The 125-mile long Cacapon and Lost River Valley is known for its scenic beauty, canoeing and kayaking, fishing, hunting, and abundant wildlife. As the third-largest tributary of the Potomac River, the Cacapon and Lost River is an American Heritage River. The river is made up of three major segments and many small streams. Lost River is a 30.9-mile-long stretch, and during low water, it abruptly drops into a one-mile underground course starting near McCauley, WV. As it emerges just west of Wardensville, it takes on the name Cacapon and flows into Yellow Springs, WV where it becomes known as the Capon River. The river continues to flow northeasterly towards its eventual destination at the Potomac River. Capon River, as known today, rises in the southern part of Hardy County, flows through Hampshire County, and goes into the Potomac River in Morgan County.

The River Capon postcard with poem by D.W. Griffin

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Over a hundred miles long, the Cacapon and Lost Rivers offer notable views of the area and various activities for residents and visitors alike, such as kayaking and fishing. Many people also hunt in this area due to the diverse wildlife. A whitewater stretch of the Lost River flows just above the town from the southwest and once it reaches Wardensville is renamed the Cacapon River. This name comes from the Native American language, meaning “healing waters."

Cacapon & Lost Rivers

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Wardensville was originally part of a 5-million acre tract granted by England’s King Charles II in 1660, which was later inherited by Thomas Fairfax in 1719. Fairfax gave many of the land grants to early European settlers arriving in Capon Valley. In 1747 through 1750, George Washington surveyed over three hundred tracts of land in what is now Hardy, Hampshire, Grant and Mineral counties. William H. Warden received a parcel of land from Thomas Fairfax on November 11, 1749. During the French and Indian War, increasing aggressions between the English settlers and the Native Americans in the South Branch and Capon Valleys led to the building of fortified outposts including Fort Warden, which was erected by William H. Warden at Trout Run which would later be called Wardensville. Fort Warden, or “Warden’s Fort”, was attacked in 1758 by Native Americans and burned down. William Warden and another man were killed, but Warden’s wife and son managed to escape. His descendants would later go on to plot out the land in Wardensville. In 1786, Hardy County was formed from Hampshire County and the city of Moorefield became the county seat. Wardensville was chartered in Virginia in 1832 and incorporated in West Virginia in 1879. The small town had a few reasons for wanting to incorporate, one being that they could start paving roads and not have to walk through the mud, as they previously had been. The other reason was to ensure citizens respected the rights of their fellow neighbors--Wardensville had a slight issue at the time with residents pasturing their cattle, sheep and hogs on the streets and alleys. This led to the animals eating up others’ gardens and causing trouble in general. Once Wardensville was incorporated, rules and regulations were put in place to prevent this. The town is separated from the Shenandoah Valley by the Great North Mountain range.

Hello and welcome to the Gateway to West Virginia! Or that's at least what we like to call it since we are the first town you see as you enter this side of the state. Wardensville is a small but mighty town, with a long history that has stretched to the present day with the town's current changemakers making their own history. Read more about the start of this town and plan a visit. As Kenna McKeever put it so well, Wardensville is a gem in a rumpled green bedspread.

Welcome to Wardensville, WV! 

The home has descended through the Frye family, although a once-discovered Bill of Sale showed the farm was up for auction after John Frye’s death. While it’s not clear if the auction took place, it is known that Laura Baker Frye intervened and settled the estate. This property has always been cared for by Henry W. Frye’s descendants. The house has been continuously updated, with the current restoration beginning in 1995 and continuing today. All nine fireplaces are restored and functional, and the house still has the original hardware and wood-grained doors. There is a butcher shop where hams and bacon were preserved for the winter and a restored ice house. The Heishman’s, who previously owned the property, added a two-level barn on the site of the original barn and developed a pond. Irvin Heishman is the great-great-grandson of the original owner.

