledge of the events of the wartime years. The only official evidence of Confederate operation of post offices west of the mountains is found in the postmarked envelopes (covers, as termed by collectors) which are treasured in a great many outstanding Confederate philatelic collections. These covers are exceedingly scarce and when offered on the market usually command a premium over items of like date bearing the postmarks of offices east of the mountains.A minimum estimate of the post offices in West Virginia that were operated by the Confederacy would number well over fifty, but only a few of the major offices can be certainly identified as having once served under the Stars and Bars. But starting with Harpers Ferry, at the tip of the Eastern Panhandle, the line of known Confederate post offices runs to the south and south-west through Shepherdstown, Martinsburg, Charles Town, Rippon, Moorefield, Franklin, Romney, Travellers Repose (now Bartow), Huntersville, White Sulphur Springs, Frankford, Lewisburg, Red Sulphur Springs, Salt Sulphur Springs, Union and Peterstown -- the last four offices named are in Monroe County. Reaching into the interior there are several covers bearing the Beverly manuscript postal markings, and on to the south Fayetteville and Kanawha Court House (now Charleston) served briefly under the Confederates.

Postal service in Confederate areas was subject to the strength of the forces controlling the area. Union armies would disrupt service as they passed through or established occupation . Most of West Virginia was under Union control for the duration of the Civil War. Exceptions were the eastern counties bordering Virginia having strong Southern sympathies. Notable of these is Monroe County, under Confederate influence, enjoying Postal service until the end of the War.

Confederate Postal Service

Born November 21, 1810 in Union, Monroe County, Virginia, Allen Taylor Caperton belonged to a prominent southwestern Virginia family. Allen's father Hugh Caperton was a planter, whose family lived in a large brick home known as "Elmwood" (which is today on the National Register of Historic Places). Hugh served in the Virginia legislature and was elected to Congress from 1813-1815 as a Federalist, and when that party folded, later became a Whig. Allen enjoyed an excellent education, studying at the University of Virginia and then Yale where he graduated in 1832. Taking up the study of law, he passed the bar in 1834 and opened a practice back in Union. Allen soon followed in his father's footsteps, however, and was drawn into politics. Starting in 1841, Allen alternatively served in the Virginia House of Delegates and State Senate. Like his father, Allen proved a firm Whig. A major platform of the Whig Party was government investment in internal improvements, such as roads and canals. These policies appealed to many western Virginians, who resented the dominance of politicians from the eastern part of the state and desired greater development of the west. As a colleague later commented, "All propositions for internal improvements and public works found in him [Caperton] a zealous and energetic supporter, and he was held in the highest esteem by all parties."[1] In 1861, Caperton was elected to Virginia's constitutional convention where the question of secession was to be considered. Desirous of securing the future of slavery, Southern states seceded one by one and formed the Confederate States of America. Upper South states like Virginia were torn in their allegiance, and Whigs especially tended to be Union men. Allen Caperton voted against secession, but in the wake of Fort Sumter and Virginia's secession, Caperton followed his state and threw his support behind the Confederacy. In 1862, Caperton was elected to the Confederate Senate in Richmond and served there until the end of the war. Returning home to Union after the war, Allen Caperton again practiced law, but his political career was not over. In February 1875, Caperton was selected to represent West Virginia in the United States Senate as a Democrat (replacing Arthur I. Boreman). He was the first former Confederate to sit in that body. In 1876, Caperton passed away and is buried in Green Hill Cemetery in Union. In 2016, as part of the Civil War and West Virginia sesquicentennial, the state erected a historical marker in Union acknowledging Caperton's role in West Virginia history.

Born into a prominent southwestern Virginia family, Allen Taylor Caperton attended the University of Virginia and Yale then returned home to Union to practice law. He also pursued a career in politics, serving in both the House of Delegates and the State Senate as a Whig. In 1861, Caperton voted against Virginia's secession. After secession occurred, however, he sided with the Confederacy and served as a Confederate senator from Virginia. After the Civil War, Caperton returned home. He became the first former Confederate to be elected to the United States Senate in 1875 and passed away the following year. In 2016, West Virginia erected a highway marker in Union acknowledging Caperton's role in West Virginia history.

