USA > West Virginia > Lewis County > A history of Lewis County, West Virginia > Part 26
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There was no dentists in Weston in 1868. All den- tal work was done by traveling dentists who spent a month or more at a time in Weston. The number of doc- tors and lawyers and hotel keepers was great enough for the size of the town. In 1871 a correspondent of the Wheeling Register stated that "the Town of Weston contains a population of about 1,200 inhabitants, and is the seat of an unusual degree of culture." A library as- sociation had just been organized by the ladies of the town, and a debating society by the young men. There
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A HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY
was also a Young Men's Christian Association. One of the best "cornet bands" in the state was established shortly after the war. It had the honor of entertaining the state convention of brass bands in 1873. A business directory was talked of among the business men of the town in 1873, but appears never to have been published. The number of new citizens who desired to own their own homes, led to the organization of a building and loan society in the early 'seventies. Street lights were first installed in Weston in 1870 at a cost of about $125 in- cluding the posts. Kerosene was used.
The large number of destructive fires which took place in 1871 led the leading citizens to devise means of protection. A meeting was called for the organization of a fire company. Most of the younger men of the town enrolled in the organization, the equipment of which was donated by the business men. A proposition was submitted by council for a bond issue to purchase a chemical engine for the town, but it was voted down by a large majority, because an investigation made by the council after the submission of the measure cast doubt upon the efficiency of the engine which it was proposed to purchase. The fire department of Weston has made little improvement in organization since 1871. The cor- porate limits of Weston were reduced by the legislature to nearly their legitimate size in this period, causing much difficulty in later years when the population was extended beyond the boundary line through natural growth.
With all these improvements in Weston the streets remained in a terrible condition. The Weston Democrat advertised, 18 January 1869, for the return of a two- horse team which had been lost in the alley leading from Lewis' store to Center street. "The wagon was loaded at the time with the blank stock receipts of the Main Street Navigation Company which hoped by the aid of locks and dams (especially dams) to make it possible for ships of the largest tonnage to effect a landing at
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ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AFTER THE WAR
George Fisher's store." An ordinance had been passed preventing citizens from riding on the sidewalks, so that it was necessary for them to take the street. The perils of the pedestrian were sufficiently great as it was. The crossing of Bank street was then effected by a single narrow board on saw-horses, which frequently precipi- tated the citizen into the ooze below. The condition of the streets was remedied somewhat by the passage of an ordinance prohibiting the hauling of sawlogs through the streets unless they were carried on wheeled vehicles, and the employment of a large force to drain the streets. Macadam was later applied with some success, but twen- ty years passed before any of the streets were paved with brick.
The agency for the elimination of garbage and other wastes was furnished free of charge by private individ- uals. It consisted of a herd of hogs, which followed squealing after every wagon loaded with grain which passed through the streets, and rendered the task of going to mill extremely arduous for the farmers' boys. This department exercised far more influence on town poli- tics in the 'seventies than any other. Candidates for city offices feverishly canvassed the electorate on the platform of "hog in or hog out", and this question, ac- cording to the Weston Democrat, was used too often as a test of fitness for a municipal office.
There was no theater in the town as yet. The prin - cipal form of amusement in the late 'sixties consisted of a tournament which was participated in by all the leading citizens of the younger generation. Mounted on horse- back in imitation of gallant knights of ten centuries be- fore, they proceeded to a field out Stone Coal and en- gaged in a contest followed by the crowning of the queen of love and beauty. The proceedings caused so much interest hong the small boys that two juvenile tourna- ments were held later in the same year. A baseball game with eight on a side furnished thrills for a Satur- day afternoon crowd at the same period. A m.pican
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gave a performance at the courthouse to "a large and ap- preciative audience." Perhaps the most thrilling of all the entertainments of the time was a fight between a dog and a raccoon on Main street. When the time dragged heavily on their hands, the young men organized a "court of Tuckage to fool fellows from the country and from the eastern cities." The scheme was for an accusation to be brought against the intended victim, and then one of the group, professing friendship, offered to lead him out of town. When sufficiently far from the town, a pistol shot rang out, the "friend" fell, and the victim of the joke usually took to flight.
