This 19th-century house was once home to Dr. Edouard Naret, a French immigrant who arrived in the United States in 1815 after the death of both of his parents. Young Edouard was sent to live with his uncle in Gallipolis, Ohio. After marriage, Edouard Naret purchased land from another French immigrant and moved to Buffalo, which is now part of the state of West Virginia. After some time in Buffalo, Dr. Naret and his wife donated the land to support the Buffalo Academy, a private school that operated until the Civil War. During the war, Dr. Naret served as Adjutant General for the 181st Militia from Putnam County. After the war, Dr. Naret continued his practice until his death on April 20, 1875.
Located on the Front Street in Buffalo, the Progress Mill was not only a huge supplier of goods to the nearby community of Buffalo. But was also the living quarters for the 8th Virginia regiment soldiers during the Civil War. During the Winter of 1861 to 1862, soldiers trained in Buffalo and went off to battle. Some dying in the mill do to typhoid fever caused by the mosquitoes that bred in the mills flooded basement. The mill was later torn down, but remnants of the building still remain on the site.
The Buffalo Presbyterian Church built in 1857, stands in the Buffalo Town Square Historical District located in the middle of the town of Buffalo, West Virginia. The church relatively unaltered over the years, has seen an immensely amount of history in its time. From the two front doors, one for men and one for women, and boxed pews dating back to the time of gender separation in church. To the enclosed slave gallery in the balcony for slaves to view the services. Walking through the doors takes a step back in time to the struggles of daily life, social interactions, slavery and the civil war history that remains imprinted in the walls of this Greek Revival structure.
This school was founded in 1849 as a school for local youth. The first principal of the school, George Rossetter later became the president of Marietta College. During the Civil War, the building used by both Union and Confederate armies. After the war, the school was renovated and used to house the local high school until 1952.
The Buffalo Hotel was built in the 1800s and was a regular stopping place by riverboat travelers. The Hotel stood many years and even withstood the flood of 1913 when most of the town was under a few feet of water. The building stood beside the D.K. store for many years until torn down in the 1960s.
The Buffalo port for traveling steamboats was one of the most busy places in Buffalo. Travelers would dock here to stop and enjoy the town and stay the night in the Buffalo Hotel. The site over the years has been almost untouched as the river and nature reclaim the site of a booming port and a mysterious fire that is still unsolved to this day.
Constructed in 1885, Grape Hill, was the home of Confederate General John McCausland House and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The large sandstone walls were quarried locally and transported by Jesse Lewis, an African American teamster. McCausland is best-known today for ordering the destruction of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania in July 1864 after locals refused his demand for ransom. McCausland succeeded the infamous Albert Gallatin Jenkins, a Confederate officer from West Virginia who oversaw the capture and enslavement of numerous free Black women and children while conducting raids around Chambersburg the previous year.
Maplewood Farm, also known as the Sebrell-McCausland Farm, is located in Pliny, West Virginia. John Sebrell settled here sometime before 1850 and built the original brick house. When his nephew, John P. Sebrell, inherited the farm he built the current farm house on the site of the old house in 1870. In 1890 the farm was purchased by neighbor General John McCausland and it remains in the McCausland family today. General McCausland used tiles to drain swamp land to create agricultural land, the first system in West Virginia. The property was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.
This Tour is a Thematic Tour or Heritage Trail.
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Go on a tour of several historic Civil War sites and buildings in Buffalo West Virginia. Buildings dating back to the 1800's are still standing like they did when the confederate and union army used Buffalo as a hospital, training grounds, and residence for many soldiers. Go back in time and see what life was like in the Civil War era.