The Frye house was built in 1825 by Henry Westfall Frye, a magistrate, mill owner, and farmer. It was a 2,600-acre plantation that included a Blacksmith shop, meat house, icehouse, flour mill, tannery, and several barns. It is located on Route 55, one-half mile northeast of Wardensville, and about half of the town of Wardensville is now located on this farm today. The large porches on the house were added in the 1880s or 90s by Henry’s son, John. Henry also had three other children, Paul, Laura, and Virginia. The Fryes welcomed guests and supplied food and forage to the Confederate Army. After the Civil War, the Fryes operated it as the Capon House for a while, offering overnight stays to travelers.

Capon House and the Frye Farm

The western part of Hardy County, which is now Grant County, strongly favored the Union. This feeling was so strong that the county was divided in 1866. Most of the young men in Capon Valley joined the Confederacy before the war was over. A majority of the citizens in Wardensville supported the south. On May 7th, 1862, Union Colonel Stephen W. Downey arrived in Wardensville with a group of infantry and cavalry to search for guerilla leader Captain Umbaugh. They found and killed Umbaugh along with three of his men, as well as taking 12 prisoners. On May 21st through May 30th, 1862, a large troop of 20,000 men passed through the town, led by General John C. Fremont after their defeat at the Battle of McDowell by General Stonewall Jackson.  Although no battles were fought near Wardensville a few skirmishes did occur. In 1862, Union troops burned down a flour mill on “the island” on the western end of Wardensville, and almost burned the whole town down when Wardensville citizens shot at the soldiers as they came through town. Luckily for Wardensville, a preacher at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, Reverend Peter Miller, and two others, Hezekiah Claggett and Westphal Frye, negotiated with them that they could be held as hostages and the town was spared. According to records, only one man from Wardensville joined the Union army.

While Wardensville managed to stay out of the Civil War, for the most part, a few skirmishes did occur in the small town. As it happened across the nation, the actions taken during the Civil War caused Grant County to separate from Hardy County, although most citizens of Wardensville supported the Confederacy regardless. Read more about Wardensville's ties with the Civil War below. 

Wardensville, WV and the Civil War

The first train track was built in January 1918, by The Intermountain Construction Company. Due to a shortage of heavy machinery during wartime, construction was slow with the track to Wardensville not being completed until May 25th, 1921. A celebration was held and West Virginia Governor John C. Cornwell delivered a speech on the positive effect that the railroad would have on the future growth of the region's economy. His brother, William B. Cornwell, was the president of the Winchester and Western Railroad at the time. Locals fondly referred to the W&amp;W Railroad as “Weak and Weary” due to its sporadic and slow activity along its route. In the late 1920s, the line was constructed further beyond Wardensville, known as the Lost River Railroad. The rail yard, which was located in the area of Wardensville’s current Visitor’s Center, was the terminus for three Lost River narrow-gauge railroad lines. Rough-sawn lumber was hauled to Wardensville for transfer to cars going on standard-gauge tracks to the Gore, Virginia flooring plant, or to the sawmill for processing into flooring, finished lumber, railroad ties or bridge supports. Other loads such as petroleum products were delivered to a Standard Oil tank facility, which was located near the present day Kac-Ka-Pon Restaurant. An estimated 2,000,000 or more broad feet of high-grade lumber was hauled to Wardensville. The railbuses carried passengers and commodities, such as poultry and farm produce. Cream from Reymann Memorial Farm was transported to Thompson’s Dairy in D.C. The use of the mainline itself dwindled by the early 1930s with cars becoming the new way to travel. Freight traffic to and from Wardensville declined and the line was trimmed back to Capon Springs Station in 1934 due to the exhaustion of the region's timber reserves. Wardensville’s train station was torn down, eventually becoming the high school and grade school for a few years. First named the Winchester &amp; Wardensville Railroad, it was later changed to the Winchester &amp; Western in 1941.

Like many towns in America, Wardensville saw the boom of the railroad hit the area hard. Unfortunately, resources were used up and the railroad was gone by the early 1930s. This location is where the old train station would have been way back in 1921 when it first came to town. Check out more about the history of the railroad in Wardensville below.