Considerable prohibition sentiment existed in Wes- ton after the close of the war, and a prohibition ticket was elected to fill all the municipal offices in 1869.
In the late 'sixties two new churches were added to the number already in Weston. In accordance with the instructions of the Presbytery of West Virginia, the Presbyterian church was organized at the home of W. L. Dunnington, 1 April 1867, by the Rev. S. C. Faris. Captain R. C. Arbuckle was appointed ruling elder and Mrs. Mary Wood, Miss Blanche McGee, Mrs. Mary Dun - nington and William L. Dunnington were the charter members. Later meetings were held in the Dunnington home. In 1868 the Rev. Mr. Young of Upshur came to Weston and held a series of meetings. Later on permis- sion was secured to use the old Southern Methodist church, the membership of which had gradually declined on account of the fact that most of the Methodists in Weston returned to the M. E. church. The first building was not erected until 1888.
The year 1868 marked the advent of the Baptists into Weston. The church was the outgrowth of the Broad Run Baptist church. It was a struggling society for some time, but finally secured possession of the old Epis- copal church building in which to hold services.
In 1876 the Catholics built a new church at the head
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FROM MITCHELL'S GEOGRAPHY EDITION OF 1873
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ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AFTER THE WAR
of Second street which they occupied until 1915, when the present magnificent structure was completed.
The next denomination to be represented in Weston was the Methodist Protestants. Members of the church had for a long time been trying to awaken enough inter- est in the county seat to have a church regularly organ- ized. Ministers from the Lewis corcuit occasionally preached in the town, but all efforts were in vain until 1880 when the society seems to have been organized. A resolution of the Lewis circuit in that year directed a committee to purchase the property of the M. E. Church South, but the court refused to confirm the sale. The use of the building was secured for services alter- nately with the Presbyterians in 1882. The Weston mis- sion was established by the conference in 1881 and the Rev. A. T. Cralle sent as pastor. The Rev. I. A. Barnes became pastor the next year and arrangements were be- gun to erect a building on the lot purchased at the cor- ner of Third and Center. The corner stone was laid in 1883, and the building was completed and ready for ser- vices by the first of the year 1887.
Jane Lew experienced a rapid development follow- ing the Civil war, owing largely to the rich agricultural district around it. Marble works were established in 1872. In 1877 a census of the town showed two stores, two drug stores, a tannery, a saddler's shop, a wagon shop, a pottery, a tailor shop, a flouring mill, a good school and a church. All this in spite of the fact that the village of Berlin had come into existence with a post- office, a store and a place to sell liquors.
A number of small towns received their first im- petus immediately following the close of the war due to the energy and foresight of George J. Arnold in establish - ing a line of hotels at strategic locations. The first of these was on the Gauley Bridge turnpike near the foot of the hill on the Rush run side in 1866. Rushville, as it was called, never consisted of more than two houses, but within a year or two a postoffice had been established
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A HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY
there. Another hotel was the famous Valley House, about a half mile below the present Arnold Station. He established the Indian Farm Hotel at Arnold Station, 1890.
Partly as a result of the settlement of the Irish on Sand fork a postoffice was established at Beall's Mills in the early 'seventies. Freeman's Creek district con- tinued to be without a postoffice with the exception of the one at Leading creek, until about 1872. A store was established at the mouth of Isaac's fork of Fink in. the 'seventies, at which Fink Creek postoffice was estab- lished and which formed the nucleus of the later village in the early 'seventies. Freeman's Creek district con- of Churchville. Lower Fink creek continued to be un- developed for the most part, though the exceptional fer- tility of the soil was recognized.
The lumbering industry is responsible for the present town of Vandalia. A large sawmill was located there about 1876, which soon brought two stores, a blacksmith shop, a shoe shop, a cabinet mill and a planing mill. The name Austin was given to the town in honor of one of the residents, and when the name was changed to Vandalia in honor of the wife of a postmaster, there was almost a neighborhood row.
