Historic Charleston: The First 225 Years

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HISTORIC CHARLESTON 

The First 225 Years 

by Billy Joe Peyton 

A publication of the City of Charleston 

HPNbooks 

A division of Lammert Incorporated 

San Antonio, Texas

CONTENTS 

✧ 

This c. 1850 single-span stone arch 

bridge carried the Point Pleasant Road 

over Kanawha Two Mile Creek at the 

Littlepage Farm. It still stands but was 

bypassed long ago. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE HISTORIC 

GLENWOOD FOUNDATION. 

3 WELCOME FROM MAYOR DANNY JONES 

4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 

5 CHAPTER 1 Prehistory and Early Settlement: to 1820 

17 CHAPTER 2 Town at the Mouth of Elk: 1820-1860 

31 CHAPTER 3 Civil War and Aftermath: 1860-1870 

49 CHAPTER 4 An Emerging Capital City: 1870-1900 

61 CHAPTER 5 Industrial Expansion and Growth: 1900-1970 

89 CHAPTER 6 Epilogue—A City in Transition: 1970-present 

102 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

103 SHARING THE HERITAGE 

151 SPONSORS 

152 ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

First Edition 

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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without permission in writing 

from the publisher. All inquiries should be addressed to HPNbooks, 11535 Galm Road, Suite 101, San Antonio, Texas, 78254. Phone (800) 749-9790, www.hpnbooks.com. 

ISBN: 978-1-939300-19-5 

Library of Congress Card Catalog Number: 2013952553 

Historic Charleston: The First 225 Years 

author: Billy Joe Peyton 

contributing writer for “Sharing the Heritage”: Joe Goodpasture 

HPNbooks 

president: Ron Lammert 

project manager: Bob Sadoski 

administration: Donna M. Mata, Melissa G. Quinn 

book sales: Dee Steidle 

production: Colin Hart, Evelyn Hart, Glenda Tarazon Krouse, Tony Quinn 

H I S T O R I C C H A R L E S T O N 

2

WELCOME FROM MAYOR DANNY JONES 

WELCOME FROM MAYOR DANNY JONES 

I am blessed to be the mayor of my home town, the city where I grew up and learned so much 

about life, and I am pleased to greet you as you begin exploring the history of Charleston in the 

pages of this book. As you can see, Charleston has a very rich history over 225 years and counting. 

While neither you nor I can change anything that is part of our past, we can—and should—learn 

from it as we prepare for the future. As a student of history, I am fascinated to be able to look 

back and learn how situations developed, how people made decisions that shaped events and 

how people and events created the path to where we are now as a world, nation and city. 

We need to know where we have been to understand fully the direction in which we are heading. 

Our recent history has produced some exciting developments in Charleston that make me 

very hopeful about our future. Over the past decade, we have witnessed many new events 

and investments in Charleston that make our capital city a much more attractive place for people 

to live, visit and invest: 

• The opening of the Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences as a world class performance hall 

and activity center for people of all ages and interests; 

• Creation of FestivALL Charleston, which has become a ten-day celebration of art and culture 

and has led to the empowerment of our city’s artistic community throughout the year; 

• Development of Appalachian Power Park, which preserved professional baseball in our city 

as the home of the West Virginia Power and dozens of other community events every year; 

• Renovation of Haddad Riverfront Park with the new retractable canopy that makes events there 

more inviting and the addition of the Schoenbaum Stage that pays tribute to our sternwheeling 

history while hosting weekly free concerts Live on the Levee during the summer months; 

• Growth and expansion of the University of Charleston with seven new buildings on campus 

(including a new School of Pharmacy) and new investment both downtown (Graduate School 

of Business) and at Laidley Field (University of Charleston stadium); 

• Transformation of affordable housing in the city of Charleston from the former Spring Hill 

complex and Washington Manor to Orchard Manor, Littlepage Terrace and beyond, so that 

people in need have cleaner, safer and better places to call home; 

• Expansion of neighborhood organizations in four different parts of the city, including 

new Main Street organizations on both the East End and West Side, that have mobilized 

personal and financial investment in places throughout the city and encouraged people to 

follow their passions for projects that make for more business-friendly and neighbor-friendly 

neighborhoods; and 

• A plan for renovating the Charleston Civic Center to make it more inviting and user-friendly 

for the groups, events and visitors that hold the greatest promise for infusing new money into 

the local economy. 

Honestly, I could fill pages with other projects, special events and investments that people and 

businesses have made in our city in recent years. But for now, I invite you to explore Charleston’s 

history through this book as we look both back to the past and ahead to bright future. 

✧ 

Mayor Danny Jones. 

W E L C O M E F R O M M A Y O R D A N N Y J O N E S 

3

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 

This work was carried out in cooperation with the Charleston Historic Landmarks 

Commission, to commemorate the founding of Fort Lee 225 years ago and the “town at mouth 

of Elk” six years later, as well as the West Virginia sesquicentennial. Many people have provided 

generous support and assistance on the project, especially the cheerful staff at the West Virginia 

State Archives; special recognition goes to Jerry Waters, who maintains a popular website 

brimming with rare and historic images of Charleston at www.mywvhome.com. Heartfelt thanks 

to the City of Charleston for showing confidence in me throughout the process, to Charleston 

City Manager David Molgaard for his editorial assistance, and to Ron Lammert and the fine 

folks at Historical Publishing Network for sticking with me as I completed the long-awaited 

manuscript. Your support is greatly appreciated. 

Finally, I dedicate this project to my amazingly talented wife, CJ, and our two children whom 

I love dearly. Cindie and Kendy, it is my sincere hope that you both grow to appreciate the rich 

history of Charleston as much as I do. 

Billy Joe Peyton 

June 2013 


4

C H A P T E R 1 

PREHISTORY AND 

EARLY SETTLEMENT: TO 1820 

Long before Europeans arrived, Native Americans knew about the area at the mouth of 

Elk River, a stream the Shawnee termed Tis-kel-wah, meaning “river of fat elk,” while the 

Delawares are said to have called it Pe-quo-ni, meaning “the walnut river.” It is unclear how the 

Kanawha River got its name. Some sources attribute it to the white explorers who named it after 

the Indians who lived along the river. Another possibility is that it was named after the island 

where the Piscataway Indians lived, “Conoy,” which may be a shortened form of “Kanawha,” 

pronounced as “Kanaw.” There are also stories that the river was given its name by Native 

Americans as “Kanawah,” which meant “place of the white stones.” Apparently, the Shawnee 

people called the river ”Keninskeha,” which meant “river of evil spirits.” There is some 

uncertainty about this story, as both names describe the New River more than the Kanawha. 

In fact, during colonial times, the New and Kanawha Rivers were considered to be the same 

waterway, and even sometimes called “Woods” River for Abraham Wood, who was responsible 

for early seventeenth century explorations of West Virginia. In 1671, Wood, along with a group 

that included Thomas Batts and Robert Fallam, discovered the river now called the New. 

✧ 

Used to define the boundaries of the 

newly independent United States, 

the 1755 John Mitchell map is the most 

comprehensive map of eastern North 

America during the colonial era. 

WIKIPEDIA COMMONS, FROM LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

HTTP://COMMONS.WIKIMEDIA.ORG/WIKI/FILE:MITCHELL_ 

MAP-06FULL2_COMPRESSED.JPG 


5

✧ 

In 1755, Shawnee captive Mary Ingles 

became the first documented non-Native 

American to make salt in the 

Kanawha Valley. 

MAP COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR’S COLLECTION. 


6 

Whatever name aboriginal people gave to 

the local waterway, they called the Kanawha 

Valley home for centuries before the first 

Europeans arrived. The area’s recorded history 

is less than two-and-a-half centuries old, 

but archaeological evidence reveals human 

habitation for 12,000 years before that. Native 

American occupation evolved through three 

progressive stages, from the Paleo-Indian to 

Archaic and Woodland cultures. Physical 

evidence of each culture has been discovered 

in the valley, but the most visible reminders 

are the burial mounds left by the Woodland 

peoples. In 1881 the Smithsonian Institution 

conducted archeological excavations relating 

to these prehistoric mound builders. By 1890 

about 100 mounds and earthworks had 

been identified in the Kanawha Valley, and 

among them was the Criel Mound in South 

Charleston, the second-largest burial mound 

in West Virginia. 

By the time European settlers crossed the 

Appalachian Mountains, virtually all Native 

American villages had been abandoned and 

the Kanawha and Elk valleys were used 

primarily as a hunting ground by the 

Shawnee, Cherokee, and Iroquois tribes. At 

the mouth of Campbell’s Creek, about five 

miles above Elk River, were salt springs that 

became known as the Great Buffalo Lick, or 

Kanawha Licks, that attracted buffalo, deer, 

and other game. Parties of Indians often came 

to hunt the abundant game and boil the brine 

to make salt, which was used for seasoning 

and food preservation. 

The first Europeans known to have viewed 

the future site of Charleston were Shawnee 

captives taken from their home at Draper’s 

Meadows (near present-day Blacksburg, 

Virginia) in July of 1755. Among them was 

twenty-four-year-old Mary Draper Ingles and 

her two young sons, aged four and two. The 

group traveled on foot to Paint Creek, which 

they followed to its mouth on Kanawha River 

about twenty-two miles above Charleston. At 

the Kanawha Licks the party paused to make 

salt, which they took back to their Shawnee 

village near Chillicothe, Ohio. Mary Ingles’ 

remarkable story ended with her daring escape 

and an epic 40-day, 400-mile trek in which

she followed the Ohio, Kanawha and New 

rivers back home. Although her trials ended 

in a joyous family reunion, Mary and William 

Ingles lost one son who probably died in 

captivity, while another son was adopted into 

a Shawnee family and did not see his 

biological parents for many years. 

Efforts to settle the trans-montane region of 

Virginia met with little success prior to the 

French and Indian War. Although optimism 

reigned after the British victory over France in 

1763, it did not immediately open the Kanawha 

Valley to permanent settlement. Shawnee Chief 

Cornstalk led bloody raids on the Greenbrier 

settlements shortly thereafter, which adversely 

impacted attempts to populate the region. In 

an effort to placate Native American claims 

and dissuade frontier violence, King George III 

issued a royal proclamation that prohibited 

settlement beyond the crest of the Alleghenies 

by declaring the area as an Indian Reserve. 

Persistent Cherokee and Iroquois claims in 

present-day West Virginia were permanently 

extinguished with the treaties of Hard Labor 

and Fort Stanwix in 1768, followed by 

the Treaty of Lochaber in 1770, but strong 

Shawnee claims remained unresolved and 

contributed to persistent attacks originating 

from Ohio. 

In 1770 speculators began claiming 

Kanawha lands. Among them was George 

Washington, who personally selected 23,000 

acres bordering Kanawha River and extending 

more than forty miles above its mouth. The 

first residents ventured into the area in 1771, 

when Simon Kenton, George Strader and 

John Yeager built a cabin along Elk River 

about two miles above Charleston which they 

used as a base camp for hunting and trapping. 

Considered the first Europeans to actually live 

in the Kanawha Valley, the trio remained until 

March of 1773 when an Indian raiding party 

attacked them at camp. Yeager died in the 

ambush, while Kenton and Strader escaped 

on foot to Point Pleasant and did not return. 

Also in 1773, Walter Kelly established a 

settlement along Kelly’s Creek at present-day 

Cedar Grove, about twenty miles above 

Charleston. Settlers in his group assumed 

considerable risk because they had ventured 

far beyond the protection of volunteer militia 

units that guarded the Greenbrier settlements 

eighty miles to the east. In the spring and 

summer of that year, Shawnees launched raids 

from Ohio into West Virginia, prompting 

Kelly to send his family back to the safety of 

the Greenbrier settlements before being killed 

himself. In 1774, William Morris assumed 

Kelly’s claim. One of Morris’s sons settled on 

Lens Creek (Marmet), and another moved 

down the south side of Kanawha River 

opposite Campbell’s Creek. Within a short 

time, additional settlements had sprung up 

at Pratt, Hugheston, and Shrewsbury, while 

separate expeditions surveyed downriver 

lands at Nitro and St. Albans. 

Meanwhile, a veteran Virginia militiaman, 

Colonel Thomas W. Bullitt from Prince 

William County, appeared in the Kanawha 

Valley in the spring of 1773 while on 

an expedition bound for the Kentucky 

wilderness, where he made surveys of 

Frankfort and Louisville. Upon his return, 

Bullitt was granted acreage in the western 

territory as a reward for military and civil 

service to Virginia. He chose a favorable 

1,030-acre site at the mouth of Elk River that 

he believed best for future development. His 

claim began at a large sycamore tree at the 

junction of the Elk and Kanawha Rivers and 

ran nearly a mile up the Kanawha to the head 

of the bottom; it continued 330 feet to a 

“Spanish Oak at the base of the hills,” then 

followed a direct line just over two miles to 

Elk River before returning back to the starting 

point. Bullitt also claimed a second parcel 

consisting of 1,240 acres directly below the 

west bank of Elk River and extending down 

to a point beyond Kanawha Two-Mile Creek. 

Bullitt possibly made a “tomahawk claim” to 

the lands in 1774, but his actual survey dates 

to May 25, 1775. When Thomas Bullitt died 

in Fauquier County in 1778, his younger 

brother, Cuthbert Bullitt (1740-1791), a 

planter, lawyer and judge from Prince William 

County, inherited the Kanawha lands. On 

November 20, 1779, Cuthbert Bullitt received 

a formal patent signed by Virginia Governor 

Thomas Jefferson that granted him ownership 

“in consideration of military services performed 

by Thomas Bullitt in the late war between 

Great Britain and France.” 

✧ 

Colonel Thomas Bullitt’s two surveys 

covered 2,270 acres of prime bottomland 

along the east and west banks of the 

Elk River. 

MAP COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR’S COLLECTION 

(FROM LAIDLEY, HISTORY OF CHARLESTON AND 

KANAWHA COUNTY). 


7

✧ 

Andrew Lewis led Virginia troops at the 

Battle of Point Pleasant. Lewis never lived 

in West Virginia, but he played a prominent 

role in its early history and development. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF BILLY JOE PEYTON. 


8 

Upset by the frequency and severity of 

persistent Indian raids, and spurred on by 

speculators who hoped to gain from settling 

the western lands, Virginia’s royal governor, 

John Murray, launched an offensive against 

the Shawnee villages in Ohio in the autumn 

of 1774. Murray, who held title as the fourth 

Earl of Dunmore, assembled an army of 

around 1,200 men at Fort Dunmore (present 

Pittsburgh) and moved down the Ohio River. 

He intended to join forces with a second 

army of around 1,100 Virginians under 

Colonel Andrew Lewis, a Virginia militiaman 

and surveyor who had surveyed much of 

Greenbrier County and was a respected 

veteran of the French and Indian War. As 

Dunmore’s army moved down from the 

north, Lewis’s troops gathered at Fort Union 

(present-day Lewisburg) and on September 6 

began marching westward in successive 

waves over the trackless forest to a 

rendezvous point on Elk River. 

First to depart Fort Union 

was Colonel Charles Lewis 

(younger brother of Andrew 

Lewis) and 600 men of 

the Augusta Regiment, whose 

mission was “to proceed as far 

as the mouth of Elk, then to 

make canoes to take down the 

flour. He took with him 108 

beeves and 500 pack-horses 

carrying 54,000 pounds of 

flour.” Six days later, Colonel 

William Fleming and the 

Botetourt Regiment moved 

out with 18,000 pounds of 

flour. Fleming’s Botetourt force 

joined the Augusta troops 

at the mouth of Elk on 

September 22, “where both 

regiments engaged in making 

a store-house and building 

canoes for transporting supplies 

down the Great Kanawha.” 

The parole—a watchword or 

password issued by the 

commanding officer to the 

officers of the guard—for this 

day was “Charlestown,” a full 

fourteen years before the 

town at the mouth of the Elk was established. 

The word probably was in reference to 

Colonel Charles Lewis, but it would be 

interesting to know if it had any impact on 

the subsequent naming of the town that 

would develop later. 

Crews eventually constructed twentyseven 

canoes in about a week’s time at the 

mouth of Elk. At daybreak on September 30, 

the canoes were sent up Elk River about 

one-and-a half miles, where the river was 

“100 yards wide and there was a fording.” 

This would put the crossing near the 

mouth of Magazine Branch, about where 

Pennsylvania and Bigley Avenues converge 

today. In conditions described as “still dead 

running water,” cattle and packhorses were 

driven over first, followed by the army which 

crossed to a camp on the “level plain below 

the mouth of the Elk” on Charleston’s West 

Side. Incessant rains forced the men to remain 

in camp until October 2, when they resumed 

their march to the Ohio. It was during this 

extended encampment that Virginia soldiers 

first became acquainted with the fertile 

bottom land at the confluence of the Elk and 

Kanawha Rivers. 

Lewis’s army reached Point Pleasant on 

October 6, 1774. There, on October 10, they 

were attacked by an equal force of Shawnees 

and their allies led by famed warrior, Chief 

Cornstalk. In a fierce day-long fight that 

descended into a hand-to-hand struggle, the 

Virginia militia prevailed after Cornstalk’s 

forces retreated across the Ohio River. Under 

terms of the Treaty of Camp Charlotte that 

ended Dunmore’s War, the Ohio River was 

recognized as the boundary between the 

Shawnee nation and British settlers, the 

Shawnee agreed to stop attacking travelers 

on the Ohio River, and Kentucky was closed 

to British settlement. Construction of Fort 

Randolph at Point Pleasant bolstered the 

sense of security for area residents. The treaty 

secured a temporary peace, and settlers 

streamed into the Kanawha Valley. Violence 

returned to the frontier following the brutal 

murder of Cornstalk at Fort Randolph in 

November 1777. 

Among the soldiers who camped at 

Elk River and fought at the 1774 Battle of

Point Pleasant were several sons of Charles 

Clendenin. Among them was George, who 

was born in Augusta County in 1746. The 

Clendenin family had originally migrated to 

the Shenandoah Valley from Ulster, Northern 

Ireland, and Charles had moved his family 

to the Greenbrier Valley (present Pocahontas 

County) in 1771. Following his service in 

Dunmore’s War, George Clendenin represented 

Greenbrier County in the Virginia House of 

Delegates from 1781 to 1789. He helped 

establish the Old State Road from Lewisburg 

to The Boatyards (Cedar Grove) in 1786, and 

its extension to the mouth of the Elk River 

two years later. George Clendenin became a 

major landowner in Greenbrier County, with 

holdings individually and jointly in excess of 

30,000 acres. On December 28, 1787, while 

attending a legislative session in Richmond, 

George Clendenin purchased from Cuthbert 

Bullitt the 1,030-acre tract located along the 

Kanawha River that was part of the Thomas 

Bullitt survey. Clendenin later sold 507 acres 

to his brothers, William and Alexander. 

Eager to relocate to his new lands at the 

mouth of the Elk, Clendenin urged Virginia 

lawmakers to focus their attention on frontier 

defense. At the time, four forts existed in 

the entire Kanawha Valley—at Point Pleasant, 

the mouth of Coal River, opposite Campbell’s 

Creek, and on Kelly’s Creek. Each fort 

accommodated only about ten families, which 

was inadequate for reliable defense according 

to Clendenin—who asserted that all settlers 

would vacate their lands if they did not 

receive more protection. On January 30, 

1788, Virginia Governor Edmund Randolph 

directed George Clendenin to organize a 

company of rangers and to station them at 

a location he deemed to be most acceptable 

for the protection of Kanawha settlers. Not 

surprisingly, and with an eye to future 

settlement opportunities, Clendenin placed 

the company on his own lands near the 

mouth of Elk. He named his brother, William, 

also a veteran of the Battle of Point Pleasant, 

as captain, while another brother, Alexander, 

served as a private. At the outset, twentyseven 

rangers formed the militia company: 

George Clendenin led the first group of 

intrepid settlers into the Kanawha Valley in 

K A N A W H A M I L I T I A O R I G I N A L M U S T E R R O L L 

George Clendenin, colonel 

George Shaw, lieutenant 

Shadrach Harriman, sergeant 

John Tollypurt, private 

John Burns, private 

William Miller, private 

James Edgar, private 

Michael Newhouse, private 

Thomas Shirkey, private 

William Boggs, private 

Benjamin Morris, private 

William Morris, private 

William Turrell, private 

Alexander Clendenin, private 

April 1788. It is unclear whether he had 

recently laid eyes on his new land, but it 

probably changed little since 1774. Upon 

arrival at the Elk River, the forty-two-year-old 

Clendenin immediately set the Kanawha 

Rangers to work building a fortification which 

they completed in May. For the fort site, he 

chose a high bank overlooking Kanawha River 

about 125 feet above the present intersection 

of Brooks Street and Kanawha Boulevard. 

Informally called Clendenin’s Station, it 

offered a commanding view of the river in 

both directions, had a supply of fresh water 

nearby, and a natural ravine offered a good 

spot for a canoe landing. By 1792, the station 

had officially become Fort Lee, named in 

honor of Revolutionary War hero and former 

Virginia governor, Richard Henry Lee, father 

of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. 

The fortification itself consisted of a log 

stockade about 250 feet long and 175 feet 

wide, with two entry gates—one that opened 

on the river side and another on the hill 

side. Within the enclosure stood a two-story 

hand-hewn log structure that measured 

36 feet long, 18 feet wide and 18 feet high, 

with clapboard roof, whipsawed rafters 

and framing, puncheon (dirt) floor, and a 

fieldstone chimney on both ends. Built on a 

typical plan, it had two rooms and a hallway 

on the first floor and two rooms on the second 

floor. Known as the “Mansion House,” it 

William Clendenin, captain 

Francis Watkins, ensign 

Reuben Slaughter, sergeant 

Samuel Dunbar, private 

Isaac Snedicer, private 

John Buckle, private 

Robert Aaron, private 

William Carroll, private 

Nicholas Null, private 

Archer Price, private 

Levi Morris, private 

Joseph Burrell, private 

John Moore, private 

✧ 

While serving in the Virginia state 

legislature, George Clendenin purchased 

the 1,030-acre Bullitt tract on 

December 28, 1787. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF SOCIETY OF THE COLONIAL 

DAMES OF AMERICA IN THE STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA. 


9

✧ 

Below: Artist’s rendering of Clendenin’s 

Station, later renamed Fort Lee. The fort 

stood near present Kanawha Boulevard, 

between present Brooks and Morris Streets. 

ILLUSTRATION COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR’S COLLECTION 

(FROM COOK, THE ANNALS OF FORT LEE). 

Opposite, top: Postcard of Daniel Boone 

originally issued by Daniel Boone Hotel 

in Charleston. 

COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR’S COLLECTION. 

Opposite, bottom: In 1928, the Daughters 

of the American Revolution erected a stone 

marker to Daniel Boone at the base of a 

cave near the mouth of Campbell’s Creek. 

The cave was obliterated in the 1970s, 

and the marker now stands in 

Daniel Boone Park. 


served as the main residence for George 

Clendenin and his family. In addition, the 

rangers built a blockhouse about one mile 

upstream (in the vicinity of the Executive 

Mansion at the Capitol Complex) where 

William Clendenin and his family resided. 

Other scattered cabins stood on land cleared 

from the nearby forest. 

Today, near the corner of Brooks Street and 

Kanawha Boulevard stands a native stone 

marker placed in 1915 by the Kanawha Valley 

Chapter of the Daughters of the American 

Revolution to mark the site of the original 

Fort Lee building and stockade. Historian Roy 

Bird Cook surmised that the boulder stands a 

little in front of the actual building site. 

Charles Clendenin’s gravesite was somewhere 

in the 1200 block of Kanawha Boulevard. 

In 1917, the National Society of the Colonial 

Dames of America (NSCDA) in the State of 

West Virginia erected a marble-based sundial 

in the memory of Charles Clendenin, the 

father of George who died at Fort Lee in 

1790 and was buried within its stockade. The 

sundial was moved to its present location 

opposite 1254 Kanawha Boulevard in 1988, 

and in 2012 underwent restoration under 

a joint effort of NSCDA-West Virginia, the 

Charleston Beautification Commission, and 

the Charleston Public Works Department. 

Danger took many forms in the exposed 

and vulnerable frontier settlements, but the 

most imminent and potentially lethal threat 

came from marauding bands of native 

warriors who hoped to roll back the tide of 

settlement. They hoped to accomplish their 

goals by launching raids deep into the 

Kanawha Valley, where they stole horses, 

destroyed cabins and crops, took prisoners, 

and sometimes brutally murdered settlers. 

When the call went out to “fort up,” residents 

sought protection and the Kanawha Rangers 

sprang into action until danger had passed. 

Once, during construction of Fort Lee, a 

raiding party of twenty-two Indians appeared 

but quickly dispersed after the militia force 

showed itself in strength.Unfortunately, other 

clashes did not end so well. 

Local victims included James Hale, who 

was killed at Hale’s Branch on the south side 

of Kanawha River (near present South Side 

Bridge) in 1789 and buried in a small plot in 

the fort near the later grave of Charles 

Clendenin. In 1790 a deadly attack on Fort 

Tackett on Coal River (St. Albans) about 

twelve miles downstream sent survivors 

scurrying for refuge at Fort Lee. Shadrach 

Harriman, an original Charleston settler and 

member of the Kanawha Rangers, was killed 

near Venable Branch (now Mission Hollow) 

in 1791. Such persistent violence led George 

Clendenin to declare the Kanawha Valley 

as “one continual scene of depradation [sic]” 

by 1792. 


10

Following the erection of Fort Lee, the 

politically astute George Clendenin turned 

his attention to creating the framework for 

a permanent settlement at the mouth of Elk 

River. Largely through Clendenin’s efforts, on 

November 14, 1788, the legislature authorized 

the formation of Kanawha County from 

Greenbrier and Montgomery counties, with the 

actual formation set for October 1, 1789. The 

new county encompassed most of the present 

southwestern portion of the state, including all 

or parts of nineteen modern counties and the 

entire Kanawha River. On October 5, 1789, the 

Kanawha County Court held its first session at 

George Clendenin’s residence inside Fort Lee. 

The justices recommended veteran frontiersman 

Daniel Boone to serve as lieutenant colonel of 

the county militia. This designation made 

Boone the third-ranking officer in the county, 

following Sheriff Thomas Lewis and militia 

commander, Colonel George Clendenin. By 

then, Daniel Boone had already made his 

reputation as a scout who blazed the Wilderness 

Road and led settlers into Kentucky. 


1 1

Boone, his wife Rebecca, and their three 

youngest children, Daniel (b. 1769), Jesse 

(b. 1773), and Nathan (b. 1780), moved to 

Point Pleasant sometime in 1788, where 

the elder Daniel reputedly operated a small 

trading post, engaged in occasional surveying 

work, and hunted and trapped along 

Kanawha River. In years of living on the 

frontier, Boone had more than one narrow 

escape from Indians. In December 1789, 

a report circulated among the Kanawha 

settlements that Indians “have killed young 

Daniel Boone and took his father old 

Col. Boone prisoner.” With no evidence to 

the contrary, George Clendenin feared the 

news was true. In the end, the report proved 

false. The Boones had tarried to hunt and 

trap on a return trip from Philadelphia, and 

they eventually arrived safely home in early 

1790. On another occasion, when Boone 

failed to return as scheduled from his annual 

winter hunt in 1793, even his stalwart wife, 

Rebecca, began to worry. Local concern gave 

rise to a report in the United States Gazette 

from April 1793 that Boone had been “killed 

or taken.” Once again, the account of his 

demise proved premature when he returned 

unscathed to Charleston. 

Daniel Boone’s reputation as an intrepid 

frontiersman had already grown to mythical 

proportions when he decided to try his 

hand at political office. In the first elections 

in 1790, George Clendenin and Andrew 

Donnally represented Kanawha County in the 

Virginia Assembly. In April 1791, Daniel 

Boone traveled from his home at Point 

Pleasant to the polling place at Fort Lee, 

where he participated in an “open and fair 

election” to decide who would represent 

Kanawha County at the next legislative term 

in Richmond. By day’s end, George Clendenin 

and Daniel Boone had been chosen to 

represent the county. As the legislative session 

approached, Boone dutifully walked to 

Richmond and took his seat. 

While in Richmond, Boone negotiated a 

contract to provide ammunition and rations 

for militia units at Moorefield, Morgantown, 

Wheeling and elsewhere. After fulfilling those 

contracts he returned to Point Pleasant in 

April 1792 with insufficient supplies, which 

infuriated Hugh Caperton who commanded 

the rangers there. A heated argument ensued, 

in which Caperton accused Boone of incompetence 

for failing to bring the needed 

provisions to the fort. In a written report to 

the governor, George Clendenin blamed 

Boone for “total non-compliance” with respect 

to his contractual obligations, which resulted 

in Boone losing his supply contract and 

ultimately closing his store at Point Pleasant. 

In search of a simpler life free from legal 

and financial entanglements, Daniel and 

Rebecca Boone, their sons Nathan and Jesse, 

and Jesse’s wife, Chloe Van Bibber Boone, 

relocated sixty miles upriver to the mouth 

of Elk in 1791 or 1792. Boone knew the 

favorable natural attributes of the Upper 

Kanawha Valley, which appealed to him. 

He was personal friends with Simon Kenton, 

who had hunted and trapped along the 

Kanawha and Elk Rivers and had saved 

Boone’s life in Kentucky. Boone hunted and 

trapped in the area, and he well knew the 

famed salt marshes at Campbell’s Creek. In 

addition, he had rescued from captivity a local 

girl named Chloe Flinn, who had been taken 

when her parents were killed by Indians at 

their home near Cabin Creek (about twelve 

miles above Charleston) in 1786. Following 

her liberation, Daniel and Rebecca Boone 

raised the orphaned Chloe in their home. 

When they settled near Elk River, the 

Boone family took up residence in a cabin that 

stood on land owned by Andrew Donnally, 

Sr., on the south side of Kanawha River 

about four-and-a-half miles above Fort Lee. 

According to historian Roy Bird Cook in 

The Annals of Fort Lee (1935), “The Boone 

home was a double log house which stood in 

or near the upper end of Kanawha Avenue, 

in Kanawha City…and in sight of the capitol 

building of West Virginia.” Cook describes 

it “as a favorable place of residence, 

commanding a good view of a slight bend 

in the Kanawha River, and the mouth of 

Campbell’s Creek, where were located the 

celebrated salt licks later developed by the 

Dickinsons and others.” Although the cabin’s 

exact location is unknown, Cook surmises 

that it stood near the old Donnally family 

cemetery on the south side of Kanawha 


12

Avenue at Fifty-seventh Street. The old burial 

ground no longer exists, and the remains of 

those interred there were moved to the 

Old Circle section of Spring Hill Cemetery 

many years ago. 

Peace finally came to the Kanawha frontier 

when U.S. troops under General “Mad” 

Anthony Wayne defeated a Native American 

force in the Battle of Fallen Timbers, Ohio, on 

August 20, 1794, and the Treaty of Greenville 

was signed about a year later. Settlers 

welcomed the fact that defense was no longer 

their top priority, but it meant that Daniel 

Boone’s days as a border defender and 

member of the Virginia militia had ended. In 

1795, the sixty-year-old Boone, his wife 

Rebecca and their son Nathan packed their 

meager possessions and departed Fort Lee 

on a flatboat bound for Kentucky. Son Jesse 

and wife, Chloe, remained in the area until 

1797, when they joined the others. Later, 

Daniel Boone moved to Missouri, where the 

venerable patriarch died in 1820 at the age 

of eighty-five. 

After working out organizational details 

for Kanawha County, local officials turned 

their attention to erecting public buildings. 

A crude jail was built in 1792, followed by 

a courthouse in 1796 on a lot near the center 

of town purchased from George Alderson. 

The first county clerk’s office stood near the 

corner of present Hale Street and Kanawha 

Boulevard. When frontier hostilities ended, 

George Clendenin and other county officials 

urged the state to establish a permanent 

settlement. On December 19, 1794, the 

legislature complied by designating a fortyacre 

tract of George Clendenin’s land as the 

site of a town which Clendenin officially 

named Charlestown (or Charles Town) in 

honor of his father, Charles, who had died at 

Fort Lee in 1790 and was buried inside 

the stockade. 

Alexander Welch, surveyor for Greenbrier 

County, prepared the first plat with thirtysix 

lots for the “town at the mouth of Elk” 

before 1794. Reuben Slaughter, Kanawha 

County surveyor, later extended the Welch 

survey eastward to present Dunbar Street. 

The original town boundary started at the 

east bank of Elk River and extended to 

present Capitol Street. Two east-west running 

thoroughfares, Front Street (later Kanawha 

Street then Kanawha Boulevard) and Main 

Street (Virginia Street) ran the length of the 

town, bisected by five unnamed north-south 

streets. Purchasers of the first six town lots 

were Josiah Harrison, Francis Watkins, 

Charles McClung, Alexander Welch, John 

Edwards, and Shadrach Harriman, and 

the first trustees were Reuben Slaughter, 

Andrew Donnally, Sr., William Clendenin, 

John Morris, Abraham Baker, John Young, 

and William Morris. 

✧ 

Engraving of an elderly Daniel Boone 

hunting in Missouri. He moved with his 

family to Missouri in 1799, and lived there 

until his death in 1820. 



1 3

Charleston grew slowly in the early years. 

The estimated population stood at about 

35 residents in 1795, and expanded to twelve 

houses and 65 residents by 1800. By that 

time, George Clendenin had become disillusioned 

with the slow pace of development, 

and in 1796 he sold his acreage on Elk River 

to Joseph Ruffner. Clendenin and his wife 

then relocated to the east side of Ohio River 

near Point Pleasant, and George died the 

following spring while visiting his daughter 

in Marietta, Ohio. 

Samuel Williams, a resident of Charleston 

from 1803-1810, penned a pleasant description 

of the little settlement which later 

appeared in serial form in the Ladies Repository 

under the title, “Leaves from a Portfolio” 

(1851-54): 

Charleston was at this time—1803—an 

inconsiderable village, with a population of 

about one hundred and fifty souls. The 

houses were mostly constructed of hewn 

logs, with a few frame buildings, and, in the 

background, some small round-log cabins. 

The principal, or Front street, some sixty feet 

in width, was laid out on the beautiful bluff 

bank of the Kanawha River, which has an 

elevation of thirty or forty feet above low 

water. On the sloping bank between this 

street and the river, there were then no 

houses nor structures of any kind, as it was 

considered the common property of the town. 

On this street, of half a mile in length, stood 

about two-thirds of the houses composing the 

village. On another street, running parallel to 

this, and at a distance of some four hundred 

feet from it, and only opened in part, there 

were a few houses. The remainder lay upon 

cross streets, flanking the public square. 

The houses were constructed in plain, 

back-woods style; and to the best of my 

recollection, the painter’s brush had not 

passed upon any of them. The streets 

remained in their primitive state of nature, 

except that the timber had been cut off by 

the proprietor, who had originally cultivated 

the ground as a corn-field. But the sloping 

bank of the river, in front of the village, was 

still covered with large sycamore trees and 

paw-paw bushes. Immediately in the rear of 

the village lay an unbroken and dense forest of 

large and lofty beech, sugar, ash, and poplar 

timber, with thickets of paw-paw. Above, and 


14

adjoining it, lay the beautiful farms of the 

Ruffner family, extending in succession, three 

or four miles up the river, and covering the 

rich alluvial bottom. About a mile in the rear 

of the village, and near the base of the hills 

bounding the Valley, lay the farm and pleasant 

mansion of Colonel John Reynolds…. Below, 

at a distance of a quarter of a mile, the 

Elk River, flowing in at right angles, united 

its placid waters with those of the Kanawha. 

The space between the Elk River and the 

village was covered with a heavy growth of 

sycamore trees, and with paw-paw thickets. 

Williams described the public square, 

present site of the courthouse, as near the 

center of the village, without any enclosure 

and extending from Front to Second (now 

Virginia) Street. The courthouse was an 

unpainted log building that stood about 

30 feet back from Front Street and featuring 

a plain, unadorned courtroom. A few feet 

south of the courthouse, and about 30 feet 

farther back, stood the log jail with two 

cells—one for debtors and the other for 

criminals. Williams mockingly described 

“those ornaments of a refined and enlightened 

age—the whipping-post, pillory and stocks” 

which stood in front of the jail near the south 

end of the courthouse. Law officers utilized 

these remnants of a bygone era to mete out 

punishment ranging from public lashing to 

tossing rotten eggs at guilty perpetrators. 

Among the responsibilities of the county 

court in the early days was to set prices that 

innkeepers could charge for food and drink, 

and to authorize a bounty for wolf scalps. 

The court also heard a variety of legal cases, 

including one in 1796 for an individual 

found guilty of contempt for “profane 

swearing,” and an individual fined in 1797 

for “having hunted on the Sabbath and 

boasted about it.” Another 1797 case ordered 

protection for a slave named Ned, alias 

Dennis Canaday, who had apparently 

suffered physical abuse at the hands of his 

owner, Samuel Fuqua. 

Annual state elections were held each 

April with three days of voting at the 

courthouse. On those occasions, large crowds 

descended on the town to cast ballots and 

socialize. Only freeholders could legally vote 

under Virginia law, but there were so 

few property owners in Kanawha County that 

the requirement was waived by common 

consent, according to Williams. Although not 

strictly legal, he claimed that all white males 

could vote, along with minors and travelers 

who happened to pass through the area 

during elections. 

✧ 

Opposite: Original plat as drawn by 

Alexander Welch before 1794. 


(FROM LAIDLEY, HISTORY OF CHARLESTON AND 

KANAWHA COUNTY). 

Above: A later published version titled 

Plan of Town at the Mouth of Elk. 


(FROM ATKINSON, HISTORY OF KANAWHA COUNTY). 


1 5

✧ 

Kanawha Courthouse remained the official 

postal designation until 1879, when the 

Post Office Department adopted Charleston. 

COURTESY OF THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 

PRINTS AND PHOTOGRAPHS DIVISION, 

HTTP://WWW.LOC.GOV/PICTURES/ITEM/2011660250/ 

The Post Office Department officially designated 

Charleston as Kanawha Courthouse 

when the first post office opened in 1801. 

Mail arrived once every two weeks, delivered 

on horseback from Lewisburg about 100 

miles distant. Families were often supplied 

with parcels of coffee, tea, spices, and other 

desirable household commodities delivered 

with the mail. 

Charleston’s early settlers were primarily 

yeoman farmers who pursued modest 

agricultural production. Corn and hogs 

made up the bulk of farm production, while 

hunting, trapping and fishing supplied food 

for the home table, as well as potential 

economic gain through sale or barter of any 

surplus. Modest growth raised Charleston’s 

population to about 100 residents and twenty 

houses in 1810. The town had the added 

advantage of being the seat of Kanawha 

County, which had suffered large territorial 

losses but increased overall population to 

3,866 white residents, 352 enslaved African 

Americans, and 46 “free persons, excluding 

Indians” by 1810, a net increase of about 

sixteen percent in a decade. Many landowners 

had begun to acquire sizable acreage and 

erect substantial dwellings, but overt class 

differences among whites were not obvious in 

the first decades of the 1800s. 

When the War of 1812 began, residents 

rallied to the patriotic cause. Troops led by 

local officers like Colonel David Ruffner, 

Major John Stark, Major Claudius Buster, 

Captain Silas Reynolds, and Captain John 

Wilson faithfully served in the conflict 

which lasted until early 1815. The war also 

launched a new industrial economy based 

on salt production. “Kanawha salt” gained 

a substantial share of the domestic market 

after the United States banned imports from 

British possessions in the Caribbean, which 

made it possible for local producers to 

take control of western markets that had 

previously been monopolized by West Indian 

salt. As a result of the booming salt industry, 

Malden emerged as the first center of 

industrial production in the Kanawha Valley, 

and, Charleston remained a relatively small 

county seat. 


16


TOWN AT THE MOUTH OF ELK 

1820-1860 

The Kanawha salt industry traces its commercial origins to 1797, less than a decade after 

construction of Fort Lee. Colonel John Dickinson, a veteran of the Battle of Point Pleasant and 

resident of Bath County, Virginia, owned two tracts of land along the Kanawha River that he had 

surveyed in November 1784. One was 704 acres in the area of present Belle, and the other a 502- 

acre parcel at the mouth of Campbell’s Creek that included the famous brine springs where Mary 

Ingles’ Shawnee captors had stopped to make salt three decades earlier. In 1796, Dickinson sold 

the salt lands to Joseph Ruffner, Sr., from Massanutten, near Luray, in the Shenandoah Valley of 

Virginia. Elisha Brooks leased the salt spring from Ruffner in 1797, where he built a small furnace 

consisting of about two dozen kettles set in rows with a flue beneath them. Brooks 

sank hollow logs (or gums) into shallow wells and drew out enough brine with a “swape” (sweep) 

to make 150 pounds of salt a day, which he sold at the furnace for eight to ten cents a pound. 

When Joseph Ruffner, Sr., died in 1802, sons David and Joseph inherited his salt lands. The 

pair made numerous advances in drilling technology, and in 1808 they sank deeper wells 

to hit stronger brine that yielded a bushel of salt for every 200 gallons of liquid, which raised 

capacity to 1,250 pounds per day and reduced the cost to four cents a pound. The Ruffner brothers 

continued to innovate, and on January 18, 1817, David and Joseph received a patent 

for a “mode of obtaining salt water.” Unfortunately, details were lost in a fire at the U.S. Patent 

Office in 1836. Later, David and Joseph Ruffner’s younger brother, Tobias, successfully used 

horsepower to sink a well to a depth of 410 feet, which tapped brine so strong that 45 gallons 

produced a bushel of salt. Technological improvements pioneered by the Ruffners, combined with 

increasing demand for salt in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, led to a drilling frenzy along 

both sides of Kanawha River for ten miles between Charleston and Brownstown (present Marmet). 

✧ 

Ashton Woodman Renier’s 1926 rendering 

of the Kanawha & James River Turnpike, 

which became known as the Midland Trail 

during the automobile era. 

MAP COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR’S COLLECTION, 

(FROM RENIERS, THE MIDLAND TRAIL TOUR). 


1 7

✧ 

This comprehensive map of Kanawha salt 

furnaces operating prior to the Civil War 

includes fifty-seven identified and 

eight unknown locations. 

MAP COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR’S COLLECTION. 

(FROM THE SALT INDUSTRY IN THE KANAWHA VALLEY). 

By 1815, some 52 furnaces lined both riverbanks 

and produced up to 3,000 bushels of 

salt daily, and three times that by the late 

1840s. With its center at Malden (or Kanawha 

Salines), Kanawha Valley salt became the 

major export commodity in all of trans- 

Allegheny Virginia. 

Production grew steadily until 1846, 

when area operations led the nation with a 

total yield of 3.2 million bushels. Salt making 

had a profound ripple effect on the local 

economy by spurring a number of ancillary 

industries and creating hundreds of jobs for 

coopers, boat builders, sawmill operators, 

and more. With tremendous industrial 

growth, practically all viable trees in close 

proximity to the furnaces had been cut and 

burned within a fairly short time, prompting 

operators to turn to coal as fuel. David Ruffner 

became the first operator to use coal, and 

virtually all operators converted to it by 

1822. As a result coal mines opened along 

Kanawha River to create the area’s first 

industrial mining jobs. Inventiveness led 

the way for other improvements in drilling 

and pumping technology. Local innovators 

included driller William “Uncle Billy” Morris 

who invented the “slips” or “jars,” a doubleacting 

bit that made deeper rock drilling 

possible. Jars became an industry standard 

and are still in use today. Edwin Drake 

employed well-diggers from Kanawha to 

make the first successful oil strike at 

Titusville, Pennsylvania. 


18

Another significant contribution of the 

Kanawha salt producers was a business innovation 

that is commonplace today but was 

unknown in the early 1800s. In an attempt to 

control output and markets, local producers 

created legal combinations that included 

output pools, lease contracts, joint stock 

companies, and a proposed trust that were 

the first of their type in the nation. These 

efforts originated with over-expansion of 

the Kanawha Valley salt industry during the 

boom years surrounding the War of 1812. As 

a result, prices fell below manufacturing and 

distribution costs, causing salt companies 

to fail. At war’s end, vast amounts of imports 

from the West Indies flooded local markets 

and forced Kanawha producers to sell their 

salt at steeply reduced prices. To meet the 

revived competition, and help curtail overproduction, 

producers in 1817 formed the 

Kanawha Salt Company, an output pool and 

central sales agency for member producers 

that attempted to limit production and assign 

quotas to each member. Considered to be the 

earliest known output pool in the U.S., it met 

with varying levels of success and operated 

in some form or other for about fifteen years. 

The promise of economic gain enticed 

many individuals to enter the local salt 

business. By 1815 one source observed that 

area producers had “almost unbounded 

wealth.” Included among them were members 

of the Ruffner, Dickinson, Shrewsbury, 

Lewis, Brooks, Donnally, Quarrier, Noyes, and 

Tompkins families—not coincidentally, these 

would be the same names which dominated 

the region’s antebellum public and political 

life. It should come as no surprise that many 

of these pioneer families were among the first 

generation of entrepreneurs to also develop 

the region’s timber, coal, and natural gas 

resources, and remain local scions of industry 

(and philanthropy) to the present day. 

Antebellum salt-making enterprises obviously 

created opportunity and wealth for some 

residents, but prosperity came at a high price 

because the industry firmly established slavery 

as a primary source of labor in the antebellum 

period. To be sure, slavery had existed in 

Kanawha County since its founding, but the 

number of enslaved African Americans and 

white owners were both low, as indicated by 

the 1792 personal property list for the county 

which records 25 slaves above 16 years of age 

and only 17 slave owners. In that year, the 

estate of William Morris (who died in 1792) 

held four slaves, the highest number owned by 

one individual. By 1801, the total number of 

slaves over the age of 16 grew to 121 and those 

over 12 years of age increased to 27 individuals 

(148 total), while 70 whites owned slaves. 

In that year, seven different whites held more 

than five slaves, with Joseph Childers owning 

seven individuals. 