Allen T. Caperton Highway Historical Marker

Matthew Walker Clair was born in Union, West Virginia in 1865, the son of Anthony Clair and Ollie Green Clair, descendants of slaves from the West Coast of Africa. His parents lived and worked as indentured servants. Matt Clair (as he was known in his boyhood) worked on the farms and plantations around Union. The first educational training he received was from his mother and some other women who helped young Matt with his eagerness to learn. At an early age, he became interested in reading the Bible. His family took notice of this, encouraged him and was able to get him enrolled in a Bible Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. During his teen years, he worked to pay for his schooling. Matt lived and worked for some time in Charleston, West Virginia where at the age of fifteen he made a public profession of faith in Christ at Simpson Methodist Episcopal Church. He was later granted a Local Preacher’s License in 1880 at the Simpson M.E. Church. Matthew W. Clair graduated from Morgan College in 1885, later completing his theology studies in 1889. Howard University conferred a Doctor of Divinity degree on Rev. Matthew W. Clair, Sr. in 1911, and he was later conferred a D.D. from his alma mater, Morgan College.Ames Methodist Episcopal Church was established in 1857 as a second Methodist church in Union, West Virginia. Ames Methodist Episcopal Church was named after Bishop Edward Raymond Ames, elected to the Episcopacy of the Methodist Episcopal Church by the 1852 General Conference.  Edward Ames was a firm supporter of the Union during the American Civil War. In 1890 the white congregation of Methodists offered to sell the Ames Church property to an African American congregation, known as the "Joppa" congregation. The Joppa congregation had been meeting in an old dwelling known as the Graham property in Union. The white congregation had become dissatisfied with the old Ames Church location. The property was deeded to the African American congregation on January 29, 1891. The African American congregation continued to worship in the building known as Ames Methodist Episcopal Church until 1990 when it was discontinued as a Methodist congregation. The property was deeded to the Monroe County Historical Society shortly thereafter and the Historical Society restored the old building. The restored structure was given the name Ames Clair Hall to also honor Matthew Clair, Sr. who grew up in the Ames Methodist Episcopal Church. The “Bishop Matthew W. Clair, Sr.” historical marker was erected in 1979 by the West Virginia Department of Archives and History in Union, West Virginia, in Monroe County. It is located in front of the former Ames Methodist Episcopal Church, now restored and named Ames Clair Hall. The Ames Clair Hall is owned and maintained by the Monroe County Historical Society. It is a place for community gatherings, meetings, and concerts.During his boyhood, Matt Clair was a part of the life of the African American congregation that became the Ames Church, along with his mother. After his public profession of faith at Simpson Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston and his answer to a call to serve in the ministry he became a gifted preacher. His first church assignment was at Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia in 1889 when he was ordained an Elder in the Methodist Episcopal Church. For the next several years he served churches in Staunton, Virginia and Washington, D.C.  He served as “Presiding Elder” or District Superintendent in Washington D.C. in two different appointments by his Methodist bishop.  Dr. Margaret B. Ballard writes in a biography of Matthew W. Clair, Sr. – “When Matthew Clair would visit his home in Union he was always asked to preach in Ames Methodist Church. . .The words were spoken distinctly and flowed from his tongue without any hesitation. . .It is said that when he served the bread and wine at a Communion Service, he would frequently break into song as he passed along the chancel.”At the General Conference of The Methodist Episcopal Church, held in Des Moines, Iowa in 1920, Rev. Matthew W. Clair was elected a bishop along with Rev. Robert E. Jones. Both Clair and Jones were the first African American bishops elected to serve in The Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States. Bishop Matthew Clair’s first assignment after being elected was in Liberia, Africa. After four years he as assigned to the Covington, Kentucky Area which covered fourteen states and Liberia. Liberia was removed from his jurisdiction in 1929.  Bishop Clair retired in 1939 at the General Conference in Kansas City, Missouri which united three historical Methodist denominations – The Methodist Episcopal Church, The Methodist Episcopal Church South, and The Methodist Protestant Church forming The Methodist Church.  In his retirement, Bishop Matthew Clair was called upon to serve for one year in the Atlanta, Georgia Area of The Methodist Church.   Matthew W. Clair, Sr. died in Washington, D.C. on June 28, 1943. He was first buried in the Old Harmony Cemetery in Washington. A new highway was constructed through the city and the bodies in Old Harmony were removed and relocated to New Harmony Cemetery near Landover, Maryland. The gravesite of Bishop Matthew W. Clair, Sr. is located in Harmony Memorial Park, 7101 Sheriff Road, Landover, Maryland.

This historical marker commemorates the life of Bishop Matthew W. Clair, Sr., one of the first African American ministers to be elected to the bishopric within the Methodist Church. Clair was born in Union, West Virginia in 1865, and became an influential member of the Ames Methodist Episcopal Church which was established in 1857. Bishop Matthew Clair’s ministry spanned many years in West Virginia, Virginia, Washington D.C., Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and the nation of Liberia. Clair returned often to preach in his home church until his death in 1943. Today, the historic church is owned and maintained by the Monroe County West Virginia Historical Society. The restored African American church, known as Ames Clair Hall, is used for community gatherings, meetings, and concerts. A West Virginia historical marker, honoring Bishop Clair was erected in 1979 at Ames Clair Hall.