The village of Roanoke appeared with startling sud- denness in the year of 1871 under the general manage- ment of William A. Watson, who performed the func- tions of mayor, chief of police and town council. Lum- bering operations, a mill, and a store owned by Charles A. Horner are largely responsible for bringing the town into existence, and its excellent location has made its po- sition secure. The name was given it by the editor of the Weston Democrat in honor of John Randolph of Roanoke. "The musty old village of Jacksonville" con- tinued to maintain its position as the political and com- mercial center of Battelle district. About 1868 Captain George I. Davisson established a store in the village with a stock of goods superior to that found in most of the stores of Weston. The store building which he erect-
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ed was by far the largest in the country. In the ca- pacious wareroom he stored all his goods which were hauled from Clarksburg in the summer when the roads were good. Into the wareroom also went the produce of the richest farms in a district which was called "Egypt" because of its productivity. People came all the way from Beverly in Randolph County to buy corn at the store during a period of scarcity there. At one time three thousand bushels of wheat were taken in trade, to be hauled to Clarksburg and from there shipped to Bal- timore. Although the village had not yet voted dry it boasted that it was more advanced than the county seat because no hogs were allowed to roam the streets.
Walkersville in 1869 reported that over two hun- dred acres of land had lately been cleared on two farms adjoining the village, forcing the squirrels to the hill- tops and depriving the foxes of brush thickets in which to hide. There were then seven residences, a store, a hotel, conducted by Schuyler Moon, a blacksmith shop, a tannery, a shoe shop. a cabinet shop and a school in the village. Walkersville was a sort of center for the temperance movement in the district, the people having sent a petition to the county court asking that no license be granted. On the left fork of the river about a mile and one-fourth above Walkersville, a mill was estab- lished by one Bunten which was to form the nucleus for a later rival of Walkersville.
Settlers had penetrated to the extreme southern limits of the county by the beginning of the war, and by 1880 they were in "Shoestring" in sufficient numbers to justify the establishment of two postoffices, one at Da- vis, (now Wildcat), and the other at Little Wild Cat. Lower Oil creek and Clover fork began to feel the pulse of progress after the war, partly as a result of an awak- ening of the people to the richness of their lands, partly on account of the lumber development at Burnsville. Judge Gideon D. Camden in 1869 divided his Oil creek lands into hundred-acre tracts which he sold to his for-
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A HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY
mer tenants. A Frenchman named Laforme established a store on Oil creek below the present site of Orlando in anticipation of a rush of business which would follow the proposed development of the oil on Oil creek.
Though Weston by this time had daily mails, other towns in the interior of the state were forced to depend upon weekly or semi-weekly mails at the best. In 1870 Porter M. Camp left Weston on Monday morning with mail that had come by stage from Clarksburg. He stop- ped at Bush's Mills (now Roanoke), Jacksonville, Knaw1, Bulltown, Flatwoods and Sutton the first day. The next day he went to Summersville in Nicholas County. Wednesday he started on the return trip to Weston, reaching the town on Thursday evening. On Friday morning he went to Sutton, returning Saturday on the "short trip."
An important organization which was formed in 1870 was the Lewis County Medical association which did much to discourage quacks and to improve sanitary conditions.
At about the same time the board of supervisors of the county completely revolutionized the methods of caring for the poor. Up to and including 1869 it was the practice to bind out paupers in lots to suit anyone who might be in need of additional help. Under such a system supervision of the poor was impossible and adequate care depended largely on the party to whom a pauper was bound out. The county purchased a farm on Stone Coal creek, erected the necessary build- ings to house all the poor of the county, and collected them there under the care of a contractor. He has not always been chosen for the position because he was the lowest bidder, but unfortunately he was generally so. The paupers were provided with work to do on the farm, which was healthful and invigorating when they could be induced to do it. The new scheme proved to be much better in every way than the old.