Prior to the War of 1812, salt producers 

had viewed “the hardy sons of yeomanry as 

best adapted to the toils and privations of the 

business.” However, a persistent labor shortage 

in the burgeoning industry made it possible 

for area salt makers to turn overwhelmingly 

to slavery. As a result, slave labor evolved 

into a dominant corporate enterprise by the 

mid-1800s; the largest and most influential 

salt operators had become big-time slave 

owners or lessees by 1850, when Kanawha 

County’s enslaved population reached an alltime 

high of 3,140 individuals. They included 

the firm of Dickinson & Shrewsbury with 232 

slaves, John N. Clarkson with 153, Andrew 

Donnally & Company with 120, Joseph 

Friend and John D. Lewis with 109, and 

Samuel H. Early with 73 slaves. At least half of 

the county’s slaves worked in the salt industry. 

In addition to the stain of industrial slavery, 

the never-ending smoke emanating from 

the salt works led to environmental degradation 

in and around Malden. To escape the 

foul air and water, as well as the so-called 

“rough elements” around the furnaces, some 

salt makers began to relocate a few miles 

downriver (and upwind) to Charleston by the 

1820s, where they built large and stately 

homes along the waterfront. These residents 

helped Charleston transition from a sleepy 

Southern village into a bustling river town 

with a growing number of churches, schools, 

businesses, and other amenities. 

One early observer of the salt operations 

was Anne Newport Royall, considered by 

some to be the first professional woman 

journalist in the United States. Anne relocated 

from Monroe County to Charleston after 


1 9

✧ 

Top, left: After the War of 1812, the 

Kanawha salt industry increasingly relied 

on slave labor to perform essential tasks, 

including working the furnaces, coopering, 

or packing and loading salt. 


(FROM KING, THE GREAT SOUTH). 

Top, right: At one time, John P. Hale owned 

the Betty Lovell, Snow Hill, White Hawk, 

and McMullins salt furnaces, which yielded 

1,500 bushels per day, making him the 

area’s leading producer. 


(FROM KING, THE GREAT SOUTH). 

Right: This courthouse was erected in 1817 

to replace the original 1796 log building. 

It stood until the present courthouse was 

constructed on the site in 1892. 


her husband, William Royall, died in 1812. 

She lived uneventfully in Charleston until 

about 1817, when she sold her house and 

two lots to fund a life-changing trip to 

Alabama, stating that “hitherto, I have only 

learned mankind in theory—but I am now 

studying him in practice.” She traveled 

extensively from Louisiana to Maine in the 

early 1820s and published her observations 

as Sketches of History, Life and Manners in the 

United States (1826), a work that firmly 

established her reputation. Anne settled in 

Washington and in 1831 published Paul Pry, 

a newspaper that exposed political corruption 

and fraud, followed by The Huntress in 

1836. For thirty years she struggled to keep 

the nation informed. A passionate patriot, her 

spirit and tenacity survive in her writings. 

Anne Royall died in 1854 and is buried in 

the Congressional Cemetery in Washington. 

In her travels through the Kanawha Valley in 

1823, she described the industrial scene at 

Kanawha Salines: 

In contrast, Royall described an altogether 

different landscape but a few miles downriver: 

Elks are often seen at the head of Elk river, 

which empties into Kenhawa [sic] river at a 

little town of Charleston, the seat of justice 

for this county…. In this town are four stores, 

two taverns, a court-house, a jail and an 

academy; the three last are of brick; and a 

post-office, a printing press and some very 

handsome buildings. 


20 

These salt-works are dismal looking 

places; the sameness of the long low sheds; 

smoking boilers; men, the roughest that can 

be seen, half naked; hundreds of boat-men; 

horses and oxen, ill-used and beat by their 

drivers; the mournful screaking of the 

machinery, day and night; the bare, rugged, 

inhospitable looking mountain, from which 

all the timber has been cut, give to it a 

gloomy appearance.

At the time, Charleston’s population stood 

at around 500 residents. (Not before 1830 

would the town be designated separately 

from Kanawha County in the federal census.) 

Its transformation from a frontier village to a 

small, but modern, seat of government had 

begun in 1817, when the old log courthouse 

was replaced with a new and modern brick 

structure. With its population on the rise, 

Charleston gained legislative approval to 

extend its boundaries on February 4, 1825, 

and in 1833 to raise $10,000 by lottery for 

paving its streets. In 1829, a sturdy new jail 

was added to the courthouse complex. 

According to resident Joel Ruffner, “No one 

ever escaped from that jail except by means 

of the doorway.” 

Charleston’s transition from a struggling 

frontier outpost to a promising little village 

would not have been possible without internal 

improvements. As early as 1784, George 

Washington urged Governor Benjamin 

Harrison to link the eastern and western 

regions of Virginia with suitable transportation. 

At Harrison’s urging, the legislature 

chartered the James River and Kanawha 

Canal Company in 1785. Also, in that year, it 

authorized a state road to be constructed from 

Lewisburg to Kanawha Falls along the general 

path of the trail used by Andrew Lewis’ army 

on their march to Point Pleasant in 1774. 

The route had originated as a meandering 

game trail used by Native Americans to reach 

the Kanawha Licks on Campbell’s Creek. In 

1791, the road was improved to the head of 

navigation on Kanawha River at Kelly’s Creek, 

where westward travelers secured bateaux or 

flatboats to travel further downriver. 

Opened to the Ohio River by 1800, the 

Old State Road became a toll route in 1809. 

However, the growing importance of Kanawha 

salt soon required a more reliable all-weather 

passage, so Virginia in 1820 authorized the 

James River Company to construct a new 

overland route to Kanawha Falls as part of the 

James River and Kanawha Canal project. By 

1824, the James River and Kanawha Turnpike 

(or, Kanawha turnpike for short) ran from 

Lewisburg to the north bank of Kanawha 

River at Montgomery’s Ferry, twenty-five 

miles above Charleston. In 1829, the Virginia 

legislature authorized extending the route to the 

mouth of the Big Sandy River on the Ohio. 

Completed in 1832, it crossed the Kanawha 

River at Charleston, passed through Coalsmouth 

(St. Albans) and followed Teays Valley to the 

Mud River. It then bridged the Guyandotte 

River at Barboursville and terminated at 

Kenova on the Ohio, with a branch extending 

to nearby Guyandotte. A weekly stage line 

began operating between Lewisburg and 

Charleston in 1827, and service soon continued 

to Kentucky. Eventually, stages operated on 

a daily basis to Guyandotte on the Ohio River. 

In 1831, the stages began carrying the 

mail. Well-to-do travelers in finely adorned 

carriages shared the route with peddlers, 

beggars and immigrants on foot, but they 

all yielded to the great livestock drives that 

took place in the fall. Drovers moved an 

estimated 60,000 hogs annually over the 

road. Following the so-called ‘‘central line,’’ 

the Kanawha Turnpike remained an important 

passage until completion of the Chesapeake 

and Ohio Railroad after the Civil War. 

✧ 

Travelers commonly encountered large 

hog drives in the fall along the Kanawha 

Turnpike, which created traffic jams on 

the road. 

COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR’S COLLECTION, (FROM 

HARPER’S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE, OCTOBER 1857). 


2 1

✧ 

Above: Four-horsepower stagecoaches were 

a common site on the Kanawha Turnpike, 

but faster six-team “cannonball” stages 

caught the attention of bystanders when 

they thundered by. 

ILLUSTRATION COURTESY OF THE LIBRARY 

OF CONGRESS, AMERICAN MEMORY COLLECTION, 

HTTP://MEMORY.LOC.GOV/AMMEM/NDLPCOOP/MOAHTML/ 

TITLE/SCMO_VOLS.HTML 

Right: April 2, 1828 edition of Western 

Virginian announcing new packet service 

between Charleston and Cincinnati. 

The Samuel Shrewbury house still 

stands at Belle. 


In addition to a growing network of overland 

routes, Charleston really came into its 

own as a river town. For many years flatboats 

moved downriver, and keelboats later traveled 

to and from Charleston with limited 

cargo and passengers. However, impediments 

on Kanawha River in the form of ten separate 

rapids or shoals between Charleston and 

Point Pleasant caused numerous wrecks, 

sometimes with loss of life and cargo. 

Johnson Shoals at Scary Creek and Red 

House Shoals between present Red House 

and Winfield were the most treacherous. 

The advent of steamboat technology led to 

calls for river improvements, and in 1819 

the legislature authorized a sluice navigation 

project to clear channels, dredge bars, and 

excavate “dug chutes” at dangerous locations. 

In December 1820, nine years after the 

advent of steamboat travel on the Ohio 

River, the 230-ton Andrew Donnally successfully 


22

navigated the Kanawha hazards and became 

the first steamboat to reach Charleston. Three 

years later, the sidewheeler Eliza duplicated 

the feat. Built for the salt trade, she took on a 

load of salt at Kanawha Salines and shipped 

it to Cincinnati. Although it would prove 

to be Eliza’s sole voyage up the Kanawha, 

steamboats regularly operated to the salt 

furnaces and packet boat service connected 

Charleston with Point Pleasant, Cincinnati, 

Parkersburg and Pittsburgh by 1825. River 

traffic increased steadily through the years, 

and in 1842 a total of 156 steamboats 

docked at the wharf. By then, Charleston had 

cemented its standing as a river destination. 

As with other towns and villages across 

Virginia, efforts to establish formal educational 

institutions in Charleston faced obstacles 

in the early 1800s. Persistent illiteracy 

stemmed in part from the harsh realities 

of life in a wilderness setting, as pioneer 

settlers came to place more value on knowledge 

and skills learned in the home, on 

the farm and in the forest, and less on 

formal education. In time, public apathy 

became commonplace. 

The historical record is vague on early 

education, but a school apparently existed at 

William Morris’s settlement on Kelly’s Creek 

by 1798. It was possibly the first school in 

the Kanawha Valley, and somewhat of an 

exception. Generally, students attended 

private subscription schools where parents or 

other subscribers had to pay tuition. School 

terms lasted about two months, and the quality 

of learning varied greatly. Educational 

opportunities for less economically advantaged 

children opened up in 1810, when 

Virginia established the Literary Fund which 

made money available for each county to 

educate the children of indigent families. 

Commissioners determined the number of 

eligible children typically between age seven 

to fifteen, and then made money available for 

them to attend existing subscription schools. 

In 1831, Kanawha County counted 350 

children eligible for literary funds, but only 

204 students attended the twenty existing 

schools an average of fifty-five days. School 

attendance remained low because parents 

either did not see the importance of formal 

education or would not accept what they 

viewed as charity. 

In 1829 the Virginia General Assembly 

introduced a new formula for free education 

when it established district free schools. 

Under the plan, counties were divided into 

school districts and a free school was created 

in each district. Unfortunately, Kanawha 

County opted not to participate in the 

program. Rather, Presbyterian minister and 

educator, Henry Ruffner, led the local fight for 

a free statewide school system. He proposed 

that schools be supported by a general property 

tax, with a state superintendent and 

teachers trained at state-supported normal 

schools. After much political debate, the legislature 

enacted a measure in 1846 to permit 

counties to vote on the question of free public 

schools. Kanawha County acted quickly to 

endorse the plan, and on April 23, 1847, 

voters overwhelmingly approved it. However, 

salt makers balked at the proposed plan due 

to added taxes they would be forced to pay. In 

1853 the salt making firm of Dickinson and 

Shrewsbury refused to pay the school tax, 

which lowered the funds available to 

Kanawha County. According to Charles 

Ambler in A History of Education in West 

Virginia from Colonial Times to 1949, these 

influential men still held the conservative 

belief that free schools saddled “the liberal 

and just” with the responsibility of educating 

“the parsimonious and niggardly.” As a result, 

free education remained unobtainable for 

many whites. 

White students who had the means and the 

motivation could continue their studies at one 

of several private academies located throughout 

the region. Founded in 1819, Mercer 

Academy was the first such institution of 

learning to offer more than a basic education 

in Charleston. In 1822, David Ruffner offered 

academy officials a lot on which to erect a new 

building near the corner of Hale and Quarrier 

Streets. Judge Lewis Summers recommended 

the highly qualified Henry Ruffner as the first 

teacher. Eager to see the school opened, 

Ruffner personally paid carpenters to finish 

the floors and build bench seats. Mercer 

Academy offered male students a curriculum 

of Greek, Latin, French, English grammar 


2 3

✧ 

Many Charleston families sent their sons 

to Buffalo Academy, established in 1849 at 

Buffalo in Putnam County. Like Mercer 

Academy, it offered a liberal education in 

the classics, languages, science, literature, 

and religion. 

COURTESY OF WEST VIRGINIA CYCLOPEDIA, 

HTTP://WWW.WVEXP.COM/INDEX.PHP/FILE:BUFFALO_ 

ACADEMY.JPG 


24 

and composition, logic and rhetoric, general 

science, surveying, algebra, chemistry, astronomy, 

moral philosophy, political economy, 

and law. It prospered in the antebellum years 

and educated many of the valley’s leading 

male citizens until 1862, when Union forces 

burned it during the Battle of Charleston. 

Meanwhile, education of black children 

was prohibited under Virginia state law after 

the Nat Turner slave rebellion in Southampton 

County, in 1831. Fear of slave insurrections 

and the spread of abolitionist ideology and 

materials led to radical restrictions on gatherings, 

travel, and literacy. Slave ignorance was 

considered necessary to the security of their 

owners, therefore reading, writing and reflection 

were to be prevented at any cost, lest 

slaves begin to question their condition. In 

addition to slave proscriptions, the legislature 

passed laws restricting the rights of free people 

of color, who were excluded from bearing 

arms, serving in the militia, gaining an education, 

and assembling in groups. As a result, 

enslaved blacks often turned to religion to 

deliver them from their earthly troubles. 

Because simple survival required so much 

time and effort, worldly pursuits sometimes 

took precedence over spiritual organization. In 

many cases, residents remained steadfastly 

connected to the churches they or their families 

had known before arriving in the area, 

which provided a solid spiritual foundation 

during difficult times. By 1850, Kanawha 

County had 28 churches—12 Methodist, 11 

Baptist, three Episcopal and two Presbyterian. 

Baptist and Methodist faiths were the most 

popular, with the Baptists apparently organizing 

the first churches. The Morris family and 

other early settlers in the upper Kanawha 

Valley had originally come from Culpeper 

County, Virginia, a center of Baptist influence 

after 1765. They took the lead in organizing 

the local church by encouraging John Alderson 

and James Johnston to establish a Baptist congregation 

at Crown Hill, near present Pratt, in 

1793. Although the Baptists had firmly established 

themselves throughout central West 

Virginia by the 1830s, Charleston did not get 

an official church until after the Civil War. 

In contrast to the slow growth of the Baptist 

faith, Methodism rapidly took hold in 

Charleston. One reason for success was that its 

organization allowed a small number of people 

to create a class led by a local lay leader and 

linked by ordained clergymen who regularly 

visited to lead worship services and administer 

the sacraments. Owing in large measure to the 

efforts of these dedicated itinerant circuit 

riders, the Methodists successfully took their 

spiritual message to the people. On January 1, 

1804, Reverend William Steele preached the 

first Methodist sermon on record at a private 

home in Charleston. Later that year, Marion 

County native Asa Shinn commenced riding 

the newly formed Guyandotte Circuit, a large 

and rugged route embracing settlements 

stretching from the Ohio River to the 

Guyandotte and Kanawha Valleys. In the 

1820s, Shinn joined with voices calling for 

reform in the Methodist Episcopal Church, 

and in 1829 he withdrew to become a leader 

in forming the Methodist Protestant Church. 

In 1814, Henry B. Bascom received an 

appointment to ride the Guyandotte Circuit. 

The eighteen-year-old circuit rider traveled an 

amazing 3,000 miles, preached 400 sermons, 

and organized the first Methodist society in 

Charleston that year. Services often included 

popular camp meetings that attracted hundreds 

of worshipers. Although Daniel Ruffner 

practiced the Presbyterian faith, he reportedly 

erected a large tent to accommodate 100 

persons and allowed pasturage of horses 

for Methodist camp meetings held in a field

on his farm up Ruffner Hollow 

(present Greenbrier Street) 

along Elk Two-Mile Creek. 

In 1821 the Methodists built 

their first house of worship, a 

log structure at the corner of 

Quarrier and Hale Streets. 

In 1834, the church constructed 

Asbury Chapel, where the 

congregation met until 1872. 

During that time the church 

split over issues of slavery and 

governance, creating a Southern 

branch which left and formed 

the First Methodist Episcopal 

Church, South. In 1872, the 

church built a new and larger 

house of worship at the corner of State (now 

Lee) and Court Streets (the site of Laidley 

Tower). Kanawha Presbyterian Church later 

purchased Asbury Chapel. 

In contrast to the Baptist and Methodist 

churches, which were less centrally organized 

and had great success in spreading their 

message in sparsely settled rural areas, the 

Presbyterians and Episcopalians focused their 

efforts in towns and cities with larger populations. 

As a result, Charleston did not get a 

Presbyterian minister until November 1815, 

when young Henry Ruffner delivered his 

first sermon. Henry was born in Luray, 

Virginia, in 1790 to Ann and David Ruffner, 

who later relocated to Malden, where David 

became a successful salt maker. Henry Ruffner 

studied at Lewisburg Academy under John 

McElhenney, pastor of the Old Stone Church 

in Lewisburg, and obtained his theology degree 

at Washington College (now Washington and 

Lee University) in Lexington, Virginia. After 

gaining his Presbyterian licensure in 1815, 

Ruffner became pastor-at-large who organized 

the Presbyterian denomination in the Kanawha 

Valley. His ordination came three years later, 

and on March 14, 1819, he organized the 

Kanawha Presbyterian Church with congregations 

at Charleston and Malden. 

Charleston congregants established what 

would become First Presbyterian Church. 

They met at the Mercer Academy until 1830, 

when they completed their first building. In 

1872 the Kanawha church amiably split into 

two bodies, with members who had sided 

with the southern presbytery taking the name 

First Presbyterian Church and those who 

followed the northern assembly becoming 

Kanawha Presbyterian Church. In the ensuing 

property division, the southern church 

retained the original building lot, while the 

northern worshipers took possession of the 

manse and the lot on which it stood about 

two blocks to the west. Both congregations 

went on to construct iconic houses of worship 

on Virginia Street. Opened in 1885, Kanawha 

Presbyterian Church stands at 1009 Virginia 

Street East. First Presbyterian Church is at 

1101 Virginia Street East. Built in 1915, First 

Presbyterian has been connected with the 

creation of at least two dozen churches 

throughout the Kanawha Valley. 

Episcopalian worship in the Kanawha 

Valley traces its origins to St. Mark’s Episcopal 

Church, founded in 1814 at Coalsmouth 

(St. Albans) by Joseph Willard, a missionary 

from Marietta, Ohio. Later, St. John’s in 

the Valley became a mission of the church. 

On January 13, 1823, members of the two 

Episcopal congregations met at Mercer 

Academy and established St. John’s vestry in 

Charleston. In 1839 members consecrated 

their first building, a brick structure that 

stood on the northwest corner of Virginia 

and McFarland Streets. After its use by 

the Union Army during the Civil War, 

the building was repaired and refurbished. 

Then, in 1888, the congregation moved 

✧ 

Top: Engraving of a typical Methodist camp 

meeting in 1819. 

ENGRAVING COURTESY OF THE LIBRARY OF 

CONGRESS, PRINTS AND PHOTOGRAPHS DIVISION, 

HTTP://WWW.LOC.GOV/PICTURES/ITEM/98508274/ 

Above: Henry Ruffner (1790-1861) 

served as president of Washington College 

from 1836 to 1848, then participated in 

the emancipation movement in 

Louisville, Kentucky 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE LEYBURN LIBRARY, 

WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY. 


2 5

✧ 

Originally the Methodist Asbury Chapel 

(610 Virginia Street), this building housed 

Kanawha Presbyterian Church from 1873 

until the current church was completed 

in 1885. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE KANAWHA COUNTY 

PUBLIC LIBRARY. 


26 

into the beautiful Gothic Revival edifice that it 

still occupies on the corner of Quarrier Street 

and Leon Sullivan Way. St. John’s Church has 

a distinguished history which includes many 

prominent names in Charleston’s past. They 

include: Reverend James Craik, whose father 

was George Washington’s secretary during 

the president’s second term and whose grandfather 

was Washington’s personal physician; 

Colonel George S. Patton, a Confederate 

soldier and grandfather of World War II 

general George S. Patton; Dr. Spicer Patrick, 

a noted Charleston businessman; and Judge 

George W. Summers, a prominent politician 

and statesman. 

In addition to embracing religious diversity, 

Charlestonians have always valued the 

importance of a free press. Interest in political 

issues and current events led to a rapid expansion 

of newspapers during the late colonial 

and early national period. Shepherdstown 

established the first broadsheet in present-day 

West Virginia in 1790, followed by ones in 

Morgantown, Clarksburg, and Wheeling. 

Charleston’s first newspaper debuted on 

October 21, 1820, when Herbert P. Gaines 

published the Kenhawa [sic] Spectator. After 

Gaines became principal of Mercer Academy, 

Mason Campbell took charge in 1822 and continued 

publishing the Western Virginian and the 

Western Virginian and Kanawha County Gazette. 

Brothers James M. and Alexander T. 

Laidley bought the paper and 

published it as the Western Register 

until 1829, then as the Kanawha 

Register. Lewisburg published the 

only other newspaper in southern 

West Virginia before 1830. In that 

year, Mason Campbell and Ezra 

Walker bought the printing plant 

from the Laidleys and founded 

the Kanawha Banner, which they 

published for five years. A proliferation 

of regional newspapers after 

1830 echoed growing political 

sectionalism in Virginia and the 

United States. By 1860, at least 

thirty-nine West Virginia towns 

had at least one newspaper and ten 

of them were in southern counties. 

As sectional tensions escalated, 

Charleston newspapers became more politically 

active. Whig publications included the 

Kanawha Patriot and the Kanawha Republican, 

founded by Enos W. Newton in 1841. 

Newton ran the Republican until his death in 

1865 (it operated until 1871), and set a high 

standard which made it the finest antebellum 

newspaper in Charleston. Several publications, 

including the Kanawha Jeffersonian and 

the Western Virginian, offered political opposition 

to the Kanawha Republican but they 

never gained a high readership. Another, the 

Kanawha Valley Star, met with some success 

after its founding in Buffalo in 1855 and 

move to Charleston in 1857 as the Star of the 

Kanawha Valley. The Star espoused a staunchly 

Democratic, pro-Southern and states’ 

rights viewpoint that made it popular with 

conservative readers. Its fiery publisher, John 

Rundle, joined the Confederate service and 

Union troops confiscated his press during the 

Civil War. Meanwhile, Kanawha County’s 

first official Republican newspaper was the 

West Virginia Journal, published from 1864 

until after the Civil War. 

Charleston gained a reputation for being 

an attractive village prior to the Civil War. 

In 1845 author and historian Henry Howe 

teamed with engraver John Warner Barber 

to publish Historical Collections of Virginia. 

In it, Howe describes the picturesque town:

Charleston, the seat of justice for the 

county, is 308 miles W. of Richmond, and 

46 miles E. of the Ohio River. It is a neat 

and flourishing village on the north bank 

of the Kanawha…. There are in the place, 

11 dry-goods and 6 grocery stores, 2 saw 

and grist mills, a newspaper printing-office, 

a branch of the Bank of Virginia, and a 

population of about 1,500. The district court 

of the United States is held at this place twice 

a year. Within the present century Charleston 

has arisen from the wilderness. Where, within 

the memory of man, a few scattered log-huts 

once arrested the traveller’s [sic] eye, he now 

sees commodious and, in some instances, 

elegant buildings, the abodes of comfort and 

refinement. The Kanawha is here a beautiful 

sheet of water, more than 300 yards wide, 

and is navigated by steamboats. The state 

turnpike, the principal thoroughfare from 

Richmond to Guyandotte on the Ohio, passes 

through the town. Fine sandstone and bituminous 

coal abound in the vicinity. It is nearly 

20 miles below the falls before the Kanawha 

valley widens into something like a plain, and 

opens its beautiful vista to the eye. The mountains 

which enclose it on either side become 

gradually depressed into hills; and, for the first 

time, the dense, dark volumes of smoke which 

ascend from the salt-furnaces, announce the 

busy and bustling scene which enlivens the 

highway to the village of Charleston. What a 

scene of animation, indeed, contrasted with 

the deep solitudes from which the traveller 

[sic] has but just emerged. Here he is feasted 

with a continued succession of green meadows 

and cultivated fields, teeming with flocks and 

herds, and adorned by commodious and even 

elegant mansions. 

proposed a new state called “Appalachia” to 

be carved from the western counties. 

In 1851 state lawmakers adopted a new 

constitution that introduced major reforms, 

including universal white male suffrage 

without property qualifications. However, 

the “slavery defense” remained a significant 

obstacle to statewide unity in the decade 

before the Civil War. The general absence 

of slaves in northwestern counties caused 

residents there to align more closely with 

surrounding northern states. Believing that 

slavery was a deterrent to economic growth, 

many trans-Allegheny leaders supported a 

free labor economy. Westerners did not generally 

espouse radical abolitionist views, but 

many did favor gradual emancipation and 

supported the view that natural resources and 

✧ 

St. John’s Episcopal Church at 

1105 Quarrier Street was consecrated in 

1888, and the parish house was completed 

in 1928. Both are listed on the National 

Register of Historic Places. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF WIKIPEDIA COMMONS. 

Howe’s pleasant description of Charleston 

does not betray a hint of ongoing sectional 

strife in Virginia. However, western residents 

had long been clamoring for change from 

Richmond on a number of issues, including 

internal improvements, state-sponsored free 

schools, banks to provide much-needed capital, 

universal white male suffrage without 

property qualifications, and more equal representation 

in the legislature. Enos W. Newton, 

editor of the Kanawha Republican, actually 


2 7

✧ 

Top, left: Henry Ruffner’s 1847 

Address to the People of West Virginia 

by a Slaveholder of West Virginia was 

roundly criticized in Southern circles and 

hailed by Northern abolitionists. 


free workers would attract capital, industry, 

and settlers, whereas continued dependence 

on slavery actually hampered economic 

development. In 1847, Reverend Henry Ruffner 

spoke out in favor of gradual emancipation 

at an address before the Franklin Society of 

Lexington, in which he blamed slavery for 

the economic problems plaguing Western 

Virginia. Ruffner also printed his remarks in a 

controversial anti-slavery treatise, An Address 

to the People of West Virginia by a Slaveholder 

of West Virginia (1847), commonly called the 

‘‘Ruffner Pamphlet.’’ His address made a 

reasoned and insightful argument for gradual 

emancipation for economic and social 

reasons, a bold pronouncement from a 

prominent member of an important Virginia 

slave-owning family. 

Amidst growing sectional strife in Virginia 

and nationwide, Charleston grappled with 

its own internal issues related to self-governance. 

Despite its growing status as a minimetropolis 

for the Kanawha Valley, the town 

suffered from a weak and unresponsive government 

legally bound to yield power to the 

county. An editorial in the February 3, 1857, 

issue of the Kanawha Valley Star revealed the 

perceived problem: 

We have a town, but it looks rather 

shabby…. We have a charter, but it has 

been forgotten—bylaws, but they have been 

lost…. The town seems actually to have 

become a waif, and has been taken up by 

the county court, and put under the county 

justices as derelict property. 

Top, right: This is an 1845 view of 

Kanawha Street at the intersection of 

Cox’s Lane (Capitol Street). Large buildings 

at right are the 1832 Bank of Virginia 

(at corner) and Kanawha Hotel. The Union 

Building now stands on the site of the 

Horse Boat Ferry. 

COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR’S COLLECTION, (FROM 

HOWE, HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF VIRGINIA, 1845). 


28

✧ 

Of the many fine antebellum homes that 

once graced Charleston’s riverfront, 

four survive. 

Opposite, bottom: Cedar Grove at 

1506 Kanawha Boulevard, built in 1834 

by Augustus Ruffner. 


Top: Holly Grove at 1710 Kanawha 

Boulevard, built in 1815 by Daniel Ruffner 

and extensively remodeled in 1902. 


Middle: The Henry H. Wood House at 

6560 Roosevelt Avenue Southeast, built in 

1831 by Henry Hewitt Wood. 


Bottom: The McFarland-Hubbard House 

at 1310 Kanawha Boulevard, built in 1836 

by Norris Whitteker for Isaac Noyes. 


All are listed on the National Register of 

Historic Places. 


2 9

✧ 

This 1850 map contains the earliest detailed 

information about Charleston’s buildings 

and landmarks. It was part of a extensive 

survey to determine the future route of the 

C & O Railway. 

MAP COURTESY OF THE CHESAPEAKE AND 

OHIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 


30 

Although the newspaper called for a 

committee to address important issues, the 

immediate outcome is unknown. However, a 

municipal election on March 1, 1858, brought 

seven new council members into office, to 

which the Kanawha Star remonstrated that 

“there is much to be done, and now is a 

good time to begin.” By 1860, Charleston was 

ambiguously described as possessing the characteristics 

of both an “old southern town and 

a new western town.” Indeed, significant political 

changes loomed on the horizon, beginning 

with a Virginia law that gave Charleston 

officials broader powers and extended town 

borders. This new governmental structure 

meant that Charleston would no longer be 

subject to decisions made by the county court. 

The act of the Virginia General Assembly, 

which took effect on March 21, 1861, created 

the office of mayor as the town’s chief executive, 

established a justice of the peace and chief 

of police. Legislation specified that the mayor, 

a recorder, and five members of the town 

council would serve as elected officials; it also 

created the offices of town sergeant, treasurer, 

commissioner of revenue, and overseer of the 

poor. Other important provisions gave town 

council the power to provide places of burial 

for the dead, issue licenses to owners of 

wagons, drays, carts, hacks and other wheeled 

carriages for public hire, and censorship power 

over performances, shows, or exhibitions 

“injurious to the morals or good order of the 

town.” In addition, the law provided for a major 

expansion of the corporate limit eastward to 

a point “opposite the line between Wilson’s 

graveyard and James B. Noyes,” present-day 

Bradford Street. On the eve of the Civil War 

officials had laid a solid foundation on which 

Charleston would be transformed into a small, 

but dynamic, town with responsible government. 

But, any positive action would be 

delayed, as a rapidly unfolding national political 

crisis soon overshadowed local events.


CIVIL WAR AND ITS AFTERMATH: 

1860-1870 

Spurred on by westward expansion and the prospect of perpetuating the “peculiar institution” 

of slavery in the territories, sectionalism threatened to split the nation asunder. As the political 

rhetoric heated up, residents of Kanawha County and Charleston expressed divided loyalties. 

John Rundle, publisher of the pro-Southern Kanawha Valley Star, printed editorials in support of 

secession after John Brown’s failed raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry in October 1859. 

Although not a slaveholder himself, Rundle continued to call for Southern separation until it 

actually occurred. Meanwhile, other area residents reacted swiftly and vocally in support of 

“state’s rights.” 

On December 19, 1859, a rally took place in Charleston to address “encroachments upon 

the violations of the Constitutional Rights of Slaveholding States” by the North. As the Kanawha 

Valley Star reported, “the oldest, most eminent, and conservative men of the County” were in 

attendance. Some delivered speeches in support of Southern rights, and the group elected 

moderate slave-owning unionist George W. Summers as chair of the proceedings. A nine-member 

committee drafted resolutions for the group to express “the willingness of Kanawha to perform 

her part in effecting any measures that Virginia and her sister Southern States may deem proper 

and expedient to adopt for the purpose of protecting and defending the Rights, Persons, Property 

and Honor of Slave-holding States.” Committee members included Benjamin H. Smith, Spicer 

Patrick, James Madison Laidley, James H. Fry, Nicholas Fitzhugh, John D. Lewis, John S. Swann, 

Thomas L. Broun and Jacob Goshorn—seven of them owned slaves (only Broun and Goshorn did 

not). The committee pledged that Kanawha County would “sanction and approve all retaliatory 

measures against the non-slaveholding States which the wisdom of the General Assembly may 

see fit to enact.” Although the defense of state’s rights has been used to explain the secession 

movement, this resolution clearly indicates that the argument hinged on the dubious protection 

of one’s right to own another human being. 

✧ 

View of Charleston from an 1854 Edward 

Beyer painting. At center is the city levee 

(Haddad Riverfront Park). At extreme left 

is the mouth of Elk River, and farm fields 

cover outlying areas. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE WEST VIRGINIA 

STATE ARCHIVES. 


3 1

✧ 

Kanawha County had 2,184 slaves in 1860 

(13.7 percent of total population), second 

only in number and percentage to Jefferson 

for the counties that became 

West Virginia in 1863. 

MAP COURTESY OF THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 

GEOGRAPHY AND MAP DIVISION, 

HTTP://WWW.LOC.GOV/ITEM/OCM25033787 

Much has been made of the strong 

southern sentiment that existed on the eve of 

the Civil War, but how strong was it locally? 

Virginia had the nation’s highest population 

of enslaved African Americans in 1860, 

nearly 500,000. By comparison, Charleston’s 

population numbered 1,630—1,208 whites, 

34 free blacks, and 388 slaves (Kanawha 

County counted 2,184 slaves). Of 230 white 

households in Charleston, 72 of them held 

slaves. Although slave holders represented 

about one-third of all white households, 

they controlled 52 percent of real property 

and 68 percent of personal property in 1860. 

The nascent secession movement took a 

dramatic turn with the 1860 presidential 

“election for disunion.” By a narrow margin, 

Virginia cast its lot with John Bell of the 

Constitutional Union Party. Not surprisingly, 

voters in Kanawha County, traditionally a 

Whig stronghold, supported Bell with 68 

percent of the vote. A former Whig, Bell ran 

on a platform that advocated compromise 

to save the Union. However, in an election 

where sectional interests prevailed, Abraham 

Lincoln gained the required electoral votes to 

become president without winning a single 

Southern state. His victory set the dominoes 

tumbling, and seven Southern states seceded 

by February 1861. Virginia would remain in 

the Union, at least temporarily. 

Following the 1860 election, Charleston 

found itself at the center of the growing 

sectional crisis as residents divided along 

unionist and secessionist lines. Both sides 

held rallies for citizens to express their 

sentiments. One meeting in January 1861 

resulted in a resolution favoring perpetuation 

of the Union, while another in February 

discussed the option of secession. 


32

County voters traditionally supported the 

Whig Party and its successors, which promoted 

a platform of encouraging internal improvements 

and high protective tariffs. Although most 

residents responded to the growing political 

crisis with restraint and moderation, tensions 

ran predictably high when George W. Summers 

and Spicer Patrick, political moderates who 

owned large slave plantations west of Elk 

River, traveled to Richmond to represent 

Kanawha County at the Virginia Constitutional 

Convention (Secession Convention) in February 

1861. Patrick spoke infrequently at the 

proceedings, while the unabashedly vocal 

Summers openly clashed with proponents of 

secession with his vigorous and elegant defense 

of the Union. Delegates refused to support 

secession for several weeks, but the situation 

drastically changed after the fall of Fort Sumter 

and President Lincoln’s call for 75,000 federal 

volunteers to quell the rebellion. Blaming 

Lincoln for starting the war, extremist delegates 

took control of the Richmond convention 

and on April 17 the body voted in favor of 

a statewide secession ordinance. However, 

Western Virginia delegates voted against 

secession by a nearly two to one margin, and 

Summers and Patrick were among those who 

voted against it. Nevertheless, a statewide 

referendum on May 23 confirmed the outcome—Virginia 

would join the Confederacy. 

In the May secession referendum, most 

Kanawhans supported preserving the Union. 

Despite the disproportionately large number 

of slaves and their importance to the local 

economy, 1,695 voters in the county opposed 

secession and 531 supported it. Casting their 

ballots at the courthouse, Charleston residents 

echoed the county trend toward moderation by 

solidly rejecting secession on a 430 to 132 vote. 

✧ 

Top, left: Glenwood Estate on Glenwood 

Orchard Street was built in 1852 by James 

Madison Laidley, and obtained by George 

and Amacetta Summers in 1857. It is on 

the National Register of Historic Places. 



Top, right: George W. Summers and 

Spicer Patrick (bottom) were unionists 

who lived on large slave plantations in 

the West Side hills; each lost a son in 

Confederate service during the Civil War. 

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF THE HISTORIC 


Left: Kanawha County overwhelmingly 

rejected secession in the May 24, 1861, vote 

for ratification of the Virginia Ordinance 

of Secession. 




3 3

✧ 

Top: Elm Grove or Craik-Patton House was 

built in 1834 by James Craik and obtained 

by George and Susan Patton in 1858. 

It has been moved twice, and now stands 

in Daniel Boone Park. 


Above: George Smith Patton was born 

in Fredericksburg, Virginia, in 1833. 

After graduating from VMI, he studied law 

and moved to Charleston in 1856. 

Patton was killed in 1864. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE VIRGINIA MILITARY 

INSTITUTE ARCHIVES. 


34 

As tensions escalated throughout the 

spring of 1861, both sides began to 

recruit troops for the impending fight. 

One local Confederate militia unit, the 

Kanawha Riflemen, had originally been 

organized by Captain George S. Patton 

as the Kanawha Minutemen in 1856. 

Patton, the grandfather of General 

George S. Patton of World War II fame, 

was a Richmond native and an 1852 

graduate of Virginia Military Institute. 

He moved to Charleston with his 

wife, Susan, in 1856, and entered into 

law practice with Thomas Broun. The 

Pattons purchased a lovely 1834 

Federal-style residence near downtown 

known as Elm Grove. George became a 

popular citizen nicknamed “Frenchy” 

for the small moustache which he sported. 

Following Virginia’s secession, Captain Patton 

led the Kanawha Riflemen into active service 

as Company H of the 22nd Virginia Infantry 

Regiment, Confederates States of America. 

At the onset of hostilities, neither side 

would permit the other to raise a flag over 

Charleston, but Southern sympathizers 

organized quicker and more effectively than 

their opposition. They sometimes harassed 

and arrested Unionists, forcing them to swear 

allegiance to Virginia. Meanwhile, Union 

supporters appealed to federal authorities for 

relief. Neutrality would be difficult to maintain, 

given Charleston’s location within a border 

state only fifty miles from northern soil. 

A neutralist faction did exist, however, led by 

Judge George W. Summers who had 

retired to his 366-acre Glenwood 

Estate in the West Side hills at the 

outbreak of war. 

As the federal government prepared 

to send volunteers from Ohio 

to protect Kanawha citizenry from 

the Rebels, loyal Virginians made 

plans to repel the Yankee aggressors 

and save the region for the 

Confederacy. Virginia Governor 

John Letcher called for loyal volunteers 

to protect the home state 

against the “insolent invaders” from 

the North. On May 3, 1861, Robert 

E. Lee placed Colonel Christopher 

Q. Tompkins in charge of military operations 

in the Kanawha Valley. Tompkins, a West 

Point graduate and instructor at the Virginia 

Military Institute, lived on an estate in the 

upper end of the valley above Gauley Bridge. 

Aiding him in the effort to muster local 

forces was Lt. John McCausland, a resident of 

Mason County. By late May, a sizable force 

consisting of seven infantry companies, three 

cavalry companies, and an artillery unit had 

assembled near St. Albans. Among the troops 

were the Kanawha Riflemen under the command 

of Captain George S. Patton, and the 

Kanawha Sharpshooters organized under 

Captain John S. Swann. 

George Summers had previously warned 

federal authorities that an influx of U.S. 

troops would be viewed as an invasion of a 

sovereign state and that residents of the 

Kanawha Valley would unite in repelling it. 

However, Colonel Tompkins voiced doubts 

about the commitment of area residents, stating 

that “except for a few loyal companies 

now mustered into service of the State, there 

are a few people who sympathize with the 

secession policy.” In a message to Virginia 

Governor Letcher, he expressed concern over 

“the disaffection of this population and the 

difficulty of obtaining reliable troops for the 

emergency.” His fears proved well founded, as 

Rebel leaders struggled to recruit a sizable 

force to meet the much-anticipated Yankee 

assault. As Tompkins attempted to rally local 

troops, former Virginia Governor Henry A. Wise 

gained a commission as brigadier general

in the provisional Confederate Army and 

received orders to go to Western Virginia and 

recruit a brigade for defense of the home 

state. An irascible, tactless, and untested 

military leader, Wise arrived in Charleston on 

June 26, 1861, escorted by the Richmond 

Light Infantry Blues, a well-known and highly 

regarded Virginia unit. He also recruited a 

brigade of his own troops, dubbed Wise’s 

Legion, between Richmond and the Kanawha 

Valley. Wise initially established barracks at 

the courthouse in Charleston, but moved a 

few days later to Camp Lee, also called Camp 

Two-Mile, in the fields of Adam Littlepage’s 

plantation on the west side of Elk River along 

Kanawha Two Mile Creek. 

General Wise came to the area with broad 

authority from Governor Letcher to recruit 

soldiers, confiscate military stores, seize 

weapons, and imprison disloyal citizens— 

powers that alienated him to many Charleston 

residents who either did not openly support 

secession or desired to remain neutral. In 

a dispatch to General Lee, Wise wrote with 

disdain about the local situation: 

We are treading on snakes while aiming 

at the enemy. The grass of the soil we are 

defending is full of copperhead traitors. 

They invite the enemy, feed him, and he arms 

and drills them.... A spy is on every hill top, 

at every cabin, and from Charleston to Point 

Pleasant they swarm. 

By early July 1861, Wise’s force numbered 

2,705 troops, many of whom were raw, 

untested and ill-equipped recruits who 

shouldered every type of firearm from flintlocks 

to squirrel guns. Nevertheless, patriotic 

Virginians prepared to defend Charleston and 

the Kanawha Valley. 

✧ 

Above: This c. 1850 single-span stone arch 

bridge carried the Point Pleasant Road over 

Kanawha Two Mile Creek at the Littlepage 

Farm. It still stands near the entrance to 

Orchard Manor housing development, 

but was bypassed long ago. 



Left: The Littlepage Mansion, 

1809 Washington Street West, was built 

in 1845 and purchased by Adam Littlepage 

three years later. Rebecca Littlepage 

famously denied General Henry Wise’s use 

of the house in 1861, and he threatened to 

blow it down. Littlepage Mansion is on the 

National Register of Historic Places. 



3 5

✧ 

Former Virginia governors whose longstanding 

political rivalry contributed to a 

southern defeat in the Kanawha Valley: 

Left: Brigadier General John B. Floyd, CSA 

(1806-1863). 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 

PRINTS AND PHOTOGRAPHS DIVISION, 

HTTP://WWW.LOC.GOV/PICTURES/RESOURCE/CWPBH.01731/ 

Right: Brigadier General Henry A. Wise, 

CSA (1806-1876). 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF WIKIPEDIA COMMONS, 

HTTP://EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG/WIKI/FILE: 

HENRY_A_WISE_CDV.JPG 


36 

Meanwhile, the ever-cautious Union commander, 

Major General George B. McClellan, 

desired more information on enemy strength 

and movements before he would commit to 

an invasion. After recruiting Allan Pinkerton, 

head of the famed Pinkerton Detective 

Agency, to gather intelligence, a federal invasion 

force made its way to the Kanawha 

Valley in early July 1861, Three Ohio regiments 

and two from Kentucky launched the 

Union advance up the Kanawha River. Led 

by Brigadier General Jacob D. Cox, the force 

occupied Point Pleasant on July 10 and 

proceeded up the Kanawha aboard four 

steamers. Preliminary skirmishes took place 

at Barboursville and at the mouth of 

Pocatalico River. Then, on July 17, 1861, 

green troops on both sides experienced their 

baptism of fire when General Cox dispatched 

about 1,300 federals under the command of 

Colonel John W. Lowe of the 12th Ohio 

Infantry to engage approximately 900 

Confederates at Scary Creek, about fifteen 

miles below Charleston. A five-hour battle 

ensued, including several unsuccessful federal 

charges across the Scary Creek Bridge. 

George Patton led the local Virginia forces. 

During one Union advance the Confederates 

panicked and gave ground, but Patton rallied 

his Virginians before he fell 

wounded. Captain Albert Gallatin 

Jenkins assumed command and 

rallied his troops to claim one 

of the first Confederate victories 

of the war. Henry Wise 

declared the action a “glorious 

repulse of the enemy, if not a 

decided victory,” while George 

McClellan only admitted that 

Cox’s army had “fought something 

between a victory and 

a defeat.” 

Despite their victory at Scary 

Creek, Confederates were in 

danger of being cut off by 

superior Union forces and Wise 

ordered a “retrograde movement” 

out of the Kanawha 

Valley. His forces pulled out of 

Charleston on July 24, and 

reached Gauley Bridge two days 

later. On July 31, the retreating Virginians 

halted a few miles west of Lewisburg. 

Meanwhile, Cox’s army entered Charleston 

on July 25, at which point the town’s first 

mayor, Jacob Goshorn, surrendered the town 

and quickly departed for Confederate territory. 

As reported in the Wheeling Intelligencer, 

Charleston residents heartily welcomed 

Union troops “with colors flying, and all 

stepping to martial music. Great cheering and 

excitement was manifested by the citizens 

while the column was passing.” Residents 

loyal to the Confederate cause feared the 

worst from their northern occupiers. In 

reality, Cox demanded a high level of discipline 

from his troops, and they apparently 

met his expectations. Still, loyal Virginians 

bristled at the thought of their lovely little 

town being occupied by a Yankee force. 

The immediate fate of Charleston and the 

Kanawha Valley was decided over the next 

few weeks, as Confederate General John B. 