Bishop Matthew W. Clair, Sr. Historical Marker

In 1898, the Monroe County Court expressed interest in creating a new bridge over Indian Creek to make agricultural transport easier. Brothers Ray and Oscar Weikel were awarded the contract despite being only sixteen and eighteen years old, respectively. Their uncles, established sawmill owners in Monroe County, served as guarantors for the work of their nephews. The brothers immediately set up their own sawmill adjacent to the site of the new bridge. Initial court plans for the Indian Creek Covered Bridge utilized an arched structure. However, the Weikels presented designs for a flat bridge that were accepted.Oxen delivered timber to the Weikel’s sawmill to be shaped for the bridge. Horses and wagons delivered the finished pieces from the sawmill to the bridge site. The Weikels designed a geared machine operated by teams of four men to lift the enormous beams into place with less effort than hand-placing them. All components of the bridge were made by the brothers except for the iron rods, nails, and shingles. The bridge was completed at some point between 1898 and 1903. Ray and Oscar were paid $400 for their work – approximately $12,000 adjusted for inflation. Though this seems like low compensation for their work, the Weikel’s success with the bridge established them as qualified carpenters within Monroe and Greenbrier County.In addition to the superstructure built by the Weikel brothers, the Indian Creek Covered Bridge rests upon limestone abutments. It is extremely unlikely that the brothers built the abutments. Masonry and carpentry were skilled labors requiring specific study. The ability to do both is relatively unprecedented and unnecessary. It is possible E. P. and A. P. Smith created the abutments, as they are mentioned as builders of the bridge by the West Virginia Department of Transportation, but this is speculative. In any case, the abutments are fitted without mortar and have required no modification or reinforcement over the years – a testament to the high quality of craftsmanship.The Indian Creek Covered Bridge measures approximately fourteen feet wide and fifty feet long. It is built using a modification of the Long truss style. This truss was patented by Stephen H. Long in 1830. It consists of vertical posts connected by diagonal crossbeams sloping towards the center. However, the Long trusses used in the Indian Creek Covered Bridge have two perpendicular diagonal crossbeams rather than a single one. A defining feature of the Long truss that can be seen in the Indian Creek Covered Bridge is that the trusses are constructed entirely of wood. The bridge was walled with vertical pine boards while a gabled roof of chestnut shingles capped the structure.For thirty years, the Indian Creek Covered Bridge served its local community. In 1929, it was abandoned and fell into disrepair. The Monroe County Historical Society immediately began restoration when they leased the bridge in 1965. This included repairing siding, replacing the floor, and re-shingling the roof. For many years, the historical society used the bridge to house a collection of horse-drawn vehicles. In 2000, the bridge was restored once again by Hoke Brothers Construction for $334,446. This restoration involved repair of the trusses, another new deck, new siding, and a new roof of split shakes. These days, the bridge serves only pedestrian traffic. One of only two extant covered bridges in Monroe County, the Indian Creek Covered Bridge stands as a monument to the ingenuity of two teenagers in a remote community.

The Indian Creek Covered Bridge was built circa 1898-1903 by two brothers, Ray and Oscar Weikel. Only sixteen and eighteen at the time, the brothers used the Long truss style to create the fourteen foot wide by fifty foot long bridge. The bridge fell out of use in 1929 and was in disrepair when the Monroe County Historical Society acquired it in 1965. The historical society restored the bridge as closely as possible to its original state while attempting to maintain the historical integrity of the structure. The bridge was repaired again in 2000. Alongside Laurel Creek Covered Bridge, Indian Creek Covered Bridge is one of only two extant covered bridges in Monroe County.


Indian Creek Covered Bridge

In 1928, William "Punch" Jones and his father were pitching horseshoes in their yard in Peterstown, WV,&nbsp;when one of their throws sent a horseshoe into nearby Rich Creek. While retrieving the horseshoe, Jones noticed a shiny, unusual pebble in the creek bed. He took the strange stone and kept it in a cigar box in the tool shed. Ironically, he gave little thought to the stone and over the next few years his large family (Jones had 17 children)&nbsp;struggled during the Great Depression. 14 years after its discovery, Jones took the stone to a Virginia Tech Geologist who confirmed that the strange pebble he found in Rick Creek was one of the finest and largest blue and white alluvial diamond ever discovered.&nbsp; The Diamond weighed in at 43.46 carats and measured 5/8 an inch in diameter. The gem is&nbsp;the only diamond ever found in West Virginia and the second largest diamond ever found in the United States. The origins of the diamond are unknown. There are no natural sources of diamonds known in West Virginia. However, it is theorized that during the ice age glaciers deposited a few isolated diamonds throughout North America. It is also theorized that the diamond washed down the New River into Rich Creek from a source in Virginia, North Carolina, or Tennessee.&nbsp; After the stone was identified, the Jones family loaned the diamond to the Smithsonian where it was on display until 1968. After its time in the Smithsonian,the diamond was displayed at the West Virginia State fair. After,&nbsp;the Jones family moved the stone to a safe deposit box where it stayed for 16 years. In 1968, members of the Jones family sold the diamond for $67,500 to a buyer in Asia.&nbsp;

In 1928, a rare and unusual discovery was made at this location by a man named William "Punch" Jones. While playing horseshoes with his father, Jones found an interesting shiny pebble in Rich Creek. He kept the diamond for a number of years before a Virginia Tech geologist confirmed the pebble he had found was a 34.46 carat diamond. At the time of discovery it was the only diamond ever discovered in West Virginia, the second largest diamond ever found in the United States, and the largest alluvial diamond ever found in North America. In 1984, Jones' descendants sold the diamond for $67,500. 

Discover US 219: The Seneca Trail

Western Maryland Depot

Introduction

Backstory and Context

Sources