One of the tasks set for the local officials of the new
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state of West Virginia was to put in operation the free school system which had been provided for in the state constitution and in statutes passed at succeeding ses- sions of the Legislature. Tobias Musser of Broad run who had been a rather prominent teacher before the war was elected first county superintendent of Lewis County. He began his work in 1865 with five inexperienced boards of education in the townships to deal with. Only two buildings out of all the old-field schools were taken over by the county; few teachers with experience could be secured; and the boards of education had supplied no furniture. The new superintendent advised with the township boards as to the best manner of appropriating their first year's levy. Owing to the fact that the build- ing funds were insufficient to erect all the proper build- ings needed the first year, especially in view of the high prices then prevailing for lumber it was determined to resort to log houses for the emergency. Six log school houses were completed the first year, fourteen others were under construction and the remainder of the build- ings were ready for occupancy by the fall of 1867. The new superintendent and some members of the boards of education insisted upon blackboards, which were a nov- elty in the old subscription schools and which were usually of pale color under the free schools for many years. In the remainder of the school districts where it was impossible to erect new buildings, old houses were either rented or donated by their owners for the purpose, so that about fifty schools were in session the first win- ter. The superintendent visited most of the schools the first session, gave advice to the teachers, and sometimes "where he thought it expedient addressed the school on the importance of education, and the happy results of the benefits of a Free School system."
Seven years after the inauguration of the free school system in the county, there were nine frame and two log schools in Willey township. The log structures were not inviting, and they were replaced as soon as possi-
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A HISTORY OF LEWIS COUNTY
ble. In Sheridan township, though the settlement was newer, commendable progress had been made in educa- tion, and three frame and nine log buildings had been constructed. In Battelle township nineteen schools were in existence, but they were in session only two montlis on account of the failure of the board of education to levy for school purposes. In Lincoln and Jane Lew townships greater progress had been made, practically all the log buildings having been replaced. Interest in schools in the country districts was at such a high level that in 1873 a high school was proposed for the county.
The town of Weston was much slower in organizing its free school system than the country districts. There were many opponents of free schools among the citi- zens of the town, and a long controversy between propo- nents of parochial and free public schools resulted in de- laying the establishment of free schools. The school which had for several years been taught in the basement of the Catholic church opened as usual, and continued until 1869, if not later. A young ladies' seminary was conducted by Miss Brown on Center street during the reconstruction period. The first free school, partly sup . ported by private individuals, was opened under Prof. George W. Crook in a frame building opposite the Epis- copal church. He was assisted by Miss Ella Hall, Miss Mary Hamilton and Miss Etta Barnes.
In 1869 the board of education purchased a lot on Main street from George Ross, and the school was con- ducted in a residence there the next year. The small size of the lot and the unsuitability of the old residence for school purposes led the new board of education to sell it in 1871 and to purchase the property at the corner of Court and Third, which had once been used for a school. Plans were drawn up for an eight-room build- ing, 70 by 45 feet. The contract for its construction was let to P. M. Hale in the fall of 1871, and the building was completed the following year. So well was the work
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done that it has continued to be used for school pur- poses to the present time.
The controversy concerning the relative merits of private schools and free schools came to an end in the fall of 1869 when the trustees of the Peabody fund offered to the board of education the sum of $300 if they would keep one hundred white children in school, or $600 if they would keep two hundred white children. In their eagerness to secure the proffered aid the people of the town forgot their differences and sent all their children to the school, except for a few young men who attend- ed school under Prof. Donegan in the basement of the old Catholic church. At the time of the completion of the new building in 1872, the board of education in Wes- ton had an income of $3,600 including $600 from the Peabody fund. The following named educators have been at the head of the free schools of Weston: C. B. Whitman, Samuel Steele, Loyal Young, Edwin S. B'and, Louis Bennett, James J. Peterson, Prof. Crippen, H. H. Clark, J. E. Connelly, H. C. Lawson, Meigs Bland, T. W. Hale, Dr. George Edmiston, J. W. Bonner, J. E. Galford, F. L. Burdette, Buchanan White, E. H. Knabenshue and Frank R. Yoke.