Floyd proceeded west from Lewisburg with 

plans to occupy the heights above Gauley 

River and cut communications between Cox’s 

force in the Kanawha Valley and a second 

army under General William S. Rosecrans to 

the north. While Federal forces moved 

through the mountains, a personal drama

S O L D I E R S P U T T O D E A T H 

Many cruel and tragic incidents played out over the course of the Civil War. At least two occurred in Charleston during the 

early fighting. One took place in September 1861, when men of the First Kentucky Infantry Regiment went to a Charleston store 

and demanded beer from a storekeeper. When he refused to sell, some of the soldiers assaulted him. The man’s son, in an attempt 

to defend his father, made a grievous error by shooting a soldier in the leg. In a case of swift military justice, the son was tried 

and hanged. An officer noted that his men turned away in disgust, but the deed was done. A second incident happened on 

December 29, 1861, when Private Richard Gatewood of Company C, First Kentucky Regiment, U.S.A., was executed by a firing 

squad on the West Side. General Jacob Cox ordered his execution following a court martial in which Gatewood was found guilty 

of “desertion, mutiny, and a murderous assault upon another soldier.” A native of Louisville, Gatewood allegedly had wealth and 

respectable connections there. In his Military Reminiscences of the Civil War, General Jacob Cox described his somber duty: 

It is the military custom, in executions by shooting, to select the firing party from the regiment to which the condemned man belongs. To have 

changed the rule would have looked like timidity, and I determined that it must not be done, but resolved upon an order of procedure which 

would provide, as far as possible, against the chances of interference. On such occasions the troops are usually paraded upon three sides of a 

hollow square, without arms, the place of execution being in the middle of the open side, where the prisoner kneels upon his coffin. The place 

chosen was in the meadows on the lower side of the Elk River, opposite Charleston, a short distance from the regimental camp…. When the 

parade was formed, I took my place with my staff at the right of the line, and, as upon a review, rode slowly down the whole line, on the inside 

of the square. In going along the front of the First Kentucky, I took especial pains to meet the eyes of the men as they were turned to me in passing, 

desirous of impressing them with my own feeling that it was a solemn but inevitable duty. Immediately after we returned to our places, the music 

of the dead-march was heard, and an ambulance was seen approaching from the camp, escorted by the provost-marshal and the execution party 

with the music. The solemn strains, the slow funereal step of the soldiers, the closed ambulance, the statue-like stillness of the paraded troops 

made an impression deeper and more awful than a battle scene, because the excitement was hushed and repressed. The ambulance stopped, 

the man was helped out at the back, and led by the provost-marshal to his place upon the coffin, where he was blindfolded. The firing party 

silently took its place. The muskets were cocked and aimed, while the noise of the retiring ambulance covered the sound. The provost-marshal, 

with a merciful deception, told the prisoner he must wait a moment and he would return to him before the final order, but stepping quickly 

out of the range of the muskets, he gave the signal with his handkerchief, and the man fell dead at the volley, which sounded like a single 

discharge.... I confess it was a relief to have the painful task ended, and especially to have it ended in the most perfect order and discipline. 

General Jacob Dolson Cox 

Military Reminiscences of the Civil War 

was played out between Confederate General 

Wise, who resented being subordinate to 

Floyd, and General Floyd, who blamed Wise 

for losing the Kanawha Valley. The ongoing 

personal feud between these two ex-governors 

hindered Confederate efforts in the area. 

However, the Confederates did attempt to 

regain the Kanawha Valley. First, Floyd’s 

army crossed the Gauley River and defeated a 

small Union force at Kessler’s Cross Lanes in 

Nicholas County in late August; then, 

on September 10, Federals under General 

Rosecrans attacked Floyd’s defenses at 

Carnifex Ferry. Despite suffering more 

casualties than their foe, Union troops forced 

a Confederate retreat and Charleston and the 

Kanawha Valley remained firmly in Northern 

hands by the end of 1861. 

✧ 

Private Richard Gatewood of the First Kentucky Regiment, U.S.A., was put to death by firing squad in a 

meadow on the West Side of Elk River shortly before Christmas in 1861. 

ILLUSTRATION COURTESY OF HARPER’S WEEKLY, DECEMBER 28, 1861. 


3 7

In addition to feeling the ugly reality of 

war, Charleston was hit with record flooding 

on September 29, 1861, when the Kanawha 

River crested at a depth of 46.9 feet, or 16.9 

feet above flood stage. General Cox reported 

that water stood “four or five feet deep in 

the first story of dwelling houses built in 

what was considered a neighborhood safe 

from floods.” High water inundated salt 

furnaces up and down Kanawha River, 

putting many operations permanently out of 

business and severely damaging others. 

Flooding negatively impacted the already 

weakened industry, which went into steady 

decline after the war. 

Meanwhile, an uneasy peace settled over 

the Kanawha Valley by early 1862. Residents 

enjoyed relative quiet through the first half of 

the year, and the Union occupiers kept strict 

discipline. By late summer, the Confederacy 

had renewed optimism that they might recover 

the Kanawha Valley. Their high expectations 

resulted from Thomas “Stonewall” 

Jackson’s successful Shenandoah Valley campaign 

and Union General Cox’s failed spring 

offensives against the Virginia and Tennessee 

Railroad. Activity picked up in late summer 

of 1862, when General Robert E. Lee threatened 

to invade Maryland in the now-famous 

Antietam Campaign. Cox was ordered to take 

half his troops out of the Kanawha Valley to 

defend the nation’s capital against Lee’s 

advances, which left an undersized Federal 

force of around 5,000 troops commanded by 

Colonel Joseph A. J. Lightburn. Confederate 

leaders seized the opportunity to retake 

the area and possibly recover the precious 

salt source needed for meat preservation. 

Brigadier General William W. Loring seized 

the momentum when he dispatched 

Brigadier General Albert G. Jenkins on a 

daring raid in August 1862 to the Tygart 

Valley, across north central West Virginia 

to the Ohio River, then across the Kanawha 

into southern West Virginia. The Jenkins 

raid proved that Union defenses in the 

Kanawha Valley were inadequate. When 

Jenkins reached Ravenswood, Lightburn 

moved his headquarters from Gauley Bridge 

to Charleston to avoid being cut off from 

a possible line of retreat to the Ohio. 

Meanwhile, on September 6, 1862, Loring led 

10,000 Confederates north from Pearisburg, 

Virginia, in hopes of confronting the weakened 

Federals and conquering the Kanawha 

Valley. The advancing army encountered the 

Union force near Fayetteville on September 

10 and drove them back toward Charleston. 

Action continued on September 11, as withdrawing 

Federals met the enemy along the 

James River and Kanawha Turnpike at Camp 

Piatt (present-day Belle). These moves set the 

stage for a fight on the streets of Charleston 

when Loring’s advance units arrived on the 

south side of Kanawha River just east of 

Charleston, near the present University of 

Charleston campus. 

Early in the morning on Saturday, 

September 13, 1862, townspeople in 

Charleston were aroused by the sound of 

Confederate artillery as it opened up on 

Union forces. Later, the guns were moved to 

the top of Fort Hill where they began 

a heavier bombardment. Federal forces 

countered with a weak bombardment from a 

six-pound gun stationed near a barn on the 

Ruffner estate east of town along the north 

side of Kanawha River. Lightburn deployed a 

force to Cox’s Hill (Spring Hill), and firing 

commenced from there as well. In the 

morning, a spirited ground engagement took 

place about a mile east of Charleston near 

the present State Capitol Complex. About 

11:30 a.m. Union troops withdrew to the 

center of town. Lightburn had notified 

civilians to evacuate the town, and personally 

warned the Ruffner family to leave their 

homes on the East End. Confederate forces 

reached downtown around 3:00 p.m. and 

captured the Union garrison flag. 

In anticipation of his withdrawal, 

Lightburn ordered a number of downtown 

buildings torched rather than have them 

fall into Rebel hands. Specifically, his men 

burned Asbury Chapel, which had served 

as a quartermaster’s store, the Kanawha 

House, Bank of Virginia, Mercer Academy, 

two stores, several warehouses and cavalry 

barns. Meanwhile, Federals retreated across 

the Elk River suspension bridge and cut the 

cables to slow the pursuing Confederates. 

Dueling artillery batteries kept up a fierce 


38

ombardment until 5:00 p.m., and 

infantry skirmishes continued until 

dark. The torched buildings lit 

up the night sky as darkness ended 

the Battle of Charleston and Southern 

forces occupied the town. 

In the ten-day Kanawha Valley 

Campaign that ended when “Lightburn’s 

Retreat” reached Point Pleasant, 

Confederate losses numbered 18 killed 

and 89 wounded while Union forces 

reported 25 killed, 95 wounded, and 

190 missing. Despite suffering a military 

defeat against superior odds, Lightburn 

is credited with maintaining a continual 

skirmish line for fifty miles while keeping 

his 700-wagon supply train worth 

an estimated one million dollars from 

falling into enemy hands. His actions 

are considered to be among the most 

significant Civil War events in the 


As Lightburn’s force retreated 

toward Ravenswood, Union supporters 

joined them in fleeing the advancing 

Southern army. Victoria Hansford described 

the scene from her home in Coalsmouth 

(St. Albans): 

Such a sight, the river as far as the eye 

could see was covered with boats of all kinds. 

There were flat boats, jerry boats, jolly boats, 

skiffs and canoes. In the boats were all kinds 

of people and all kinds of things…. A person 

could almost cross the river by jumping from 

one boat to another. They were not soldiers 

but citizens who favored the North and 

thought it was wise to retreat from Charleston 

with the Union army. 

An unknown number of liberated slaves 

also attached themselves to the Union army 

as it retreated to the Ohio. The auspicious 

event was noted by Nan Stewart, a former 

slave who was owned at the time by Holly 

Hunt, proprietor of a large agricultural 

plantation located between the estates of 

George Summers and Spicer Patrick. In 1937, 

the eighty-seven-year-old Ohio resident 

recounted the events in an interview from 

her Meigs County home: 

I was born Charleston, West Virginia, in 

February 1850. My mammy’s name…was 

Catherine Payne, and she was born down 

Jackson County, Virginia. My pappy was 

John James, a cooper and he was born at 

Rock Creek, Virginia. He came over here 

[to Ohio] with Lightburn’s Retreat. They all 

crossed the river at Buffington’s Island 

[on the Ohio River above Ravenswood]…. 

I remember very well the days the Yankees 

come. The slaves all come a runnin’ and 

yellin’: ‘Yankees is comin’, Yankee soldiers is 

comin’, hurrah.’ About two or three o’clock 

we heard bugles blowing and guns on 

Taylor Ridge. Kids was playin’ and all excited. 

Someone said, ‘Katherine somethin’ awful 

gonna happen;’ and someone else says: 

‘They is the Yankees.’ The Yankee mens [sic] 

camp on our farm and buyed our butter, 

milk and eggs. Master Hunt, what you all call 

abolitionist and he was scared of southern 

soldiers and went out to the woods and laid 

behind a log for seven weeks and seven days, 

then he decided to go back home…. We took 

food and papers to Master Hunt while he 

was a’hidin’. 

✧ 

Colonel Joseph A. J. Lightburn (1824-1901) 

was a Lewis County resident who 

commanded Union forces in the Kanawha 

Valley in 1862. He later became a 

Baptist preacher. 




3 9

✧ 

Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes commanded 

the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment 


PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE RUTHERFORD B. HAYES 

PRESIDENTIAL CENTER, HTTP://WWW.RBHAYES.ORG/HAYES/ 

After the battle, General Loring opted not 

to pursue the retreating Northern army, stating 

that his forces had come to the Kanawha 

Valley as liberators not invaders. While in 

Charleston, Southern troops set up a military 

government, took over the printing press of 

the Kanawha Star and published a pro- 

Southern newspaper called The Guerilla [sic] 

“Devoted to Southern Rights and Institutions.” 

They also removed salt supplies and destroyed 

the salt works at Kanawha Salines. 

While many distressed unionists left town 

in fear of reprisals, the occupation was a 

happy homecoming for local troops with the 

22nd and 36th Virginia Infantry regiments 

who had not seen their families for more than 

a year. St. Albans resident Victoria Hansford 

wrote about her brother’s joyous return: 

Oh, how thankful we were to see him; it 

was the only time he got home during the war. 

We gave up to the enjoyment of the present, 

entertaining our soldier boys in our homes. 

We also made them clothes so they might be 

warm in the winter as we all knew they could 

not stay in the valley. There was not enough to 

feed them and there was danger the Yankees 

would return and cut them off from the rest of 

the army. 

Sadly, the case of Private Sampson Deatherage 

did not end so happily. He was born in 1839 and 

lived with his family in Patrick County, Virginia, 

prior to enlisting in Co. K of the 50th Virginia 

Infantry Regiment, CSA, on April 1, 1862. 

Dear Friends! 

It becomes my painful duty to announce the 

death of Sampson Deatherage, who died on the 

13th inst. from a wound received at the battle 

of Charleston. I was with him from the time he 

was brought from the field and did all I could 

for his comfort and recovery. He however did 

not survive long. The wound was a mortal one 

entering his side under the arm and penetrating 

down through the stomach. After death I had 

him well shrouded and put in a coffin and burial 

services at the grave which is near the town 

of Charleston. The comfort which I would 

administer in his sad dispensation of an all wise 

providence is that you are prepared for a summons 

which sooner or later must come to us 

all. Go to Jesus. And give yourselves to his service. 

I got from the pocket of Mr. Deatherage 

$38.00 which you can obtain when asked for 

it. It will be delivered in your hands. 


40 

Affectionately, G. H. Denny 

Chaplain 50th Regt.

In recent years, Deatherage’s descendants 

traveled to Charleston in search of his final 

resting place without success. He may be 

among unknown Civil War soldiers who lie in 

Section 19 of the “Old Circle” at Spring Hill 

Cemetery, but no one knows for sure. Private 

Deatherage’s grave is unknown, but his name 

is listed on a bronze plaque honoring the 

Civil War dead of Patrick County, which 

is mounted in the county administration 

building at Stuart, Virginia. 

The 1862 Confederate occupation of 

Charleston lasted scarcely six weeks. In early 

October, General Lee ordered Loring to turn 

over his command to Brigadier General 

John Echols. Meanwhile, Union General Cox 

ordered two divisions to move up the 

Kanawha, while Brigadier General George 

Crook advanced from Weston to Gauley 

Bridge. Facing overwhelming opposition, 

Echols withdrew his infantry and wagon 

trains from Charleston and left Albert 

Gallatin Jenkins’ cavalry to defend the valley. 

After a brief skirmish at Tyler Mountain on 

October 29, Jenkins followed Echols’ force 

in retreat to Princeton, well beyond the 

reach of the advancing enemy. Southern 

forces never again seriously threatened the 

town. Charleston resident J. C. McFarland 

commented wryly on the impact of events 

of the previous six weeks: “by the coming 

in of the Confederates two things were 

accomplished, viz the getting of several 

thousand barrels of salt and the marriage of 

two young girls in town.” 

No major Confederate force remained in 

trans-Allegheny Virginia after 1862, and the 

absence of a concerted threat allowed the 

statehood movement to continue uninterrupted 

in Wheeling. Ultimately, on December 

31, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed 

the West Virginia statehood bill approving 

the creation of a loyal Union state without 

abolishing slavery. A formula for gradual 

emancipation was eventually added to the 

state constitution, and West Virginia became 

the thirty-fifth U.S. state on June 20, 1863. 

Its creation was the only permanent boundary 

change brought about by the Civil War. 

When the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry 

Regiment marched into Charleston on 

March 15, 1863, they witnessed a desolate 

scene. According to J. C. McFarland, not a 

fence was left standing, sidewalks were 

ruined, teams grazed in the streets, and 

an entire block of downtown buildings lay 

in shambles. By his account, “our village 

presents a most forlorn and desolate appearance.” 

Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes commanded 

the 23rd Ohio, which established 

Camp White on the south side of Kanawha 

River near Ferry Branch. A lawyer by profession, 

after the war Hayes won election to the 

U.S. House of Representatives, followed by a 

stint as governor of Ohio, before running for 

president on the Republican ticket against 

Democrat Samuel Tilden in the contested 

election of 1876. Hayes became president in 

the controversial Compromise of 1877 that 

ended Reconstruction. 

Another future president, Second Lieutenant 

William McKinley, also served with the 23rd 

Ohio. McKinley’s career echoed Hayes’s in 

many ways; a lawyer in civilian life, the Niles, 

Ohio, native spent fourteen years in the 

U.S. House of Representatives before serving 

as two-term governor of Ohio. McKinley was 

elected president in 1896, and assassinated at 

the start of his second term in 1901. 

✧ 

Second Lieutenant William McKinley 

served in the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry 

Regiment which occupied Charleston 

in 1863. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR’S COLLECTION. 


4 1

✧ 

Map of Fort Scammon. 

COURTESY OF PAUL D. MARSHALL. 

In May of 1863, Hayes ordered his 23rd 

Ohio volunteers in Charleston to build 

an earthen fortification on the crest of a 

1,000-foot hill on the south side of Kanawha 

River, near where Confederate artillery 

had shelled Federal troops in 1862. Named 

for Brigadier General Eliakim P. Scammon, 

who commanded the 7,000 Union troops 

operating in the Kanawha Valley, Fort 

Scammon commanded the heights above 

Ferry Branch directly across from the 

confluence of the Kanawha and Elk Rivers. 

Fort Scammon provided a solid defense, 

and Hayes boldly claimed he could hold 

it against a strong assault. In fact, the fort 

was never attacked, due in part to the steep 

slopes surrounding it on three sides. The only 

documented firing of the fort’s guns occurred 

to jointly celebrate the Fourth of July and 

the Union victory at Vicksburg in 1863. 

Except for the threat of occasional 

Confederate raids and guerrilla activity, the 

Kanawha Valley proved a relatively safe theater 

of operations for Union forces in 1863. As 

a result, Rutherford Hayes’ wife Lucy, her 

mother, and the Hayes’ four sons (Birchard, 

Webb, Rutherford and Joseph) boarded a 

steamboat at Cincinnati and traveled upriver to 

Charleston in June of 1863. The group had just 

settled in for what was supposed to be an 

extended visit when eighteen-month-old “little 

Joseph” fell gravely ill from dysentery. Colonel 

Hayes recorded the sad events in his diary: 

Camp White (opposite Charleston), West 

Virginia, June 25, 1863—Last Monday, the 

15th, Lucy, Mother Webb, and “all the boys” 

came here from Cincinnati on the Market 

Boy. A few happy days, when little Joseph 

sickened and died yesterday at noon (12:40). 

Poor little darling! A sweet, bright boy, 

“looked like his father,” but with large, 

handsome blue eyes much like Webb’s…. 

He died without suffering; lay on the table in 

our room in the Quarrier cottage, surrounded 

by white roses and buds all the afternoon, 

and was sent to Cincinnati…this morning. 

Within a week of young Joseph’s death, 

Lucy packed up her grieving family and 

returned to Cincinnati. Another entry in 

Hayes’ diary notes her painful departure: 


42

July 1, 1863—Lucy and the family left on 

the Marwood today. The visit has been a 

happy one, saddened though it is by the 

death of our beautiful little Joseph. Lucy has 

been cheerful since—remarkably so—but on 

leaving today without him she burst into 

tears on seeing a little child on the boat. 

In later years, Lucy Hayes stated that the 

“bitterest hour of her life” was when she 

stood by the door of her cottage at Camp 

White and saw “the boat bear the lonely 

little body away.” Lucy and her boys visited 

Charleston three more times during the Civil 

War. Their final six-week stay began on 

March 11 and ended on April 29, 1864, the 

same day that Hayes’ command departed the 

Kanawha Valley in the army of General 

Crook. As usual, the family stayed in the 

Quarrier cottage on the South Side. 

These early experiences in West Virginia 

profoundly influenced the Hayes boys, especially 

Webb, who was seven years old when 

he first visited his father and fondly recalled 

his time in Charleston as a glorious vacation. 

His pleasant memories helped account for his 

later years of service in the military, where he 

earned the Congressional Medal of Honor in 

the Philippines during the Spanish American 

War. Webb Hayes later co-founded National 

Carbon Company, a forerunner of Union 

Carbide Corporation, and served as its vice 

president for many years. He claimed that the 

Hayes family’s most vivid memories of the 

Civil War were the weeks they spent together 

along Kanawha River. While at Camp White, 

he became very close with Union commander 

George Crook, who was his godfather. 

Crook used the Kanawha Valley as a classroom 

to teach young Webb to hunt, fish, and 

survive in the wild. George Crook Hayes, 

the fifth child of Rutherford and Lucy Hayes, 

was named for the general. 

✧ 

Left: Rutherford and Lucy Webb Hayes on 

their wedding day, December 30, 1852. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, PRINTS AND PHOTOGRAPHS 

DIVISION, HTTP://HDL.LOC.GOV/LOC.PNP/CPH.3A02665 

Below: It is reasonable to assume that 

the Hayes family stayed at the “Widow 

Quarrier” residence located opposite 

Goshorn Ferry while in Charleston. 

MAP COURTESY OF THE CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO 

HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 


4 3

✧ 

Right: George Crook. Webb Cook Hayes 

and George Crook became lifelong friends 

in Charleston. Later, the pair made annual 

trips to the Rocky Mountains for a big 

game hunt. 


LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, PRINTS AND PHOTOGRAPHS 

DIVISION, HTTP://HDL.LOC.GOV/LOC.PNP/CWPBH.04032 

Below: Webb Cook Hayes. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF CORNELL 

UNIVERSITY LIBRARY. 


44 

When General Crook’s army left the 

Kanawha Valley in April 1864, they set out to 

destroy the salt works at Saltville, Virginia, and 

strike the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad. On 

May 9, 1864, his troops defeated a Confederate 

force at Cloyd’s Mountain. Union General David 

Hunter used Charleston as an advance supply 

post for a raid that he launched into the 

Shenandoah Valley in early June 1864. His 

troops burned Lexington and engaged enemy 

forces from West Virginia at Lynchburg before 

pulling back on June 18. Hunter’s men ran out 

of food during the exhausting march back to 

Charleston, and averted disaster when muchneeded 

rations reached them on June 27. 

The haggard, but revived, Federal force 

pressed on until the grueling two-week expedition 

ended on July 1 after Hunter’s exhausted 

command reached Camp Crook “one mile 

below the mouth of Elk River on Judge 

[George] Summer’s farm” on the West Side. 

During the expedition, Union forces traveled 

over 650 miles on foot and by boat. After a 

brief rest at Charleston, Hunter arranged for 

boats to carry his weary men to Parkersburg 

where they boarded trains for transport back 

into the Shenandoah Valley. Although Hunter 

considered his raid a success, he has been 

strongly criticized for the great suffering 

endured by his men and the ruthless campaign 

of destruction he waged against civilian targets. 

After Hunter’s bedraggled army departed 

the area, military activity in the Kanawha Valley 

slowed down considerably. Although the war 

raged elsewhere, life in Charleston took on a 

more normal rhythm by early 1865. Union 

patrols dealt with bushwhackers and occasional 

guerrilla bands until news flashed by 

telegraph that Robert E. Lee’s army had 

surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox 

Courthouse on April 9, 1865. After Lee’s 

surrender, a parade took place on the streets of 

Charleston featuring an old hearse with 

“secession” painted in large letters on both 

sides, as well as a wagon featuring a sour 

apple tree from which hung an effigy of 

Jefferson Davis. Colonel John H. Ohley, commander 

of the 7th West Virginia Cavalry, led 

the procession to Cox’s Hill, where Battery A 

of the 1st West Virginia Artillery fired its guns 

to mark the fall of the Confederate capital. 

A northern victory in the Civil War broke 

the political and economic power of King 

Cotton, freed from bondage four million 

African Americans, abolished the cruel institution 

of slavery, and ultimately preserved 

the Union. It imbued citizens of the new state 

of West Virginia with renewed hope for the 

future, and a lofty expectation of long-sought 

economic progress. But, the conflict also 

resulted in over one million casualties in a 

nation of 31 million people. Total dead from 

all causes is estimated at 750,000—about twoand-a-half 

percent of the nation’s population. 

When peace came, Charleston’s citizens had 

endured four long years of war and weary 

veterans returned to heal their emotional and 

physical wounds. Whether they wore the 

blue or gray, West Virginians put aside their 

differences and worked to make a better life 

for themselves and their family in the new 

state. Some who lived through it talked or 

wrote about their experiences, while others 

took their memories to the grave. 

One persistent tale that has circulated for a 

century is the story of two female spies who 

were executed and buried up a hollow opposite 

downtown Charleston. In 1905, during 

construction of the carriage trail to Sunrise 

Mansion, ex-Governor William A. MacCorkle’s

home in South Hills, workers supposedly 

uncovered remains of two females, one 

blonde and one brunette. MacCorkle reinterred 

the bodies nearby and continued with 

construction. Meanwhile, he consulted longtime 

resident John Slack who had a detailed 

memory of area history. A Union veteran, 

Slack claimed that the women had been 

Union operatives accused of spying by the 

Confederate army, tried by a drumhead jury, 

and executed. Since their camp was nearby 

they were taken up the hollow and buried. 

Later, another of MacCorkle’s friends, 

Confederate veteran James Pauline, substantiated 

the execution story except he claimed 

the women were Union camp followers and 

Confederate spies. Finally, MacCorkle said 

that an unidentified Union veteran from 

Lincoln County had stated in a deathbed 

confession that he was on the firing squad 

which executed the women and it had 

haunted him his entire life. Today, a stone 

monument erected by MacCorkle stands 

near the bottom of Sunrise Carriage Trail as 

a memorial to these women whose identities 

remain a mystery. 

✧ 

In 1905, workers discovered the remains of 

two women rumored to be executed Civil 

War spies. William A. MacCorkle erected a 

memorial to them on the Sunrise Carriage 

Trail. The true story of these unidentified 

women remains an unsolved mystery. 



4 5

✧ 

Above: John Whittier Messer Appleton was 

a white Massachusetts abolitionist and 

the first man commissioned in the 

54th Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment, 

U.S. Colored Troops. 


STATE ARCHIVES OF FLORIDA, FLORIDA MEMORY, 

HTTP://FLORIDAMEMORY.COM/ITEMS/SHOW/1600 

Below: Recruiting poster for the famed 

54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry 

Regiment, c. 1863. 

POSTER COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR’S COLLECTION 

(FROM THE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY). 


46 

One well-known veteran who relocated to 

Charleston in the post-bellum period was 

Major John W. M. Appleton, a Massachusetts 

native born in 1832. During the war, 

Appleton had served as recruiting officer 

for Major Henry Gould Shaw’s famed 

54th Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment, 

one of the first U.S. Colored Troops (USCT) 

mustered into the Union army and made 

famous in the 1989 film, Glory. The unit’s 

bravery proved that African American 

solders could and would fight with honor 

and distinction. Appleton was one of a few 

officers to survive the assault on Fort Wagner, 

South Carolina, where nearly half of the 

regiment were killed, wounded or captured. 

He came to Charleston in 1865 and lived on 

Virginia Street, where he engaged in numerous 

business ventures. Appleton rose to 

colonel in the West Virginia Militia and 

National Guard, and in 1897 was appointed 

state adjutant general. He served as Kanawha 

County school commissioner before moving 

to Monroe County in 1882, were he owned 

and operated Salt Sulphur Springs resort 

and served as postmaster. General Appleton 

died on his Monroe County farm in 1913 

after being gored by a bull and is buried in 

Charleston’s Spring Hill Cemetery. 

In March 1865, President Abraham 

Lincoln had pledged to win the postwar 

peace “With malice toward none, with charity 

for all.” Unfortunately, his assassination on 

April 14 derailed plans to “Reconstruct” 

the South. In West Virginia, Reconstruction 

policies required all voters to swear a loyalty 

oath proclaiming they had never taken up 

arms against the United States, Reorganized 

Government of Virginia, or West Virginia. An 

1866 law required potential voters to 

register, but denied registration to those who 

could not take the loyalty oaths. These 

measures had the intended effect of 

disenfranchising ex-Confederates, most of 

whom were members of the Democratic 

Party, and keeping Republicans in power. 

Within a relatively short time, opposition 

to voting restrictions rose among both 

Democrats and Liberal Republicans. In his 

January 1870 address to the legislature, 

West Virginia Governor William E. Stevenson 

called for a more even-handed approach in 

order to advance the true interests of the 

state. At the Republican State Convention 

in 1870, former Confederate soldier and 

Charleston resident Thomas B. Swann called 

for fairness toward ex-Rebels in hopes of 

drawing them into the party.

In West Virginia, growing support for lifting 

voting restrictions on ex-Confederates, as well 

as the question of voting rights for African 

Americans, were significant political issues of 

the day. In 1869, the Fifteenth Amendment 

granted the right to vote to “all citizens regardless 

of race, creed, or condition of previous 

servitude.” However, many state politicians 

from both parties strongly opposed giving 

blacks the vote without guaranteeing it to 

white men denied the right because of their 

Confederate service. So, delegate William H. H. 

Flick, a liberal Republican from Pendleton 

County, proposed an amendment to the West 

Virginia constitution granting the vote to all 

males above twenty-one years of age, regardless 

of race or other factors. The so-called Flick 

Amendment met with stiff opposition and 

became a central issue in the 1870 election 

campaign. Charleston hosted the Democratic 

convention in June of that year, and the editor 

of the Charleston Courier did not mince words 

on the issue: “it was the duty of Democrats to 

maintain the honor and duty of the Caucasian 

race, and, as this is a white man’s country so 

it ought to be a white man’s government.” 

Meanwhile, at the Republic convention in 

Clarksburg, temporary chairman Lewis 

✧ 

John P. Hale and other investors in the 

State House Company put up private funds 

to build Charleston’s landmark 

1870 capitol. 




4 7

Ruffner, a former Democrat, openly invited 

black representation. In the end, U.S. District 

Court Judge John J. Jackson settled the issue 

before a vote could be taken when he ruled 

that the Fifteenth Amendment conferred voting 

rights on all black and white males—a 

move that allowed large numbers of ex- 

Confederates to cast ballots in the 1870 state 

election. As a result, Democratic gubernatorial 

candidate John J. Jacob narrowly bested 

Republican incumbent William E. Stevenson 

and Democrats gained majorities in both 

the Senate and House of Delegates. The 1870 

Democratic sweep also changed the political 

composition of Kanawha County, which had 

been primarily Republican up to that point. 

Democrat Spicer Patrick won a Senate seat, 

and Benjamin H. Smith and Dr. Albert E. 

Summers both replaced Republicans in the 

House of Delegates. 

Political fortunes shifted dramatically in 

West Virginia after legislative power began to 

favor the Democratic Party. One of the most 

obvious impacts came when the legislature 

moved to relocate the state capital from the 

Republican-dominated northern panhandle 

city of Wheeling to a more openly southern 

and Democrat-friendly Charleston, “where it 

will develop the natural resources of the State 

the most, and accommodate the largest number 

of inhabitants.” As a result, politicians and 

residents alike rallied to bring the capital to 

the Kanawha Valley. At a mass meeting on 

January 29, 1869, Charlestonians urged city 

council to offer the state $50,000 to construct 

public buildings, if their city should become 

the capital. City council approved a resolution 

tendering the offer, and lobbyists traveled to 

Wheeling to garner support for relocating 

the seat of government. The plan worked, as 

the House of Delegates approved moving the 

capital to Charleston on a vote of 29 to 23, 

while the Senate passed it on a 19 to 4 vote. 

Legislation to move the capital passed on 

February 26, 1869, with the transfer scheduled 

to take place April 1, 1870. Charleston 

hurriedly made preparations to erect a suitable 

seat of government. Residents pledged $17,000 

for the project, and the privately-organized 

State House Company received a charter to 

issue $100,000 in capital stock. Officers of 

the company included: Benjamin H. Smith, 

president, Alexander T. Laidley, secretary, and 

John Slack, Sr., treasurer. Laidley and John D. 

Lewis made a large parcel of land available 

in the undeveloped north end of Charleston 

(in the block bounded today by Capitol, 

Washington, Dickinson and Lee Streets) four 

blocks from downtown, at a cost of $5,000. 

Dr. John P. Hale was awarded the construction 

contract and ended up bearing most 

of its $80,000 cost by himself. Workers laid 

the cornerstone for the towering Italianate 

structure with Romanesque details on 

November 3, 1869. Stone for the new statehouse 

came from a quarry on the bluff at the 

north end of Cox’s Lane, a path used to drive 

livestock across the Cox farm to the river. 

The lane was renamed Capitol Street in 1870. 

Transfer of state government got underway 

at midnight on March 28, 1870, when 

Governor Stevenson and other officials boarded 

the steamboat, Mountain Boy, in Wheeling 

for the voyage to Charleston. A second steamer, 

Kanawha Belle, met the boat at Dunbar with 

a welcoming committee and brass band. 

At about noon on March 30, Mountain Boy 

docked at the levee (present Haddad Riverfront 

Park) to a rousing salute by an artillery unit. 

A large crowd gathered in front of Laidley’s 

Drug Store on Kanawha Street, where Mayor 

John W. Wingfield greeted the governor, who 

delivered a short address. Construction of the 

new capitol would not be complete for several 

months, so local banks offered space for 

executive offices while St. John’s Episcopal 

Church housed the state library in the interim. 

Finally, on December 6, 1870, John P. Hale 

hosted an elaborate reception at the new capitol 

for legislators and prominent area citizens. 

While Charleston residents reveled in the 

fact that their small town had become the seat 

of government for the new state, citizens of 

Wheeling expressed their displeasure. George 

W. Atkinson, editor of the West Virginia Journal 

published in Charleston and a future Republican 

governor, responded to the criticism with sardonic 

humor: “We have no doubt that even the 

members from Ohio County will find as good 

beef, whiskey, and wine, with as much genuine 

hospitality and refinement in Charleston, as 

they have been accustomed to in Wheeling.” 


48


AN EMERGING CAPITAL CITY 

1870-1900 

Political winds shifted dramatically when the capital moved from the industrialized Upper Ohio 

Valley to the more rural and isolated Kanawha Valley in 1870. With a population 19,280, Wheeling 

boasted an impressive mix of commerce and industry, as well as a sophisticated transportation nexus 

that included the Ohio River, National Road, and Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Charleston, on the 

other hand, had a navigable waterway but no railroad—prompting many around the state to 

negatively view the community of 3,200 as nothing more than a sleepy river town. The Kanawha 

Daily began publication as the first daily paper in Kanawha County in 1871, but it folded after only 

a few months because “the business of the town was not sufficient to support a daily paper.” Perhaps 

Charleston’s detractors had a point at the time, but it would soon become a bona fide capital city. 

✧ 

About 3,000 people lived in Charleston 

when this map came out. The newly built 

statehouse fronted Cox’s Lane, renamed 

Capitol Street in 1870, about four blocks 

north of Kanawha Street. 

COURTESY OF DAVID RUMSEY HISTORICAL MAP 

COLLECTION, HTTP://WWW.DAVIDRUMSEY.COM/ 


4 9

✧ 

The Hale House, a thoroughly modern 

four-story hotel, opened in 1872. 



50 

In local politics, Charleston voters elected 

moderate mayors John A. Truslow, George 

Ritter, and John W. Wingfield immediately 

after the Civil War. More prominent individuals 

with ties to the salt industry and mercantile 

enterprises dominated the mayor’s 

office from 1871 to 1885. They included: 

Henry C. Dickinson (who died in office); 

John P. Hale; Charles P. Snyder, who married 

into the Goshorn family; John C. Ruby, who 

married into the Noyes family; and John D. 

Baines, who married a daughter of James M. 

Laidley. With few exceptions, Democrats 

dominated the Kanawha County delegation 

in the state legislature until 1883. 

In 1870, Charleston was indeed a small 

town with big city dreams. As the seat of 

state and county government, it attracted a 

host of lawyers, politicians, and individuals 

who swarmed the resource-rich Kanawha 

Valley with endless plans for immediate 

wealth, some of which involved other people’s 

money. Commenting on the boomtown 

atmosphere, newspaperman David Hunter 

Strother reported that “Charleston is full of 

land speculators, schemers, stock jobbers, 

and people so occupied with their own affairs 

that they are oblivious and dreary, incapable 

of conversation on other subjects.” 

At the time, Kanawha Street featured three 

well-known houses of lodging—the Saint 

Albert Hotel, Laidley House and Kanawha 

House, which had been rebuilt after the 

Civil War. In 1872 John P. Hale opened the 

$150,000 Hale House, a thoroughly modern 

four-story hotel which boasted “100 bedrooms 

fitted up with elegance, a splendid 

office, bar and billiard room, barber shop and 

bathroom.” His fine establishment stood on 

the northwest corner of Hale and Kanawha 

Street, and it quickly became Charleston’s 

premier destination. Also in the same year, 

the city installed its first gas lights and 

awarded a long-term supply contract to the 

Charleston Gas Company, which Hale and 

others had formed. The city’s first fire company, 

the Steam Fire Engine Company, had 

organized by that time, as well. Although 

Kanawha Street remained the hub of commercial 

activity, development began creeping 

up Capitol Street where the Cotton Opera 

House had opened in 1870. 

In 1871, Charleston took a major step in 

its evolutionary process after the state legislature 

amended the city charter to allow for 

extension of the corporate limits. The new 

boundary created a third ward and expanded 

the city to the east and north, beginning at 

the dividing line of the Bradford 

estate (Bradford Street), and running 

up Cox’s Hill to Coal Branch, from 

Coal Branch down to Elk River, along 

the Elk to the Kanawha, and up the 

Kanawha to the starting point. Ward I 

was bounded by Kanawha, Court, 

Donnally Streets, and Elk River; 

Ward II covered a larger area bounded 

by Kanawha, Capitol, and Slack 

Street, then followed Elk River to 

Donnally and Court Streets; to the 

east Ward III ran along Kanawha 

Street to the city limit, which was 

just east of Bradford to take in 

residential properties fronting on the 

street, then up Spring Hill to Coal 

Branch and down Coal Branch to 

Slack Street, then to Piedmont Road 

and on to Capitol Street. Within the 

new ward were the state capitol and 

central business district.

Arguably, the greatest single event in 

Charleston’s development up to that time 

was completion of the Chesapeake and Ohio 

Railway on January 29, 1873. Jubilant residents 

celebrated with a bonfire in front of 

Hale House and a huge fireworks display 

to mark the arrival of the first train at the 

depot on the south side of Kanawha River. 

Other towns along the route held similar 

celebrations to commemorate the auspicious 

event. Formed in 1869 from several Virginia 

railroads, and led by industrialist Collis P. 

Huntington, the C & O stretched from 

Richmond to Huntington, a planned city 

named for its founder. The railroad followed 

Virginia’s “central line” that George 

Washington had first promoted as 

an east-west transportation corridor 

following the alignment of the James 

and Kanawha Rivers. Completion of 

the railroad made the long-held 

dream of linking the Tidewater region 

with the “western waters” a reality. 

Despite unbridled local enthusiasm, 

the Wheeling Intelligencer sardonically 

claimed that prosperity would elude 

Charleston because the railroad 

right-of-way was on the south bank 

of the Kanawha and no bridge 

spanned the river. 

It is no secret that natural resources 

have played a significant role in 

Charleston’s growth and development. 

However, few may realize that 

one resource that literally helped 

build the city is fire clay, which was 

found in abundance as “Kanawha 

Valley river clays” and formerly dug from clay 

mines on Elk Two Mile, Kanawha Two Mile, 

Ferry Branch and elsewhere. Abundant river 

clays, coupled with hometown ingenuity, 

enabled Charleston to lay down the first brick 

pavement in the nation in 1870, when local 

contractor Mordecai Levi placed a short 

experimental segment in the first block of 

Summers Street, in front of Gates Paint Store 

near the corner of Virginia Street. Three years 

later, the entire first block of Summers Street 

between Kanawha and Virginia Streets was 

paved by this method. Dr. John P. Hale, a 

business associate of Levi for many years, 

financed the project by public subscription. 

✧ 

Above: Charleston’s original 1873 depot 

was replaced around 1890. In 1905 the 

present neo-Classical Revival depot opened 

for passenger service. It is on the National 

Register of Historic Places and is still 

served by Amtrak. 


Below: John P. Hale opened the Hale 

House in 1872. After it burned in 1885, 

the Ruffner Hotel rose on the site. It stood 

until 1970, when it was demolished for a 

parking lot. 



5 1

✧ 

Clockwise, starting at the right: 

John P. Hale. 


This historic brick paver was recently 

salvaged from a road construction project 

on Charleston’s East End. It measures 

9” x 4” x 3” and weighs about 

seven pounds. 


During his lifetime, Mordecai Levi received 

at least three patents for improved methods 

of brick paving. This is his first one granted 

on September 25, 1883. 


U.S. PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE. 


52 

Mordecai Levi’s methods proved extremely 

popular, and brick began being laid throughout 

the city. In 1881 and 1882, Charleston 

constructed around 5,000 square yards of 

brick pavement on his plan. It proved so 

successful that on September 25, 1883, Levi 

and partner Virgil A. Gates received a patent 

for “certain new and useful improvements in 

street pavements.” Their technique involved 

“laying a close board floor upon the prepared 

ground, and then covering the board floor 

with a layer of hard burned brick.” It could be 

laid down at the cost of seventy-two cents per 

square yard under favorable circumstances, 

an economical sum which made it a desirable 

alternative to other methods. 

One of the first successful commercial 

paving brick operations was formed by 

William D. Isaac, a native of Wales who came 

to Charleston around 1870 and started 

Kanawha Brick Company in 1883. Within 

a few short years bricks paved the streets 

of the nation. Although slow to adopt the 

technology, by 1900 Philadelphia had about 

135 miles of brick paved streets, 

the most extensive network in the 

country. In 1905, three plants 

produced building and paving 

brick in Charleston—West Virginia 

Clay Products Company, Standard 

Brick Company, and Kanawha 

Brick Company. 

Virgil Gates and Mordecai Levi 

incorporated the American Brick 

Paving Company of Charleston in 

1884 with the purpose of “contracting 

for and laying down street 

pavements and roadways.” Levi 

expanded on his original concept in 

1890, when he received another 

patent to add layers of substrata 

beneath the surface layer of hardburned 

brick, stone, paving-blocks, 

wood, or other suitable material. 

Not content to rest on his laurels, 

Levi received one more patent in 

1891 for base blocks with “grooves 

on their upper faces, combined 

with a surface block having a central 

projection adapted to pass between 

the walls of the base blocks.” 

Charleston continued paving with brick 

until around 1911, when concrete gained 

favor. Local manufacturers stopped producing 

paving brick after 1914, and today many of 

the old pavers are hidden under layers of 

asphalt. City streets that retain their historic 

brick pavement include portions of Chester 

Road, Maple Road, Somerset Drive, Springdale 

Drive and Valley Road, all within a half-mile 

radius on the West Side. 

John P. Hale (1824-1902) seemed to have 

a hand in every public improvement project 

during Charleston’s formative years. Among 

his accomplishments: physician, salt maker, 

Confederate veteran, contractor on the 1870 

capitol, paving the first brick street, owning 

the first gas company, mayor, coal mine 

operator, commercial developer, hotel owner, 

historian and writer. He is buried at Spring 

Hill Cemetery in a grave that was shaped 

on his orders to resemble a small mound, 

reflecting his interest in native cultures. To 

quote Gilbert & Sullivan, John P. Hale was 

“in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral...the 

very model of a modern Major-General.” 

John Hale’s contribution to Charleston’s 

early development is singularly unmatched, 

but another individual who left an indelible 

legacy is John Brisben Walker. Born near 

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1847, Walker 

was educated at Georgetown College in 

Washington before receiving an appointment

to the U.S. Military Academy in 1865. He 

resigned without graduating in 1868 and 

traveled to China with the U.S. minister, 

John Ross Brown, where he worked with the 

Chinese military. Upon his return to the U.S. 

in 1870, Walker ventured to Charleston and 

immersed himself in the speculative atmosphere 

that permeated the new capital city. 

He quickly acquired a personal fortune as a 

real estate developer who owned over 2,000 

acres in the Kanawha Valley. Although he had 

interests elsewhere, Walker set his sights on 

developing the levels just west of Elk River, 

which he and partner John H. Playford had 

purchased from James and Sally Carr, 110 

acres of prime bottomland near the mouth of 

Elk. Walker purchased additional tracts from 

adjoining large landowners, Lewis Summers 

and Holly Hunt, and became principal developer 

of the J. B. Walker Addition, also called 

West End Extension. Ever the visionary, 

Walker laid out a town site on the flats 

with wide streets named for West Virginia 

counties and intersecting avenues named 

for U.S. states. With but few minor changes, 

his original layout survives today. 

✧ 

Above: Original West End Extension as 

proposed by John B. Walker. Streets and 

avenues shown on the 1873 map are nearly 

identical to what exists today. 

MAP COURTESY OF THE HISTORIC 


Left: John Brisben Walker touted the merits 

of his proposed West End Extension in a 

promotional publication titled Kanawha 

Valley 1872. 

COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR’S COLLECTION 

(FROM KANAWHA VALLEY 1872). 


5 3


54

As part of his plan, Walker envisioned a 

public park extending from present Virginia 

Street (which he named Kanawha) to 

Berkeley Street, and from Delaware Avenue 

to present Vine Street (Walker’s Illinois 

Avenue). He called it Yuen-Ming-Yuen 

(Gardens of Perfect Brightness) in honor of 

the Old Summer Palace in Beijing, the complex 

of palaces, gardens, and art where 

Chinese emperors resided and Walker possibly 

explored while there. Unfortunately, the 

park never materialized. 

Walker recognized the potential problem 

of getting people from Charleston to his 

development across Elk River. At the 

time, access was limited to the 1852 cable 

suspension bridge along the Charleston- 

Point Pleasant Turnpike (present Washington 

Street). Walker hoped to improve his 

prospects by constructing a second span, 

which he did in 1873. Known as Keystone 

Bridge (possibly because it was fabricated 

by Andrew Carnegie’s Keystone Bridge 

Company), it carried present-day Virginia 

Street across Elk River. 

Prosperous and prominent by age twentyfive, 

Walker gained the Republican nomination 

for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1872 

but failed to win the election. Meanwhile, he 

continued his West End development efforts 

in partnership with Nicholas J. Bigley from 

the Pittsburgh area. The pair bought a tract 

north of Washington Street from Alethea 

Bream, daughter of Major James Bream, a 

prominent early West Side landowner. Called 

Bigley Addition, their holdings extended up 

Elk Valley to Magazine Branch (Garrison 

Avenue). In 1875, Walker and Bigley sold a 

parcel near the mouth of Magazine to the 

Kanawha Iron Company, which planned to 

erect a blast furnace to make iron from 

nearby ore beds. 