W&W Railroad and Lost River Railroad 

The bank reached its first million in assets in the early 1960s and by the 2000s a hundred million--keep in mind the population of Wardensville was fewer than 300 people! In the 1970s and 1980s, several changes were made to the bank's quarters. In 1971, a doctor's office was incorporated into the bank by knocking a hole through the lobby wall and sealing up the extra street entrance and a new northeast wing was added in 1974. A decade later in 1984, a matching wing was added to the east side of the bank. There are four other Capon Valley Bank branches established in Moorefield and Baker, West Virginia, and Stephens City and Gore, Virginia.

The Capon Valley Bank was officially established on July 1st, 1918, and began its operations with $25,000 in paid-up capital stock and a $5,000 surplus. The timber boom in the area was one of the biggest reasons for the bank opening in the first place, and they withstood the test of time as well as economic busts. The original bank was located in the Star Mercantile building. In 1946, the bank purchased a tract of land from the Lutheran church where their parsonage once stood and announced plans to build a new bank building in its place. On February 25th, 1949, this bank building opened.

Capon Valley Bank

The first church, or meeting house, in Wardensville was attended by both Lutherans and Methodists. Once the Lutherans decided to form their own congregation, the Methodists followed their lead. In 1881, Methodist trustees purchased a lot on the southeast side of Main Street and built this structure for less than $800 thanks to members contributing labor and materials. The community's Methodist and Lutheran churches both had bell towers with small bells. When the Lutheran bell cracked, it was replaced with a larger bell. The Lutherans rang their bell at the same time as the Methodists, and since it was bigger, it drowned out the Methodists’ bell. The Methodists weren’t going to let this continue to happen, so they purchased a new 700-pound bell. Their belfry wasn’t big enough to support the new bell, so in 1898 a new sixty-foot tall bell tower was built. This new construction cost the church over $1,000 and took the congregation more than ten years to pay off. During installation, the bell fell on the installer’s foot cutting off two toes. About 40 years later, several of the bell tower’s timbers became decayed, which ultimately led to the removal of the top twenty feet.Many men in the Methodist Church used tobacco or snuff and would frequently use cuspidors during the service to spit in. In 1899, a new pastor, Rev. D.W. Griffin, joined the church and didn't approve of drinking, dancing, gambling, and tobacco. He had the cuspidors removed on the men’s side of the church. This didn’t sit well with some of the men, so they left and decided to form their own church, the Faith Mission Church, which still operates today. The Lutheran Church voted to remove their cuspidors as well, two years later.In 1952, a new cornerstone was built for the church. The cornerstone held a copper box that contained items from the 1881 church’s cornerstone. In 1953, the old Methodist Church building was sold and later served several purposes. It is presently the More! Store, which holds unique gifts and artifacts from older times in Wardensville.

Constructed in 1881 and now home to a retail store, this historic building was home to Wardensville's Methodist Church until 1953.

Wardensville Methodist Church (1881-1953)

The lot where the Star Mercantile is now located was an early frame house that is no longer standing. The house was owned by Michael Swisher until 1890, who passed it onto his daughter after his death, and then sold to Quintas McKeever. McKeever and Robert Follmer built a tannery on the back of the lot before selling it to Harrison R. Orndorff who built a dry goods store that he managed until 1908. He also built an addition onto the building that housed the Capon Valley Bank until 1949, and after that for a period of time, Joe’s Barber Shop. The White Star Bar &amp; Grill moved into Orndorff’s old store in 1944, after their original location burnt down, and served as the local watering hole and pool hall for the townspeople. In 1990, the building was sold once again and became Star Mercantile, a restaurant and gift shop. The store’s walls are filled with early Wardensville photos, murals and town memorabilia.

This recognizable building has been home to several different businesses throughout Wardensville's history, serving as the local watering hole, barbershop and pool hall...just to name a few! Currently operating as a restaurant and gift store, the Star Mercantile is run by the town's current mayor and lifelong citizen of Wardensville, Besty Orndoff-Sayers. Read more about the White Star and Star Mercantile's history below. 