CHAPTER XXVII. THE COMING OF THE RAILROAD
Progressive citizens of Lewis County were not slow in realizing the benefits to be derived from improved means of transportation. They bent their efforts con- stantly toward bringing a railroad to Weston almost from the beginning of the construction of lines in West Vir- ginia. It will be remembered that when the extension of the Baltimore and Ohio west of Cumberland was de- bated in the Virginia legislature a counter proposal was made for an all-Virginia line to run from Alexandria to Parkersburg via Weston. The citizens of Weston in 1846 entertained the convention of the people of West- ern Virginia which met to devise means of securing the construction of the proposed line. When the measure had been defeated Weston did not lose hope. The prop- osition to build the Northwestern railroad from Grafton to Parkersburg led to a movement to have the new road run by way of Weston. When the route was definitely decided upon, a special act was secured in the Virginia Assembly through the influence of Weston citizens, authorizing the new road to build a branch line to Wes- ton. After the war, when the West Virginia legislature gave its consent for the directors of the Baltimore and Ohio road to take over the lines of the Northwestern rail- road, they were also given the right to extend their lines to Weston.
The Civil war caused a new policy of internal im- provements to be adopted by the federal government. Land grants were given for the construction of a road across the continent. Advocates of internal improve- ments wished the government to take up the work of
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railroad building not only in the west but also in other parts of the country. The Airline railroad was projected from Washington to Cincinnati via Winchester, Moore- field, Buckhannon, Weston, Glenville and Point Pleasant, to connect Washington with the west and obviate the ne- cessity for going around by Baltimore in order to reach the Ohio river from the national capital. Surveys were made over the proposed route and it was found to be nearly fifty miles shorter than the Baltimore and Ohio and to have a maximum grade of fifty feet to the mile, whereas the maximum grade of the Baltimore and Ohio was 106 feet to the mile. Congress refused to take af- firmative action on the proposed bills, and private inter- ests incorporated the Washington and Ohio Railroad Company to build its lines over the proposed route of the Airline railroad. Surveys made by surveyors of the new company confirmed their opinion of its great superiority over the line of the Baltimore and Ohio, and the con- struction of the road seemed assured. The officials of the road requested a subscription of $250,000 from the board of supervisors of Lewis County, who submitted to the voters the proposal to bond the county for $200,000 in 1872. They rejected the proposition. While efforts were being made to hold another election the panic of 1873 occurred, and the project was abandoned by its promot- ers.
In 1870 Weston had ambitions to be the railroad cen- ter of the state. In addition to an east and west line, an- other railroad was proposed by West Virginia promoters to extend the entire length of the Monongahela valley, cross to the Little Kanawha and Elk river valleys to Charleston, and thence run to Kenova in Wayne County. A monster railroad meeting was held at the Lewis County courthouse, 16 February 1870, to nominate delegates to a convention at Clarksburg. One hundred delegates were selected. The outcome of the Clarksburg meeting was the organization of the Northern and Southern West Vir- ginia railroad which planned an eastern connection with
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the Pennsylvania lines and a western connection with the lines of Collis P. Huntington (the Southern Pacific) making it a part of an important transcontinental system. The right of way for the line was donated by most of the farmers along the route, and Lewis County voted in 1871 to subscribe $125,000 of the stock of the railroad. Like the Washington and Ohio railroad, the Northern and Southern West Virginia was lost in the financial cataclysm of 1873.
Impatient at the delay in the construction of the two railroads the citizens of Lewis County determined to build their own railroad to connect with the Baltimore and Ohio. The Weston and Clarksburg Railroad Com- pany was incorporated in 1871 to form a part of the Northern and Southern West Virginia. In 1873 the county court submitted to the people the proposition to transfer their subscription of $125,000 from the Northern and Southern West Virginia to the Weston and Clarks- burg company, but the proposition was defeated. "It is within the power of the people of Lewis County to build their own railroad," said the Weston Democrat, in 1873, "if not a broad gauge road, then a narrow gauge; if not a narrow gauge, then a wooden tramway." The wagon bills of Weston were then estimated to be $30,000 an- nually. Much opposition to the proposed line to Clarks- burg developed in the legislature on account of the Northern and Southern West Virginia, and it was pro- posed to run the line from Grafton to Weston via Phil- ippi and Buckhannon. This proposal was also rejected, and nothing could be done until after the directors of the nearly defunct Northern and Southern West Virginia line had given up the struggle.
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