In 1871, John B. Walker courted and 

married his first wife, Emily Strother, 

daughter of the well-known writer and 

illustrator, David Hunter Strother, more 

familiarly known to his readers as Porte 

Crayon. Strother, a Martinsburg native, 

came to Charleston in 1870 at the behest of 

John P. Hale to write a descriptive pamphlet 

promoting the economic benefits of the 

region. While in Charleston, Strother received 

an offer from Walker to serve as editor of 

the Charleston Herald, a “liberal, progressive” 

newspaper devoted principally to the 

development of West Virginia. Strother 

accepted the job, but stayed in Charleston 

only three months. His wife had refused to 

join him in the venture, so he brought his 

daughter, Emily, who arrived in Charleston 

in January 1871. She met Walker shortly 

thereafter, and the couple got engaged about 

a month later. They married in April of 1871 

and went on to have eight children before 

divorcing a few years later. 

Walker’s good fortune ran out when the 

Panic of 1873 ended his entrepreneurial 

ventures and left him deeply in debt. After 

losing most of his assets, he departed 

Charleston a short time later and went to 

work as a newspaper editor in Cincinnati and 

Pittsburgh before moving to Denver and 

regaining his fortune in real estate. Ever the 

visionary, Walker moved back east, bought 

the struggling Cosmopolitan Magazine in 1889 

and increasing its circulation from 16,000 

to 400,000 as editor and publisher. He sold 

the magazine in 1905 to William Randolph 

Hearst for an estimated $400,000 (about 

$10 million in 2012 dollars), divorced his wife 

Emily, married his secretary and returned 

✧ 

Opposite: The 1873 Keystone Bridge greatly 

improved access to Walker’s West End 

Extension. The three unidentified boys are 

obviously pleased to get their picture taken! 



Above: “Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Walker.” 

Pictured is Mr. Walker’s second wife. 

Walker (1847-1931) made and lost a 

fortune in Charleston before age twenty-six. 

He departed the area in 1875 and pursued 

a variety of business ventures. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE LIBRARY 

OF CONGRESS, PRINTS & PHOTOGRAPHS DIVISION, 

HTTP://WWW.LOC.GOV/PICTURES/RESOURCE/ 

GGBAIN.13477/ 


5 5

✧ 

Above: In 1831, Daniel Ruffner sold an 

acre of land to the town for use as a burial 

ground, with a reserved family plot. Now 

known as Ruffner Park, it remains a legal 

cemetery today. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF BILLY JOE PEYTON 

AND THE KANAWHA COUNTY COURTHOUSE. 

to Colorado. He later purchased the Stanley 

Automobile Company, and remained a 

speculative businessman who hoped to turn 

dreams into reality until his death in Brooklyn, 

New York, at the age of eighty-three. 

As Charleston grew into a pleasantly 

small city for the living, its leaders faced 

the dilemma of finding a permanent resting 

place for the deceased. Early on, private 

burial grounds were scattered throughout the 

area. Then, in 1831, Daniel Ruffner sold to 

the town an acre of property (between 1578 

and 1596 Kanawha Boulevard) for $300, to 

be used as a public graveyard with the 

provision that a small plot be reserved for 

his family. By 1867 the site had become 

obsolete, so the town council appointed a 

five-member committee to procure a suitable 

cemetery “to meet the wants of our place for 

generations to come.” Despite the provision 

that the Ruffner burial ground remain in 

public use, the city tried to break the 

covenant and develop the property. Ruffner 

family members contested the decision, and 

ultimately prevailed in a state Supreme Court 

ruling which decreed it to still be a cemetery. 

A 1917 survey and map located in the city 

engineer’s office show 115 named gravesites 

in the one-acre parcel, and many remain. 

In 1869 city leaders established Spring 

Hill Cemetery on Cox’s Hill, also known as 

Spring Hill. The name Spring Hill, and 

likewise Spring Street, comes from the 

chalybeate, or iron, spring that spouted 

from the hillside near the cemetery road. 

Charleston acquired the first twenty acres 

for the burial ground in July 1869. Civil 

engineer A. J. Vosburg designed the Old 

Circle section of the cemetery, which 

incorporated beautiful geometric patterns 

for the walkways typical of the Victorian 

era. Today, the cemetery complex covers 

172 acres of shaded and landscaped hill 

terrain overlooking central Charleston and 

Right: Spring Hill Cemetery Park sits on a 

prominent knoll variously known as Cox’s 

Hill, Spring Hill, or Capitol Hill. Many 

prominent citizens lie in repose here. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF 

THE FRIENDS OF SPRING HILL CEMETERY, 

HTTP://FRIENDSOFSPRINGHILLCEMETERY.ORG/ 

HISTORIC-WALK/ 


56

consisting of five separate cemeteries: Spring 

Hill, Mountain View, B’nai Israel, Lowenstein, 

and Mount Olivet. It is West Virginia’s largest 

cemetery complex, and is now listed on the 


As the capital city dealt with routine 

growing pains, citizens in the northern part 

of the state campaigned for the capital’s 

return to Wheeling, citing a lack of reliable 

communication or hotel facilities in 

Charleston. Area residents received the bad 

news on January 18, 1875; the legislature 

had voted to return the state capital to 

Wheeling within weeks. On May 21, officials 

journeyed north by steamboat; however, 

citizens in Charleston filed an injunction to 

keep state property from going to Wheeling. 

Meanwhile, plaintiffs appealed to the West 

Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. The case 

was argued all summer and finally settled in 

favor of Wheeling on September 13, 1875. 

After months of paralysis, a steamboat and 

two barges transported government records 

to Wheeling and state officials returned to 

work. Angry Charlestonians lamented the 

loss, but the final act had yet to be staged in 

the “floating capital” saga. 

Following the return of state government 

to Wheeling, public sentiment began to 

favor selection of a permanent capital. The 

legislature agreed to let the people decide 

its location on August 7, 1877, with the 

move set to occur in 1885. However, only 

Charleston, Clarksburg, and Martinsburg 

were considered, with Wheeling conspicuously 

absent. In the end, Charleston won the 

referendum with 41,243 votes, Clarksburg 

tallied 29,942 and Martinsburg 8,046. The 

official transfer of the capital came on May 3, 

1885, when two steamboats and a barge 

docked at the levee in Charleston to offload 

their cargo of state officials and records. 

Onlookers lined the riverbank to observe the 

spectacle, which included a cannon salute 

and nearby riverboats sounding approval 

with blasts from their steam whistles. 

Construction began on West Virginia’s 

newest capitol in 1880. Erected on the exact 

site of the 1870 capitol and incorporating parts 

of it into the design, the majestic 230-foot long 

Gothic Revival structure stood three stories 

tall with 85 rooms and a central hall flanked 

by wings on either side. The impressive 

structure was topped by a 194-foot center 

clock tower that dominated the city’s skyline. 

All government offices remained in the 

building until 1903, when the state built a 

Beaux Arts-style annex directly across Lee 

Street between Hale and Dickinson Streets. It 

contained offices of the state auditor and 

treasurer, Supreme Court of Appeals, State Law 

Library, adjutant general, and state archives. All 

offices moved out of the Capitol Annex after 

construction of the current capitol in 1932. 

✧ 

Top: Construction of the 1885 capitol is 

nearing completion in this scene. A close 

look reveals missing details like no clock in 

the tower, and no landscaping or fencing. 



Above: The Capitol Annex stood on 

Lee Street between Hale and Dickinson 

from 1903 until 1966, when it was razed 

to make room for Commerce Square 

(now Huntington Square). 



5 7

✧ 

Charleston’s East End Historic District 

encompasses 110 acres and over 

400 properties representing every popular 

architectural style from the late nineteenth 

century to World War II. 


HTTP://EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG/WIKI/FILE:EAST_END_HOMES_ 

APR_09.JPG 


58 

Lawmakers in 1885 experienced a much 

different Charleston from what had existed 

ten years earlier, as civic improvements 

virtually transformed the small city. In 1880, 

Charleston got Kanawha County’s first 

telephone service, which included long 

distance lines up to Paint Creek and down to 

Lock Six near Dunbar; the first public water 

system began operating in 1886, followed by 

the first electric lights in 1887; Charleston 

erected its first city hall in 1885 and a new 

brick jail in 1888. 

A significant transportation milestone also 

occurred in 1888, when the first horse-drawn 

streetcars began operating in a loop through 

downtown and the East End. Later, a second 

line crossed the Keystone Bridge to West 

Charleston and proceeded to Patrick Street, 

while another extension ran along Washington 

Street eastward to the city limits at Bradford 

Street. In 1898 businessman W. W. Hazard 

obtained the streetcar line and set about 

electrifying and extending it. The company 

also constructed a car barn at 100 Virginia 

Street East, part of which still exists as 

the headquarters of Goodwill Industries. 

Then, on April 1, 1891, the South Side 

Bridge opened for traffic amidst speeches 

by prominent citizens, followed by a great 

fireworks display at night. 

Charleston’s population reached 6,742 in 

1890 which increased demand for convenient 

housing in close proximity to downtown. 

When prime farmland east of town was 

divided and sold as building lots to 

accommodate the growing number of people 

who worked in the city, property owners built 

large and elegant homes featuring ornate 

interiors, slate or tile roofs, and hand-crafted 

stained glass windows. Their impeccable 

craftsmanship reflected the high social 

standing of owners, and an East End address 

became the most desirable in the city. 

As the city expanded, so did the need for 

healthcare. In 1897, officials passed a $25,000 

bond issue to construct the first medical facility, 

known as City Hospital (later Charleston 

General), at a hilltop site near Spring Hill 

Cemetery. City Hospital admitted its first 

patients on August 17, 1898, at the request of 

Governor George W. Atkinson. The building 

had been completed for more than a year by 

then, but because of a debt on the building and 

no funds in the treasury, it had never opened for 

the care of the sick. Governor Atkinson made 

the request to open it after a severe outbreak of

typhoid fever developed in a company of West 

Virginia troops during the Spanish-American 

War who were awaiting orders to ship out to 

Cuba. The affected company was located at 

Camp Atkinson, which had been established 

in Glenwood Park west of Elk River. 

The 1890s was a period of continued 

expansion. West of Elk River, several 

antebellum farms were broken up and land 

sold for building lots. Among them was 

Glenwood, the 366-acre estate of the late Judge 

George W. Summers, whose son Lewis and wife 

Lucy Summers subdivided the acreage into 

separate developments known as Glenwood 

Heights (hill land) and Glenwood Addition 

(bottom land). Meanwhile, on the opposite end 

of town, Ruffner heirs had begun to break up 

their vast family estate that extended from 

Ruffner Avenue to Malden. Division began with 

Ruffner Addition in 1895. Earlier, in 1883, 

Joel Ruffner’s 115-acre estate was divided into 

twelve parcels with each of his eleven offspring 

receiving approximately 8½ acres with 39¼ 

poles (about 648 feet) of river frontage, within 

that tract was the Ruffner Cemetery. One lot 

at the eastern edge of the division, was sold 

to settle outstanding debts. The Ruffner heirs 

opted not to break up the portion south of 

Washington Street with intersecting streets, an 

anomaly that resulted in the 1500 block of 

Kanawha, Virginia, Quarrier, Lee, and the 

south side of Washington Streets each being 

exceedingly long with no intersecting streets. 

A long-standing tradition claims that the 

1500 block of Kanawha Boulevard and/ 

or Virginia Street is the longest in the 

world. But, is it true? In 1953, Charleston 

newspaperman Sol Padlibsky contacted the 

city engineer’s office for clarification and 

was told that Kanawha Boulevard between 

Ruffner Avenue and Elizabeth Street, 

measures 2,313 feet. Followed by Virginia 

Street at 2,280 feet, then Quarrier, Lee 

and Washington Streets. One complete loop 

around the Kanawha-Virginia block measures 

5,143 feet—137 feet short of a mile. By 

comparison, the average city block in the 

U.S. is one-eighth mile long and one-quarter 

mile (1,320 feet) around, making the 1500 

block of Kanawha Boulevard about four times 

longer than average. In the final analysis, 

Charleston may actually claim four of the 

longest blocks in the world! 

A March 1890 Harper’s Weekly article 

described West Virginia’s capital city as “largely 

a town of old families; men who descended 

from the pioneer settler…. Charleston’s people 

are waking up, the shell of old traditions are 

[sic] cracking, new blood and money and 

energy are coming in, and the Kanawha Valley 

is rapidly coming to the front.” The area west 

of Elk River was most rapidly coming to the 

forefront. John Brisben Walker had seen its 

potential as early as the 1870s, but his efforts 

ended prematurely, in part because of no rail 

access. Completion of the first railroad bridge 

✧ 

Charleston’s skyline changed dramatically 

after completion of a bridge across 

Kanawha River in 1891. It connected the 

C & O railway to town, and opened up 

the South Side. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF STAN COHEN. 


5 9

✧ 

The 1883 Whipple truss bridge carried the 

Kanawha & Michigan Railway, and later 

the streetcar line, over Elk River. A heavier 

span later replaced it, but the landmark 

structure still stands. 



over Elk River came in 1883. The span, a 

historically significant Whipple Truss that still 

spans Elk River at Dryden Street (near Spring 

Street), provided a key element in the fiftymile 

Kanawha and Ohio Railway which 

linked the Kanawha and Ohio valleys. Built 

between 1884 and 1888, the K & O line 

originated at the base of Capitol Hill near 

Piedmont Road and crossed Elk River on 

the Whipple truss, then bisected the West 

Side flats en route to Point Pleasant. In 1890, 

the Kanawha and Michigan Railway acquired 

the right-of-way and extended its line east to 

Gauley Bridge in 1898. Shortly thereafter, the 

Kanawha and West Virginia Railroad linked to 

the K & M on the west bank of the Elk near 

the Whipple Truss and extended upriver to 

Blue Creek, Clendenin and beyond in 1907. 

Rail service to the north and west enhanced 

prospects for Charleston’s continued growth 

and development. Once a sparsely inhabited 

agricultural region, the area west of Elk River 

was rapidly being transformed into a denselypopulated 

industrial district known as Glen 

Elk. Charleston Street (now Washington 

Street) evolved as its main business corridor. 

A large number of fraternal organizations 

and lodge halls met in the upper stories 

of buildings there, which bear witness to 

the West Side’s working class roots. One 

noteworthy early business was a blacksmith 

shop owned by Mose Leftwich, a well-known 

African American citizen and former slave 

who performed smithing duties for many 

farmers along Kanawha Two Mile Creek. 

Other notable enterprises along the west side 

of Elk River included a barrel factory that 

packed and shipped Kanawha salt and a 

tobacco warehouse that shipped over 240,000 

pounds of locally-grown tobacco to English 

markets in 1873. Land was added and known 

as Upper Glen Elk in the 1880s. Then, in 

1891, Glen Elk, Lower Glen Elk, Upper Glen 

Elk, and John B. Walker’s former West End 

Extension combined to incorporate as Elk 

City. Population of the new town reached 

2,000 in 1892, when the municipality 

boasted a foundry, brick yard, saw and 

planing mills, as well as furniture and veneer 

factories. Elk City was a short-lived 

independent entity, as Charleston annexed it 

for the city’s sixth ward in 1895. 


60


INDUSTRIAL EXPANSION AND GROWTH 

1900-1970 

In 1900, Charleston had grown into a small, bustling city of 11,099 with a reputation as a 

“jobbing town” due to the 35 wholesalers and more than 150 salesmen located there. It was 

also a promising center for retail trade. Charleston’s advantageous location in the middle of the 

rich Appalachian coal fields contributed to its expansion. In addition, significant industrial and 

commercial development followed four rail lines that ran through the city. They included the 

Chesapeake & Ohio Railway from Newport News to Cincinnati and beyond; the Kanawha & 

Michigan Railway, completed westward to the Great Lakes and connecting with the C & O on 

the east at Gauley Bridge; the Coal & Coke Railway that ran through the state’s interior and 

followed the Elk River to Charleston, where it linked with the Baltimore & Ohio Railway to 

Baltimore and Pittsburgh; and the Kanawha & West Virginia line that reached into the southern 

coal fields of Raleigh County. 

✧ 

By the turn of the twentieth century, an 

extensive rail network connected Charleston 

to Eastern, Midwestern, and 

Great Lakes markets. 




6 1

✧ 

Below: Charles Ward (1841–1915) arrived 

in Charleston from England in 1871 to 

become superintendent of the Charleston 

Gas Works. A year later he founded Ward 

Engineering Works. 


HUMANITIES COUNCIL. 

Opposite, top: The Scott was built by 

Ward Engineering Works in 1930 for the 

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Later, 

Charleston river man Pete Denny bought 

the boat and piloted it to victory in the 1974 

Charleston Sternwheel Regatta Race. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE AMERICAN 

STERNWHEEL ASSOCIATION. 

Opposite, bottom: After Denny’s death, 

Lawson Hamilton acquired the vessel and 

named it P. A. Denny after his friend. 

It was sold to an Ohio non-profit group in 

2004 and operated for several years as a 

floating classroom. A group of regional 

investors purchased the P. A. Denny 

in 2010. 



62 

For much of the 1800s, boats had to navigate 

a series of dangerous shoals between 

Charleston and Point Pleasant which caused 

numerous wrecks and deterred commercial 

traffic. Between 1875 and 1898, the federal 

government undertook a major project to 

construct ten low-lift wicket dams, the first 

in the nation, with single-lock chambers. 

It provided a consistent six-foot depth and 

made Kanawha River the first in the nation 

to be completely canalized with wicket 

dams. Then, in 1936, three high-lift rollertype 

dams with dual lock chambers replaced 

the old system of ten locks and dams, which 

improved navigation by raising the water 

level to nine feet. In recent years, the 

Winfield, Marmet and Gallipolis Locks and 

Dam have all been expanded to allow more 

barges to simultaneously pass through, 

saving time and lowering shipping costs. 

Spurred on by transportation improvements, 

Charleston’s population increased 

from 7,447 to 39,608 between 1890 and 

1920. As a result, the demand for residential 

and industrial development far outstripped 

the agricultural value of the precious land 

in the floodplain, which created hundreds 

of jobs, boosted the local economy and 

extended Charleston’s urban footprint. One 

of the first important manufactories was 

the Ward Engineering Works located on the 

south bank of the Kanawha River opposite 

downtown. In 1872, Charles Ward founded 

the company which became a premier 

manufacturer of patented water tube boilers, 

pioneered the tunnel stern propeller driven 

towboat, and was among the first to 

develop diesel-powered river towboats. Ward 

Engineering Works produced 89 hulls in a 

variety of designs including sternwheel tows, 

such as the Greenbrier (1924) and the Scott 

(1930) which later plied the Kanawha as 

the excursion boat P. A. Denny. The company 

operated until 1932 under the leadership of 

the founder’s son, Charles E. Ward. Several 

Ward boats are still in operation today, a 

tribute to the quality of their construction. 

The Charleston Regional Chamber of 

Commerce was founded on October 26, 

1900. At the outset, it worked on taxation 

adjustments, various infrastructure improvements 

and recruiting factories. In 

1903, the efforts of representatives 

Charles Capito and D. C. Boyce led 

to the acquisition of the Kelly Axe 

Manufacturing Company. Founder 

William C. Kelly began making axes 

in Kentucky in 1874 and later moved 

operations to Indiana. Drawn by the 

area’s excellent transportation facilities 

and abundant natural gas, he 

relocated his factory along Kanawha 

River just west of Patrick Street in 

1904. The plant, which manufactured 

axes and edge tools, employed 

950 workers on 25 acres by 1907 and 

was reputed to be the largest and 

best equipped factory of its type 

in the world. At its peak, Kelly 

Axe employed over 1,000 workers, 

including many Polish and Russian 

immigrants. It contained fifty buildings on 53 

acres, and produced around 40,000 finished 

tools daily which it shipped worldwide. 

Kelly became part of American Fork and 

Hoe Company in 1930, and in 1949 changed 

its name to True Temper. Production declined 

in the late 1960s and the facility permanently 

closed on May 28, 1982. Today, retail and 

commercial establishments occupy the old 

plant site, along with an oversized and 

underutilized surface parking lot.


6 3

✧ 

Above: At its peak, the sprawling Kelly Axe 

plant covered fifty-three acres and contained 

fifty buildings. It operated for over 

seventy-five years at the south end of 

Patrick Street on the West Side. 



Right: Postcard view of the two Kanawha 

City glass plants, c. 1925. The Owens- 

Illinois bottling plant is at left, and Libbey- 

Owens sheet glass factory is at right. 

MacCorkle Avenue bisects the two factories, 

identified by the twelve landmark 

smokestacks which towered above it. Today, 

the Shops at Kanawha share the site with 

offices and other retail establishments. 


Kanawha County residents responded 

with patriotic fervor during the World War I 

(then known as the Great War), and around 

125 of them lost their lives in service to the 

country. Their sacrifice is remembered in a 

memorial that stands at the Lee Street 

Triangle. Despite the profound loss of life, the 

conflict marked a significant upturn in the 

region’s fortunes as industrial development 

occurred in South Charleston, Dunbar, 

Institute, Nitro and Belle. These activities, 

in turn, bolstered Charleston’s status as a 

financial and commercial center. Much of 

the growth was attributed to cheap and 

abundant resources like natural gas, which 

became an important fuel source for the 

local glass industry. Industrial expansion 

increased the region’s ethnic diversity, as 

African Americans toiled as laborers, miners 

and railroaders; South Charleston’s Banner 

Window Glass Company was owned and 

mostly operated by Belgian workers, and 

Dunkirk Window Glass Company was a 

French-owned facility. 

Glass production began in Charleston in 

1917, when the Libbey-Owens Sheet Glass 

Company (later Libbey-Owens-Ford) erected 

a large plant on the upper south side in 


64

Kanawha City. The Libbey-Owens plant in 

Kanawha City manufactured window glass 

and plate glass blanks. Employment reached 

450 by the early 1920s. Edward Libbey and 

Michael Owens had formed the company 

earlier that year in Toledo, Ohio, and the 

Charleston operation was the company’s 

first plant. Owens, a native of nearby Mason 

County, began as a glassworker’s apprentice 

in Wheeling in 1869, and in 1888 went to 

work for Libbey in Toledo. Libbey-Owens 

became the first company to produce automotive 

laminated safety glass, and by the 

mid-1920s its U.S. operations had grown to 

thirteen plants, including ones at Fairmont, 

Clarksburg, Huntington, and Charleston. In 

1928, the company won a contract to supply 

the Ford Motor Company with automobile 

windshields, a development which led to 

the creation of Libbey-Owens-Ford Glass 

Company two years later. 

Before achieving financial success in the 

corporate world, Michael Owens invented 

an automatic glass bottle manufacturing 

machine that revolutionized the industry. 

As a result, in 1903 he joined with Libbey 

and others to form the Owens Bottle Machine 

Company. With continued development and 

improvements, Owens later patented a 

machine capable of producing four bottles 

per second. In 1917, the Owens Bottle 

Company (later Owens-Illinois) opened a 

bottling works directly across MacCorkle 

Avenue from the sheet glass plant. The bottle 

factory, which employed 211 workers in 

1922, initially produced fruit jars and jars 

for industrial products, plus beer bottles 

after Prohibition ended. By the 1930s, the 

Kanawha City facility was the largest bottlemaking 

operation in the world. 

Charleston residents generally failed to 

distinguish between the two factories that 

straddled MacCorkle Avenue, despite the fact 

that they were separate and independent 

establishments. Locals vaguely knew them 

as “the glass plants” as if they were one 

operation, easily recognizable by the long 

line of massive brick chimneys that dominated 

the Kanawha City skyline. These tandem 

operations contributed to the development 

of nearby neighborhoods and remained 

important economic engines for decades. 

The bottling plant closed its doors in 1963 

and the glass plant followed in 1980. 

✧ 

Mason County native Michael J. Owens 

(1859-1923) began a glassware 

apprenticeship in Wheeling at age ten. 

He later moved to Toledo, Ohio, and began 

working for Edward Libbey. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY 

OF TOLEDO. 


6 5

✧ 

Below: View of an early streetcar operated 

by the Charleston Traction Company, 

c. 1910. This car is running the Virginia 

(now Tennessee) Avenue and Bigley route 

on the West Side. 


Opposite, top: The Charleston 

Greyhound Terminal. 


Opposite, bottom: Charleston’s iconic 

Greyhound terminal featured a Vitrolite 

facade and glass block corner windows. 

One can envision its stunning appearance 

by comparing it to George Brown’s smaller 

Columbia, South Carolina, terminal, 

which still stands. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE LIBRARY 

OF CONGRESS, PRINTS AND PHOTOGRAPHS DIVISION, 

HTTP://WWW.LOC.GOV/PICTURES/ITEM/SC0758.COLOR.570 

829C/RESOURCE/ 


66 

Along with an expanding glass industry, 

area chemical production increased dramatically 

during the World War I era. Like salt 

production a century earlier, the war economy 

provided a catalyst for change. Specifically, 

U.S. support for the Allied cause against 

Germany in the Great War led to an embargo 

of chlorine and alkalis from the enemy nation, 

which broke U.S. dependence on German 

suppliers and spurred domestic chemical production. 

Once again, reliable transportation 

and abundant raw materials—salt brine, coal, 

natural gas, and oil—allowed the Kanawha 

Valley to emerge as a leader in the field. 

In 1920 the Carbide and Carbon Chemical 

Company, which later became the Union 

Carbide Corporation, opened the nation’s first 

commercial ethylene plant along Elk River in 

Clendenin. Five years later, the company 

moved to South Charleston for the manufacture 

of ethylene-based products, most 

importantly antifreeze, and two years later 

it purchased Blaine Island to expand petrochemical 

production. Union Carbide emerged 

as an industry leader by mid-century, with 

local plants at South Charleston, Alloy, and 

Institute. In 1949, South Charleston became 

home to Carbide’s Technical Center, the corporation’s 

largest research and development 

facility. Total revenues exceeded $10 billion 

by 1982, placing Union Carbide among the 

top ten companies in the United States. 

Bolstered by expansion in coal mining, 

manufacturing and chemical production, 

Charleston’s population mushroomed from 

22,996 in 1910 to 60,408 by 1930. By comparison, 

Kanawha County’s population nearly 

doubled, from 81,457 to 157,667, during the 

same period. Unparalleled post-war growth 

brought the need for new and improved 

modes of transportation. Like most U.S. cities, 

Charleston turned to mass transit in the form 

of electrified streetcars. W. W. Hazard founded 

the Charleston Traction Company in 1905 and 

established three streetcar routes: the Inner 

Loop ran east on Quarrier to Brooks Street, 

north on Brooks to Smith Street, and west on 

Smith to Capitol Street; the Middle Loop ran 

east on Virginia Street to Ruffner Avenue, from 

Ruffner north to Washington Street, and west 

on Washington to Capitol Street; the Outer 

Loop ran east on Washington to Duffy Street 

(which ran in front of the current West 

Virginia Culture Center, south on Duffy to 

Virginia Street, and west on Virginia 

to Capitol Street. Streetcars also ran 

the loop in the opposite direction, 

starting on Virginia Street and running 

to Washington Street. Within 

a short time, the line crossed Elk 

River to the West Side on the 

1883 Whipple Truss Bridge. In 

1910, local investors formed the 

Charleston Interurban Railroad 

Company and acquired the existing 

streetcar line. With an infusion of 

capital, service reached St. Albans, 

Dunbar, and Cabin Creek by 1916. 

By the mid-1920s the era of 

electric-powered streetcars was 

nearing an end. In 1925 the 

Midland Trail Transit Company, a 

subsidiary of the Charleston Transit 

Company, placed its first gasolinepowered 

buses in service from 

downtown to Crescent Road, 

Piedmont Road, and South Hills; 

many of the old streetcar routes

ceased to exist by the end of the 

decade. The insolvent Interurban 

Railroad went into receivership in 

1933, replaced by the Charleston 

Transit Company in 1935. After streetcar 

service ended citywide in 1939, 

local bus service expanded westward 

to St. Albans-Nitro and eastward to 

Montgomery. In 1971, the Kanawha 

Valley Regional Transportation Authority 

(KRT) took over the county’s mass 

transit system. 

In addition to the local bus company, 

long-distance service was on 

the rise when Atlantic Greyhound 

Lines constructed a terminal in the 

heart of downtown in 1936. Located 

on Summers Street at present Slack 

Plaza, Charleston’s streamlined Art Moderne 

Terminal was designed by Charleston resident 

George D. Brown, an architect who worked 

for a succession of local firms before taking 

employment in the early 1930s with Atlantic 

Greyhound Corporation, founded and headquartered 

in Charleston His classic streamlined 

designs became synonymous with 

Greyhound. During a career that spanned two 

decades, Brown designed around sixty terminals 

throughout Atlantic Greyhound’s fourteen-state 

region. Unfortunately, Charleston’s 

iconic terminal was demolished in the early 

1980s, but outstanding examples of Brown’s 

work survive in Columbia, South Carolina, 

and Savannah, Georgia. 


6 7

✧ 

West Virginia’s magnificent 1885 capitol 

was destroyed by fire on January 3, 1921. 

The steam pumper engine in action at lower 

left is now in the lobby of Charleston 

Civic Center. 




68 

Subdivision of East End land for residential 

and commercial development gained 

momentum in the early 1900s. The “Ruffner 

Brothers” additions permitted the extension 

of major through streets to near Elizabeth 

Street, and generally established the present 

grid pattern by 1907. Subdivision of the 

deGruyter Addition between Michigan and 

Chesapeake Avenues was undertaken as early 

as 1904, and the Comstock and Kanawha 

Additions east of California Avenue were 

laid out by 1914. With city population 

nearing 40,000 by 1920, optimism prevailed 

for continued growth and expansion in the 

public and private sectors. 

The city suffered an irreplaceable loss 

on January 3, 1921, when a disastrous fire 

consumed the elegant 1885 Victorian capitol 

building. The conflagration started shortly 

after 3:00 p.m. on a blustery winter day 

and spread rapidly. Although its origin is 

unknown, the blaze was thought to have 

started in an upper storage room used by 

the National Guard and State Police—which 

also contained thousands of rounds of 

ammunition which, when ignited, created 

a fiery spectacle that sent firefighters and 

onlookers scurrying for cover. The speed 

with which the flames spread made it 

impossible to save many valuable state 

records. One volunteer fireman died in the 

blaze, and by nightfall the elegant brick 

statehouse had been reduced to a smoldering 

ruin. Destruction of the landmark building 

was a shocking blow for area residents 

but the state’s insurance coverage paid for 

the physical loss. In the aftermath of the 

fire Clarksburg and Parkersburg attempted 

political maneuvers to wrest the seat of 

government from Charleston, but both failed. 

State officials immediately authorized construction 

of a temporary wood frame office 

building along Washington Street on the 

future site of Daniel Boone Hotel. Derisively

known as the “pasteboard capitol” for its 

simple and unadorned appearance, it took 

about six weeks to build and contained 166 

rooms. Meanwhile, the state legislature met as 

scheduled in regular session in late January, 

with meetings convened in the Capitol Annex 

and various locations throughout the city. 

Government offices remained in the temporary 

capitol until March 2, 1927, when a 

second fire of unknown origin completely 

destroyed it. No one died in the blaze, but 

state records were lost for the second time in 

six years. Fortunately, a portion of the new 

capitol on the East End was already in use by 

that time. The governor had also moved in 

1925 to a new Executive Mansion. Designed 

by local architect Walter F. Martens, the residence 

stands a short distance from the capitol. 

Selection of a new site began in the autumn 

of 1923 when Governor Ephraim Morgan 

appointed a State Capitol Commission to 

select a permanent location for a complex of 

administrative buildings intended to serve the 

present and future needs of state government. 

After reviewing several options, officials chose 

a roughly three square-block area in the heart 

of Charleston’s East End as the site of a new 

capitol. Noted architect Cass Gilbert received 

the commission to design the landmark 

structure, and he chose buff limestone in a 

neo-Classical style. The capitol was built as 

three interconnecting units—work on the 

west wing was begun in 1924 and occupied 

the following year, while the east wing was 

finished in 1927. Five years later, work ended 

on the connecting central domed segment. 

Dedication of the new seat of government 

took place on June 20, 1932. 

Construction was scheduled to take 

place on ground where a large number of 

nearly new homes stood. As a result 

enterprising realtors Bradford Noyes and 

A. E. Young bought twelve properties and 

hired the Eichleay Corporation of Pittsburgh, 

Pennsylvania, to move them about 500 feet 

down the street, load them onto a barge and 

float them across Kanawha River. The company 

moved the houses to South Ruffner as 

part of Beachview development, named for 

the nearby swimming hole located at Lick 

Branch. Eichleay charged Noyes and Young 

$3,500 per house, and $42,000 in all. A provision 

in the contract called for the firm to 

pay for any damages incurred, but Noyes 

later recounted that “they never had to pay us 

a dollar.” Noyes and Young made a handsome 

profit on the project and gained national 

publicity in the process, as Popular Mechanics 

and several other magazines and newspapers 

covered the event. Most of the homes transplanted 

to South Ruffner no longer exist, 

but at least three survive. 

As it turned out, the South Ruffner homes 

were not the only ones moved. In all, about 

fifty residences condemned by the state 

found new life elsewhere. Supposedly, one 

property had furniture left in place and china 

in the closets without suffering so much as a 

scratch! Master house mover John P. Eichleay 

engineered the feat, and he shared details 

of the successful operation in the April 1925 

edition of American magazine. 

✧ 

The capitol’s 293-foot gold dome is five feet 

higher than the dome of the U.S. Capitol, 

and is gilded in twenty-three-and-a-half 

karat gold leaf applied to the copper and 

lead roof in tiny squares. 



6 9

T W E L V E H O M E S F L O A T A C R O S S T H E K A N A W H A R I V E R 

“One of our largest house-moving operations,” Mr. Eichleay went on, “was that at Charleston, West Virginia, where a total of 50 detached houses 

were moved to make way for the new State Capitol. In January of 1921 the old Capitol burned, and in choosing a site for the building to replace 

it, the state officials selected one of the residential sections of the city. Fifty nice residences, many of them of stone, brick, or stucco were bought 

by the State and condemned. But before the tearing-down process was under way, some residents conceived the idea that the houses might be 

moved. Immediately the cry went up—as it invariably does in our work—that such an idea was ridiculous. Nevertheless, a number of the home 

owners went to the state officials and were permitted to repurchase their properties, conditional upon their removal. Our company was engaged, 

and we went to work.... Finally, all the houses were moved except twelve. All available lots in the district had been taken, and the questions arose, 

‘What shall we do with these extra houses? Why not start a new town with them across the river?’ we suggested. ‘We can take them over there as 

easily as anywhere.’ Real estate men, eager to develop the other shore of the Kanawha, at once fell in with the plan, and we were told to go ahead. 

We brought down two steel barges from Pittsburgh, and hitched them together, with a wooden barge between. This time—because of the number 

of houses to be moved—we built a more or less permanent trestle of truss-work and cross-piling from the curb of the street to our platform of cribbing 

on the barges, a distance of 225 feet. Railroad tracks were laid on this, and over it, and without the least trouble the houses were drawn, one 

at a time, by a horse-power capstan.... This job was a large one because of the number of houses involved, but it wasn’t an especially difficult one.” 

✧ 

Right: Two houses on blocks—the houses 

were loaded in pairs onto a double river 

barge and then floated across the Kanawha 

River to their new location in South Ruffner. 

The old houses started life anew as part of 

the Beachview development, named for a 

nearby swimming hole at Lick Branch. 



Bottom, left and right: Eichleay Corporation 

successfully relocated fifty houses in 1923. 

The two pictured here are bound for South 

Ruffner. Now they face each other on 

opposite sides of Twentieth Street. 

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF BILLY JOE PEYTON. 


70

A gaping hole in the middle of 

downtown Charleston reminded 

residents of what had been lost in 

the capitol fire, but another iconic 

structure soon rose to fill the void. 

The twenty-story Kanawha Valley 

(now Sun Trust) Building was completed 

in 1929 as headquarters for 

Kanawha Valley Bank, with office 

space on the upper floors. For half 

a century the Kanawha Valley 

Building held title as the tallest 

building in West Virginia, until 

nearby Laidley Tower eclipsed it 

in 1980. Many of the city’s historic 

buildings were constructed between 

the world wars. At the time, 

Charleston had a number of fine 

lodging establishments, including 

the Ruffner Hotel, Kanawha Hotel, 

and Daniel Boone Hotel. 

Charleston’s citizens struggled 

with the effects of the Great 

Depression, but the city’s role as a regional 

hub for wholesale and retail commerce 

insulated residents from the extreme hardship 

experienced elsewhere. Leisure time 

gave the opportunity to catch a show at the 

Strand, Capitol, Rialto, Hippodrome, Grand, 

Virginian, or Kearse Theaters. Downtown 

streets were thronged with shoppers day 

and night, especially during the Christmas 

holiday. Population rose from 60,408 in 1930 

to 67,914 in 1940—a 12.4 percent increase. 

Between 1935 and 1947, Charleston completed 

many construction and civic projects 

under the leadership of Mayor D. Boone 

Dawson. During his tenure, the city spent a 

million dollars on street paving and repairs, 

built four new fire stations and the first 

two federally-funded public housing projects 

in West Virginia (Littlepage Terrace and 

Washington Manor), and secured funding for 

a major sewer project. 

As Charleston grew, so, too, did the 

number of vehicles on city streets. Increasing 

traffic clogged downtown and created gridlock, 

a situation made worse during shift 

change at the large factories located on either 

end of the city. A Charleston Gazette editorial 

in 1936 summed up the vexing problem: 

For years our civic organizations have in 

vain sought a solution for a nasty, complicated 

local traffic situation, where a fast and solidlygrowing 

city is hemmed in by two rivers, 

two railroads with many crossings, and the 

mountains, with 13 state arterial highways 

centering here in a hub, pouring their daily 

increasing traffic load into our very doors, 

while we have sat complacently by and made 

no attempt at a sensible plan for avoiding the 

unnecessary parts of this city-bound swarm. 

It should seem wise to keep state traffic out of 

the middle of the city because, with our many 

crooked, narrow, dead-end streets, we will 

still always be hard pressed to take care of our 

own purely local situation. 

In 1936 city leaders proposed a bold 

solution for Charleston’s transportation woes. 

The plan called for a substantial upgrade of 

existing routes on either end of the city, and 

to connect them with a bypass that averted 

the most heavily congested streets. The grand 

plan actually involved four separate projects. 

First would be construction of a cut-off route 

from Dunbar to Kanawha Two-mile Creek, 

where the heavily traveled Point Pleasant 

road (U.S. 35) entered the city. Planners felt 

✧ 

As shown on this 1936 state highway map, 

four U.S. routes (21, 35, 60 and 119) and 

several state and county routes ran through 

downtown contributing to gridlock that led 

to the Boulevard project. 



7 1

✧ 

Top: Capitol Street looking south from Fife 

Street (now Brawley Walkway), c. 1930. 



Right: Military units marching north along 

a congested Capitol Street in the 1931 

Christmas parade. 




72

it would yield immediate relief “for traffic all 

along Charleston, Washington, and even 

Lee, State, and Quarrier Streets.” Next would 

be a multi-lane bypass extending the length 

of the city along the north bank of Kanawha 

River. This massive public works project 

would necessitate removing all extant 

structures from the south (river) side of 

Kanawha Street, depositing millions of tons 

of earthen fill for a broad forty-foot right-ofway, 

and massive amounts of stone rip-rap 

to stabilize the riverbank. The third portion 

of the project involved a new bridge to carry 

the multi-lane bypass over Elk River. Finally, 

the connector would link to an upgraded 

segment of the Midland Trail (U.S. 60) east 

of Charleston. When completed, these four 

projects would create a continuous fourteenmile 

boulevard stretching from Malden 

to Dunbar. 

Implementing such a grandiose transportation 

plan was unprecedented for the 

Kanawha Valley, but other metropolitan 

areas, including New York and Detroit, were 

actively implementing similar projects to 

relieve major traffic problems. In Charleston, 

a local group known as the West Side 

Business Men’s Association played a significant 

role in conceptualizing the plan and 

combining the various elements into one 

comprehensive project deemed “breathtaking 

in its scope.” Funding for such an undertaking 

during the depths of the Great 

Depression would require a partnership 

between President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 

Public Works Administration (PWA), which 

provided federal grants, and the City of 

Charleston, which proposed a bond issue to 

make up the balance of the cost. 

The first funds became available in August 

1937, when President Roosevelt approved 

a $450,000 PWA grant to construct a 

500-foot bridge over Elk River, which consulting 

engineer C. P. Fortnoy claimed to be 

longest continuous girder span in the world. 

The PWA grant represented forty-five percent 

of the estimated cost of the structure. At the 

same time, Charleston received a second grant 

totaling $192,658 to offset forty-five percent 

of the cost for a municipal auditorium. 

✧ 

Completed in 1939, the Municipal 

Auditorium was Charleston’s premier 

performance hall for many years. 

It is on the National Register of Historic 

Places and still in operation. 



7 3

✧ 

Top: Back in the day, Kanawha Street was a 

tree-lined country lane. 


Above: Construction of Kanawha Boulevard 

transformed it into a modern four-lane 

thoroughfare that expedited traffic flow. 



74 

Requests for bids on both projects were 

delivered from the PWA regional office in 

Chicago in mid-December 1937, with the bid 

opening set for January 6, 1938. At the 

opening the bridge came in under budget 

but the auditorium did not, so officials 

revised plans for it. By March of 1938, the 

city had acquired all rights-of-way for the 

bridge except the Dickinson parcel along 

Elk River. Workers poured the first concrete 

in mid-April, and in August 1938 the center 

span was raised. Meanwhile, work on the 

auditorium continued. 

Charleston residents went to the polls on 

September 19, 1938, and overwhelmingly 

approved $2,040,000 in low interest bonds to 

match PWA grants for five proposed projects. 

Despite the fact that the nation remained 

mired in the Great Depression, the boulevard 

project carried by a 7 to 1 margin and 

support for the other initiatives ran as high as 

10 to 1. Obviously, Charleston residents 

overwhelmingly supported the expenditure of 

public funds for projects that would forever 

alter their city. 

Work on the four-lane Kanawha Boulevard 

began with the purchase of rights-of-way in 

1938. By June 1939, reports claimed that the 

lack of funds for property purchases might 

necessitate leaving the Union Building standing 

at the south end of Capitol Street. Officials 

determined that it would not necessarily 

create an overt safety hazard if the city did 

not obtain the specified 60-foot right-of-way 

there, because a similar situation existed at 

the nearby South Side Bridge. The distance 

from the curb on the north side to the river 

bank pier on the opposite side of the street 

measured approximately 48 feet, the maximum 

possible width due to the new South 

Side Bridge Pier—a tight passage, but still 

ample for four lanes of traffic. In the end, 

clearance was about the same width at the 

Union Building and the bridge, which spared 

the Union Building. It endures as a defining 

feature of Charleston’s skyline, and it is 

difficult to imagine the city without it. 

Although the world stood on the brink 

of a disastrous war in the fall of 1939, 

Charlestonians had much to celebrate. They 

witnessed the opening of the beautiful new 

Municipal Auditorium and paving of the last 

stretches of Kanawha Boulevard. In addition, 

a new thru-truss bridge spanned Elk River at 

Lee Street, and plans were revealed for a new 

and modern road between Charleston and 

Dunbar which was intended to eliminate a 

bottleneck at the old stone bridge over 

Kanawha Two-Mile Creek. Also, the highway 

on the opposite side of the river (MacCorkle 

Avenue) was improved and widened. 

As residents celebrated completion of 

numerous public works projects that brought 

Charleston into its modern era, the nation’s 

attention turned to cataclysmic events 

unfolding in Europe and the Pacific. On 

December 7, 1941, Japanese forces attacked 

the U.S. military base at Pearl Harbor, 

Hawaii, and within days the United States 

found itself at war with Japan and Germany. 

Like elsewhere, Kanawha Valley residents 

unhesitatingly contributed to the war effort.

Thousands served in the armed forces, while 

coal miners, chemical workers and others 

employed in essential industries remained on 

the job to provide needed material for the 

fight. Scores of area women proudly rolled 

up their sleeves and worked as a “Rosie the 

Riveter” in defense industry jobs that had 

been vacated by men in military service, 

while others willingly participated in scrap 

drives, bought War Bonds, complied with 

mandatory rationing, and otherwise contributed 

to the war effort. African Americans 

dutifully answered the call to service, as well, 

despite the fact that they were not afforded 

equal treatment at home. 

The essential war effort continued for 

three-and-a-half-years, until Germany surrendered 

on May 8, 1945, and Japan stopped 

fighting three months later. A spontaneous 

street party erupted in Charleston when 

residents learned of V-J Day on August 14, 

1945. DuPont employees were given a twoday 

holiday as were Carbiders, Charleston 

city employees, postal workers and those 

employed in retail. On V-J Day, revelers 

paused in silence to read names of the 

fallen on a plaque erected downtown. 

Of the 218,665 West Virginians in 

military service during World War II, 

5,820 were killed or missing. Among 

that number were 500 Kanawha County 

residents, the most of any West Virginia 

county. Today, their supreme sacrifice is 

immortalized on three permanent public 

memorials. The oldest and most visible 

is the World War II memorial erected in 

1946 by the American Legion at the Lee 

Street Triangle; next is the Veteran’s 

Memorial at the State Capitol Complex, 

dedicated in 1995 to honor more than 

10,000 West Virginia men and women 

who died in twentieth century conflicts; 

third is the Female Veteran Memorial 

Statue, adjacent to the state Veteran’s 

Memorial and dedicated in 2011 to 

honor more than 11,000 West Virginia 

women who have served in defense of 

their country. 

Following World War II, returning 

veterans enrolled in college courses 

under the Servicemen’s Readjustment 

Act of 1944, commonly known as the GI Bill 

of Rights. But, opportunities for a college 

education were surprisingly limited in the 

capital city. Charleston’s first institution of 

higher learning was established in 1906 by 

Dr. William Sandheger ‘‘Sandy’’ Mason, an 

accomplished violinist and founder of the 

Mason Quartet, as well as a city symphony 

and civic chorus. Originally called the Mason 

School of Music and Fine Arts, it became 

the Mason College of Music and Fine Arts 

in 1936. The school, which offered classes 

for children, undergraduates, teachers, and 

adults, attracted talented teachers from 

here and abroad, including some who had 

fled Nazi persecution. Mason College drew 

promising students like Pulitzer Prize and 

Grammy-winning composer George Crumb 

of Charleston, who received his bachelor’s 

degree in 1950. In 1956, Mason College of 

Music and Fine Arts merged with Morris 

Harvey College, a private Methodist school 

founded in Barboursville in 1888 and which 

relocated to Charleston in 1935. 