White Star (Star Mercantile)

The town's Lutherans and Methodists worshipped at the same place until both groups decided they wanted their own places of worship. Pastor John Hamilton formed the first Lutheran congregation in 1840. Reverend Peter Miller laid the cornerstone for a new brick church in 1869. That church collapsed in 1934 due to the deterioration of the bricks and excavation work near the foundation. Reverend L. Williamson helped direct the construction of a replacement church. Through donations of funds, building materials, and labor, all but $8,000 was needed to build the church. The present stone church was designed by A. Hensel Fink in Gothic Revival style. The church is currently home to the St. Peter congregation.

St. Peter's Lutheran Church has been part of Wardensville's history for quite a long time, since the mid-1800s! The church still practices today and is a beautiful spot on the town's Main Street. Learn more about St. Peter's and their long-ago history with the Old Methodist Church below. This building is another example of Wardensville's unique architecture.

St. Peter's Lutheran Church

Originally built in 1830, this building was used as a Blacksmith shop by the Cline family until 1895 when it went out of business. In 1930, the building was leased by the town and transformed into the Town Jail. The walls were lined with reinforced concrete, bars were installed in the windows, and double doors were put in for extra security. It was also built with hand dressed stone and held together with lime mortar. The windows are at street level, which lead to many people passing bottles of liquor through the bars from the outside. Only one prisoner ever escaped; his friends put a log chain on the bars and fastened that to a truck that took out not just the bars, but also part of the wall. Their efforts were short-lived, as he was caught again the next morning. The rear section of the building collapsed years ago but the front section of the jail remains secure. The building is not currently being used, but is still standing on Main Street.

Cline Blacksmith Shop and Town Jail

William H. Warden came from Ayrshire, Scotland, and was an early settler in the Wardensville area. Lord Fairfax granted him land that was surveyed by George Washington in 1749, near the intersection of Routes 259 and 29. Warden built a fort in 1754 during tensions between the settlers and the Native Americans. The fort was burned down four years later by Native Americans who killed him and another man. His wife and son escaped but stayed in the area. William Warden, his son, went on to marry and raise children. Two of William’s children surveyed and platted land in what is now Wardensville. The town, originally called Trout Run, was later renamed Wardensville in honor of the two sons, Jacob and Benjamin Warden.

Horace Pease built this Victorian home in 1875, known at that time as Hotel Warden. His son, John W. Pease extended the back wing of the house and added a tower in 1880. It was remodeled again in 1920 when most of the back wing and additional towers were built. Horace and his wife, Laura Hook Pease ran Hotel Warden from 1920 until Horace passed away in 1934. His grandchildren began the Warden family line. Between this period, the hotel’s businesses thrived, catering to travelers along the present-day Routes 259 and 55. The Warden house has stayed in the Warden family to the present age and is currently a private residence.

Hotel Warden & the Warden Family 

Located a short distance west from Wardensville, this home was built in 1860 by Francis Kotz and is a two-story, four-room, Greek Revival brick house. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Kotz first arrived on the banks of the Cacapon River in 1854 and remained an active member of the community and local economy until his death in 1887.  The first building constructed on the farm was a three-story wooden structure that was used as the first home for Francis Kotz’s family and as his wood-working shop. This building was constructed around 1860. The original two-story barn circa 1865 was built with local wood and the seven original stalls were once used for Kotz’s son’s mules in his freight-hauling business. Like most farms from that time, the Kotz farm has an old smokehouse for smoking and storing meat. This one-room building was built around 1865 as well.

The town of Wardensville has a few homes listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the Francis Kotz Farm is one of them. Originally built in 1860 by German immigrant Francis Kotz, this was the first home in the area to be built in the Gothic Revival style.


Wardensville West Virginia Driving Tour

Cacapon & Lost Rivers

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information