✧ 

Revelers thronged Capitol Street on V-J Day 

to celebrate the end of World War II. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF CHARLESTON NEWSPAPERS. 


7 5

✧ 

Garnet High School opened in 1900 on 

Jacob Street, and moved to 422 Dickinson 

Street in 1929. The building is on the 




76 

Originally, Morris Harvey College was 

housed in the Capitol Annex at Lee and Hale 

Streets. The college shared the building with 

the Kanawha County Public Library and a 

two-year institution called Kanawha College. 

In 1939 the two schools merged, and three 

years later the college severed ties with 

the Methodist Church. Morris Harvey moved 

in 1947 to its current campus on the south 

bank of Kanawha River opposite the state 

capitol. In 1978 the institution became 

University of Charleston, which now offers 

undergraduate and graduate programs at 

campuses in Charleston, Beckley and 

Martinsburg, as well as online learning. 

The oldest institution of higher learning 

in the Kanawha Valley is West Virginia State 

University, founded in 1891 under the Second 

Morrill Land Grant Act to educate black 

West Virginians during the era of racial segregation. 

Originally known as the West Virginia 

Colored Institute, it became West Virginia 

State College in 1929 and West Virginia State 

University in 2004. State has a rich heritage 

as a historically black college which desegregated 

in reverse after the landmark 1954 

Brown v. Board of Education decision. Today, 

it is the largest and most diverse four-year 

public institution of higher education in the 


Although educational opportunities have 

existed in one way or another for the area’s 

black population since the end of the Civil 

War, the harsh realities of black life in 

segregated Charleston remained less than 

ideal into the mid-twentieth century. African 

Americans have been a part of Charleston’s 

history since the beginning, and they have 

played a significant, if unheralded, role in the 

city’s collective heritage. In past years, many 

property deeds included a provision stating 

that the buyer “would not lease or sell any of 

said property to a negro or any person or 

persons of negro blood, all of which is a 

covenant that shall run with the land.” In 

select neighborhoods, such racial restrictions 

were common practice until passage of equal 

housing provisions under the Civil Rights Act 

of 1964. Despite obstacles to equality, West 

Virginia was more progressive than other 

southern states in terms of opportunities for 

black residents. It was the first state to 

provide equal salaries for white and black 

teachers with equal preparation and experience, 

as well as the first state to name an 

African American as state superintendent of 

its “Negro Schools.” 

Arguably, the most important center of 

Charleston’s African American community 

was Garnet High School, founded in 1900 

when twelve black pupils passed entrance 

examinations for high school work. Named 

for Henry Highland Garnett, an ex-slave, 

noted clergyman, abolitionist and diplomat, 

the school moved to its present location in 

1929. Interestingly, when workers cut the

name of the school into the cornerstone and 

arch over the entrance, they spelled Garnett 

with only one “t.” Instead of re-cutting 

the stone, the Board of Education adopted 

the new spelling as official. Garnet’s 

prominent graduates include: TV host 

Tony Brown; noted cardiothoracic surgeon 

Dr. John C. Norman; Reverend Leon Sullivan, 

whose Sullivan Principles helped dismantle 

apartheid in South Africa; and Lewis R. 

Smoot, Sr., president and CEO of Smoot 

Construction Company. 

The closing of Garnet High School in 

1956 had a tremendous impact on 

Charleston’s African American community. 

Former students attended either Stonewall 

Jackson or Charleston High School, both 

previously all-white schools. Gradually, black 

businesses surrounding Garnet High School 

closed and formerly black neighborhoods 

became integrated. While ending segregation 

was certainly warranted, the closing of 

Garnet High seemed to be the first step in 

the loss of identity for Charleston’s African- 

American community. The building itself 

remains in use, operated and funded by 

Kanawha County Schools as Garnet Career 

Center. It is the only surviving 

public school building in the 

downtown commercial center. 

Garnet High School’s doors 

opened directly onto Shrewsbury 

Street, historically a gathering 

place for the black community 

and just around the corner from 

“The Block,” where parades and 

other important events took place. 

At 1004-08 Washington Street 

was the Ferguson Hotel, built 

in 1922 by Captain Gurnett E. 

“Cap” Ferguson. Containing seventy 

rooms, it included a movie 

theater, cafe, pool room, barber 

shop, haberdashery, and convention 

hall. African Americans from 

near and far stayed there, since 

they were barred from whitesonly 

establishments. The Ferguson 

was demolished to make way 

for the Heart-O-Town Motor Inn 

in 1966. 

Religion has played a prominent place in 

the public life of the city’s black population 

since the end of the Civil War. Among the 

first African American houses of worship was 

First Baptist Church, established in 1868. 

The church first met in an academy building 

in the vicinity of Quarrier and Hale Streets, 

and then in a two-room public school 

erected on Quarrier Street by the Freedmen’s 

Bureau. By 1878, First Baptist Church had 

its own building on Washington Street near 

Shrewsbury. Dr. Mordecai Johnson served as 

pastor from 1917 to 1926, during which time 

the present church was built at the corner of 

Shrewsbury and Lewis Streets. Dr. Johnson 

helped found the Charleston Branch of the 

NAACP, which brought to the city outstanding 

black performers like Marian Anderson 

and Paul Robeson. Johnson resigned his 

Charleston ministry to become president of 

Howard University in Washington, D.C. 

Johnson’s Charleston successor was Reverend 

Vernon Johns, who pastored First Baptist 

Church in 1927-28 and again from 1937 to 

1941. After leaving Charleston the second time, 

Johns preceded Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 

as pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church 

✧ 

Above: Gurnett E. “Cap” Ferguson 

(1888-1982) served as a captain in 

World War I. He later taught school, 

worked in real estate, and owned the 

Ferguson Hotel. 


(FROM 1929 WEST VIRGINIA BLUE BOOK). 

Left: Located on Washington Street 

between Shrewsbury and Broad Streets 

(Leon Sullivan Way), The Block featured a 

number of black-owned establishments. 

Desegregation and urban renewal negatively 

impacted business and led to in The Block 

being demolished by the 1970s. 


(FROM 1933 SANBORN FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY MAP). 


7 7

✧ 

The Diamond, West Virginia’s largest 

department store, integrated its cafeteria 

and lunch counters in 1960 after 

West Virginia State College students 

staged a sit-down protest. 



78 

in Montgomery, Alabama, where he mentored 

Ralph Abernathy, Wyatt Walker, and others 

involved the Southern Christian Leadership 

Conference (SCLC), which played a leading 

role in the Civil Rights Movement. 

Simpson Memorial United Methodist 

Church is another significant religious institution. 

It traces its origins to black worshipers 

who organized their own Methodist 

congregation in 1865 in the basement of 

Asbury Chapel. Five years later, the congregants 

constructed a frame church at Quarrier 

and Dickinson Streets. After a fire destroyed 

the church in 1888, a new and larger house 

of worship took the name Simpson Methodist 

Episcopal Church in honor of Bishop 

Matthew Simpson, a supporter of the Union, 

emancipation, and President Lincoln. The 

current church building at 607 Shrewsbury 

Street dates to 1915, and remains a viable, 

and vital, community resource. 

Unfortunately, the struggle for racial 

equality in Charleston is not well documented. 

Few folks know that on January 16, 1959, 

rookie basketball sensation Elgin Baylor boycotted 

his team’s regular season NBA game 

at the Charleston Civic Center. Most of the 

2,300 fans who witnessed the Minneapolis 

Lakers play the Cincinnati Royals thought the 

Lakers rookie sensation was ill or injured 

because Baylor dressed in street clothes and 

sat on the bench during the contest. After the 

game it was revealed that he had refused to 

play in protest because the Kanawha Hotel at 

Virginia and Summers Street would not allow 

Baylor and two other black players, Boo Ellis 

and Ed Fleming, to stay with the rest of the 

team. In response, all of the Lakers moved to 

Edna’s Tourist Court on Lewis Street, a hotel 

that accepted African Americans. Still, Baylor 

refused to play that evening’s game in protest. 

Apparently, Ellis and Fleming, who did play, 

attempted to change his mind; Charleston 

native “Hot” Rod Hundley, who played for 

the Lakers at the time, also pleaded with 

Baylor, but to no avail. In the end, the Lakers 

lost the game 95-92. 

Baylor later said he would not have played 

the game even if it cost him his entire year’s 

salary. He also noted that “They sent me to a 

colored restaurant and it wasn’t fit to eat in,” 

so he bought some food at a grocery store 

which he ate in his room at Edna’s. All of 

the Lakers stayed there after they discovered 

that their three black players could not 

register at the Kanawha Hotel. The protest 

made national news. Charleston’s American 

Business Club, which sponsored the game 

and lost money because of poor attendance, 

filed a protest with the NBA and the Lakers 

but both refused to discipline Baylor. 

Local civil rights efforts gained significant 

momentum when West Virginia’s first chapter 

of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) 

was formed in Charleston in 1958. For over 

two years, CORE led organized boycotts of 

well-known downtown stores that practiced 

segregationist policies. In April 1960, The 

Diamond Department Store at Washington 

and Capitol Streets was the scene of a 

sit-down protest at its lunch counter by a 

group of students from West Virginia State 

College. Amidst mounting pressure, the store 

integrated its dining facilities on May 3, 1960. 

Charleston Mayor John Shanklin expressed 

gratification at the action, stating that: 

This indicates to me that the Mayor’s 

Commission of Human Relations has the 

confidence of all the citizens of Charleston 

and that their approach to this very important 

question is the right way to accomplish it.

In announcing the decision to admit 

blacks to its cafeteria and lunch counters, 

company management said the action was in 

cooperation with the Mayor’s commission: 

The Diamond is endeavoring to comply 

with the policies of the Mayor’s Commission 

which have been endorsed by our governor, 

prominent citizens, and other public and 

religious leaders for the conducting of better 

civic relations in our city. 

Afterwards, other downtown establishments 

ended racial segregation, but some businesses 

and private clubs remained so for years. 

Charleston’s continued growth increased 

the urgency for additional public improvements. 

One badly-needed amenity was a 

reliable airfield. Public air service for the 

Kanawha Valley had begun in 1930 after the 

City of Charleston obtained land adjacent 

to West Virginia State College in Institute, 

which it leased to a group of businessmen 

who operated an airport called Wertz Field. 

Within a short time, the site had become 

too small to accommodate new and larger 

planes so city leaders began searching for 

a new location. In 1938, D. M. Giltinan, 

D. N. Mohler, D. C. Kennedy, Charles E. Hodges, 

Fred Alley and J. B. Pierce formed a committee 

to survey airport needs and study possible 

sites within a twenty-five-mile radius of 

Charleston. With no suitable land on the 

valley floor, a bold proposal made in 1940 

called for a new airport on the hilltops of 

Coonskin Ridge near Elk Two-Mile Creek. 

Meanwhile, in 1942 the city lost the use 

of Wertz Field when its approaches were 

blocked by the erection of a federallysupported 

synthetic rubber plant. 

Attempts to gain public funding for the 

airport project initially failed, but in 1943 

a large county bond issue passed by an 

overwhelming margin. Commitment of local 

dollars made it possible to leverage a federal 

appropriation, and ground was broken in 

October 1944. In the end, the decision was 

made to level three hills and fill intervening 

valleys for the “upstairs” airport. Construction 

of Kanawha Airport employed the latest in 

earthmoving technology to redistribute over 

9,000,000 cubic yards of earth and rock. 

As excavators dug down about 40 feet (an 

elevation of 1,030 feet), workmen uncovered 

millions of fossilized fern leaves which 

disintegrated shortly after exposure, followed 

by a deposit of large boulders, petrified tree 

trunks and a two-and-a-half foot seam of 

coal. At an elevation of 1,030 feet, the hilltop 

site had once been a low-lying swamp. 

✧ 

Above: Today, a vintage P-51D Mustang 

bearing WVA ANG insignia serves as a gate 

guardian at the West Virginia Air National 

Guard headquarters near Coonskin Park. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF 

THE WARBIRD INFORMATION EXCHANGE, 

HTTP://WARBIRDINFORMATIONEXCHANGE.ORG/PHPBB3/VI 

EWTOPIC.PHP?F=3&T=33150 

Below: On August 10, 1968, this Piedmont 

Airlines Model FH-227B Pacemaker propjet 

crashed at Kanawha Airport, killing thirtyfive. 

The aircraft had been in service for less 

than a year. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF GARY C. ORLANDO, 

HTTP://FH227.RWY34.COM/RESULTS.PHP?SERIAL=557 


7 9

✧ 

Charleston lost one of its landmark churches 

in 2012, when the century-old Central 

United Methodist Church on Bigley Avenue 

was demolished to make way for a 

Family Dollar Store. 



80 

Dedication of Kanawha Airport (later 

renamed Yeager Airport in honor Lincoln 

County native and retired Brigadier General 

Charles “Chuck” Yeager, the first person to 

break the sound barrier) occurred on 

November 3, 1947. Earlier that year, the167th 

Fighter Squadron of the West Virginia Air 

National Guard (ANG) was established at the 

airport, with Colonel J. Kemp McLaughlin, Sr., 

commanding. Initially, the squadron flew 

P-47 and P-51D fighter planes, both legendary 

aircraft which helped the Allies win World 

War II. The West Virginia ANG was the last 

Air Guard unit to utilize the legendary P-51D 

in squadron service, and the final aircraft was 

retired as a museum piece at Wright-Patterson 

Air Force Base on January 27, 1957. 

In 1955 the 167th was transferred to 

Martinsburg and Kanawha Airport became 

home to the 130th Troop Carrier Squadron, 

now the 130th Tactical Airlift Squadron. The 

130th flies around the globe in support of 

the U.S. Air Force. Military aircraft commonly 

seen in the skies over Charleston in the past 

included the C-46, HU-16, and C-119 “Flying 

Boxcar.” According to retired Master Sergeant 

Walter V. Chapman, Jr., the 130th was the 

last military unit to fly the C-119, when on 

September 26, 1975, nine planes flew to the 

aviation boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Base 

in Arizona. Chapman was among the crews 

on that historic mission. Today, the larger 

C-130E Hercules aircraft are familiarly seen 

and heard above Charleston. 

Since its opening in 1947, two major 

tragedies have involved aircraft bound for 

Kanawha (Yeager) Airport. On April 8, 1951, 

a planeload of airmen crashed near Charleston, 

killing 19 people and injuring 2. Their C-47, 

carrying 9 officers and 12 enlisted airmen, 

clipped the top of a hill about eight miles 

northeast of the airport. It crashed in an 

isolated area, skidded, and burst into flames. 

The men were en route to Charleston from 

Godman Air Force Base in Kentucky to attend 

the funeral of a pilot who had died in a 

separate crash. A second catastrophe came 

twenty-one years later when, on August 10, 

1968, a Piedmont Airlines Fairchild twinengine 

propjet slammed into the hillside just 

short of the airport, then bounced and burned 

off the side of the main runway in a thick 

morning fog. The plane was traveling from 

Louisville, Kentucky, to Roanoke, Virginia, 

with scheduled stops in Cincinnati and 

Charleston. Thirty-two passengers and three 

crew members died in the fiery crash, and 

only two people survived. Four of the dead 

were West Virginians—all young servicemen 

coming home on leave. At the time, it was the 

worst aviation disaster in state history. 

Charleston is known for its landmark 

houses of worship which offer comfort and 

solace during times of suffering, like after 

the 1951 and 1968 plane crashes, or joy 

and inspiration in happier times. In 1910, 

the Northern branch of the Methodist 

Church completed a new edifice at Morris 

and Quarrier Streets. Two years later, the 

Southern Methodists erected a new church 

on the northeast corner of Washington and 

Dickinson Streets. When the northern and 

southern factions reunited in 1939, First 

Methodist became Christ Church (United) 

Methodist and First Methodist South became

St. Mark’s (United) Methodist 

Church. After Christ Church 

suffered a disastrous fire in 

1969, the church rebuilt a 

modern sanctuary around the 

historic bell tower. 

Baptist congregations have 

existed in Charleston since 

before the Civil War, but the 

first church was not built 

until 1869. In 1905, worshipers 

built the old Baptist Temple 

at Washington and Capitol 

Streets, and in 1925 finished 

the current Baptist Temple at 

Morris and Quarrier Streets. 

Charleston’s Presbyterian 

Church has had a strong 

presence since antebellum 

times, also. When the church 

split into Northern and 

Southern denominations over 

secession, the Charleston church 

remained unaffiliated. In 1872 the majority 

of the congregation favored reestablishing 

an affiliation with a Presbytery or synod. A 

large number of members voted to join the 

Southern branch, while a small number preferred 

the Northern one. As a result, Southern 

members became the First Presbyterian Church, 

while Northern members retained their affiliation 

with the Kanawha Presbyterian Church. 

Opportunities for Catholic worship in 

Charleston began in 1866 when Father 

Joseph W. Stenger celebrated Sunday Mass 

in a store on Front Street. Shortly thereafter, 

the church acquired a two-story brick house 

at the corner of present Leon Sullivan Way 

and Quarrier Street to serve as a church 

and school. Three years later, a small frame 

church was built on Virginia Street. An 1892 

parish census counted 84 English families 

and 56 German families, with 90 pupils in 

school. On Christmas 1897 the current Sacred 

Heart Co-Cathedral held its first Mass. An 

influx of Polish workers at the Kelly Axe 

factory after 1907 led to creation of a church 

at Sixth and Russell Streets on the West Side 

that became Saint Anthony Parish, and 

Catholic workers from the glass plants in 

Kanawha City created Saint Agnes Parish. 

Charleston has benefitted tremendously 

from the contributions made by its Jewish 

community. Jewish-owned retail establishments 

have included: B & B Loans, Cohen 

Drug Store, Embees, Frankenberger’s, Galperin 

Jewelers, Silver Brand Clothes, Charleston 

Department Store, Goldfarb Electric, and 

Shoney’s, to name but a few. The first major 

wave of Jewish migration to the U.S. occurred 

between 1840 and 1880, with immigrants 

coming mostly from Germany and the 

Germanic states. Jewish worship in Charleston 

dates to 1856, when a small group of mainly 

German Jews from Bavaria informally met as 

B’nai Israel (Temple Israel). The cemetery 

dates to 1836, and is the oldest Jewish cemetery 

in West Virginia. In 1873, the congregation 

gained legal charter as the Hebrew 

Educational Society and sixteen members 

held services in rooms over a store on Capitol 

Street. In 1875 the congregation moved to a 

small temple on Lee Street, and in 1894 they 

dedicated a new temple in the 1100 block of 

Virginia Street. Services continued at that 

location until 1960, when work was completed 

on the current Temple Israel on Kanawha 

Boulevard East at Chesapeake Avenue. It is 

the largest Reform congregation in the state. 

✧ 

Congregants held the first services in 

B’nai Jacob Synagogue on Rosh Hashanah 

in 1949. Today, it is the largest Jewish 

congregation and only traditional synagogue 

in the state. 



8 1

✧ 

Edgewood subdivision advertisement. 

Charleston got its first streetcar suburb in 

1906, when developer Steele Hawkins, Sr., 

created Edgewood to offer buyers an 

“exclusive country home in a community of 

handsome residences.” 



A second major wave of Jewish immigration 

to the U.S. began with the Eastern 

Europe diaspora. Settlers began arriving 

in Charleston in the 1880s, principally 

from Russia, Poland, Hungary, Latvia, and 

Lithuania. These Orthodox Jews first held 

religious services in private homes and then 

in a rented hall at Kanawha and Summers 

Streets. In an effort to form a congregation 

for worship in accordance with Jewish traditional 

practice, the B’nai Jacob Synagogue 

was formally established in 1897. By 1908 

the congregation had outgrown its quarters 

on Washington and Court Streets, and they 

purchased the former State Street Methodist 

Church at State (Lee) and Court Streets. 

Worship continued at this facility until 1949, 

when construction was completed on the 

present B’nai Jacob Synagogue in the 1500 

block of Virginia Street East, which includes 

a school, social center and gymnasium. 

As the pace of life quickened in the 

modern era, residents with leisure time and 

disposable income began to seek private 

recreational opportunities. Chartered on 

April 4, 1898, as Glenwood Athletic Club, 

the Edgewood Country Club is the oldest 

private country club in West Virginia. Its first 

clubhouse was located along Kanawha River 

near the intersection of Park Avenue and 

Kanawha Street, and the original golf course 

extended west from Delaware Avenue and 

south from Central Avenue. Subdivision of a 

portion of this land resulted in the country 

club relocating to the hills in the new 

Edgewood Addition in 1906. A year later the 

Glenwood Athletic Club became Edgewood 

Country Club. At first, Edgewood had tennis 

courts but no golf course. Later, approximately 

100 acres of land was purchased for 

construction of a course. A special streetcar 

traveled around the city picking up members 


82

and transporting them to the club 

for dances and other activities. 

Motorists could easily drive there 

after Edgewood Drive was paved 

in 1930, and bus service replaced 

streetcars in 1934. On Christmas 

night in 1935 the original clubhouse 

burned to the ground. The 

present clubhouse was erected 

in 1936, and has been expanded 

throughout the years. 

In 1969, Edgewood Country 

Club developed a new 18-hole 

championship golf course on 

Derrick’s Creek near Sissonville. 

The City of Charleston then 

acquired the historic 9-hole 

course, now part of Cato Park, 

which is named for attorney 

Henry Cato who left his estate to 

the city for park development. Using $231,000 

available through Cato’s generosity, plus 

an additional $210,000 in federal funds, 

the city acquired the ninety-two-acre course 

and park site. Golfers who play Cato Park 

today experience the game on one of the 

state’s oldest courses. 

Aside from private clubs, working-class 

residents sought public recreational opportunities 

in close proximity to the city. By the 

1920s, Huntington, Parkersburg, Wheeling, 

and other West Virginia cities had developed 

large urban parks, but in 1940 Charleston 

still only had the one-acre Ruffner Park on 

the East End and a comparably-sized pocket 

park in front of the downtown YMCA. In 1941, 

the West Virginia State Road Commission 

(now Division of Highways) constructed the 

state’s largest roadside park along U.S. Route 

60 just east of town. Originally intended for 

motorists, Daniel Boone Park quickly became 

a popular recreation spot for residents, too. 

Named for the pioneer settler who had once 

lived opposite it, the eleven-and-a-half-acre 

park had 47 tables, two shelters, 10 fireplaces, 

two charcoal stoves, a playground, drinking 

water, and toilet facilities. A superintendent 

and three caretakers maintained the facilities, 

which attracted up to 1,500 visitors per day 

on summer weekends in the 1960s. Daniel 

Boone Park still exists, primarily as a boat 

launch with trailer parking and limited 

picnic facilities. Sharing the grounds is the 

Boy Scouts of America’s Buckskin Council 

headquarters, reconstructed Ruffner log 

cabin, and relocated Craik-Patton House. 

Amusement parks gained popularity at the 

dawn of the twentieth century, as leisure time 

and disposable income became a reality for 

the nation’s working classes—and Charleston 

was no exception. Streetcar service for the 

new suburb of Edgewood resulted in building 

the first public amusement park in the 

West Side hills. According to newspaperman 

George Summers, Edgewood Park opened in 

1906 on the same day that the first streetcar 

ran the Edgewood route. 

Real estate developer Steele Hawkins, Jr., 

owned much of the park, which was operated 

by Fred and Dave McCutcheon. Perched 

on the steep hillside below the streetcar 

tracks and platform, the park featured shaded 

walkways, a carousel, shooting gallery, 

penny arcade, picnic areas, and casino. 

Park policeman Pat Nugent kept a small zoo 

that featured caged opossums, groundhogs, 

raccoons, guinea pigs, foxes, ferrets, and the 

occasional owl, with visitors paying a nickel 

to see his animals. Elsewhere, vendors had 

booths where they sold peanuts, popcorn, 

ice cream, pop, and other refreshments, 

while “barkers” attempted to lure potential 

✧ 

Streetcar service ran to Edgewood Park 

and connected the Edgewood development to 

downtown. Motorists traveling up Edgewood 

Drive can still trace the old trolley right-ofway 

to the top of the hill. 



8 3

✧ 

Above: Short-lived Edgewood Park opened 

with the streetcar line in 1906, and closed 

around 1912. It was over the hill where 

modern Edgewood Drive begins its descent 

to Garrison Avenue. 


Below: Luna Park opened in 1912 and 

burned in 1923. Hundreds of thousands of 

patrons visited the park in its short 

existence. On busy summer days and nights, 

as many as 15,000 people came though the 

entrance on Park Avenue. 


HUMANITIES COUNCIL. 

customers. The featured attraction was 

the roller skating rink, complete with an 

in-house orchestra which accompanied 

skaters. Occasionally, park management 

booked professional skaters for exhibitions; 

ten-year-old twins, Gus and Okey Harmon, 

were local trick skaters who packed the 

rink. Charleston High School also played 

basketball on the versatile wooden floor. 

Business continued briskly at Edgewood 

Park for a few years, until a fight broke out 

between black and white youths at the skating 

rink one evening around 1912. The episode 

apparently ended in tragedy after a black man 

named Woods was killed by a shotgun blast. 

Later that night, fire destroyed the 

park. It is unknown whether the 

two events were related; however, 

the short history of Edgewood Park 

ended abruptly that night. 

In 1912, J. B. Crowley built a 

new and larger park along the 

north bank of Kanawha River on 

the west side of the Elk. It occupied 

a seven-acre tract of marshy, uneven 

ground delineated as “Reservation” 

and “Glenwood Park” on earlier 

maps, and most probably the site 

of Glenwood Athletic Club’s threehole 

golf course. Called Luna Park, it took 

its name from the spaceship in the 1901 

Pan-American Exposition ride “A Trip to 

the Moon” at Coney Island, New York; 

Charleston’s park shared the name with 

dozens of others that have been built on 

every continent except Antarctica since 

1903. Frederick Ingersoll opened Luna Parks 

in Pittsburgh and Cleveland in 1905, the 

first two amusement parks to be illuminated 

with electricity. He eventually opened 44 

Luna Parks worldwide, and Lunapark is now 

a synonym for amusement park in many 

languages. Charleston’s Luna Park may have 

been an Ingersoll design. 

Like so many others, Luna Park 

was a trolley park. Charleston 

Interurban streetcars dropped visitors 

off at the main entrance on 

Park Avenue, while Park Drive 

(now incorporating parts of Lovell 

Drive, Park Drive and Grant Street) 

encircled the site in an amoeba-like 

pattern. Beyond the flag-adorned 

entrance, patrons walked on a footbridge 

that spanned the uneven terrain 

and led to the amusements, 

which included a merry-go-round, 

Ferris wheel, Royal Giant Dips 

Coaster, zoo, skating rink, boxing 

ring, and dance pavilion. A large 

“lumber and tin sheet” swimming 

pool was a major summer attraction. 

Visitors could play games of 

chance and skill on the midway, or 

picnic under shade trees. Other 

entertainment options included free 


84

outdoor movies, hot air balloon rides, and 

trapeze artists. As many as 15,000 patrons 

visited the park on a daily basis—some 

walked or rode streetcars, while others 

traveled by excursion boats from Gallipolis 

and Point Pleasant. 

Luna Park had been open for a little more 

than a decade when the end came. 

On May 4, 1923, welders started a 

disastrous blaze that consumed the 

wooden Royal Giant Dips coaster and 

destroyed much of the park. Despite 

the owner’s promise to rebuild, the 

damage proved too extensive and 

Luna Park passed into history. 

Eventually, the site was cleared and 

a residential subdivision laid out in 

late 1923 by the Luna Park Land 

Company. Streets were laid out on the 

alignment of existing park trails that 

were simply widened and paved, and 

two new thoroughfares, called Simms 

and Hall Streets, bisected the new 

development. From a nearby office, 

developers sold lots with specific 

“building and racial restrictions.” 

Today, the Luna Park neighborhood 

maintains the old layout which is 

clearly visible on a modern map. 

Optimism prevailed as economic 

expansion surged in the decades after 

World War II. Charleston continued 

to prosper as a commercial, financial, 

and political center, as population 

grew to 73,501 by 1950 and 85,796 

ten years later. (Kanawha County 

approached 253,000 residents in 

1960.) Optimistic estimates predicted 

the capital city would exceed 

100,000 residents within a short 

time—a number which has never 

been reached. In reality, negative 

changes had already begun to impact 

the area, as thousands of mining and 

railroad jobs were lost in the 1950s. 

Then, in the 1960s, urban renewal 

and interstate highway construction 

brought more reversals. Collectively, 

these factors contributed to a dramatic 

37 percent decrease in Charleston’s 

population between 1960 and 1990. 

In 1967, the city got its first modern 

high-rise office tower when National Bank 

of Commerce erected the seventeen-story 

Commerce Square (now Huntington Square) 

in the International Style on the site of the 

Capitol Annex, which was razed in 1966. 

However, the greatest change in the city’s 

✧ 

Luna Park Land Company divided the park 

site into building lots in 1923. The old park 

boundary is visible in the pattern of modern 

streets that are in the Luna Park 

Historic District. 

MAP COURTESY OF THE CHARLESTON DAILY MAIL, AUGUST 

19, 1923, ACCESSED ON WWW.NEWSPAPERARCHIVES.COM 


8 5

✧ 

Charleston’s first urban renewal project 

cleared all the buildings in a three-block 

area to make way for new commercial 

development that included a hotel and 

bank tower. 



86 

physical appearance resulted from a federal 

program implemented during the Eisenhower 

administration that made direct federal loans 

and grants available for slum clearance and 

prevention through “urban renewal.” As early 

as 1952, city council had empaneled the 

Charleston Slum Clearance and Development 

Authority to purchase blighted buildings, tear 

them down and sell the land to private 

entities for redevelopment, an idea which 

gave rise to the Charleston Urban Renewal 

Authority (CURA). At the time, the federal 

government provided a planning grant to 

complete preliminary investigations, but city 

council beat down attempts to select a site to 

begin clearance, with some members calling it 

a “socialism scheme.” However, more enlightened 

progressives saw urban development as 

a means of reclaiming land, “whose use and 

value has declined, and turning it into new 

purposes. It also means providing traffic and 

parking facilities within such areas and offers 

a vista for the future.” Proponents pointed to 

the fact that only two buildings “of any size” 

had been built in Charleston in the last 

twenty-five years—JCPenney and Stone & 

Thomas department stores. 

CURA was revitalized in 1957 after 

federal funds became available. Developers 

sold lots with specific “building and racial 

restrictions.” In July of 1958 the agency 

unveiled plans for the city’s first urban 

renewal project, a three-block area of 

Kanawha Boulevard and Virginia Street 

between Capitol and Court Streets. The 

controversial proposal envisioned wiping out 

old buildings with the city reselling the 

vacant land for its best use. Under the plan, 

certain buildings could be exempt from 

demolition, depending on their condition. 

City council president John Shanklin spoke 

in support of the project, saying the city 

had reached a “crossroads where we either 

must consider ourselves a small town forever 

or cooperate to build a greater Charleston. 

May the public never say of this council that 

we were derelict in our duty in trying to lift 

the face of Charleston.” 

Architect Clarence Moran headed the 

urban renewal effort, hailed as the state’s 

first to be implemented. An ardent supporter 

of the project, Moran also advocated preserving 

“historical residences and other sites” 

elsewhere. Many buildings in the target area 

were over 100 years old, but considered 

blighted fire traps. They included the 

infamous “sin corner” on Summers Street, 

described by one writer as Charleston’s 

“Bowery,” a once-bustling commercial strip 

described as having “dingy buildings with 

turn of the century doorways, the dimly 

lit beer joints with raucous hillbilly music 

pouring out into the streets, the walk-up 

hotels with cramped, drab rooms, the steamy 

little restaurants with their kitchens just 

behind the counters.” 

In the end, city council voted 24-0 to 

approve the so-called “Summers Street plan,” 

which ultimately razed three city blocks, 

dislocated 137 families, and wiped out about 

fifty buildings—including some of the city’s 

most historic structures. Redevelopment 

would be limited to commercial uses only.

In June 1961, officials received confirmation 

of $4.5 million in federal grants and loans 

to implement the project. Following property 

acquisition, bulldozers leveled the site in 

1962 and 1963. The first new construction 

was the 12-story, 25-room Charleston House 

Holiday Inn (now Ramada Inn), which 

opened in 1967. Charleston National Bank 

followed with a 17-story building and plaza 

(now known as Chase Tower) in 1969. When 

the new facility opened, it cleared the way for 

demolition of the old bank at the corner of 

Capitol and Quarrier Streets, which allowed 

for the widening of Quarrier Street. 

Meanwhile in 1962 city officials laid plans 

for two more urban renewal projects; a 60-acre 

Triangle District redevelopment and 9-acre 

Government Square. Bounded generally by 

the Elk River, Washington Street, the K & M 

railroad right-of-way and Summers Street, 

the Triangle was considered dilapidated— 

officials claimed that more than ninety 

percent of the buildings were substandard, 

but a large percentage of the city’s African 

American population called the area home. 

Consequently, the Triangle redevelopment 

proposal met with fierce opposition. 

According to one former resident: “Black 

people were forced to move and they weren’t 

given anywhere to go. A way of life was being 

destroyed.” In the end, the Triangle District 

was segmented and its population dispersed. 

Some former residents moved to the East End 

or West Side, and others left the area. With 

their neighborhood gone—as blighted as it 

may have been—many former inhabitants 

harbored bitter resentment that heightened 

existing political and racial tensions over 

Vietnam, civil rights, and the assassination of 

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

✧ 

This group of buildings at Court and 

Dryden Streets was among the dozens of 

structures demolished as part of the Triangle 

District redevelopment in the 1960s. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF JERRY WATERS. 

HTTP://WWW.MYWVHOME.COM/FIFTIES/COURTST.HTML 


8 7

✧ 

Opened in 2003, the Clay Center for the 

Arts and Sciences houses performing arts, 

visual arts and science activities. It stands 

at the corner of Washington Street and 

Leon Sullivan Way. 


HTTP://EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG/WIKI/FILE:CLAY_CENTER.JPG 


88 

The third urban renewal area was called 

Government Square, which planners envisioned 

as a grand plaza surrounded by 

several modern towers housing city, county, 

and federal courts and offices. One plan put 

the complex on land now occupied by the 

Charleston Town Center Mall. That proposal 

never materialized, but the project eventually 

cleared the way for office buildings like the 

United Center, Spilman Building, Robert C. 

Byrd Federal Courthouse, and about half the 

land for Town Center. Finally, CURA turned 

its attention to clearing twenty-five acres 

behind CAMC General Division for hospital 

expansion. Some of that land became Plaza 

East shopping center, and a parcel bordered 

by Lewis, Morris, Smith, and Brooks Streets is 

home to Appalachian Power Park. 

Around the same time the city’s first urban 

renewal plan started to take shape in 1958, 

the State Road Commission commenced 

studying options for routing Interstate 64 

through the capital city. Construction had 

begun on I-64 in Cabell County the previous 

year; by 1967, the highway reached Dunbar, 

about seven miles west of Charleston, where 

progress stalled for six years while officials 

decided whether the road should go through 

Charleston or around it. Several alternatives 

existed, including one that went north of the 

airport and the city, another that went south, 

and one that went through the heart of the 

city. In the end, the highway came right 

through the capital city. 

Today, nobody argues the 

utility of the interstate highway 

system because it has 

clearly reduced through travel 

time to a matter of minutes 

and spurred economic development 

in some areas. But, it 

also dislocated a large number 

of area residents and segmented 

many low to moderateincome 

neighborhoods. Nearly 

half a century has passed since 

their relocation, and some of 

those affected feel it could 

have been better planned to 

ease the hardship on individuals 

and businesses. 

Local entertainment options were greatly 

enhanced in January 1959, when the 

Charleston Civic Center opened on a formerly 

substandard parcel along the banks of 

Elk River between Lee and Quarrier Streets. 

Funding for the project came in a series 

of general obligation bonds approved by 

city voters. Originally, the Civic Center 

included a 6,000-seat arena and 750-seat 

Little Theater; expansion in 1964 added 

2,400 seats to the arena, as well as a paved 

parking lot and ice rink. A second, $20 

million upgrade became a reality in 1976, 

when city voters approved a bond sale 

matched by federal grant funds to build a 

13,000-seat coliseum, two-story lobby to 

connect the original facility with the new 

coliseum, and a new convention center. The 

project was completed in 1980, two parking 

garages were added in 1983, and an exhibit 

hall replaced the outdated ice rink in 1994. 

Without a doubt, the Civic Center has 

greatly enhanced the quality of life for area 

residents who attend shows, concerts, and 

sporting events at the facility. 

Starting in 1962, Charleston’s schoolchildren 

have had the benefit of a local museum. For 

the first forty years, the former residence of 

Governor William A. MacCorkle housed the 

Sunrise Museum. Sunrise closed its doors in 

2003 after it became part of the Avampato 

Discovery Museum at the newly-opened 

Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences in 

downtown Charleston.


EPILOGUE—THE CITY IN TRANSITION 

1970-PRESENT 

In the mid-1970s, an estimated 13,600 persons worked at ten principal chemical 

manufacturing facilities in the Kanawha Valley. They included: the Diamond Shamrock and 

DuPont plants in Belle; NL Industries in Charleston, FMC in South Charleston; Monsanto, 

Fike Chemical, Allied Chemical, and Avtex in Nitro; and Union Carbide operations in 

South Charleston and Institute. Charleston has had relatively few chemical production facilities 

within its borders, but it has certainly benefited from their nearby presence. However, change 

was about to engulf the chemical industry, beginning with the Bhopal, India, tragedy in 1984 

that contributed to the eventual demise of Union Carbide. Then, in the face of intensified 

competition from foreign producers, some Kanawha Valley plants curtailed operations, obtained 

new owners, or closed. By 1996 employment in the region’s chemical industry had fallen 

below 6,000. In 1999 the Dow Chemical Corporation bought Union Carbide, resulting in 

the merger or elimination of product lines and job losses at the Technical Center and in 

production facilities. 

✧ 

In this c. 1978 view, the new Civic Center, 

parking garage and Greyhound bus station 

are under construction in the foreground, 

while the future Town Center Mall site 

awaits its fate. Court Street runs 

horizontally across the top of 

the photograph. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF JERRY WATERS, 

HTTP://WWW.MYWVHOME.COM/SEVENTIES/MALL.HTML 


8 9

Meanwhile, in the 1960s and 1970s, 

CURA had begun clearing land between 

Summers Street and Elk River. For about a 

decade, a large parcel remained undeveloped 

as two companies battled over where to 

build an indoor mall for Charleston. Forest 

City Enterprises of Cleveland, Ohio, opted 

for a downtown location, while the Cafaro 

Company of Youngstown, Ohio, proposed 

a site several miles south of town where 

the Shops at Trace Fork are now located. 

With the aid of state and local politicians, 

Forest City and Cafaro eventually joined 

hands to erect Town Center Mall, the largest 

downtown-based shopping mall east of the 

Mississippi River. The sprawling 933,000 

square foot complex covers twenty-six 

acres bounded by Quarrier, Lee, Court, and 

Clendenin Streets; it was designed by 

RTKL, an architectural firm of Baltimore, 

Maryland, and built at the cost of $100 

million. When it opened, it featured over 

130 specialty stores on three levels, restaurants, 

two parking garages and four anchor 

department stores—JCPenney, Kaufman’s, 

Montgomery Ward, and Sears. Forest City 

Enterprises is the majority owner and 

mall manager. 

Charleston Town Center opened amidst 

much fanfare on November 4, 1983. Its four 

anchor stores remained unchanged until 

Montgomery Ward closed in 2000. After 

several failed attempts to fill the vacancy, 

BrickStreet Insurance located its offices there 

in 2006. A year later, Kaufmann’s became 

Macy’s after the acquisition of Kaufmann’s 

parent company. In 2011, WOWK-TV located 

its Charleston offices in the BrickStreet 

section of the mall. 

Some merchants and residents opposed 

the mall project at the outset, but public 

officials and business leaders embraced 

the plan as it moved forward. Downtown 

property owners and community leaders 

decided to act in order to prevent Charleston 

from becoming a ghost town like so many 

other U.S. cities after mall construction. With 

help from the city and CURA, Charleston 

Renaissance Corporation was created to 

oversee a number of projects intended to 

revitalize downtown, including creation of 


90

the Village District, Haddad Riverfront Park, 

Capitol Market, and Clay Center for the Arts 

and Sciences. Capitol Street demonstrates 

the positive changes brought about by 

Charleston Renaissance. Today, it bears little 

resemblance to how it looked in 1983, when 

concrete and inappropriate renovations 

dominated the streetscape. Capitol Street 

now features tree-lined, brick sidewalks 

and intersections, Victorian-era lampposts, 

and rehabilitated building façades that boast 

an appropriate historic appearance. A key 

element of the renaissance included design 

guidelines and a provision whereby business 

owners would agree to renovate their building 

façades in order to obtain a building 

permit. As part of revitalization efforts, the 

City of Charleston obtained a federal grant 

to construct Brawley Walkway, a pedestrian 

connector along the former Fife Street from 

Capitol Street to Town Center Mall. Although 

the plan had its detractors, in the end 

practically every building on Capitol Street 

underwent a substantial rehabilitation as 

part of the Charleston Village concept which 

laid the foundation for the vibrant mix of 

commercial, retail, and residential space that 

exists today. 

In 1974, Charleston found itself at the 

center of a major textbook controversy 

that divided the community and made 

national headlines. It began in the spring 

when the Kanawha County Board of 

Education recommended hundreds of books 

for use in public schools. The books were 

part of a new state curriculum that included 

for the first time the concepts of multiculturalism 

and egalitarianism in textbook 

writing. Most school board members saw no 

reason to question the state’s decision, but 

conservative board member Alice Moore 

was concerned by texts that she termed 

anti-Christian and un-American. Moore’s 

complaints included works by Allen 

Ginsberg, Sigmund Freud, and others, as well 

as titles like Animal Farm by George Orwell, 

The Crucible by Arthur Miller and The 

Autobiography of Malcolm X. 

✧ 

Opposite: During the 1974 Textbook War, 

a bomb damaged the Kanawha County 

Board of Education office on Elizabeth 

Street following a board meeting. 

Luckily, no one was hurt. 


CHARLESTON NEWSPAPERS. 

Above: Capitol Market. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE CHARLESTON, 

WEST VIRGINIA, CONVENTION AND VISITORS BUREAU. 


9 1

✧ 

Above: Brick sidewalks with Victorian-era 

lampposts, and rehabilitated building 

façades that boast an historic appearance. 



Below: Quality public transportation for the 

residents of Kanawha County. 




92 

The community took notice, and at the 

next school board meeting attended by 

hundreds of local residents members voted 

to approve the titles after a three-hour 

debate over the merits of teaching a liberal 

curriculum. Twenty-seven ministers publicly 

denounced the books, while ten other 

ministers and the West Virginia Council of 

Churches supported them. In general, 

those who opposed the books were from 

evangelical churches in rural parts of the 

county, whereas the ministers who supported 

the books mostly represented churches 


When the 1974 school year commenced, 

tensions escalated after conservative protestors 

called for a boycott of public schools. An estimated 

one-fifth of the county’s students stayed 

home from school, and thousands of miners, 

bus drivers, and other workers joined in the 

protest. Violence also increased, as radical protestors 

planted bombs at a school, dynamited 

another school, attacked school buses and the 

homes of children who continued to attend 

school. Even the Ku Klux Klan showed up to 

support the protestors. While most violent 

episodes occurred in outlying areas, fifteen 

sticks of dynamite were detonated at the 

Board of Education office on Elizabeth Street 

shortly after a board meeting had concluded. 

Miraculously, no one was injured in any of the 

incidents. However, area schools were closed 

several times to avoid further violence, and 

national media covered the events. 

Finally, on November 8, 1974, the Kanawha 

County School Board voted to reinstate the 

textbooks. The meeting was held at the 

Charleston Civic Center to accommodate the 

anticipated crowd, however, less than 100

people showed up. By then, the 

unrelenting violence and negative 

publicity had begun to take its toll 

on the protest movement. In the 

end, many of the controversial 

books were placed only in school 

libraries and required signed 

parental permission to be checked 

out, and individual schools gained 

veto power over individual titles. 

The result was that the most controversial 

books never entered schools in 

conservative areas that had objected to them. 

In the final analysis, scholars view the 1974 

textbook controversy as a defining moment in 

educational and political history, arguing that 

it was the first major victory for conservative 

evangelical Christians in the politically polarizing 

“culture wars” that emerged in response 

to 1960s liberalism. Perhaps the greatest 

long-term impact of the textbook controversy 

has been the proliferation of local faith-based 

Christian schools, including several located in 

Charleston, that stress conservative religious 

values in their teaching. 

Contrasting with the conservative reaction 

to the textbook controversy, which had a 

strong following in outlying rural areas, 

Charleston in the 1970s was a mainstream, 

mid-sized American city with a lively cultural 

and recreational life. In 1971 twelve-year-old 

Nelson Jones came up with the idea of a 

Sternwheel Regatta, which began as a three-day 

Labor Day river festival that attracted sternwheelers 

and other river craft. Within a few 

years, the Regatta exploded into a week-long 

party that attracted tens of thousands of revelers. 

Over time, the event became less about the 

river and more about the parties, which led to 

its ultimate demise in 2009. One enduring 

legacy of the Sternwheel Regatta is the fifteenmile 

Charleston Distance Run, which has been 

staged each Labor Day weekend since 1973. 

Amidst the youthful drug culture that 

flourished in the 1970s, Charleston gained 

legendary status after the infamous “pot 

plane crash” that took place on June 6, 1979. 

An old Douglas DC-6BF cargo plane carrying 

an estimated twelve tons of marijuana overran 

the runway at Kanawha (Yeager) Airport 

in the middle of the night and plummeted 

over the hillside, spilling hundreds of fiftypound 

bales of pot down the steep slope 

along Keystone Drive near Elk Two-Mile. 

When word about the mishap got out, 

pleasure seekers descended on the site in 

hopes of sampling the evidence—folks of a 

certain age still recall the memorable summer 

of 1979! 

✧ 

These contrasting images from 1890 and 

2012 depict Charleston’s evolution from a 

quiet river town to a vibrant capital city: 

Above: Charleston, 1890. 


UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES. 

Below: Charleston now. 

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF JERRY WATERS, 

HTTP://WWW.MYWVHOME.COM/PHOTOS/GALLERY004/IMG 

PAGES/IMAGE007.HTML 


9 3

Law enforcement officials struggled for 

days to dispose of the huge amounts of pot. 

They doused the bales with fuel oil trying 

to burn them, and sprayed the hillside with 

herbicide. National Guardsmen patrolled the 

site, and for days the aroma of pot smoke 

hung thick in the humid air. Then came the 

trials, as long-time Charleston Gazette editor, 

James Haught, recounts: 

Inside the plane were three young men in 

their 20s: The pilot, David Seesing, a former 

Eagle Scout, was a Texas aircraft salesman 

who lived with the daughter of President 

Nixon’s ambassador to Australia. The copilot, 

Dana Anderson, had previously served 

drug terms in Morocco and Colombia, and 

had vanished from New York after his name 

surfaced in the murder of a top model’s 

lover. Waiting on the ground in yellow 

Ryder rental trucks, ready to unload the 

cargo, were five others, including Leon 

Jacques Gast and Shahbaz “Shane” Zarintash. 

Gast was a movie producer who called his 

company Gassed Films. Zarintash was an 

Iranian immigrant who had attended West 

Virginia Tech and worked as an engineer 

for the state Division of Highways. Also nearby, 

in an unmarked police car, was Kanawha 

County Sheriff’s Deputy Mark Chadwick. 

His father, Sgt. Jim Chadwick, was at the 

county police headquarters.... Trials finally 

began the following winter. Four suspects 

pleaded guilty, including director Gast. He 

said he and Zarintash were trying to make a 

documentary movie about a boxing match by 

Muhammad Ali in Africa.... When the verdicts 

finally came down, four more smugglers were 

convicted, and all got five-year sentences. 

Sgt. Chadwick was found innocent, and his 

son’s trial ended with a hung jury. 

In a bizarre twist of fate, the would-be 

getaway truck driver-turned-movie director, 

Leon Gast, finally finished his film about 

Muhammad Ali, a chronicle of the legendary 

boxer’s 1974 “Rumble in the Jungle” versus 

George Foreman titled When We Were Kings— 

which won the 1996 Academy Award for best 

documentary! Shane Zarintash is credited as 

being “location sound recordist” on the film. 

In Charleston and elsewhere, the freewheeling 

culture of the 1970s gave way to a 

more conservative era which signaled a day 

of reckoning for some area lawbreakers. 

Among those brought down was Charleston’s 

mayor, Mike Roark, who resigned his post 

after pleading guilty to cocaine possession in 

1987. Roark was a former Kanawha County 

prosecutor and one-time assistant U.S. attorney 

in Pittsburgh who gained the nickname 

“Mad Dog” for his dogged pursuit of drug 

dealers. By the time he was elected mayor in 

1983, rumors spread of his own drug use. 

Despite the allegations, Roark won a second 

term but resigned shortly after reelection 

in 1987. City council then selected Chuck 

Gardner to fill the unexpired mayoral term. 

Following Mike Roark’s release from prison, 

he left the area and became an advocate for 

prison reform before his death in 1999. 

Although Kanawha County leans heavily 

Democrat in state elections, Charleston 

has shown far more balance in local politics. 

The current city council prides itself in its 


94

ipartisan politics, and places strong emphasis 

on public art and planning efforts which 

are highly visible throughout the city. 

Mayoral elections between 1983 and 2011 

were won by Republicans Mike Roark (1983, 

1987), Kent Hall (1991), Democrats Kemp 

Melton (1995) and Jay Goldman (1999), and 

Republican Danny Jones (2003, 2007, 2011). 

In 2007 Charleston was selected to participate 

in the Home Rule Pilot Program authorized 

by the West Virginia Legislature to grant 

broad-based home rule authority to participating 

municipalities (Bridgeport, Charleston, 

Huntington, and Wheeling) by allowing them 

to implement ordinances, acts, resolutions, 

rules and regulations that have successfully 

increased revenue, streamlined administrative 

matters, strengthened city fee collections 

practices, simplified business licenses, and 

more. As a result, city leaders have taken 

significant steps to address unfunded pension 

liabilities and healthcare costs. 

After peaking at 85,796 in the 1960s, 

Charleston’s population steadily decreased to 

51,400 by 2012. Presented with the prospect 

of aging baby boomers and only a slight 

increase in young adult age groups, a number 

of recent projects have helped reshape 

Charleston into a smaller, yet vibrant, cultural, 

recreational, and commercial capital. 

Visible changes include dramatic lighting of 

downtown bridges, a public mural project 

utilizing interstate piers, an outdoor dining 

ordinance, dog parks, creation of a Land 

Trust Commission, a riverbank stabilization 

project with the U.S. Army Corps of 

Engineers, new hospital facilities, the Robert 

C. Byrd Federal Building, and two West Side 

elementary schools. 

Following the demise of the Sternwheel 

Regatta, the city launched FestivAll, which is 

held annually in June, as well as free concerts 

and other special events that draw large 

crowds to renovated Haddad Riverfront Park. 

In 2012, Charleston created a progressive 

tax incremental financing (TIF) district and 

later passed a half-cent sales tax to fund a 

$50 million addition and renovation to the 

✧ 

Above: Haddad Riverfront Park hosts 

weekly Live on the Levee free concerts 

during the summer months. 


CITY OF CHARLESTON, WEST VIRGINIA. 

Below: A public mural project utilizing 

interstate piers. 


9 5

✧ 

Above and below: Appalachian Power Park 

is the current home field for the West 

Virginia Power professional baseball team. 

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF THE 


Charleston Civic Center. At about the same 

time, some $50 million in private investments 

have resulted in significant renovations to the 

Charleston House Hotel, Charleston Town 

Center Mall, and several historic downtown 

properties. Charleston Renaissance Corporation, 

responsible for the transformation of Capitol 

Street in the 1980s, is now part of a larger 

organization known as Charleston Area 

Alliance that includes the former BIDCO and 

Charleston Area Chamber of Commerce. 

Increased attention has been directed to the 

Washington Street corridor renewal through 

the East End Main Street and West Side Main 

Street programs. 

Ever since the city’s first minor league 

game was played in 1910, area baseball fans 

have cheered the variously named Statesmen, 

Senators, Indians, Charlies, Alley Cats and 

Wheelers. In 2005, the West Virginia Power 

made its debut in a new East End ballpark, 

Appalachian Power Park, which preserved 

professional baseball in the city. The facility, 

which replaced the aging Watt Powell Park, 

incorporates the century-old Lewis, Hubbard 

and Company warehouse into its design. 

Attendance at the venue set a record of 

233,143 in 2005, eclipsing the old Watt 

Powell Park standard by about 48,000. 


96

✧ 

Above: The Clay Center for 

the Arts and Sciences. 


9 7

✧ 

Completed in 1922, Charleston City Hall 

was designed by prominent local architect 

Rus Warne. It is an important architectural 

landmark that features heavy classical 

treatments, refined detail, and 

marked symmetry. 



Public housing is also being transformed 

through de-densification and replacement 

housing. To achieve its goal, city leaders 

worked with a developer from Chicago, a 

metropolis which is at the forefront of a 

national trend to more pedestrian friendly 

transit-oriented townhouses, duplexes and 

private public housing. As a result, the 

former Spring Hill Apartments (Renaissance 

Circle) has been transformed into Vista View 

Apartments with new, cleaner, and more 

secure units. Likewise, Washington Manor, 

Littlepage Terrace, and Orchard Manor have 

seen similar transformations. 

Like cities nationwide, Charleston is paying 

increased attention to alternative modes 

of transportation and the quality of life benefits 

that come by emphasizing the needs of 

bicycle and pedestrian traffic. Since 2005, a 

contentious debate has simmered between 

the auto-centric world and those who 

endorse an alternative trend to emphasize 

complete streets with pedestrian and bicycle 

friendly amenities. A major disagreement is 

centered on the debate over recommendations 

to reduce the four-lane Kanawha 

Boulevard that parallels Kanawha River. 

Many would like to see it become more 

connected and accessible to pedestrians 

through traffic calming and other reducing 

measures. Supporters of an updated vision 

argue that construction of the interstate 

system through Charleston in the 1970s 

made the high capacity thoroughfare no 

longer relevant for its original purpose, a 

claim that is supported by recent daily traffic 

counts on two-lane Washington Street West 

that were three times higher than Kanawha 

Boulevard. Conversely, some opponents point 

to the convenience of zipping from one end 

of town to the other with few traffic signals, 

and others seek to preserve the boulevard’s 

historic significance. One compromise plan 

calls for two four-foot bicycle lanes to be 


98

constructed next to the existing pedestrian 

walkway from Patrick Street Plaza to Magic 

Island, while maintaining four vehicular 

lanes by reducing their significant width and 

eliminating the medians. 

Today, Charleston is a moderate-sized capital 

city with a small town ambience. Trade, utilities, 

government, medicine, and education 

play a central role in the economy. Downtown 

has been revitalized into a destination where 

traffic jams are a thing of the past, tree-lined 

streets shade historic buildings, and residents 

are known for their warmth and hospitality. 

Charlestonians value the past and proudly celebrate 

the rich heritage of our historic capital 

city, which has weathered great change over the 

past 225 years and remains a vibrant place to 

live, work and visit in the twenty-first century. 

✧ 

North (rear) elevation of the 

West Virginia State Capitol, which was 

completed in 1932. The towering 293-foot 

dome pictured here is five feet higher than 

the dome of the U.S. Capitol. 




9 9

✧ 

Dramatic night-time lighting 

of downtown bridges. 




100


1 0 1

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

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Chambers, S. Allen, Jr. Buildings of West Virginia. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. 

Charleston Chamber of Commerce. Charleston 1907: A Souvenir of the City of Charleston. 

Charleston, 1907. 

Charleston Daily Mail (West Virginia). 

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Cohen, Stan and Richard Andre, Research Associate. Kanawha County Images: A Bicentennial 

History, 1788-1988. Charleston: Pictorial Histories Publishing Company, 1987. 

Cohen, Stan, Richard Andre and William D. Wintz. Bullets and Steel: The Civil War in 

the Kanawha Valley. Charleston: Pictorial Histories Publishing Company, 1995. 

Cook, Roy Bird. The Annals of Fort Lee. Charleston: West Virginia Review Press, 1935. 

Cox, Jacob D. Military Reminiscences of the Civil War, 1900. http://www.gutenberg.org/ 

ebooks/6961 

Dayton, Ruth Woods. Pioneers and Their Homes on Upper Kanawha. Charleston: West 

Virginia Publishing Company, 1947. Reprint Charleston: Education Foundation, 

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DeGruyter, Julius. The Kanawha Spectator. Volume I, Charleston: Jarrett Printing 

Company, 1953. 

DeGruyter, Julius. The Kanawha Spectator. Part II, Parsons: McClain Printing Company, 

1976. 

Eichleay Corporation. “How Did They Do It? Twelve Homes Float Across the Kanawha 

River.” http://www.eichleay.com/history/charleston2.htm 

FMC Chemicals Division. The Salt Industry in the Kanawha Valley. n.d. 

Gibbons, J. A. The Kanawha Valley: Its Resources and Developments. Charleston: Gibbons, 

Atkinson & Co., 1872. Reprint Augusta Press, n.d. 

Hale, John P. History of the Great Kanawha Valley. 2 Volumes, Madison: Wisconsin: 

Brant, Fuller & Co., 1891. Reprint Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books, Inc., 2000. 

Harris, V. B. Great Kanawha: An Historical Outline. Charleston: Jarrett Printing Company, 

1976. 

Hale, John P. Trans-Allegheny Pioneers: Historical Sketches of the First White Settlements 

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=noHiPFl32X4C 

Kay, Trey, Deborah George and Stan Bumgardner. Books and Belief: The Kanawha County 

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Laidley, William S. History of Charleston and Kanawha County, West Virginia, and 

Representative Citizens. Chicago: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, 1911. 

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Lowry, Terry, The Battle of Scary Creek: Military Operations in the Kanawha Valley, April- 

July 1861. Charleston: Quarrier Press, Inc., 1998. 

MacCorkle, William A. The Recollections of Fifty Years. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1928. 

Morgan, John G. Charleston 175. Charleston: The Charleston Gazette, 1970. 

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Reniers, Perceval and Ashton Woodman Reniers. The Midland Trail Tour in West Virginia. 

New York: The Midland Publications Company, 1926. 

Rice, Otis K. Charleston and the Kanawha Valley: An Illustrated History. Woodland Hills, 

California: Windsor Publications, 1981. 

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of Kentucky, 1993. 

Stealey, John E. III. The Antebellum Kanawha Salt Business and Western Markets. Lexington: 

University Press of Kentucky, 1993. 

Stutler, Boyd B., West Virginia in the Civil War. Charleston: Education Foundation, Inc., 1963. 

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clopedia.org 

Sutphin, Gerald W. and Richard Andre. Sternwheelers on the Great Kanawha River. 

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of Long Ago. Charleston: The Charleston Journal, 1935. 

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Wintz, William D. Annals of the Great Kanawha. Charleston: Pictorial Pictures Publishing 

Company, 1993. 

West Virginia Writers’ Project. West Virginia, A Guide to the Mountain State. New York: 

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ang.af.mil/history/ 


102

SHARING THE HERITAGE 

H i s t o r i c p r o f i l e s o f b u s i n e s s e s , o r g a n i z a t i o n s , 

a n d f a m i l i e s t h a t h a v e c o n t r i b u t e d t o t h e 

d e v e l o p m e n t a n d e c o n o m i c b a s e o f C h a r l e s t o n 

Kanawha Stone Company, Inc. 

Terradon Corporation 

Terradon Communications Group, LLC .....................................1 0 4 

West Virginia State University ......................................................1 0 8 

Charleston Area Alliance..............................................................1 1 1 

William L. Harris, M.D., PLLC .....................................................1 1 2 

Karen H. Miller, Attorneys at Law .................................................1 1 5 

The Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation ........................................1 1 6 

Trivillian’s Pharmacy and Old Fashioned Soda Fountain ....................1 1 8 

Andrews Floor & Wall Covering Company .......................................1 2 0 

Appalachian Tire Products, Inc. ....................................................1 2 2 

Charleston Gazette......................................................................1 2 4 

Charleston Daily Mail .................................................................1 2 5 

MRC ® 

McJunkin Red Man Corporation .................................................1 2 6 

F. M. Pile Hardware Co., Inc. .......................................................1 2 8 

Agsten Construction Co., Inc. .......................................................1 3 0 

United Bankshares, Inc. ...............................................................1 3 2 

Saint Francis Hospital. ................................................................1 3 4 

Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC ...................................................1 3 6 

Holiday Inn & Suites Charleston West ............................................1 3 8 

Harris Brothers ..........................................................................1 4 0 

Dixon Hughes Goodman LLP .........................................................1 4 1 

Buzz Products, Inc. .....................................................................1 4 2 

Mardi Gras Casino & Resort .........................................................1 4 3 

Holroyd & Yost ...........................................................................1 4 4 

ZMM Architects & Engineers ........................................................1 4 5 

Columbia Gas/NiSource ...............................................................1 4 6 

E. L. Harris & Son, Inc. ..............................................................1 4 7 

Ernst & Young, LLP.....................................................................1 4 8 

BB&T Corporation ......................................................................1 4 9 

Embassy Suites ...........................................................................1 5 0 

SPECIAL 

THANKS TO 

Cyclops Industries, Inc. 

City of Charleston 

S H A R I N G T H E H E R I T A G E 

1 0 3

KANAWHA STONE 

COMPANY, INC. 

✧ 

Above: A reclamation project in Belle, 

West Virginia. 

Bottom, left: Art and Virginia King on their 

wedding day. 

Bottom, right: Art and Virginia King during 

the early days of the company. 


104 

Kanawha Stone Company, 

Inc., first began in March 1973 

when cofounder, Art King and 

his partner, Phil Currence, 

began excavating and crushing 

calcium sulfate (a type of gypsum) 

for use as road base. The 

calcium sulfate was a byproduct 

of the chemical process used 

to produce hydrochloric acid, 

and was extracted from ponds 

created by Allied Chemical. 

Kanawha Stone’s operations 

and sales office was located 

at their plant in Nitro, West 

Virginia. Thus, the name “Kanawha Stone” 

came from its beginnings as a stone quarry. 

“In the early years there were seven 

employees in addition to Art and Phil and 

they all wore different hats,” recalls Virginia 

King, Art’s wife, who has been with the 

company from the early days. “On any given 

day, Art might be overseeing the office 

and quarry, crushing stone and loading 

customer’s trucks.” This multitasking ability 

continues to be a prominent feature of 

the company’s employees today. The first 

employee hired was Warren M. Skaggs, who 

is still with the company forty years later. 

When it became evident that excavating 

rock from the ponds and crushing it would 

not provide an adequate supply of stone to 

meet future demands, the company developed 

an innovative technique for its excavation 

methods—scientific blasting. Few companies 

used controlled blasting in those days, but 

Kanawha Stone was surrounded by three 

chemical plants and uncontrolled blasting was 

not an option. 

Throughout the 1970s, Kanawha Stone’s 

facilities consisted of the ponds, a crusher, a 

couple of loaders, an air track drill, and the 

scale house, which was a converted one-room 

mobile home that served as the office as well. 

The company began to abandon used equipment 

and purchase new and more sophisticated 

machines around 1975. One such piece of 

equipment was a set of computerized scales, 

which were state-of-the-art at the time. This 

encouraged the company to use current technologies 

to gain a competitive advantage. 

Kanawha Stone survived a dispute between 

its two owners in 1978 when Phil decided to 

move on to other ventures. After months of 

negotiation, Phil filed a minority stockholder 

suit against the company. In 1980, on March 

13, only one day before the company was to 

be put up for sale on the courthouse steps— 

Art bought Phil out at the price that had been 

offered eighteen months earlier. 

The company also faced other challenges at 

the time. Despite efforts to maintain the quarry, 

sales were declining at an alarming rate 

because the initial stock of one million cubic 

yards of calcium sulfate that came with the 

quarry was dwindling. Kanawha Stone could 

sell only that which it excavated itself. It 

became evident that the company needed to 

move in a new direction if it were to survive. 

Art saw construction as the new horizon.

In an effort to seek out new opportunities 

for the company, the Kings attended a meeting 

of the Contractors Association in Florida 

at the beginning of 1981. It was during this 

meeting that the company had its first opportunity 

to break into the construction market. 

During their absence, the office received only 

one phone call. However, that one call was 

the Department of the Interior’s Office of 

Surface Mining (OSM) contacting Kanawha 

Stone about a controlled blasting project. 

Reclamation of abandoned mines was a new 

field in 1981. A media spotlight on the subject 

soon created demands for cleaning up 

dangers left behind when mines closed. One 

such danger was at Tank Rock in Mingo 

County, West Virginia, where rocks left from 

mining threatened to topple and fall onto the 

neighborhood below. 

The project called for scientific blasting 

and Kanawha Stone was awarded the job. The 

Tank Rock Project paved the way for many 

OSM jobs over the next few years. At the same 

time, the company obtained blasting, utility 

and tunneling jobs in conjunction with W. L. 

Thaxton Construction and affiliated company, 

A. L. King, Ltd. It was during this era that the 

company hired Delbert, Richard and Dwight 

Sayre as its first construction crew. 

At the suggestion of its bonding company, 

Kanawha Stone computerized its office in 

1983. The computers of that era were slow and 

difficult to operate by today’s standards, but the 

technology allowed the company to become 

much more efficient. With experienced 

personnel and technology, Kanawha 

Stone began to form departments with 

specific areas of expertise. In 1984, 

Virginia was in charge of accounting, 

and Art controlled equipment and 

operations. Danny R. Pritt, was hired 

that year as the company’s first professional 

project manager and estimator. 

As reclamation work began to 

decline, Kanawha Stone once again 

looked for new markets. Pritt introduced 

the company to construction 

opportunities by bidding on and 

receiving the company’s first highway 

construction job, the Capon Bridge at 

the mouth of the eastern panhandle. 

Disastrous floods hit West Virginia in 

November 1985 creating the state’s biggest 

cataclysm since the Civil War. With most of 

Pendleton County’s roads washed out by the 

floods, state officials abandoned the normal 

bid process and doled out clean-up jobs to all 

the contractors with equipment in the area. 

Kanawha Stone was given the job of rebuilding 

Route 33 and 220. George Phipps was 

hired on as superintendent and he recruited 

many experienced construction people like 

Ike Lewis to run work and Jed Rollins, Sr., 

to do the blasting. The project enabled the 

company to triple its size in three weeks 

and elevated the company to one of the major 

highway construction firms in the area. 

In January 1986 the company moved from 

its office trailer on Allied Chemical’s property 

to their new office building at #4 Plant Road 

in Nitro, West Virginia. 

✧ 

Above: Drilling rigs preparing a site for 

blasting operations. 

Below: Excavation for The Shops at Trace 

Fork in South Charleston, West Virginia. 


1 0 5

TERRADON 

CORPORATION 

✧ 

Above: Excavation for the Nitro 

Marketplace Shopping Center in Kanawha 

County, West Virginia. 

Below: Nightshift mechanics working at 

The Summit Bechtel Family Scout Reserve 

project in Fayette County, West Virginia. 

PHOTOGRAPH BY GARY HARTLEY. 


106 

Kanawha Stone’s reputation for changing 

and adapting to the times was further 

enhanced in 1989 with the formation of 

Terradon Corporation. The Kings joined 

forces with Ron Potesta, former DNR Director 

for the State of West Virginia, an expert in 

environmental regulation and compliance. 

Initially, the idea was that Terradon would do 

work for Kanawha Stone and help generate 

environmental related construction work. But 

as the market for environmental consulting 

work expanded, it became evident that 

Terradon should grow in that direction. 

Potesta exited the business abruptly in 1997 

to start his own firm. Today, Terradon has 

incorporated engineering, landscape design, 

and surveying departments, in addition to 

performing environmental compliance work. 

This era also saw Kanawha Stone enter 

two additional markets; barge unloading and 

trucking. The company unloaded barges at 

Allied Chemical’s dock and trucked the material 

to its final destinations in West Virginia. 

The operation began in 1987 and expanded 

in 1988. During this era, the company began 

to focus on equipment management, adding 

Floyd “Pee Wee” Campbell and Steve Dolin 

to the employee roster. 

When Allied Chemical 

abandoned West Virginia 

in 1989, Kanawha Stone 

moved its operations to 

its current location at 

Rock Branch Industrial 

Park in Poca, West 

Virginia. The new facility 

provided a larger shop, 

larger offices, larger yard 

and river access with its 

own unloading dock. 

The early 1990s saw the addition of 

William H. Hilborn, Jr., as chief estimator 

and project manager. He pushed for 

computerized estimating for project bidding 

and a more structured safety program. It 

was during this period that Kanawha Stone 

began work on the Corridor G development 

area. The company went on to perform 

virtually all the site development work 

including the South Central Regional 

Jail, Postal Service Distribution Center and 

the entire Corridor G shopping mall 

areas—Southridge Center, Dudley Farms and 

Trace Fork. 

Increased competition that had an emphasis 

on gross sales over maximized profit 

margins resulted in lean years for Kanawha 

Stone from 1993 to 1995, but business 

began to turn around after 1996. During this 

period, Kanawha Stone’s operations grew 

into larger mass excavation projects. In 1998, 

David W. Lawman joined the company as 

Vice President of Estimating and he and his 

estimating group began pursuing larger site 

preparation, highway and landfill projects. 

In the early 2000s, Rockard H. Brogan, Jr., 

headed up operations. Kanawha Stone surged 

forward with large excavation projects. 

The company saw revenues grow while 

working on West Virginia Department of 

Transportation projects, site development 

for private commercial industry, coal and 

landfill work. Among the firm’s high profile 

jobs were Corridor H and Route 35 for the 

West Virginia Department of Transportation. 

Impressive site preparation continued to be 

a key part of the company business, with 

completion of projects at University Towne 

Center Mall and surrounding areas in 

Morgantown, West Virginia.

During this period, Kings’ son, Tom 

Kittredge, was working on computer website 

design in Denver, Colorado, where he had 

graduated from the University of Denver. He 

was recruited to join Kanawha Stone but his 

dream was to start up a web company. The 

Kings purchased a small company and created 

a division that developed websites and other 

computer-based projects. This firm was split 

off from Terradon Corporation in 2001 and 

became Terradon Communications Group, 

LLC (TCG). TCG operates as an affiliate, does 

website and content management design for 

such firms as Whirlpool and other Fortune 500 

companies as well as smaller, regional clients. 

In 2005, with market indications showing 

strong signs of an impending slowdown, the 

company formed an executive management team 

(EMT). Through strategic planning sessions, the 

EMT began implementing a plan to diversify the 

company’s services to offset the dwindling workload 

in the large excavation market. Kanawha 

Stone identified energy, utilities, and civil construction 

as potential markets. This strategy situated 

the company well to perform the work on 

the Boy Scouts of America camp, the Summit 

Bechtel Family Scout Reserve in Fayette County, 

West Virginia, a legacy project for the company. 

Throughout its history—and in all its division—Kanawha 

Stone has always maintained 

a strong emphasis on safety. As Virginia puts 

it, “Safety is our culture, not a regulation.” 

Kanawha Stone will never compromise when 

it comes to an employee’s safety and health. 

The company views safety not as an unachievable 

philosophy, but as a practical and manageable 

process. The strong safety culture at 

Kanawha Stone has resulted in an excellent 

safety record for four decades. 

“Our philosophy is based on respect,” 

explains Virginia. “We respect our employees, 

customers, subcontractors, and vendors. 

We are very dedicated to paying our vendors 

on time and not shopping our sub’s quoted 

prices. We try to be very respectful to local 

communities where we go and do work, 

and we always tell our employees to treat 

people fairly.” 

Kanawha Stone believes in giving back to 

the community and its first priority is programs 

that assist the children of employees, 

such as baseball leagues and school activities. 

The Kings are very involved with a number of 

community boards and organizations, which 

includes Art’s service as president of the 

Buckskin Council of the Boy Scouts and 

Virginia’s service on Marshall University’s Board 

of Governors for ten years. She currently serves 

on Charleston’s Clay Center Board of Directors 

and Art remains active with the Contractors 

Association of West Virginia (CAWV). 

The plan for the company’s future is to 

continue to be the “Company of Choice” for 

its customers and employees and to seek 

opportunities as a family-owned and operated 

enterprise. The company has a strong 

group of officers in Dave Lawman, Frank E. 

“Dusty” Williams and Howard T. Winters. A 

successful succession to the second generation 

is expected with their leadership and 

mentorship of Art and Virginia’s son, Tom, 

and two daughters, Ashley and Amelia, who 

plan to operate as a sibling team. The year 

2013 is Kanawha Stone’s fortieth anniversary. 

The company’s vision is now focused on the 

next forty years. 

For more information, check the company 

website at www.kanawhastone.com. 

TERRADON 

COMMUNICATIONS 

GROUP, LLC 

✧ 

Bottom, left: A protective cover being placed 

at the Charleston landfill. 

Bottom, right: Erection of a bridge abutment 

frame before a concrete pour at The Bechtel 

Summit Reserve in Fayette County, 


PHOTOGRAPH BY GARY HARTLEY. 


1 0 7

WEST VIRGINIA STATE UNIVERSITY 

Founded in 1891 to provide 

agricultural and mechanical 

arts education for black citizens, 

West Virginia State University 

has evolved into a fully 

accessible, racially integrated 

and vibrant, multi-generational 

community in which those who 

work, teach, live and learn do 

so in an environment that 

reflects the diversity of America. 

West Virginia State University, located in 

Institute, offers its more than 3,200 students 

distinguished baccalaureate programs in 

business, liberal and creative arts, professional 

studies, sciences and social sciences. The 

university offers Master’s Degree programs 

in media studies, biotechnology and law 

enforcement administration. 

The school has been described as, “A living 

laboratory of human relations,” a community 

of students, staff and faculty committed to academic 

growth, service, and preservation of the 

racial and cultural diversity of the institution. 

WVSU has a rich and colorful history that 

began with passage of the Morrill Act of 1890, 

which provided for establishment of landgrant 

institutions for black students in the 

seventeen states that had segregated schools at 

the time. The noted African-American educator 

and statesman, Booker T. Washington, was 

instrumental in having the institution located 

in the Kanawha Valley. Dr. Washington visited 

the campus often and was the speaker at the 

school’s first commencement program. 

The site chosen for the institution was in a 

community known as Piney Grove. The name 

was later changed to Institute, in honor of the 

new school. 

The school site itself has a colorful history 

worthy of a Hollywood movie. Institute, now 

the largest predominantly black town in West 

Virginia, is situated on the Kanawha River, 

nine miles west of Charleston on land that was 

once a plantation owned by Samuel Cabell. 

Cabell, a wealthy early settler, established 

the rich plantation and chose one of his 

slaves, Mary Barnes, for his lifelong mate. He 

and Mary had thirteen children and the white 

plantation owner took elaborate legal steps 

to guarantee that his slave and their mulatto 

children would inherit all his money and land. 

The situation created a scandal during 

those Civil War days and Cabell was killed by 

a mob of angry neighbors in 1865. From all 

indications, Cabell was devoted to his slave, 

remained loyal to her throughout his life, 

accepted her children proudly and went to 

great lengths to guarantee they had full legal 

rights as his sons and daughters. He wrote 

four different wills to protect his darkskinned 

family, and also filed papers setting 

each member free from slavery. 

From 1891 through 1915, the school—then 

known as West Virginia Colored Institute— 

provided the equivalent of a high school education, 

along with vocational training and 

teacher preparation for the segregated public 

schools of that era. 

Many of the innovative education techniques 

pioneered by Booker T. Washington at 

Tuskegee Institute in Alabama were utilized at 

the new West Virginia school. Students built 

all the buildings, performed janitorial duties 

and studied everything from agriculture to 

sewing. Dr. Washington was also influential in 

the selection of the Institute’s first president, 

noted educator Byrd Prillerman. It was during 

Prillerman’s presidency that the name of 

the college was changed to West Virginia 

Collegiate Institute. In 1915 the Institute was 

given authority to grant college degrees. 


108

Under the leadership of President John W. 

Davis, the academic program was expanded 

and new buildings were constructed. In 1927 

the institution was accredited by the North 

Central Association. 

The name of the institution was changed 

again in 1927 when it became known as 

West Virginia State College. Dr. Washington 

had such an influence on the development of 

the school that a bill was introduced in the 

West Virginia legislature in 1933 to change 

the name of the school to Booker T. Washington 

State College. The bill was defeated, however, 

because pride in the college was so tremendous 

that alumni, faculty and students vigorously 

protested the name change. 

Over the next few decades, WVSC became 

recognized as one of the leading public institutions 

of higher education for African-Americans. 

In 1939, WVSC became the first of six 

historically black colleges to be authorized by 

the Civil Aeronautics Authority to establish an 

aviation program. The program dramatically 

increased the small number of black pilots 

available to the Army Air Corps in 1939 to 

the thousands who were trained and fought 

during World War II. Several graduates 

from the WVSC program joined the famed 

Tuskegee Airmen during the war. 

The 1954, U.S. Supreme Court decision 

outlawing school segregation had a profound 

effect on WVSC. The school changed from a 

black college to an integrated institution serving 

a predominantly white, commuting and 

older student population. This shift in student 

population was due in part to demographics, 

and in part because of efforts by the college 

administration to reverse a decline in student 

enrollment during the early 1950s. 

Enrollment quadrupled during the 

following decades. However, WVSC 

lost its land grant status, in part due 

to desegregation efforts. Although land 

grant university funding is governed 

by federal laws, the federal aid is 

conditioned on matching state funds. 

The West Virginia State Board of 

Education voted to end the matching 

funds in 1957. 

With the assistance of West Virginia’s 

U.S. Senator, Robert C. Byrd, the land 

grant status was restored in 2001. 

The school’s community college, 

established in 1953, was separately accredited 

in 2003 as the West Virginia State Community 

College, but remained administratively linked 

to West Virginia State College. 

WVSC gained university status in 2004, 

becoming West Virginia State University, 

and began offering graduate degrees in 

Biotechnology and Media Studies. 

In 2008 the state legislature fully separated 

the community and technical college from the 

university, although both schools continued 

to share the same campus. The name of the 

community college was changed in 2009 to 

Kanawha Valley Community and Technical 

College and, in the fall of 2012, KVCTC moved 

to a new location in the former Dow Chemical 

research facility in South Charleston. 


1 0 9

Brian O’Harold Hemphill became the tenth 

president of West Virginia State University 

in May 2012 following a nationwide search. 

Hemphill’s predecessor, Hazo W. Carter, Jr., 

the first to lead the school under university 

status, was named President Emeritus. 

West Virginia State University offers 

encouragement and education through flexible 

course offerings in traditional classrooms, 

in non-traditional education settings, and 

through distance learning technologies. With 

the goal of improving the quality of its student’s 

lives, as well as the quality of life for 

West Virginia’s citizens, the University forges 

mutually beneficial relationships with other 

educational institutions, businesses, cultural 

organizations, governmental organizations, 

and agricultural and extension partners. 

In addition to its academic pursuits, 

WVSU fields successful athletic teams in 

men’s football, baseball, basketball, golf, tennis 

and track & field; and women’s basketball, 

cheerleading, golf, softball, tennis, track & 

field and volleyball. The sports teams are 

known as the Yellow Jackets. 

The university is also well known for its 

music program, which includes the marching 

band, and wind and jazz ensembles. The band 

marches in ‘corps-style’ fashion, in contrast to 

the ‘show-style’ bands featured at other 

schools. Over the past few years, the Yellow 

Jackets March Band, known as the “Marching 

Swarm,” has broken enrollment records by 

more than 800 percent. 

The Symphonic Wind Ensemble performs 

concerts at the end of the Fall Semester and 

two during the Spring Semester. There are 

also concerts for student conductors in the 

conducting programs. 

The Jazz Ensemble is one of the most visible 

groups performing for various events 

both on and off-campus. In 2007 the Jazz 

Ensemble traveled to Austria for concerts in 

Vienna, Graz and Salzburg. In 1912 the Jazz 

Ensemble played two concerts for the 150th 

Emancipation Day Celebrations at the Lincoln 

Theatre in Washington, D.C. 

Notable graduates of West Virginia State 

University include Katherine Johnson, who 

has made significant contributions to America’s 

aeronautics and space exploration; jazz 

saxophonist Chu Berry; movie writer and 

director Antoine Fuqua; Earl Lloyd, the first 

African-American to play in the National 

Basketball Association; actor and theatrical 

director Lou Myers; Will Robinson, the 

first African-American Division I basketball 

coach; civil rights leader Leon Sullivan; jazz 

drummer Butch Miles; and Harriet Elizabeth 

Byrd, first African-American to serve in the 

Wyoming Legislature. 


110

Jobs. Community. People. These are the 

building blocks of a brighter future, and 

these are what drive the Charleston Area 

Alliance, a multifaceted economic, business 

and community development organization as 

well as the largest regional Chamber of 

Commerce in West Virginia. 

The Alliance builds on the legacy of three 

organizations that came together in 2004 to 

promote economic opportunity and community 

enhancement in our region: Business & 

Industrial Development Corporation (BIDCO), 

Charleston Renaissance and the Charleston 

Regional Chamber of Commerce. 

Now with more than 600 members representing 

40,000 employees, the Alliance provides 

a wide range of innovative programs, 

services and policy leadership to help people, 

businesses and community succeed. Our 

efforts are guided by Vision 2030, a twenty 

year roadmap to a stronger and more vibrant 

future that was developed with the input of 

more than 400 diverse community members. 

As the largest regional economic development 

organization in the state, the Alliance 

works to attract new jobs to our region and 

help existing businesses grow and prosper. 

Whether it is helping West Virginia companies 

identify export opportunities or guiding 

a start-up through licensing issues, the 

Alliance is a trusted partner for businesses of 

every age and size. 

The Alliance offices are located in the 

former Charleston Hardware building. The 

four story warehouse now functions as a 

small business incubator, providing affordable 

rent, and access to the West Virginia 

Small Business Development Center, local 

offices of the U.S. Export Agency and other 

key government resources that are also 

located in the building. 

Recent renovations to the building include 

office expansions, conference room upgrades, 

energy-efficient improvements and other 

amenities to create a fresh and professional 

environment that promotes innovation and 

collaboration for businesses on the way up. 

Since the incubator opened its doors in 

September 1986, more than 130 companies 

have come through the incubator creating 

approximately 339 jobs. 

Creating a community that we can be 

proud to call home is central to our mission. 

The Alliance is a catalyst that brings government, 

business, community and citizens 

together to advance major initiatives that make 

Charleston a great place to live, work and 

play. Building on the legacy of our 

predecessor organization, Charleston 

Renaissance, which spearheaded 

projects including the Capitol Market 

and Capitol Street renovations, 

the Alliance championed the Mary 

Price Ratrie Greenspace and is a 

leading partner with the City of 

Charleston on “Imagine Charleston,” 

the city’s comprehensive and downtown 

development plan. 

The Alliance also provides premier 

programs and networking opportunities 

that connect people, businesses 

and opportunity. These include 

Generation Charleston, Elevations 

Professional Women’s Network, 

Inclusion=Innovation, Leadership 

Kanawha Valley, Speed Networking 

with the Stars, Charleston Business 

Showcase, to name just a few. 

At the Charleston Area Alliance, 

we understand that the future is too 

important to be left to chance, and are proud 

to carry on the tradition of those who came 

before us to forge a new path of opportunity 

and prosperity for the next generation. 

CHARLESTON 

AREA ALLIANCE 


1 1 1

WILLIAM L. HARRIS, M.D., PLLC 

When I think about cities, it has always 

been the capitol dome that sets Charleston 

apart from the others. Most of West Virginia’s 

fine cities are like Charleston, built around 

confluences of rivers, destined to become 

hubs of commerce, agriculture, and industry. 

But it is Charleston’s unique place as our state 

capital and center of government that has 

beckoned the people to come down out of 

the mountains to taste, smell, see and feel her 

glory as a masterpiece of what hill people can 

accomplish in the nearly century and a half 

we have been a state. 

My connection with the city of Charleston 

began at an early age. Even with a twin brother, 

I was the only one of four brothers who 

had to have braces on my teeth. I came every 

six months to the Medical Arts Building on 

Quarrier Street to see Dr. Cleek from the time 

I was five until I went away to West Virginia 

University. I had to get up early and leave by 

6 a.m. to make the first morning appointment. 

The old roads from my home in 

Fenwick, near Richwood, were narrow and 

curvy. By the time mother bounced me over 

Route 39 to reach Gauley Bridge, I was ready 

to upchuck, always near Glen Ferris where a 

retaining wall higher than the car prevented 

any chance of pulling off the road. 

Coming on down Route 60 beside the 

Kanawha River in thick morning fog, I was 

always delighted to turn that last curve and 

see through the haze a beaming capitol dome. 

‘Look, Mom! We’re here.’ What a wonderful 

day my mother, sometimes twin Bob, and 

I would spend in Charleston. After the 

orthodontist finished his ‘machinations,’ we 

were free to spend the day doing what my 

mother loved to do best—shop ‘til we 

dropped in Charleston’s great downtown. 

We put the car in the garage, Firestone, 

where it would be serviced and kept all 

day free of parking fees, and easily available 

to load up the back seat and trunk with 

every conceivable form of merchandise. The 

anchor stores were first: JCPenney, Sears & 

Roebuck, Montgomery Ward, then off to 

mom’s favorites, The Diamond, Stone & 

Thomas, Frankenbergers, Cox’s, and always 

Fulwiders for her new pair of work shoes. 

In the middle of all this came lunch at the 

old Quarrier Diner where I was known as 

the funny kid who liked ketchup on his 

macaroni and cheese. At day’s end, the car 

overloaded, we would stop at Shoneys on 

the Boulevard or the Tip Top Drive-In just 

east of the city for our last meal of the day. 

Driving by the capitol dome on our way 

out of town, we could see her bask in the 

evening sunlight like a beacon for a city on 

the hill. 

I was thrilled when I found out I could 

spend my last two years of WVU’s medical 

school in Charleston. I felt like I was back 

home when Charleston Area Medical Center 

chose me for this newly created three-year 

residency in family medicine, a first for West 

Virginia. I was taught not only the science 

but also the art of medicine under the 

tutelage of two exceptional family physicians, 

Dr. Carl Tully and Dr. Marshall Carper. 

As one of three doctors, the first residencytrained 

family physicians in West Virginia, 

I began a love affair with private practice 

that has lasted thirty-five years. I have been 

privileged to treat governors, Supreme Court 

justices, many members of the state House 

and Senate, wealthy members of Charleston’s 


112

oldest families, famous people from all 

walks of life including world-renowned 

Union-Carbide engineers and Hollywood 

movie stars. I have found the same joy in 

serving the poor, the uninsured, and the 

unemployed coal miner. As my practice 

aged, I received further training and became 

board certified in geriatrics. I am now one of 

only 2,000 practicing geriatricians in the 

United States. 

as an editor for the Travel Channel in 

Washington, D.C., and gave us our eight 

month-old grandson. Will, Jr., our youngest, 

finished at Southern Methodist University 

in Dallas, Texas, the first master’s degree 

in video game development in the world. 

He now lives and works in San Diego, and 

is one of the contributing designers for 

the blockbusters, Call of Duty: World at War; 

Call of Duty: Black Ops; and Halo: Reach. 

I met my lovely wife Ann here. She was 

a clinical psychologist and went back to 

school at the University of Charleston to 

become a nurse in order to work by my 

side. All three of our children were born 

at Charleston Memorial Hospital, attended 

Kanawha City Elementary, Horace Mann, 

George Washington, and Charleston Catholic 

Schools. Like many West Virginia families, 

my wife and I have had to see our children 

leave the state for employment in their 

respective fields. Our daughter Jane, mother 

of our three and a half year old twin 

granddaughters, is an award-winning graphic 

design artist in Hollywood. Our middle 

son, Andrew, graduated with a master’s 

degree in screenwriting from the American 

Film Institute in Los Angeles. He works 

Living and raising our children in 

Charleston has been so wonderful for my 

wife and me. Through our involvement in 

politics, the arts, and the numerous charitable 

organizations of the community, we 

have had rich and rewarding experiences. 

We would never have believed we would 

someday have dinner with Don Knotts, Ella 

Fitzgerald, or Betty White, to name just a few, 

or to be trapped in a dressing room with 

President Gerald Ford for an hour during a 

security breach at the Civic Center. We could 

never have imagined I would someday headline 

a concert at the Clay Center, play the 

piano and sing You Are So Beautiful to Ann, a 

five year breast cancer survivor. We built our 

home and developed twenty-eight acres of 

forested yard and gardens on Chappell Road 

✧ 

Left: William L. Harris, M.D. 

PORTRAIT PAINTED BY CHARLESTON ARTIST, 

ARTHUR EVANS. 

Right: Ann Harris, R.N. 

PORTRAIT PAINTED BY CHARLESTON ARTIST, 

ARTHUR EVANS. 


1 1 3

at the entrance to Foxchase. When we come 

down the street, the first thing we see is that 

beautiful capitol dome. We see it when we 

park our cars at CAMC, and we say good-bye 

to it in the evening before we come home to 

our little Garden of Eden. 

In the next thirty or so years, my wife and 

I will be taken back to the city of my birth, 

Richwood, and will be buried with generations 

of Harrises on the hill over-looking the 

town. We will leave behind the memories of 

our fruitful life in this great city. Our children 

love to come back to visit and bring the 

grandchildren. My son-in-law calls it “the 

West Virginia experience.” My descendants 

will come to see where their forefathers lived, 

prospered, and died. They can enjoy the 

beauty of a city with its timeless monument, 

the capitol building with her splendid dome 

to shine and welcome them home. 


114

For nearly thirty years, the law firm of Karen H. 

Miller, Attorneys at Law has specialized in the area 

of labor and employment law in West Virginia. 

The lawyers at Karen H. Miller are knowledgeable 

in all types of general civil litigation 

in state and federal courts, including cases 

involving wrongful termination, breach of 

contract, business litigation, wage and hour 

matters, NLRA Act, medical malpractice 

defense, credentialing, worker’s compensation 

and occupational health and safety. 

The firm was founded by Karen H. Miller 

in 1984 after she received a master’s degree in 

Industrial Relations and a law degree from 

West Virginia University. She practiced for 

two years before starting her own law firm. 

A pioneer in her field, Miller was the only 

solo female law firm in the 1980s to defend 

corporations in employment and labor law 

matters. She also negotiated union contracts 

and enjoyed litigating human rights cases. 

During a period of intense labor unrest, 

including shootings and other violence, Miller 

was often present on the picket line with 

her clients. She even tried cases in Federal 

Court when Federal Marshalls were required 

because of fears that violence might spill over 

into the courtroom. 

Labor violence has lessened in recent years 

because of laws that now protect employees, 

and make unions less necessary. Accordingly, 

the Karen H. Miller firm has become more 

employment law oriented. 

Miller, the firm’s principal attorney, emphasizes 

in-house training and frequently presents 

seminars to companies and groups throughout 

the state. While the purpose of these seminars 

is lawsuit prevention, the firm also litigates 

when necessary. Historically, professionals 

have learned from these comprehensive seminars 

how to deal with distressing legal issues 

arising from everyday personnel matters such 

as hiring and firing, wrongful termination, 

sexual harassment, etc. 

In 1988, Miller showed her faith in 

Charleston’s Renaissance District (Capitol Street) 

by purchasing and renovating an old shoe store 

for her firm’s offices. Although the street was 

almost empty at the time, several other lawyers 

soon followed. Although her practice has since 

moved to the Miller Building on Hale Street, 

KAREN H. MILLER, ATTORNEYS AT LAW 

she is proud to have been an early supporter of 

Charleston’s efforts to rebuild its downtown area. 

The firm of Karen H. Miller currently consists 

of three attorneys, an investigator, an accountant 

and three support staff members. The firm 

strongly supports such community activities 

as The Gabriel Project, The WVU Foundation, 

Sacred Heart Cathedral, the Clay Center, 

Charleston Ballet, West Virginia Symphony 

League, West Virginia University College of 

Law, Charleston Catholic High School, and 

the American Heart Association. Miller is a 

past president of the Kanawha County Bar 

Association and has held several other offices 

in professional and civic organizations. 

For more information about Karen H. 

Miller, Attorneys at Law, check their website 

at www.karenmillerlaborlaw.com. 

✧ 

Top and above: Karen H. Miller. 


1 1 5

THE GREATER 

KANAWHA VALLEY FOUNDATION 

For half a century, The Greater Kanawha 

Valley Foundation has granted approximately 

$90 million to various nonprofit agencies 

serving those in need, as well as providing 

scholarships for students to attend college. 

A charitable community trust, The Greater 

Kanawha Valley Foundation was organized 

in 1962 to accept contributions, create 

and administer funds, and make grants for 

the benefit of the people of the Greater 

Kanawha Valley. The Foundation is a collection 

of many separate funds varying in size 

from $10,000 to more than $7 million. Each 

fund, over 400, is separate with its own 

agreement, its own donors, and its own 

philanthropic purposes. 

The Foundation, through its trustee banks 

and managers, invests the principal of 

each fund for the continued production of 

distributable income. It distributes that 

income to a wide variety of organizations 

and individuals in accordance with the 

provisions of the instrument creating each 

fund. Areas in which the Foundation 

makes these grants include arts and culture, 

education, health, human services, land 

use, recreation, or other charitable areas 

of interest. 

The Foundation serves the counties of 

Boone, Clay, Fayette, Kanawha, Lincoln 

and Putnam. 

The Foundation was established on April 3, 

1962, with a single fund, the Frank A. Knight 

Memorial Fund, which was established with 

proceeds from the North-South Football 

Game. When the game was discontinued, its 

assets of about $45,000 were redirected to the 

Foundation by the Circuit Court of Kanawha 

County for the benefit of the Children’s 

Museum and Planetarium, now known as the 

Avampato Museum. 

During the past fifty years, the Frank A. 

Knight Memorial Fund has given away 

$146,937 to provide a children’s museum for 

the community. The principal, which cannot 

be spent, has grown from the original $45,000 

to more than $85,000. 

During 1971, fourteen new funds were 

established within the foundation by Fred 

Haddad, Stanley Loewenstein and Mr. and 

Mrs. W. E. Chilton, III. As a result of these 


116

and other gifts made to the Foundation, the 

assets were increased to more than $291,000. 

The Foundation’s 25th Annual Report 

in 1987 was dedicated to W. E. “Ned” Chilton 

(1921-1987) in appreciation of his efforts 

in promotion of the Foundation’s growth 

from its inception to the time of his 

death. Chilton not only made his own gifts 

to the Foundation, but encouraged the 

local newspaper to finance the cost of 

publishing the Annual Reports. Thirty new 

funds were established by the end of 

1987 and the Foundation’s assets exceeded 

$21 million. 

Twenty-five years later, the 2010 Annual 

Report reported assets of $133,099,970 and 

approximately 500 funds. 

In addition to granting approximately 

$90 million to various nonprofit agencies 

over the past fifty years, the Foundation 

has been fortunate to have a cadre of 

informed, connected and skilled donors. 

These donors have reinforced the 

foundation’s values and culture and 

encouraged the Foundation to take the lead 

in a variety of community issues, ranging 

from providing a safety net for basic human 

needs in a six county region, to facilitating 

community development in the East End 

Historic District of Charleston, to helping 

build such facilities as the Schoenbaum 

Family Enrichment Center on the west side 

of Charleston and the Clay Center for the 

Arts and Sciences downtown. 

The Foundation offices are located in 

downtown Charleston, the capital city of 

West Virginia, and the organization is 

currently staffed by nine employees. 

The Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation 

is a ‘community foundation’ not only 

because of its service to the community, but 

also by definition. A ‘community foundation’ 

is a collaboration of diverse interests, 

organized for permanence, which attempts 

to strengthen a geographically defined 

community by providing services and 

nurturing leadership among charitable 

donors, nonprofit organizations and the 

community at large. No one person, family, 

business or group can control the governance 

or activities of a community foundation. 

Community foundations are particularly 

suited to assume leadership roles because 

the donors, volunteer board and staff 

often have special insights into community 

issues and needs. The Foundation is 

pleased to have initiated a cross-sector 

partnership with the business community 

to work in a coordinated fashion to 

bring about growth and stability in 

our community. 

The Sustainable Kanawha Valley Initiative 

was created in 2005 by thirteen local 

funders to provide support for projects 

that simultaneously achieve economic, 

environmental and social goals. Aimed at 

Kanawha and Putnam Counties, the Initiative 

established three broad issue areas that 

would allow the communities to manage, 

protect and build upon the region’s 

unique social, ecological and economic 

assets. The issue areas are 1) community 

education and participation; 2) human 

dignity/human services; 3) open space and 

land use. The initiative has generated 

100 proposals since its inception, with 

sixty-four grants awarded for a total 

of $565,930. 

A “New Charleston” initiative has identified 

priority areas to improve the economic 

climate for the underserved. The goal is 

to make Charleston the commercial, 

educational and cultural capital of the 

Appalachian region. 

In addition the Foundation has revitalized 

the Council on Philanthropy and established 

a Safety Net Initiative in 2009 when the 

nation’s economic crisis was becoming a 

stark reality for the Greater Kanawha Valley. 

The Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation 

is poised to join with other sectors of the 

community in undertaking the long-term 

process of social change. It is no longer 

enough to fund an innovative solution 

created by a single nonprofit, or to build 

that organization’s capacity. Instead, the 

Foundation will create and sustain a 

collective process that will enable crosssector 

coalitions to arise and thrive. 

For more information about The Greater 

Kanawha Valley Foundation, check the website 

at www.tgkvf.org. 


1 1 7

TRIVILLIAN’S 

PHARMACY 

AND OLD 

FASHIONED 

SODA FOUNTAIN 

The pharmacy, now known as Trivillian’s, 

has been in the Charleston area in one form 

or another since 1896. The year before, in 1895, 

Fred G. Klostermeyer graduated pharmacy school 

in Ada, Ohio, and came to Charleston to open 

a pharmacy with George Ord at 1034 Quarrier 

Street. Four years later, in 1900, Klostermeyer 

became the sole owner of the pharmacy. 

While Klostermeyer was building his business, 

the second key player, Nick Trivillian, was 

born in March 1909 to an Italian family living 

in Cabin Creek, just up-river from Charleston. 

Nick’s childhood was uneventful until August 9, 

1916 when a disastrous flood swept through 

Cabin Creek and Nick’s mother and older sister, 

Mary, were killed along with seventy-one others. 

Shortly after, Nick’s father left for Italy to find 

another wife leaving his three surviving children 

in the care of a close friend in Cabin Creek. 

When he returned from Italy with his new 

bride, the family settled in South Charleston, 

a sparsely settled community adjacent to 

Charleston. Nick showed an early talent for 

business; his first job was in a bank. From there 

he went to Klostermeyer’s Pharmacy, where 

he started as a soda jerk at the fountain 

and stocking clerk. Throughout his tenure 

Klostermeyer trained Nick in all aspects of 

operating the pharmacy. At the end of the 

1930s, Klostermeyer offered the business to 

Nick if he would take over the debts the 

business had been accruing throughout the 

Depression. Sam Suppa, Sr., Nick’s brother-inlaw 

signed the note for Nick to get him started. 

Nick began building a staff, hiring Arch 

Kreig as his first pharmacist. He married 

Mary Agnes Young (Miss Mountain Lion from 

Charleston High School) the next year and 

she began her career as the bookkeeper for 

Trivillian’s. He added her father, Joe Young, who 

was working at Stowers Grocery as a butcher, 

as his cook. A few years later (1946) Nick 

knocked a hole through the wall of the pharmacy, 

adding more seating for his growing 

restaurant trade. The addition gave him 

another fifteen tables. Above the pharmacy, 

Nick added a little club room where doctors 

could gather, eat, make phone calls and get free 

coffee. When the doctors were not using it for 

lunch, Mary Agnes used the space for her office. 

Nick initiated the policy of handing out 

leather covered appointment books as 

Christmas presents to all the doctors in the 

Valley and had linen prescription books 

printed for each of them, which contained 

the directions on the bottom of the page to 

have the prescription filled at Trivillian’s. 

Business continued to grow and, within 

five years, Nick added Hollis Gray and Harry 

Lynch as pharmacists to work with Kreig who 

worked in the back compounding prescriptions. 

One of their major products contained 

charcoal and due to a quirk in the air conditioning 

system the charcoal was blown all 

around the room. Worse yet, another compound 

contained cocaine. So, by the end of 

the day, Kreig was black from the charcoal and 

smiling from ear to ear from the cocaine 

powder he had inhaled all day. 

Business was so good that Nick began 

looking for a second location where he might 

open another pharmacy. He found his 


118

location at the foot of the Thirty-fifth Street 

Bridge in Kanawha City where he opened the 

new Trivillian’s on December 2, 1950. Hollis 

Gray became the first pharmacist while Harry 

Lynch and Roger Griffith ran the Quarrier 

Street store. Mary Agnes said that the 1034 

location was the goose that laid the golden 

egg, which became the Kanawha City store. 

Nick continued to manage both stores. In 

1954, Suppa became the pharmacist for the 

Quarrier Street store. The next year Lynch left 

to open Lynch Pharmacy on Oakwood Road. 

Roger Griffith transferred to the Kanawha City 

store working with Gray. George Haddad 

and Findley Seldomridge were hired for the 

Quarrier Street store. Suppa left to open 

Sammy’s Pharmacy in Cabin Creek. Trivillian 

passed away in 1964. Findley Seldomridge 

bought the 1034 Quarrier Street store, renaming 

it Findley’s Pharmacy. Phil Haddad opened 

the Medicine Shop in Kanawha City with 

his brother George as the pharmacist. Griffith 

bought the Kanawha City Trivillian’s Store. 

In 1968, a young pharmacist, Paula 

Butterfield, came to work for Haddad at the 

Medicine Shop in Kanawha City. Paula, a native 

of Marmet, West Virginia, graduated from the 

Medical College of Virginia School of Pharmacy, 

and returned home in 1968. She worked for 

Haddad at the Medicine Shop for five years 

leaving to join Griffith in 1973. She worked 

for Trivillian’s until 1976 when she left for 

Youngstown, Ohio. Hearing that Griffith was trying 

to sell Trivillian’s, she returned to Charleston 

and bought the store on September 20, 1978. 

In order to compete with the major chain 

pharmacies that were beginning to come into 

the area, Paula focused on providing top notch 

individualized service, which was Trivillian’s 

hallmark. She also began building the lunch 

trade, expanding the small soda fountain and 

bringing in Maida Sharp as her cook. Paula 

also began selling gifts and focused on compounding 

drugs for children, adults and pets, 

a skill that today is still relatively rare in 

drugstores. The combination of individualized 

service, compounding and high quality food 

has stood her in good stead over the years. 

In 2007, Paula began a major renovation of 

the pharmacy, installing new clean rooms for 

her compounding operation that had outgrown 

its space. She installed a robot for her most 

commonly dispensed drugs, created a more 

spacious working area for her staff and a more 

user-friendly area for pickup and delivery of 

orders. These modernizations placed Trivillian’s 

at the leading edge of the independent pharmacies 

in the Kanawha Valley and bodes well 

for Trivillian’s Pharmacy’s continuing future 

and the perpetuation of the Trivillian name. 

✧ 

Opposite, clockwise starting from the top: 

Nick Trivillian with his father and sisters 

before the flood. 

A birthday party for the boss at 

Trivillian’s Pharmacy. 

Paula Butterfield (third from right) visiting 

with Flossie Kourey (second from right) 

who was the best french fry cook at Kourey’s 

Restaurant on East Washington Street. 

Flossie along with her husband Louis 

ran their restaurant in the 1960s. 

Top: Trivillian’s Pharmacy as it looks today. 

Above: Compounding prescriptions. 


1 1 9

ANDREWS 

FLOOR & WALL 

COVERING 

COMPANY 

Andrews Floor & Wall Covering Company, 

a family owned business for more than sixty 

years, is the one-stop shop for carpet and 

flooring in the Charleston area. 

Andrews Floor & Wall Covering is committed 

to providing the same quality materials 

and professional installations Charleston area 

residents have depended on for six decades. 

We ensure complete customer satisfaction 

by always guaranteeing both the product and 

the installation. 

thing lacking was capital. You can make 

money and still go bankrupt. I substituted 

labor for capital. People would leave me to 

start a business, but they didn’t all make it. 

I made it because I worked myself to death. 

“I put a cot in the office when they started 

that plant in Ravenswood and were doing a 

lot of building up there. I would go up there 

and get back at 11:00 p.m. at night and go to 

sleep on the cot. 

“The local distributor wouldn’t sell to me 

because of another floor covering store in 

town. Another distributor would sell to me, 

but only on a cash basis. I had to prove that 

we were a qualified company with good 

installers. I learned that you have to be fair 

with people. Our policy has always been that 

customer satisfaction is key—we built a good 

trade. We have a good reputation.” 

Dewey Wilson Mann lived, practiced and 

taught by these principles: Work hard, be honest 

and fair, the customer is always right, give 

back to the community, treat employees with 

respect, don’t expect ‘something for nothing’, 

a hard day’s work is a good day, never overextend 

resources (don’t go into debt), be modest, 

practice a strong work ethic. 

✧ 

Above: Prior location of Andrews Floor & 

Wall Covering Company in the early days 

on West Washington Street, 1950s. 

Right: Dewey W. Mann, president, with his 

wife of sixty plus years, Ruth Skaggs Mann. 

She has always been the “matriarch” of the 

Mann family at home and in business. 


120 

The company was founded in 1950 by 

Dewey Wilson Mann, a native of Oak Hill, 

West Virginia. A graduate of Hampden Sydney 

College, Mann fought with the U.S. Army’s 

36th Division in France, Germany, and Italy 

during World War II. Rising to the rank of 

Captain, Mann also led Company B of the 

142nd Infantry. After serving from 1941 to 

1945, he remained in the military as part of the 

occupation force in Japan from 1945 to 1949. 

Following his discharge from the Army, 

Mann returned to the United States and 

completed the first year of law school at West 

Virginia University. However, a summer job 

as a salesman with Andrews Floor & Wall 

Covering Company led to a complete change 

in his career plans and he purchased the 

company in July of 1950. 

In Mann’s own words: “I started out over 

on Virginia Street, across from Woodrum’s. I 

didn’t know a thing about the business. The 

main way I learned was by doing. The only 

Mann married Ruth Ellen Skaggs on 

November 24, 1950, and her children say she 

is, and always will be, the matriarch of the 

family. Her children say that even though her 

age and health are beginning to show, their 

mother has always been the ‘silent partner’; 

not only in the success of Andrews Floor &

Wall Covering Company, but also at 

home. “The three of us were raised by 

the ‘pros’—we have been blessed and are 

ever so thankful,” say her children. 

In post-war America, families were 

working and living the American dream 

and Andrews Floor & Wall Covering 

grew in the thriving economy of the 

1950s, 1960s and 1970s. The Kanawha 

Valley was booming due to chemical 

industry giants such as Union Carbide, 

FMC, and Monsanto. Housing and building 

construction were at an all-time high 

and with no ‘box stores’ or wholesale 

distributors selling to the general public, 

Andrews Floor & Wall Covering did well. 

Some of the important individuals 

who helped the company grow in the early 

years were sales managers Denzil Stonestreet 

and Bruce Grady, accountant William Wyatt, 

business/sales manager Kenneth Mann 

(nephew), and office manager Virginia Janney. 

They were assisted by many excellent and 

skilled professional floor installers, including 

Charles Lowther, Gary Gregg, George Shamblin, 

Scott Meadows, Kevin Holstine, and Kim Slater. 

Together, they have more than 150 years work 

experience with the company. 

The company moved to West Washington 

Street in 1956 and to its current location 

at 505 Central Avenue on the Westside/Five 

Corners in 1961. 

Mann always provided part-time summer 

jobs for his three children, nephews, nieces 

and grandchildren to teach them the value of 

working and developing a good work ethic. It 

is a trait all the family learned and practiced. 

Mann retired in 1994 and his nephew, 

Kenneth R. Mann, continued as the long-time 

store manager until his semiretirement in 2007. 

In 1993, Mann’s youngest daughter, Linda 

Mann Kelly, left her position as assistant state 

director of Adult Education with the West 

Virginia Department of Education, to manage 

the company and continue the business into 

the second generation. 

In 1997, daughter Ellen Mann, a dental 

hygienist by profession, began working parttime 

at Andrews Floor & Wall Covering and, in 

2000, Dr. Dewey Wilson Mann, DDS—the son 

of Dewey and Ruth and a dentist by profession, 

began to contribute to the continued success 

of the family business. Sales manager Chad 

Spencer, and a close family friend, joined the 

staff in 2007. 

In 2003 the three children assumed ownership 

and management of the firm, continuing 

the legacy of Andrews Floor & Wall Covering. 

The Kanawha Valley has lost thousands in 

population in recent years and competition 

and the cost of business has escalated greatly, 

but Andrews Floor & Wall Covering continues 

to thrive. “This small company supports 

twelve to fifteen families, pays its bills and 

has no debt,” comments Linda. “Our father 

taught us well, we learned from the best!” 

✧ 

Above: A young Dewey W. Mann, 

president, Andrews Floor & Wall Covering 

Company, 1960s. 

Below: Current location of Andrews Floor & 

Wall Covering with Kenneth R. Mann 

nephew of Dewey W. Mann and sales 

manager for forty years, 1970s. 


1 2 1

APPALACHIAN 

TIRE PRODUCTS, 

INC. 

✧ 

Above: Walter and Jennifer Dial. 

Appalachian Tire Products, where customers 

always find the right tire for the right price, 

was founded in Mount Hope, West Virginia, in 

1948 and opened its first store in Lewisburg, 


Walter Dial, who had been a Goodyear sales 

representative, joined ATP in 1959 when the 

company had only two stores. Dial moved the 

company’s home office to Charleston in 1962. 

Now eighty-seven years old, Walter serves as 

chairman of the board and is still active in the 

everyday operations of the business. Walter’s 

daughter, Jennifer Dial, joined ATP in 1997 

and became president in 2003. 

ATP now operates twenty-two stores in 

six states. Fifteen of the stores are located 

in West Virginia, including 2 in Charleston, 

1 in Pennsylvania, 1 in Tennessee, 1 in Ohio, 

2 in Kentucky, and 2 stores and a state-ofthe-art 

retread plant in Virginia. 

Eight stores are strictly retail, selling 

passenger and light truck tires and providing 

automotive repair services. The other stores 

also sell truck, industrial, farm, underground 


122

mining and earthmover tires. The customer 

base is primarily coal companies and firms 

engaged in construction and trucking. 

ATP’s full-service retail stores provide 

complete under-car and tire services including 

alignments, engine diagnostics, lube and 

oil services, tune-ups, air conditioning and 

brake service and many other services. ATP’s 

well-trained employees work hard to provide 

value composed of quality products, excellent 

service and a great price. 

In all its stores, Appalachian Tire Products 

strives to provide services in a clean, welcoming 

and comfortable atmosphere. The retail locations 

have flat screen televisions, Wi-Fi, and 

shuttle service to accommodate the customers. 

Most tire dealers specialize in either retail 

or commercial, but ATP sells anything from a 

4-inch wheelbarrow tire to a 57-inch earth 

mover tire that stands 12 feet high. Servicing 

large, off-the-road tires requires special 

equipment and highly trained technicians, 

and ATP maintains a large, well-equipped 

fleet to provide this service. ATP’s objective is 

to help customers achieve the lowest cost per 

hour or cost per ton for their tire and wheel 

expenditures. Tire surveys, pressure checks, 

work condition studies and custom wheel 

selection help ATP select the best tire, tread, 

compound and wheel for its customers. 

In the consumer line, ATP sells Goodyear, 

Michelin, Kelly, Toyo, Cordovan and all other 

brands available through wholesalers. In 

addition, ATP sells Goodyear, Kelly, Dunlop 

and Toyo medium commercial truck tires, 

Goodyear and Super Grip underground mine 

tires and Goodyear and Titan earthmover tires. 

A subsidiary, Mountain Mining and Supply, 

is located on Westmoreland Avenue in 

Charleston and wholesales the Super Grip 

underground mine tire line to customers 

throughout North America. 

Appalachian Tire also sells various types 

of industrial tires, including forestry tires, 

skid steer, solid tires, airport ground 

support equipment tires, even golf cart 

tires. Goodyear farm tires produced by 

Titan Tire come in a large array of sizes to 

meet any possible agricultural need. The 

world’s largest OEMs, including John Deere, 

Case, AGCO and New Holland depend 

on Titan’s quality, durability and unique 

tread designs. 

Appalachian Tire Products has approximately 

240 employees and maintains a 

fleet of more than 120 vehicles. More than 

ten percent of the employees have been 

with ATP twenty years or longer, providing 

stability and expertise for the company. 

Their longevity translates into knowledge, 

which is essential when working with 

larger tires. Heavy equipment must run on 

tires with the right tread and compound 

for the conditions and ATP associates 

are trained in the proper applications 

depending on the weights haul lengths and 

road conditions. 

ATP also provides its customers with fleet 

surveys and other computer-generated reports 

that track tire performance for medium 

commercial truck and earthmover tires. ATP’s 

philosophy is that if we can keep our 

commercial customer’s tire cost as low as 

possible, we should never lose that customer. 


1 2 3

CHARLESTON 

GAZETTE 

✧ 

Above: A Gazette delivery truck from 

the 1930s is believed to be an REO 

Speedwagon model. 

Below: Gazette employees gather outside 

the newspaper office in this photo, believed 

to have been shot in the early years of 

the 1900s. 


124 

Charles B. Webb founded the weekly 

Kanawha Chronicle in April 1873, marking the 

beginning of the Charleston Gazette. Publication 

began at Kanawha and Summers Streets. 

In 1877, James Pemberton, later mayor of 

Charleston, and John W. Jarrett, bought the 

Chronicle and changed its name to The 

Kanawha Gazette. About 1884, Moses W. 

Donnally, an oil well producer, acquired an 

interest in the paper and later purchased it 

from Pemberton. Operations 

were moved to 15 Summers Street 

and ultimately to 79 Capitol 

Street. The name was changed to 

The Daily Gazette. 

George Byrne became editor 

about 1901. In 1905 the 

Charleston Publishing Co. was 

formed. The paper’s name was 

changed to the Charleston Gazette 

on January 29, 1907. 

The Chilton family first acquired 

formal interest in the paper about 

1912. Incorporators of the Daily 

Gazette Co. that year were J. E. Chilton, Charles 

Ashcraft, T. S. Clark and former Governor 

William MacCorkle. Not listed was W. E. 

Chilton, who began a six-year term as U.S. 

Senator in 1911, and later became publisher. 

In November 1912 the newspaper moved 

to 909 Virginia Street East. On May 18, 1918, 

fire consumed the building, and the Gazette 

moved to 227 Hale Street, where it remained 

for more than forty-two years. 

W. E. Chilton, Jr., son of the senator, 

became president of The Daily Gazette Co. in 

1922 and managing editor in 1924. He died 

November 7, 1939. 

After World War II, Robert L. Smith, Sr., 

was elevated to publisher after the death of 

W. E. Chilton, Jr., on September 21, 1950. 

On January 1, 1958, the Gazette entered 

into a consolidation agreement with the 

Charleston Daily Mail to form Newspaper 

Agency Corp. The name was changed to 

Charleston Newspapers on July 1, 1973. 

On September 6, 1960, the Gazette left 227 

Hale Street and moved into an addition of the 

Daily Mail Building at 1001 Virginia Street East. 

W. E. Chilton III succeeded Smith as 

publisher, following the latter’s death on 

October 6, 1961. William E. “Ned” 

Chilton III, whose self-professed 

sense of “sustained outrage” at 

government’s shortcomings shaped 

the Gazette into a crusading 

newspaper, died of a heart attack 

in 1987 at the age of sixty-five. 

Robert Smith, Jr., was named 

publisher and president of the 

Gazette in March 1987. In 1992, 

illness forced him to retire early. 

Smith was succeeded by CN 

general manager Craig Selby as 

publisher, and by Elizabeth E. 

Chilton as president. Smith died 

in June 1994 at 65. 

In May 2004 the Daily Gazette Co. 

purchased the economic interest in CN from 

Media News Group, followed in September 

2004 with the announcement that Elizabeth 

Chilton would be the Gazette’s publisher, a 

position she still holds today.

The Charleston Daily Mail’s oldest predecessor, 

the Evening Call, was founded by 

F. R. Swann and George Warren and began 

publication in June of 1881. Charleston only 

had about 5,000 residents at the time, but the 

population was growing and competition was 

fierce. The Evening Call was going toe-to-toe 

with no fewer than nine other newspapers. 

Stretched finances and high costs of production 

led several papers to consolidate. 

The Evening Call, renamed the Charleston 

Star, merged first with the State Tribune in 1893 

and then later with the Daily Mail’s namesake 

paper around 1898. The consolidated Mail- 

Tribune’s major advantage in the market was 

ownership of a linotype machine, which greatly 

reduced the time and costs of production. 

The Daily Mail name would return later 

under the operation of Walter Eli Clark. Clark 

was a polymath who worked as a reporter, a 

teacher, a gold prospector and the governor of 

Alaska. He traveled to Charleston in the early 

1900s with the intent of buying a newspaper. 

The Mail-Tribune, renamed The News-Mail, 

was in dire straights before it was purchased 

by Clark on April 6, 1914. 

“It was in an awful state of bankruptcy,” 

Clark later wrote, “but I thought I could see 

why. It deserved to be so.” 

Despite its weak position at the time of 

purchase, the paper flourished under Clark’s 

management. It went through its last name 

change in 1920 when a Sunday edition was 

inaugurated, and Charleston Daily Mail became 

a permanent masthead. In 1927 the Daily Mail 

moved across the street into a new building at 

1001 Virginia Street, East. 

Clark continued to be involved with the 

paper until his death in 1950. His commitment 

to journalistic integrity was kept alive 

by his successors. 

Lyell B. Clay became publisher in 1968. 

Clay would later use proceeds from the sale 

of the Daily Mail to Thomson Newspapers 

to co-found the Clay Foundation, a group 

that contributed millions to fundraising and 

building efforts in the state. 

In 1975, Editor Jack Maurice won the 

Pulitzer Prize for a series of editorials about 

a Kanawha County school textbook controversy. 

Maurice is the only West Virginia 

journalist to receive this honor. 

The Daily Mail changed hands several 

times during the following decades but 

stayed true to Clark’s vision. Today, it is 

one of the state’s largest newspapers. The 

paper’s dedication to fair journalism is 

summed up well by its longstanding motto 

chosen by Clark, which quotes Lord Byron’s 

Don Juan—“Without, or with, offence to 

friends or foes, I sketch the world exactly 

as it goes.” 

CHARLESTON 

DAILY MAIL 

✧ 

Above: Walter Eli Clark. 

Below: The Charleston Daily Mail building 

at 1001 Virginia Street, East. 


1 2 5

MRC ® 

MCJUNKIN 

RED MAN 

CORPORATION 

McJunkin Supply Company was founded 

February 15, 1921, in Charleston, West 

Virginia. More than ninety years later the 

company still maintains deep roots in the 

community where it all began. 

Brothers-in-law Jerry McJunkin, Bernard 

Wehrle and George Herscher built a company 

based on integrity, hard work, and customer 

service. Descendants of the three founding 

families played leading roles in guiding the 

company’s prosperity for 

more than eight decades. 

Customers in the thriving 

oil and gas industry of 

the 1920s came to depend 

on the McJunkin Supply 

salesmen in their vehicles 

with bright red fenders 

to meet all their supply 

needs in the field. 

With this focus on customer service, 

McJunkin soon became a leading supplier of 

pipe and other products for the oil and gas 

industry, and the small, one room operation 

grew from its first location on Hansford 

Street to three branch offices, a forge shop 

and warehouse in only three years. First year 

sales totaled $450,000 and grew to one 

million dollars in the company’s second year. 

In 1934 the Great Depression hit the 

company and sales dropped dramatically 

until World War II helped the nation’s 

manufacturing sector rebound. By 1941, 

McJunkin’s locations had been repurposed to 

produce bomb casings and tracks for 

amphibious vehicles to support the war 

effort. This boost in manufacturing activity, 

allowed McJunkin to expand its existing 

operations in West Virginia and Kentucky by 

opening new locations in Ohio. 

The later part of the century proved to be 

full of growth. The company changed its name 

to McJunkin Corporation, expanded to twentynine 

branches in eighteen states by the end 

of the 1960s and in 1971 McJunkin established 

a central warehouse in Nitro, West Virginia. 

And, in 1982, the company moved into its 

new headquarters at 835 Hillcrest Drive in 

Charleston, West Virginia. But with all of 

this success, the McJunkin Corporation family 

also experienced heartbreak when a tragic 

corporate plane crash took the lives of four key 

executives and two company pilots in 1975. 

McJunkin Corporation continued to grow 

in the 1980s through three major acquisitions: 

Appalachian Oilfield Supply Company, Grant 

Supply and Republic Supply of California. 

These three acquisitions gave McJunkin a 


126

strong presence across the United 

States. Then, in 2001 McJunkin 

solidified their position in the 

Midwest by acquiring Joliet Valves. 

The biggest change for the 

family-run business came in 

2007, when Goldman Sachs 

acquired a controlling interest 

in McJunkin Corporation. This 

paved the way for the next phase 

of significant growth. Shortly 

after, McJunkin Corporation 

entered into a “merger of equals” 

with Red Man Pipe & Supply Company. 

Red Man Pipe & Supply Company was 

founded in 1977 by Lewis ‘Lew’ Ketchum 

and his wife, Betty. Lew, a Delaware Tribe 

Native American Indian, saw an opportunity 

to give back to his community by providing 

careers and educational assistance for 

minorities through his company. With a rich 

heritage of customer service, integrity and 

community involvement, the two companies 

already had very similar cultures. Red Man 

also held a controlling interest in Midfield 

Supply in Canada. 

The resulting company, McJunkin Red Man 

Corporation (MRC) became the largest global 

distributor of pipe, valve and fitting products 

to the energy and industrial markets. 

Led by Chairman, President and CEO 

Andrew Lane, MRC will continue to focus 

on the business of distribution, which reflects 

the firm’s investments, growth and success. 

“MRC has faced many challenges during its 

long history, including the recent recession,” 

says Lane. “Through our employees’ hard 

work, we’ve always found a way to overcome 

these challenges and set MRC up for success. 

There are not many companies that are 

leaders in their chosen field and have a nine 

decade history of successes to build on.” 

MRC’s growth has been strong and steady 

since the merger. In 2008, MRC exercised an 

option to purchase the remaining ownership 

of Midfield Supply and expand its territory 

across the Canadian border. That year they 

also acquired LaBarge Pipe and Steel, founded 

in 1952. The company’s customer service 

oriented culture meshed perfectly with MRC’s 

service-centered philosophy. 

A year later, in 2009, MRC acquired 

Transmark Fcx Group, a move that made MRC 

a global powerhouse in the PVF industry 

through a distribution network that now 

includes North America, Europe, Asia, Australia 

and the Middle East, a geographic presence 

unmatched by its competitors. Most recently, 

Stainless Steel Pipe and Fittings Australia joined 

the MRC family of companies in June 2011, 

and was quickly followed by the operations 

and assets of OneSteel Piping Systems in 

March 2012, also in Australia. 

In 2012, MRC became 

MRC Global Inc. and began 

trading on the New York 

Stock Exchange as a publicly 

traded company. The 

company then made its 

debut appearance on the 

Fortune magazine “Fortune 

500” list of the 500 largest 

publically held companies 

in the United States. Today, 

nearly 300 people operate 

out of the Charleston, West 

Virginia, corporate office 

and an additional 100 

employees throughout the 


“The company’s founders never had a 

limited vision of the company’s future,” 

Henry B. Wehrle, Jr., wrote in the foreword 

to McJunkin Corporation’s 2007 Pictorial 

History. “They would of course be greatly 

pleased with the company’s extraordinary 

growth but would probably not be surprised.” 

For more information about MRC, please 

visit www.mrcglobal.com. 


1 2 7

F. M. PILE 

HARDWARE CO., 

INC. 

✧ 

Right: Inside F. M. Pile Hardware Co., Inc., 

in the 1930s. Frank Marshall Pile is on the 

far left. William L., Sr., is third from left 

and Jack Pile, is on the far right. 

Below: Frank Marshall Pile and Sons. 

Top, left: Frank Lynn Pile 

Top, right: John (Jack) Pile. 

Bottom, left: William L. Pile, Sr. 

Bottom, right: Frank Marshall Pile. 


128 

F. M. Pile Hardware Co., Inc. is one of 

those uniquely American institutions: a 

hardware store where customers can find 

the tools and supplies that cannot be 

located elsewhere and where well-informed 

and experienced employees provide answers 

to most any hardware question. 

Family-owned and operated, 

F. M. Pile Hardware 

was founded in 1932 

by Frank Marshall Pile, 

who came to Charleston 

from Radford, Virginia, and 

worked as a salesman 

for Charleston Hardware. 

Frank, along with his 

wife, Anna Letta, and son, 

Frank Lynn Pile, were the 

original stockholders of 

the corporation. Two other 

sons, William Landon Pile, 

Sr., and John (Jack) Pile, 

also worked in the business 

from early on. 

Upon the death of Frank 

Marshall in 1940, William, 

Sr., and Jack operated the 

store until 1967 when 

William assumed sole 

ownership. His son, William L. Pile, Jr., 

began assisting with management in the 

mid-1960s and assumed ownership upon 

William, Sr.’s death in 1982. William, Jr., 

still runs Pile Hardware, with the assistance 

of his wife, Sandra Jane and sons, Andrew 

Richard Pile, Theodore Marshall Pile and 

William Landon Pile III. 

The hardware store’s first location was 

1541 West Washington Street in Charleston. 

This location went through several expansions 

and additions before 1979. In the summer 

of 1979, William, Sr., and William, Jr., moved 

into a new store at the current location of 

1625 West Washington Street. A service shop 

for small engines and power equipment was 

incorporated into the current location in 1991. 

During the Depression, a customer came 

into the store one day to buy a skeleton key 

but Frank did not have the right one in stock. 

However, he noticed the key was the same key 

used to lock the back door of the store. Without 

hesitation, Frank locked the back door and 

sold the customer the key to the store. 

Despite the poor economic conditions of 

the 1930s and the wartime shortages of the 

1940s, Pile Hardware prospered by offering 

a wide range of hardware and services for a 

variety of needs from plumbing to electrical 

to carpentry. In its eighty year history, Pile 

Hardware has earned a reputation as ‘the’ 

place in Charleston to find items that cannot 

be found anywhere else. 

Pile Hardware has been associated with 

many brands throughout its history. Pride 

was taken in selling locally manufactured 

goods. Some of the local manufacturers Pile 

Hardware sold products for were Kelly Axe/ 

True Temper, Charleston Broom (still in existence 

today), Gilbert & Bennett Fencing, and 

Williamson Paint. 

Over the years, Pile Hardware has been affiliated 

with a number of hardware wholesalers 

and suppliers. Local distributors Charleston 

Hardware and Loewenstein & Sons and regional

distributors Belknap Hardware and the George 

Worthington Company supplied much of 

the goods sold in the store’s early days. Local 

distributors Kanawha Valley Distributors and 

Persinger Supply and national distributors 

Tru-Value Hardware, American Hardware, 

and Servistar Hardware supplied many of the 

goods during the store’s middle years. 

Pile Hardware is currently affiliated with 

Ace Hardware Corporation, the largest retailer-owned 

hardware cooperative in the industry. 

Ace began as a small chain of stores in 

1924 and has grown to include more than 

4,600 stores in all fifty states and more than 

seventy countries. 

In addition to basic hardware items, customers 

will find plumbing supplies, electrical 

supplies, paint and paint sundries, fasteners, 

hand and power tools, cleaning supplies, 

house wares, canning supplies, lawn and 

garden supplies, power equipment, gas 

stoves and inserts, coal stoves, electric 

fireplaces, stove pipe and parts, and wood 

stoves and inserts. F. M. Pile also operates a 

small—but growing—rental department. 

Pile Hardware’s long list of services 

includes assembly, battery testing, power 

equipment repair, knife and scissor sharpening, 

glass repair, glass and acrylic cutting, 

screen repair, pipe cutting and threading, 

lamp repair, electric cord repair, garden hose 

repair, key cutting, and paint mixing and 

matching. Special order services are available 

for more than 1,000,000 items. 

Over the years, Pile Hardware has been a 

dealer for a number of premium power equipment 

brands, including: Homelite, Lawn-Boy, 

Lawn Chief, McCulloch, Mantis, Poulan, Toro, 

Red Max and Husqvarna. The repair shop 

ensures that service is provided after the sale. 

Shop service does not stop at power equipment; 

kerosene heaters, torpedo heaters, gas heaters 

and wood stoves are all repaired in house. 

Pile Hardware and its employees are very 

active in the community, sponsoring youth 

sports teams, supporting local schools, 

religious organizations and community groups. 

The company and the Pile family support 

and actively participate in the West Side 

Neighborhood Association, Mountain Mission, 

and the West Side Main Street Project. 

Pile Hardware is unique and tailored to 

meet the needs of its community, a reminder 

of simpler days when customer service 

was more than a slogan. Pile Hardware is 

determined to be “The Helpful Place” by 

offering its customers knowledgeable advice, 

helpful service and quality products. 

As the helpful hardware folks in 

Charleston, Pile Hardware promises that, 

“Helping you is the most important thing 

we have to do today.” For all your hardware 

needs, visit Pile Hardware. You might be 

assisted by someone from the third or fourth 

generation of the Pile family, or a forty year 

associate of Pile Hardware. 

For more information, visit F. M. Pile 

Hardware Co., Inc. at www.pilehardware.com. 

✧ 

Above: F. M. Pile Hardware Co., Inc., 

in the 1970s. 

Below: The Pile Family in front of F. M. Pile 

Hardware Co., Inc., today. Front, left to 

right, William L., Jr., Sandra, and 

Andrew Pile. Theodore Pile is in the back. 


1 2 9

AGSTEN 

CONSTRUCTION 

CO., INC. 

✧ 

Above: Herman B. Agsten. 

The original Agsten Construction Company 

in West Virginia was formed in 1913 when 

Herman B. Agsten moved to Charleston from 

Pittsburgh. He brought his family, including 

three of his sons who joined him in construction 

work at very young ages. The company 

was named H. B. Agsten & Sons. 

Since that date, there have been five 

separate companies owned and operated 

by members of the Agsten family. They are 

H. B. Agsten & Sons, H. B. Agsten, Jr., Inc., 

Robert E. Agsten, Inc., Carlton, Inc., and 

now, Agsten Construction Co., Inc. 

For a number of years, from 1945 until 

the late eighties, it was not unusual for there 

to be two or three Agsten companies competing 

for the same jobs. When any of them 

was asked if they were friendly with each 

other, the reply was always, “Yes, except on 

bid day.” It is accurate to state that all of these 

companies, without exception, were known 

to be high quality builders with exceptionally 

high ethical standards and fair practices. 

Carl Agsten, the son of H. B. “Happy” 

Agsten, Jr., started Agsten Construction 

Company in 2000. Carl had been with his 

father’s firm for many years, and then owned 

and operated Carlton, Inc. He carries on with 

the same commitment to quality and fairness. 

The company’s Mission Statement reads: 

“Our company was formed to provide a 

vehicle for putting to use our knowledge, 

skills, reputation, respected family name, and 

true Christian principles such as the Golden 

Rule, in providing construction services to 

owners with a need for quality, timeliness and 

value, while earning a reasonable profit. The 

company would also provide good paying 

jobs for others with good construction skills, 

or the desire and ability to learn them, who 

also share our goals and values.” 

The Agstens have built some of the 

region’s most significant buildings and Agsten 

Construction Company continues this tradition. 

Their projects have included schools, 

banking facilities, large gaming centers, 

medical offices, golf and resort clubhouses, 

parking buildings, athletic facilities, resort 

swimming pools, maintenance facilities, 

manufacturing facilities, flood repair work, 

and remodeling of high-rise office buildings. 


130

Agsten has also earned a fabulous reputation 

for being a top-quality builder of high-end 

residential homes at The Greenbrier Sporting 

Club in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. 

All of the Agstens have employed union 

construction workers, knowing them to be 

the cream-of-the-crop in their working areas. 

Agsten Construction is no exception. They 

have even negotiated special wage rates and 

working conditions for their residential 

workers. This gives the employees benefits, 

including healthcare, which are generally not 

provided by employers to non-union workers. 

The company prides itself on its strong 

design-build experience. Carl Agsten has a 

degree in architecture from the University 

of Cincinnati, which he believes helps him 

communicate ideas with designers on these 

type projects. He often says that he and his 

father were doing design-build work before 

that description was made popular. 

Agsten Construction Company is headquartered 

at 209 Washington Street West 

in Charleston and operates a branch office 

in White Sulphur Springs. 

If you ask anyone in the West Virginia 

building industry about Carl Agsten and 

Agsten Construction, you will hear the 

same words over and over: integrity, honesty, 

reputable, trustworthy. You will also hear 

such comments as, “My dad built three 

buildings with Agsten, all on a handshake.” 


1 3 1

UNITED 

BANKSHARES, 

INC. 

✧ 

Above: Our banking home from 

June 1903 to September 1918. 

Right: Headquarters at 107 Capitol Street 

prior to moving to the new United Center. 


132 

United’s roots began with the opening of 

the Parkersburg branch of the Northwestern 

Bank of Virginia on St. Patrick’s Day in 1839. 

The bank was later chartered as The 

Parkersburg National Bank during the Civil 

War when West Virginia became a state. 

After a change in West Virginia law, United 

Bankshares, Inc., was formed to enable the 

bank to expand into new markets as a 

registered bank holding company. 

United has had three acquisitions in the 

Charleston market and now holds the second 

largest market share position. United’s 

entrance into the Charleston MSA began with 

the acquisition of the United Bank of Dunbar 

in 1983. United’s next merger in this market 

was Eagle Bancorp Inc., which operated as 

First Empire Savings & Loan. This merger 

pushed UBSI to over $2.2 billion in assets 

and ranked United in the top 100 banking 

companies in the U.S. in terms of market 

capitalization at that time. 

July 1, 1986, United merged with 

Intermountain Bankshares, Inc, parent company 

of Kanawha Banking and Trust N.A. 

On December 31, 1986, KB&T began operating 

under the name United National Bank. 

At this time, the KB&T merger was the largest 

in the 147 year history of the bank and 

moved United up to the second largest and 

fastest growing bank in the state. 

KB&T had a rich history in the Charleston 

market. On October 1, 1901, Kanawha 

Banking and Trust began business in a small 

room at 13 Capitol Street in Charleston. The 

bank, with a total capitalization of $200,000 

and nineteen shareholders, held its first 

stockholders meeting on August 26, 1901. At 

that first meeting, the bank’s original by-laws 

were adopted and the following men were 

elected to the board of directors: Charles C. 

Lewis, W. M. O. Dawson, F. M. Staunton, 

J. L. Beury, D. G. Courtney, H. A. Robson, 

L. Prichard, M. T. Davis, Enoch Carver, and 

Harrison B. Smith. 

This original board elected Charles C. Lewis, 

the first president of KB&T, who served until 

1907. He was succeeded by F. M. Staunton, 

who served as president for nineteen years 

until his death in 1926. Upon the death of 

Staunton, the board elected I. N. Smith, Sr., 

who served as president of KB&T for three 

and a half years until he died on June 24, 

1929. Smith was succeeded in office by 

Harrison B. Smith, who was one of the original 

board directors. He served the office until 

his death on October 18, 1942, and was succeeded 

by H. B. Lewis until his retirement in 

January of 1953, when I. Noyes Smith was 

elected to head the growing bank. Smith had 

been associated with the company since 1927 

having held positions of vice president, 

Secretary of the Trust Department, and was 

appointed as chairman of the board in March 

1967. In December 1967, William N. Shearer 

became the seventh president upon Smith’s 

death. Then, in 1982, Isaac “Ike” Noyes Smith, 

Jr., was named president, led KB&T through 

its merger with United in 1986, and continues 

to be a strong supporter of United today. 

During the current administration under 

the leadership of Chairman and Chief 

Executive Officer Richard M. Adams, United 

Bankshares has successfully completed 

twenty-eight acquisitions, growing from a 

$100 million bank to an $8.5 billion bank 

holding company, which is now the fortysixth 

largest in the nation. 

United, a Founding Member of The 

Greenbrier Classic PGA Golf Tournament 

since its inception, continues to provide great

positive exposure for the State of West 

Virginia. United is also pleased to be the 

official sponsor and proud supporter of the 

West Virginia University Mountaineers and 

proud sponsor and supporter of the Marshall 

University Thundering Herd. 

As a company that has been blessed in 

many ways, United donates more than 

$2 million annually to worthwhile causes, 

making a difference in the lives of many 

people. United’s employees are deeply 

involved in community activities such as Kids 

Count Fund, United Way, WV Symphony 

Orchestra, the Salvation Army, Habitat for 

Humanity, and many others. 

“West Virginia has always been important 

to us,” says Adams. “It’s our home and it’s 

where it all began. The state is full of natural 

resources, hardworking people, and United 

has a strong commitment to the communities 

we serve.” 

United has more than 120 full-service 

offices throughout West Virginia, Virginia, 

Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio and 

Washington, D.C., and employs over 1,600 

experienced banking professionals. 

United has raised its dividends to shareholders 

for the thirty-eighth consecutive 

year—an achievement only one other major 

banking company in the nation has achieved. 

United has been a publicly traded company 

for over twenty-five years and is traded on 

the NASDAQ Global Select Market System 

under the quotation symbol “UBSI.” 


1 3 3

SAINT FRANCIS 

HOSPITAL 

Saint Francis Hospital, celebrating a century 

of service to the Kanawha Valley in 

2013, has become synonymous with comprehensive, 

faith-based healthcare. Saint Frances 

Hospital is committed to putting patients first 

and has earned an enviable reputation for 

compassionate, high quality healthcare with a 

human touch. 

The hospital was first organized in 1913 

when the twenty-five bed hospital was operated 

by the Sisters of Saint Francis of Perpetual 

Adoration from Williamsville, New York. 

Four years later, in 1917, a new 

hospital was opened with a bed 

capacity of forty-two. The Sisters 

of St. Francis were recalled to 

Williamsville in 1921 and the Sisters 

of Saint Joseph of Wheeling sent five 

sisters to administer the hospital. 

A second unit was added to the 

1917 structure, and a third unit was 

added in 1924. This addition brought 

the bed capacity to 75 and included 

nurses’ quarters with a capacity of 75, 

a large recreation room, a classroom 

that could seat 90, a demonstration 

room and clinical and dietary labs. 

During an era of racial tension 

in the early 1950s, twenty white 

nurses walked off their jobs when 

the Sisters refused to discharge three 

black nurses. Substitute nurses were 

flown in from other communities 

and the three black nurses continued 

their employment. 

Saint Francis Hospital expanded its services 

in 1967 with the opening of a 116 bed 

extended care unit. This was followed by 

a new east wing that was constructed in 

1971 beside the original red brick hospital. 

A new west wing was constructed and a 

Medical Office Building and parking garage 

were added in 1980. The One Day Surgery 

Center/Medical Office Building was constructed 

in 1985. 

The Saint Francis Hospital Center for 

Pain Relief offers advanced, minimally 

invasive treatments to patients for a life free 

of pain and addictive medications. Our 

cutting-edge treatment—including spinal 

cord stimulation (SCS), peripheral nerve 

stimulation (PNS) and minimally invasive 

lumbar decompression (MILD)—can improve 

your function and possibly eliminate the 

need for addictive medicines. 

Saint Francis Hospital’s orthopedics has 

been recognized as providing excellence in 

quality by CareChex, which provides a 

continuum of quality awards spanning from 

national to local levels of achievement. 

CareChex’s Medical Excellence & Patient 

Safety Award for Major Orthopedic Surgery: 

National Award, #1 in the State was presented 

to Saint Francis Hospital. The hospital 

also earned CareChex’s State Award and #1 in 

the Market in 2010. 

Saint Francis and Thomas Memorial 

Hospital were both designated as a Blue 

Distribution Center for knee and hip replacement 

by Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield 


134

West Virginia. Saint Francis Hospital offers a 

comprehensive program for joint replacement 

for patients suffering from pain and decreased 

mobility from an impaired hip or knee. 

Our Joint Care Unit is a sixteen bed orthopedic 

unit designed especially for patients 

who have had joint replacement surgery. 

The unit is staffed by a team of nurses 

and therapists who specialize in joint replacement 

and work with the goal of providing 

‘Service from the Heart’. All of the staff are 

very knowledgeable and are trained to help 

patients through each stage of recovery. Our 

team approach leads to shorter stays and 

better outcomes for our patients. 

A focus on promoting healthy life styles 

begins with Prime of Life Health Screenings 

designed to keep our community healthy and 

active. Tests include free blood sugar and 

blood pressure tests, as well as five additional 

screenings for only ten dollars each. This preventive 

approach to healthcare is offered each 

month at Saint Francis, as well as Thomas 

Hospital, and at various community events. 

Saint Francis was one of three West 

Virginia hospitals involved in a pilot project 

to determine whether angioplasties—the procedure 

used to open clogged or narrowed 

arteries to the heart—could be performed 

safely at hospitals without open heart surgery 

backup. Because of the program’s success, 

Saint Francis now performs these procedures 

on a permanent basis 

The cardiac catheterization lab utilizes 

advanced technology to perform sophisticated 

procedures used to evaluate the condition of 

the heart and its blood vessels. Procedures are 

performed by trained cardiologists, assisted 

by certified technologists. 

The Thomas Health System Diabetes 

Center provides quality care to patients with 

diabetes, enabling them to learn how to best 

manage their diabetes so they enjoy positive 

health and well being. 

Saint Francis’ Advanced Women’s Imaging 

Center, provides a wide range of services, 

including full field digital mammography, 

which provides a number of image enhancing 

tools to better diagnose images. The Center 

also provides dexa scans; used to evaluate 

osteoporosis using low-dose x-ray, breast 

ultrasound to help evaluate breast abnormalities, 

and minimally invasive breast biopsies. 

St. Francis also operates a nine bed Skilled 

Nursing Unit designed to provide restorative 

or rehabilitative care to hospitalized patients 

who no longer need acute care services, yet 

require continued care prior to returning to 

the community. An interdisciplinary team of 

doctors, nurses, therapists, dieticians and 

others share the goal of helping each resident 

regain their independence. 

In 2007, Saint Francis was purchased by 

Thomas Memorial Hospital, becoming part of 

the newly organized Thomas Health System 

and returning to not-for-profit status. 

As it enters its second century of providing 

compassionate, faith-based healthcare in the 

Kanawha Valley, Saint Francis Hospital continues 

to offer high quality healthcare—with 

a human touch. 


1 3 5

SPILMAN 

THOMAS & 

BATTLE, PLLC 

more than 140 attorneys and 

seven offices in four states, the 

firm serves clients throughout 

the Appalachian region. 

✧ 

Clockwise, starting from the top left: 

Benjamin Harrison Smith, co-founder of 

Spilman’s earliest predecessor, 

Smith & Knight. 

Edward Boardman Knight, co-founder of 

Spilman’s earliest predecessor, 

Smith & Knight. 

Robert S. Spilman, Sr., at his desk, in the 

Coyle Building at the corner of Capitol and 

Lee Streets, 1912. 

Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC has a 

shared history with the City of Charleston. 

Dating from 1864, Spilman is one of West 

Virginia’s oldest law firms. Currently with 

Spilman was forged from a 

friendship between Colonel 

Benjamin Harrison Smith (1797- 

1887) and Edward Boardman 

Knight (1834-1897). Colonel 

Smith began practicing law in 

the Kanawha Valley in 1822 and 

built his career around quieting 

land titles in West Virginia. In that era, conflicting 

land grants, absentee landowners and local 

squatters created a complicated and confusing 

business climate. 


136

Colonel Smith was a member of the 

1862 and 1872 West Virginia Constitutional 

Conventions and was instrumental in writing 

the land laws that clarified access to land 

titles. His post-Civil War vision led to laws 

allowing former Confederate soldiers to 

acquire land ownership. Colonel Smith’s land 

law suggestions also helped provide funding 

for the state’s public school system. 

Knight moved to Charleston in 1862 

where he practiced contract law and general 

litigation. He was also a member of the 

1872 Constitutional Convention. Colonel 

Smith and Knight shared a common interest 

in land law, and their partnership grew to 

include Colonel Smith’s son, Isaac Noyes 

Smith, and grandson, Harrison Brooks 

Smith. The partnership of Smith & Knight 

terminated upon the death of Isaac. When 

Knight formed a partnership with 

George S. Couch in 1883, the 

firm became Knight & Couch. 

In continuous operation 

since the Civil War, the modernday 

firm of Spilman Thomas & 

Battle is focused on clients in 

its Appalachian footprint and 

across North America. The firm 

provides legal assistance to 

businesses and individuals, 

with practice groups for 

banking and finance, litigation, 

construction, bankruptcy, consumer 

finance, energy, healthcare, 

insurance, natural resources, 

products liability, labor and 

employment, real estate, estate 

planning, tax, bonds, appellate 

work, intellectual property, and 

many other areas. 

Spilman is proud to be a 

regional law firm headquartered 

in Charleston. The firm is located 

in the Spilman Center at 300 

Kanawha Boulevard, East and 

in Morgantown, West Virginia; 

Wheeling, West Virginia; 

Roanoke, Virginia; Pittsburgh, 

Pennsylvania; Greater Harrisburg, 

Pennsylvania; and Winston- 

Salem, North Carolina. 

A distinct firm culture is evident: Spilman 

promotes and maintains an atmosphere of 

diversity, collegiality, integrity, and fairness in 

the workplace. It is passionate about advancing 

the potential of its lawyers and clients. 

Spilman lawyers and employees are deeply 

invested in their local communities and 

devote time as volunteers to economic development, 

charitable organizations, and youth 

sports. Such efforts demonstrate a commitment 

to helping communities thrive. 

Linked to the history of the City of 

Charleston, Spilman Thomas & Battle is 

celebrating an important milestone in 2014, 

its sesquicentennial. Throughout its 150-year 

history, the firm’s core ideology of giving good 

counsel and value to clients has produced 

a sustained, consistent transformation from 

land lawyers to a regional firm built to last. 

✧ 

The Spilman Center opened in 1994. 


1 3 7

HOLIDAY INN & SUITES 

CHARLESTON WEST 

Holiday Inn & Suites Charleston West and 

Charleston Conference Center, a full-service 

hotel and conference center, provides the 

ideal setting for corporate meetings and conferences, 

association meetings and trade 

shows, or social gatherings. 

The facility has a proud history in the 

Kanawha Valley, beginning in 1972 when Leroy 

Rashid and his brother, Richard, partnered with 

Estill, Greenlee & Associates to build a 173 

room Ramada Inn in the Charleston area. The 

hotel was built originally as a place for visitors 

coming to Union Carbide and other chemical 

and industrial plants in the area. 

A need for additional rooms prompted 

the purchase of a lot next door to the hotel 

and a Ramada Motor Inn was constructed to 

accommodate additional travelers. The facility 

became a favorite stopping place for tour 

bus groups and leisure travelers as well as 

corporate clients. 

As the business climate changed over the 

years with a decrease in travel by the chemical 

industry, the hotel expanded its focus to other 

corporate areas as well as government and 

group visitors. The motor inn was demolished 

and a Wingate Inn was built to accommodate 

corporate business travelers. With the addition 

of the Wingate and the renovation of meeting 

space, the hotel was able to host larger meetings 

and functions. The Wingate was renovated 

in 2011 to give it a more metropolitan look 

and feel to fit its corporate clientele. 

The company now owns three hotels: the 

150 room Holiday Inn & Suites Charleston 

West, the 94 room Wingate by Wyndham and 

the 139 room Hampton Inn Southridge. 

In February 2012 the Ramada Plaza was 

completely renovated and rebranded as the 

Holiday Inn & Suites Charleston 

West. The new brand allows the 

company a larger range of options 

for visitors to the Charleston 

market and the full-service hotel 

was reborn in its current contemporary 

and comfortable form. 

The Charleston Conference 

Center is the meetings and banquets 

portion of the company, 

catering to a variety of functions 

ranging from four to 400. The 

space is flexible and the rooms 

contain state-of-the-art audiovisual 

amenities. Whatever the 

occasion or interest, our facilities 

offer flexible venue options with 

a convenient location in the 

heart of the Kanawha Valley 

and only a few minutes from 

downtown Charleston. 


138

From impressive conferences 

and business meetings to breathtaking 

weddings and such special 

occasions as receptions and 

reunions, the Holiday Inn & 

Suites and Charleston Conference 

center will meet all your needs. 

The facilities offer a unique and 

contemporary venue for social 

and corporate events, retreats and 

meetings. With more than 12,500 

square feet of meeting space and 

an experienced and friendly convention 

sales staff, the Holiday Inn 

& Suites Charleston West is the 

perfect location for any occasion. 

Our meetings and occasions services 

include a wide variety of accessories and 

options to make your event unforgettable and 

productive. Complimentary items provided 

through the Charleston Conference Center 

include table lighting, decorative napkins 

in a variety of colors to match your event 

or company, mirror tile centerpieces, table 

linens in a variety of hues, glass centerpieces 

and a decorative punch fountain. 

A variety of options are available for rent, 

including the latest audio-visual equipment, 

sound equipment, conference supplies and 

administrative services. Facilities for groups 

and meetings also include rental of such 

equipment as podiums, flip charts, flags, risers 

and a dance floor. Ample exhibition 

space is available, along with breakout 

rooms for smaller meetings. 

Our in-house restaurant, Mosa Café 

& Grille, serves a wide variety of delicious 

food from appetizers, salads and 

soups to burgers and sandwiches to 

mouth-watering steaks. The Mosa Grill 

is also open for breakfast. 

The Holiday Inn & Suites Charleston 

West won the 2012 Renovations Award 

from IHG Americas and the hotel’s 

restaurant has won the 2011 and 2012 

People’s Choice Award during the 

Charleston Area Alliance’s Business After 

Hours. The hotel has also won many 

Best in the Valley Awards throughout the 

years for the hotel, its restaurant and the 

Comedy Zone. 

The hotel and its employees are involved 

in a variety of charitable activities, with 

several staff members serving as board 

members for many area civic organizations. 

The hotel also hosts events such as Holiday 

in Pink, a breast cancer awareness event, 

Chamber Business After Hours and other 

events to support the community. 

With its latest renovation, the hotel continues 

to grow and improve in its efforts to 

offer the latest in travel amenities. At the 

Holiday Inn & Suites Charleston West and 

Charleston Conference Center, we strive to 

create a warm and welcoming environment 

for our hotel guests and meeting clients. 

For additional information, check our 

website at www.DiscoverCharlestonWV.com. 


1 3 9

HARRIS 

BROTHERS 

✧ 

Left to right: James L. “Buck”, 

Lillian K. and Calvin G. Harris. 


140 

For more than seventy-five years, Harris 

Brothers Roofing & Sheet Metal Company, 

Inc. has served the Charleston area with the 

finest in service and materials. 

The company was founded in 1936 by 

James L. “Buck” Harris, who came to 

Charleston in the mid-1920s seeking a better 

life and more opportunities. Born in Brunswick 

County, Virginia, in 1904, Buck was the son 

of a tobacco and cotton farmer and was no 

stranger to hard work. He found a job with a 

local roofing company soon after coming to 

Charleston, and then met and married Lillian 

Kennedy of Charleston in 1928. 

Buck opened Harris Roofing & Sheet Metal 

Company in 1936 on Dryden Street, now part 

of the Capital Market site. A brother moved to 

Charleston to work for the company a couple 

of years later, and the business name was 

changed to Harris Brothers. The brother 

worked with the company only a few years, but 

the name of the company has never changed. 

Harris Brothers moved to a new building 

at 1518 Hansford Street in 1945 and the 

complex has grown over the years to include 

three buildings and three parking lots. 

One of Buck’s nephews, Calvin Harris, 

moved to Charleston to work for the company 

after his discharge from the Navy in 1948. 

After a year on the job, Calvin confided in 

Buck that he felt he was not “cut out” for the 

roofing business. Since Calvin was involved 

with a project in progress at the time, Buck 

reminded him that he should not leave the 

job unfinished. Calvin finished the job, never 

mentioned leaving again, and remained with 

the company until his death in 2010. 

In 1951, shortly after his forty-seventh 

birthday, Buck died of a sudden heart attack 

and his widow, Lillian, was left with the difficult 

decision of what to do with the company. 

She received several offers from people wanting 

to buy the business but decided to keep it 

going on her own, even though she had no 

experience in business. When she met with 

the employees to tell them of her decision, she 

said she would understand if any felt they 

needed to leave because of uncertainty about 

the future. It is a tribute to Buck and Lillian’s 

reputation that none of the employees left. 

Lillian and Calvin, who had been with the 

company less than three years, met at her 

home every evening to plan the next day. 

Clifford “Barney” Repass, who had a lifetime 

of experience in the roofing business, was a 

tremendous help to Lillian in those years. 

In 1964, Lillian felt there was a need for 

additional help in managing the company 

and asked her son-in-law, Marshall Holcomb, 

if he would be interested in working at Harris 

Brothers. Holcomb agreed to leave his law 

practice and join the company. 

After their college graduations, Calvin’s 

son—Grey Harris—and Buck’s grandson— 

Jay Holcomb—became the third generation 

to be involved in the company. Lillian 

remained active in the firm until the age of 

eighty-one, handling all the financial and 

major business decisions. 

Two of Harris Brother’s better known 

projects in recent years were the metal repairs 

to the dome of the State Capitol building in 

Charleston and the roofing of Tamarack craft 

and artisan center in Beckley.

Dixon Hughes Goodman has a long and 

storied history in Charleston as an accounting 

and consulting firm with high integrity and 

great resources across its footprint. The firm 

cares about its community, and has built into 

its culture a “service above self” mentality 

among its professionals. 

Established in North Carolina more than 

fifty years ago, the firm’s Charleston roots date 

back to 1974 when Robert R. Simpson, Jr., 

and Roger L. Osborne founded the certified 

public accounting firm of Simpson & 

Osborne, CPAs, A.C. From a small office with 

a couple of desks and a file drawer in 

Charleston almost forty years ago, Dixon 

Hughes Goodman (DHG) has grown into 

one of the largest firms in Charleston, the 

state of West Virginia…and the nation! 

With a cast of partners exceeding 250, 

DHG operates across the United States and 

is the largest firm emanating from the 

Southeast. The firm’s Managing Partner in 

the region and elected member to the firm’s 

Executive Committee, Rick Slater, credits the 

work of the partners around him and a 

fantastic client base for his firm’s tremendous 

success in Charleston: “Charleston, West 

Virginia is one of the many middle America 

sweet spots where our firm really enjoys 

doing business. The people are friendly, 

genuine and helpful. Any company looking 

to do business in a great place should 

definitely consider Charleston.” 

In addition to its office in West Virginia’s 

state capital of Charleston, the firm also 

maintains a very successful office in 

Morgantown, West Virginia, and continues 

to explore opportunities for expansion in 

and around Charleston. DHG’s employees 

cite the quality of life, low crime rate and 

excellent salaries and benefits as reasons why 

Charleston is a great place to raise a family. 

Bolstered by a civic-minded partner group 

and its philanthropic-minded associates, DHG 

pays it forward consistently by contributing 

cash, resources and services to a wide range of 

deserving causes and organizations. It is part 

of the great legacy passed along from previous 

partners and a legacy that the current partners 

want to make sure continues in Charleston 

and the Greater Kanawha Valley. 

DIXON HUGHES GOODMAN LLP 

“Our core culture goes back to the history 

of our firm and those great entrepreneurs who 

took measured risks,” says Slater. “In today’s 

world and economic markets, it is never a bad 

thing to take a minute, look back in time and 

recollect what your mentors might have done 

during a period of uncertainty. At DHG, we 

value our history and the investments made by 

those before us. Luckily, our firm story is a very 

happy one…and a story that is continuing 

today right here in Charleston, West Virginia.” 


1 4 1

BUZZ PRODUCTS, 

INC. 

✧ 

Above: Dick Gould, Jr., and his mother, Peg, 

pose with an early-model Buzz delivery 

truck in 1968. 

Below: Today, Buzz Food Service is the 

purveyor of choice for high quality meats, 

especially among chefs and fine dining 

establishments. Pictured, from left, are 

Dickinson Gould, president, Paul Smith, 

corporate chef, and John Haddy, Jr., 

general manager. 


142 

Buzz Products, Inc. d/b/a Buzz Food Service 

produces the highest quality fresh cut steaks, 

chops and ground beef for fine dining establishments 

throughout West Virginia, Virginia, 

Kentucky, and Ohio. Trusted to sell the exclusive 

Certified Angus Beef brand, Buzz prides 

itself on a meat cutting operation that has 

no equal in West Virginia when it comes to 

experience, staff and equipment. 

Since its inception in 1938, the business has 

evolved from a simple producer of fresh and 

frozen hamburger patties to a full line foodservice 

distributor, capable of fulfilling any need of 

a commercial kitchen, from beef, lamb, pork and 

veal to a full line of fresh produce, dairy, bakery 

items, equipment and beyond. While 

the product offering has grown exponentially, 

the business has protected its 

niche as the trusted supplier of high 

quality proteins and customized service. 

A few years after establishing HY- 

Grade Sales in 1938 as a specialty producer 

of hamburger patties, founder 

Mark Hill developed a signature product 

that he called the Buzz Buttered 

Steak. Square, pure beef hamburger 

patties with a pat of real butter on 

top, Buzz Buttered Steaks were a tasty 

alternative that became wildly popular in the 

Appalachian coalfields as an affordable meal 

for the working man, and for kids it was 

“the first thing my mother ever let me cook.” 

Wide-reaching demand for Buzz Buttered 

Steaks was satisfied through a network of 

grocery distribution companies like Mountain 

State Packing, owned by Dick Gould in 

Logan, West Virginia. In 1968, when Hill chose 

retirement over reinvesting in the business to 

meet tough new USDA food safety regulations, 

it was Gould who persuaded him to 

sell the business rather than close and discontinue 

one of the region’s most beloved brand 

names. Gould’s next coup was convincing 

his twenty-four year old son to join this 

new venture. Along with two partners, the 

Goulds moved the business 

from Bullitt Street’s famed 

Diamond Ice Building to a 

new state-of-the-art meat 

processing facility across 

town. The name of the 

company was changed to 

Buzz Products, Inc. 

It was Dick Gould, Jr.’s 

vision and leadership that 

evolved a small maker of 

hamburger patties into a 

regional leader in foodservice 

distribution. From 

serving retail grocery 

stores exclusively, the firm grew to providing 

high-end meats to the finest restaurants, 

country clubs and hotels in the area. Dick, Jr., 

passed away in 2006 and was succeeded 

by his son, Dickinson III, who has led the 

company to record sales in recent years. 

Today, Buzz Food Service employs more 

than forty people, including skilled meat 

cutters, knowledgeable salespeople and a 

friendly, professional delivery staff. The 

company produces annual revenues of 

$12 million and plans for the future include 

continued focus on processing high quality 

proteins for high-end foodservice operators.

MARDI GRAS 

CASINO & 

RESORT 

From a simple Greyhound race track in 

the 1980s, Mardi Gras Casino & Resort has 

evolved into a world-class hotel, resort and 

casino in Cross Lanes, West Virginia. 

The current owners, Hartman & Tyner, 

Inc., of Southfield, Michigan, purchased the 

property in 1989, but the condition at that 

time was so substandard the new owners 

seriously considered padlocking the facility. 

Instead, the owners, led by Vice President 

Dan Adkins, committed to a major investment 

in the property, which resulted in today’s 

luxurious resort. 

The original facility consisted of a multilevel 

grandstand for the Greyhound races. 

Under Adkin’s watchful eye, the grandstand 

was connected to a new gaming facility that 

provided 46,000 square feet of gaming space. 

Included were additional slot machines, a 

fine dining restaurant, a café-style dining 

area, three bars and an entertainment stage 

that overlooked the entire gaming floor. 

The facility evolved over the years from 

Tri-State Greyhound Park in 1994 to Tri-State 

Racetrack & Gaming Center and then Mardi 

Gras Casino with the addition of poker in 

2008. Thirty-one table games were added 

in 2009, including Craps, Roulette and 

Blackjack, along with three-card and fourcard 

poker games. The number of slots available 

has grown from a few hundred to more 

than a thousand today. In August 2010 a 

luxurious hotel facility was added and Mardi 

Gras became a first-class resort. Now one of 

the leading resort hotels in West Virginia, the 

property boasts 150 lavish king and queen 

rooms, including twenty-one luxurious suites. 

The hotel is designed to pamper guests 

with such amenities as 24-hour room service 

and a concierge always on call to assist with 

every need. Expanded guest services are 

provided on a fourth floor concierge level. 

While the original layout of the casino floor 

has served as a footprint, there has been a 

constant evolution of the gaming space to 

add a more diversified choice of table games, 

including High Low, Mini Baccarat and Sic Bo. 

The Big Easy poker room, which first opened 

in 2008 with 24 live poker games and 24 tournament 

games, now offers more than 40 poker 

tables for live and tournament play, including 

Texas Hold’em, Omaha and Stud games. 

Mardi Gras Casino & Resort employs 850 

people in West Virginia. Employees are deeply 

involved in their communities and provide 

support for almost every nonprofit organization 

in their immediate area. The company 

and its employees contribute about $200,000 

each year to local civic and charitable activities. 

Whether it is a romantic getaway for two 

or a corporate retreat, Mardi Gras Casino & 

Resort offers full-scale entertainment and a 

resort lifestyle for any occasion. The service and 

amenities at Mardi Gras Casino & Resort sets 

it apart from all other hotels in West Virginia. 

For more information, check the website at 

www.mardigrascasinowv.com. 


1 4 3

HOLROYD & 

YOST 


144 

The Law Office of Holroyd & Yost has 

earned a reputation as “the place to go” 

when a union problem arises or when 

employment issues involving discrimination 

in age, race, sex, handicap, creed, color or 

religion occur. For nearly fifty years, Holroyd 

& Yost has provided clients in Charleston 

and throughout West Virginia with comprehensive 

employment law and labor relations 

representation and guidance. 

The firm’s senior and managing partner, 

Fred F. Holroyd, II worked for the National 

Labor Relations Board as an investigator and 

hearing officer before opening a labor law 

practice in 1963. He received his B.A. and 

M.A. degrees from West Virginia University 

before receiving a law degree from West 

Virginia University College of Law. 

Brian D. Yost joined the firm after graduating 

from law school at West Virginia 

University and practicing briefly for the State 

of West Virginia, serving as counsel for the 

Commissioner of the Department of Finance 

and Administration. 

Holroyd & Yost became active in labor 

relations representation during the 1960s 

and 1970s, a period when organized labor 

was determined to organize all West Virginia 

employers. Holroyd was very successful in 

preventing a majority of hospitals, automobile 

dealers, manufacturing companies and 

other firms from being organized. 

Holroyd argued the Gissle case before the 

U.S. Supreme Court, a landmark case that 

resulted in the nation’s highest court reversing 

the NLRB and ruling that employees 

and employers are entitled to a secret ballot 

election, even when the union presents 

authorization cards from a majority of the 

employees. The Gissle decision is the reason 

for the recent Congressional Employee Free 

Choice Bill, which eliminates the right to a 

secret ballot election, if passed. 

Labor relations often became violent 

during this era because the courts did not 

protect employers who did not want to be 

unionized. Holroyd’s vehicles 

were frequently damaged as 

he crossed picket lines and 

his mail box was blown up by 

a quarter-stick of dynamite. 

For his protection, his home 

address was removed from 

the telephone directory and is 

still omitted today. 

When Human Rights legislation 

came into effect, it 

was a natural move for the 

firm to include those laws 

in its union related practice. 

In addition, when employment 

discrimination cases 

started in the late 1960s and 

early 1970s, the firm helped 

set the standards for the 

defense of such cases. 

The firm has grown from 

one lawyer to four and continues 

to grow. Tom Price and 

Rick Holroyd have been with the firm fifteen 

years and are well schooled in labor and 

employment law. 

Holroyd & Yost has always been located 

on the west side of Charleston and now 

occupies the entire third floor of the old Elk 

City Bank building at the corner of Tennessee 

Avenue and Washington Street. 

For more information, check the firm’s 

website at www.wvlaborlaw.com.

ZMM Architects & Engineers traces its 

history to April 1, 1959, when Ray Zando, 

Ken Martin, and Monty Milstead left another 

Charleston architectural firm and founded 

the partnership of Zando, Martin & Milstead, 

Architects and Engineers. Ray was responsible 

for architectural design and production, 

Ken was responsible for architectural production 

and specifications, and Monty was 

responsible for structural, mechanical and 

electrical engineering design. 

The firm’s original office was located at 608½ 

Tennessee Avenue on Charleston’s West Side. 

The firm operated as a partnership through 

the 1960s before incorporating in 1970. In 

1981, Steve Branner (now retired) and Bob 

Doeffinger proposed that they be given an 

opportunity to run the business and, if 

successful, be allowed to purchase the firm. 

Steve and Bob purchased the firm from the 

original partners in July 1986. 

The company changed its name to ZMM, 

Inc., in 1986, and Rod Watkins (now retired), 

David Ferguson and Adam Krason joined in 

ownership of the firm in the early 2000s. 

The firm enjoyed positive growth from 

its very beginning, designing and engineering 

a number of increasingly complex projects 

throughout the region. By the late 1980s, 

the firm had outgrown its Tennessee Avenue 

offices and negotiated the purchase of a 

former state liquor store at 222 Lee Street 

West. The 12,000 square foot facility was 

renovated for ZMM’s use and the firm moved 

into the new facility in May 1991. 

From the design of Phillips Animal Hospital 

on Virginia Street during the firm’s first year 

to the most recent advances in sustainable, 

energy efficient projects, ZMM has earned a 

reputation for quality and innovation. 

Some of ZMM’s better known projects 

include the West Virginia State Office Buildings 

5, 6, and 7, industrial projects for Union 

Carbide Corp., West Virginia Regional Jails 

and Juvenile Centers, the Erma Byrd Center, 

Lincoln County High School, and the Regional 

Training Institute at Camp Dawson. 

In 2009, ZMM celebrated fifty years of providing 

quality architectural and engineering services 

for clients in West Virginia and throughout 

the eastern United States. The firm has been 

recognized by its peers for excellence in design 

with numerous West Virginia AIA Design Awards, 

including recent Merit Awards for the Gene 

Spadaro Juvenile Center in Mt. Hope, the CFMO 

Office for the West Virginia Army National 

Guard, and renovations to the tenth floor of State 

Office Building #5 for the State of West Virginia 

Office of Technology. Recent Honor Award 

winning projects include Lincoln County High 

School, the Erma Byrd Higher Education Center 

in Beaver, Hacker Valley Elementary School, 

Southside Elementary and Huntington Middle 

School, the West Virginia Housing Development 

Fund Office, and the Joint Interagency Training 

and Education Center at Camp Dawson. 

ZMM continues to give back to the community 

by supporting organizations that enhance 

the educational and cultural landscape in West 

Virginia, including their sponsorship of the ZMM 

Pops Series for the West Virginia Symphony 

Orchestra, West Virginia Public Broadcasting, 

the Clay Center for the Arts & Sciences, and the 

Kanawha County Public Library. 

ZMM 

ARCHITECTS & 

ENGINEERS 

✧ 

Below: The West Virginia Housing 

Development Fund Office. 


1 4 5

COLUMBIA GAS/ 

NISOURCE 

With great fanfare, on September 24, 

1956, the company celebrated the opening of 

its new eleven story office complex at 1700 

MacCorkle Avenue Southeast. Crowds packed 

the building for tours of what was then the 

second largest building in West Virginia, with 

only the state capitol being larger. With spectacular 

views of downtown Charleston and 

the state capitol, the “big blue building” has 

remained a Charleston landmark ever since. 

✧ 

Above: Columbia’s history in Charleston 

dates to 1903 when the United Fuel Gas 

Company was organized to explore and 

produce natural gas. The company moved 

to this office at Quarrier and Dunbar 

Streets in 1914, with the top four floors 

added in 1928. 

Right: First opening in 1956, the Columbia 

Gas/NiSource building has been modernized 

several times over the years, including a 

major addition added in the early 1980s. 

With spectacular views of downtown 

Charleston and the state capitol, this 

“big blue building” remains a 

Charleston landmark. 

Below: From sports teams to volunteer 

efforts, Columbia Gas/NiSource employees 

have been a part of the Charleston 

community for more than a century. 


146 

One of Charleston’s oldest corporate citizens 

remains part of America’s most vital industries, 

as Columbia Gas Transmission (today part of 

the NiSource family of companies) plays a key 

role in helping bring affordable, domesticallyproduced 

energy to homes and industries 

from the Gulf Coast to the Midwest and across 

the eastern United States. 

Columbia’s history in Charleston began in 

1903 when the United Fuel Gas Company 

was organized to explore and produce natural 

gas. Originally housed at 923 Quarrier Street, 

the rapidly expanding company moved to a 

new three story office building at Quarrier 

and Dunbar Streets in 1914. Four additional 

stories were added to the building in 1928 as 

natural gas production continued to expand. 

By the early 1950s, United Fuel was again 

outgrowing its downtown space. Realizing the 

need for future expansion, the company 

acquired eighteen acres of property across the 

Kanawha River—land that once housed the 

Kanawha Valley Tennis Club, the South Ruffner 

Riding Academy and radio station WCAW. 

In the early 1970s, United Fuel Gas became 

Columbia Gas, and the company’s Charleston 

location became the nerve center for 

Columbia’s vast natural gas production, 

transmission and storage operations. Today, 

Charleston remains home to Columbia Gas 

and NiSource team members involved in 

nearly all phases of the natural gas transmission, 

storage and midstream business. 

These are exciting times in Charleston, as 

the Columbia/NiSource team is helping 

develop and deliver major infrastructure 

enhancement and growth projects designed 

to provide customers with significant new 

supplies of affordable, domestically produced 

natural gas. These important initiatives, 

paired with the company’s unwavering 

commitment to environmental sustainability, 

safety and reliability, help make NiSource’s 

Charleston operations a vital contributor to 

NiSource’s vision of being North America’s 

Premier Energy Company.

E. L. HARRIS & 

SON, INC. 

William David Issac first came to 

Charleston in 1876 when he was working as 

a stonemason for the C&O Railroad. He and 

his brother, David, liked the area and its 

prospects and decided to stay and make it 

their home. They began their life in the valley 

as stonemason contractors and one of their 

early projects was the Littlepage Stone Arch 

Bridge on West Washington Street. 

William began manufacturing brick in 

Charleston in 1884 while continuing his 

construction activities. David continued in 

the stone business and stone contracting, 

operating the stone quarry at Coal Branch 

Heights, site of the old city incinerator. 

E. L. Harris was born in Kentucky and 

came to Charleston in 1907 as a masonry 

foreman on two school projects. During 

the course of business, he met Annie Issac, 

William’s daughter, who was working at her 

father’s brick plant. They married in 1909 

and started their family of three children. 

Evan L. Harris, Jr., was the first born. 

After Evan graduated from West Virginia 

University, he went to work for his father and 

they later became partners as E. L. Harris & 

Son. Their first project as partners was the 

Stears Apartments, built at 1570 Kanawha 

Boulevard. Evan incorporated the firm after 

his father’s death in 1949. 

The General Contracting firm of E. L. Harris 

& Son, Inc. continued the family tradition 

of constructing many of the early and 

present commercial buildings in downtown 

Charleston, along with many structures 

throughout southern West Virginia. 

Notable buildings in downtown constructed 

by the firm include the Union Building 

on the Boulevard, the Terminal Building just 

across the street at Capital Street, plus many 

schools, churches and office buildings. 

In 1964 the firm had an opportunity to 

take an equity position in the construction 

of the Town House Apartment complex on 

the corner of Brooks Street and Kanawha 

Boulevard. The management company, 

Associated Properties, Inc., continues to 

operate and manage the property today. 

The significance of this property lies in the 

fact that during excavation for the structure, 

a dug well was unearthed several feet below 

ground. The well was quite deep to get below 

the water table and was stone lined. The 

well has been depicted in several places—one 

being the book The Annuls of Fort Lee by 

Roy Bird Cook, another being a pen-and-ink 

sketch by Richard Andre. 

Other properties were constructed nearby 

under the direction of Richard Harris, the 

third generation of the Harris family to 

supervise the construction of many buildings 


In 2011, Richard gave up living “Up Elk” 

and moved into town, locating in the 

Town House Apartment building that was 

constructed on the historic site of Fort Lee, 

and was constructed by his company nearly 

fifty years earlier. 


1 4 7

ERNST & 

YOUNG, LLP 

✧ 

Above: Paul Arbogast who served as 

Charleston office managing partner from 

1987 to 2001 and John Gianola who served 

as Charleston office managing partner since 

2001 welcomed Susan Wheeler to the 

partnership in 2012. 

Below: One of the many changes that has 

occurred over the sixty years that Ernst & 

Young has been in Charleston has been 

the increase in diversity of the professional 

staff and in particular the advancement of 

women into positions of leadership. 

Here, Charleston office managing partner 

John Gianola is shown with Senior Manager 

Shelley Norton, Audit Partner Susan 

Wheeler, and David Phillips, executive 

director in charge of tax. 


148 

Although it is one of the smallest offices 

in the global Ernst & Young organization, 

the Charleston office of the accounting firm 

of Ernst & Young provides sophisticated 

accounting, advisory and tax services to a 

wide range of companies ranging in size from 

small privately held entities to multinational 

companies with a worldwide footprint. 

The roots of Ernst & Young go back to 

the nineteenth century and its founders, Arthur 

Young and Alwin C. Ernst. A native of Scotland, 

Young moved to the U.S. in 1890 and formed 

an accounting firm with his brother, Stanley. 

Ernst, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, opened a 

small public accounting firm with his brother, 

Theodore, in 1903. 

Curiously, Ernst and Young never met in 

life, but died within days of each other in 

1948. Their philosophies of service to clients 

lived on, however, and the two firms were 

combined as Ernst & Young in 1989. 

The firm was still known as 

Ernst & Ernst when the office was 

opened in Charleston in 1952, 

primarily to serve the coal companies 

headquartered in the region. 

Paul Arbogast, who became managing 

partner in 1987, recalls 

there were only eight people in 

the office on Quarrier Street when 

he joined the firm. A merger with 

the local firm of Fitzhugh, Erwin, 

McKee and Hickman in 1973 

boosted the staff to seventy-five. 

That highly respected firm was 

headed by Willard Erwin, known as ‘Mr. 

Accounting’ in West Virginia business circles. 

“Our status as a national firm gave us the 

resources needed to serve large companies,” 

comments Arbogast. “We also had the flexibility 

to diversify among many industries.” 

John Gianola, managing partner since 

2001, saw the practice change significantly in 

the early 1980s when banking laws were 

changed and West Virginia banks became 

publically traded companies. Soon the firm 

was providing a full range of services for ten 

banks. The emphasis shifted to firms with 

international connections in the early 2000s. 

Gianola feels that Ernst & Young’s ability to 

adapt to changing business conditions has 

enabled it to stay ahead of its competition. 

Gianola has also found that the ability to 

provide high level services with today’s 

cutting-edge technology helps attract talented 

accountants who want the challenge of 

dealing with large companies while living in 

a relatively small city. 

Ernst & Young’s thirty-five current employees 

are involved in a number of important civic 

and charitable affairs, including EY Connect 

Day, a day set aside each year for employees 

to work with local charitable organizations. 

“As companies have become more complex, 

they need their professional service provider 

to be more sophisticated as well,” says Gianola. 

“Even though we’re in a smaller market, we 

are able to respond with the same resources 

and level of ability found in larger markets. 

That is what allows us to attract the best and 

brightest people to the firm and maintain a 

prestigious client base.”

BB&T Corporation, the ninth largest financial 

holding company in the U.S., employs 

more than a thousand West Virginians—the 

most among the state’s banking institutions. 

With assets of more than $100 billion, 

BB&T is rated as one of the nation’s safest 

and soundest financial institutions. BB&T’s 

mission is to make the world a better place by 

helping our clients achieve economic success 

and financial security. 

In addition, BB&T has the number one 

deposit market share in West Virginia, the 

most capital invested in the state’s businesses, 

and the most branch locations and ATMs. 

BB&T also contributes substantially to 

community support with annual contributions 

of more than $1.2 million to civic and 

charitable activities. 

BB&T has grown steadily since it began 

in eastern North Carolina in 1872, acquiring 

a variety of companies that enabled it to 

provide individual and business clients with a 

full range of financial services. 

In the aftermath of the Civil War, eastern 

North Carolina lay destitute, an easy mark for 

profiteers. There was no money, no law and 

precious little trust or faith in the South’s once 

proud institutions. 

It was in this atmosphere that Alpheus 

Branch established a small mercantile business 

called Branch and Company in Wilson, 

North Carolina. In 1872, Branch joined forces 

with Thomas Hadley to create Branch and 

Hadley, a banking institution people could 

believe in. A few years later, Branch bought 

Hadley’s interest and changed the name to 

Branch and Company, Bankers. 

In 1900 the company was sold to Branch 

Banking and Company, holder of the state 

charter, and in 1912 the name was changed to 

Branch Banking and Trust Company. 

When the stock market collapsed in 1929, 

banks that had invested heavily in stocks began 

to fail. While the number of North Carolina 

banks fell from 489 to 287 between 1929 

and 1933, BB&T grew from five branches to 

eleven and assets increased to $13.7 million. 

BB&T, with sound, conservative leadership, 

continued to grow through World War II 

and on into the post-war period. Assets 

reached $10.5 billion by 1994 and BB&T was 

operating 263 offices in 138 cities in North 

and South Carolina. 

BB&T’s strong presence in West Virginia 

began with the acquisition of Matewan 

Bancshares in Williamson in 1999. This was 

followed by the sizable acquisition of One 

Valley Bancorp in 2000, which gave BB&T 

the state’s number one market share. 

One Valley Bank and BB&T share similar 

histories and values. One Valley Bank was 

founded in 1867 as Kanawha Valley Bank by 

John Q. Dickinson, Henry C. Dickinson and 

William Dickinson, Jr. Both banks were 

known as stable, profitable financial institutions 

that were good employers and offered 

customers friendly, courteous service. Both 

stayed strong through the 1931 banking crash 

and ensuing depression. 

Today, BB&T operates seventy-eight 

branches in West Virginia with 123 ATMs. 

There are two BB&T community banking 

regions in West Virginia, one headquartered 

in Charleston and one in Morgantown. 

After more than a century of financial 

services experience, BB&T’s formula for 

success and a strong mission and values 

keeps it among the leaders of its industry 

and first in the minds of its individual and 

business clients. 

Additional information is available on the 

Internet at www.bbandt.com. 

BB&T 

CORPORATION 


1 4 9

EMBASSY 

SUITES 

When visiting the Charleston area, there is 

no better place to stay than the Embassy 

Suites, an all-suite hotel centrally located near 

four major Interstate links and less than 

fifteen minutes from Yeager Airport. Embassy 

Suites is also near downtown business and 

government offices and Charleston Town 

Center Mall. 

Embassy Suites, located at 300 Court Street, 

offers 253 two-room suites with plenty of 

room to stretch out and enjoy your stay. 

Embassy Suites are designed for elegance, 

as well as comfort, with separate bedrooms, 

sitting rooms and granite finished bathrooms. 

You can work at a spacious desk with highspeed 

Internet access, or relax with the family 

in a roomy suite with two televisions, so there 

is no squabbling over what to watch. You can 

keep favorite beverages cool in the refrigerator 

and fill your suite with the aroma of fresh 

coffee from the in-suite coffeemaker. Longstay 

guests and active families appreciate the 

onsite laundry. You can even upgrade to a 

three-room suite if extra space is needed. 

Guests may maintain any exercise routine 

or customize their workout programs with 

up-to-date cardio equipment, free weight 

room and pool in the hotel’s Fitness Center. 

You will enjoy a complimentary, cookedto-order 

breakfast each morning, as well as 

complimentary snacks and drinks each 

evening during the Manager’s Reception. You 

can also catch the action on large HD screens 

in the Athletic Club Bar & Grill, Embassy 

Suites’ onsite sports bar. 

If you are planning a meeting, Embassy 

Suites is prepared to host any function from a 

pre-meet briefing for sixteen to company 

seminars for 1,200 at the Embassy Suites 

Charleston Grand Ballroom, the largest ballroom 

in central Charleston. Our twenty-four 

hour BusinessLink Business Center makes 

presentations easy. Audio visual equipment is 

available for rent and videoconferencing is 

available to connect with colleagues around 

the world. 

Embassy Suites is also the perfect place for 

weddings, family reunions, athletic banquets 

and other special events. 

To learn more about Embassy Suites or to 

book a suite, visit www.embassysuites.com. 


150

SPONSORS 

Agsten Construction Co., Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 3 0 

Andrews Floor & Wall Covering Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 0 

Appalachian Tire Products, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 2 

BB&T Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 4 9 

Buzz Products, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 4 2 

Charleston Area Alliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 1 

Charleston Daily Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 5 

Charleston Gazette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 4 

Columbia Gas/NiSource . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 4 6 

Dixon Hughes Goodman LLP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 4 1 

E. L. Harris & Son, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 4 7 

Embassy Suites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 5 0 

Ernst & Young, LLP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 4 8 

F. M. Pile Hardware Co., Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 8 

Harris Brothers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 4 0 

Holiday Inn & Suites Charleston West . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 3 8 

Holroyd & Yost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 4 4 

Kanawha Stone Company, Inc. 

Terradon Corporation 

Terradon Communications Group, LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 0 4 

Karen H. Miller, Attorneys at Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 5 

Mardi Gras Casino & Resort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 4 3 

MRC ® McJunkin Red Man Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 6 

Saint Francis Hospital. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 3 4 

Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 3 6 

The Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 6 

Trivillian’s Pharmacy and Old Fashioned Soda Fountain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 8 

United Bankshares, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 3 2 

West Virginia State University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 0 8 

William L. Harris, M.D., PLLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 2 

ZMM Architects & Engineers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 4 5 

S P O N S O R S 

1 5 1

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

B I L L Y J O E P E Y T O N 

Billy Joe Peyton grew up on Charleston’s West Side 

and is a proud 1975 graduate of Stonewall Jackson 

High School. He received his BA, MA, and Ph.D. in 

History from West Virginia University. 

Peyton has over twenty-five years of experience as a 

public historian, administrator and teacher. His varied 

career has included work as project manager for a coal 

mine stabilization project, historian on National Park 

Service recording projects, grant writer and historian for 

a PBS affiliate, associate director of the Institute for the 

History of Technology & Industrial Archaeology at West Virginia University, cultural resource 

specialist for a historic architect, and high school history teacher. In 2002, Peyton joined the 

faculty at West Virginia State University, where he is an Associate Professor of History and 

coordinator of the history program. 

Peyton’s publication credits include entries in the West Virginia Encyclopedia, a chapter in 

The National Road, and his own book titled Charleston Then and Now. He has also participated in 

numerous documentary films, such as Ghosts of Green Bottom, Red Salt & Reynolds, and The Midland Trail, 

and may be seen on the West Virginia installment of The 50 States series airing on the History Channel. 

Peyton is active in a number of local and regional history and preservation efforts. He is a former 

rugby player and a distance runner who enjoys traveling the world with his lovely wife, Christine. 

The pair lives with their two children, Cindie and Kendy, and a couple of unruly dogs in a 

100-year old home in Charleston’s East End Historic District. 


152

Historic Charleston: The First 225 Years

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