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Saturday, December 9, 2023

History

Welcome to the History news directory at West Virginia Explorer, where you’ll find an archive of the most recent West Virginia history news published at West Virginia Explorer.

Then there was the time West Virginia had four governors

West Virginia Governor's Mansion at Charleston, WV, Kanawha County, Metro Valley Region
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Too much government? As complex as politics in West Virginia, or any other state, might seem today, there was a time...

Word "hillbilly" once a term of endearment in Appalachia

"Dance" by Porte Crayon, an illustration for Harper's New Monthly Magazine; May 1872.
According to some authorities, the word "hillbilly" was a term of endearment in the Appalachian Mountains in the early 1800s, though it later developed...

Public invited to open house Oct. 15 at Wyoming County landmark

The Itmann Company Store complex is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
ITMANN, W.Va. — Foxfire Realty and the Wyoming County Historical Society will host an open house for the public from 10 a.m. until 4...

Mystery surrounds tale of frontier slave who defended fort

A historic marker recounting a version of the Dick Pointer tale stands near his monument.
LEWISBURG, W.Va. — Settlers who pushed westward across the Alleghenies in the 1700s engaged in a deadly gamble. Despite the threat of attack by...

Museum installing monuments to commemorate Mine Wars

Community members gather to plan a Mine Wars monument installation at Marmet.
MATEWAN, W.Va. — The first of two monuments commemorating the Battle of Blair Mountain in West Virginia will be installed this weekend in Logan...

Hikers, paddlers can visit New River's lost "Island of the Dead"

Headstones hide in the dim light of wooded Red Ash Island in the New River Gorge.
THURMOND, W.Va. — Victims of a smallpox pandemic that swept through the New River Gorge in the late 1800s may have been buried in...

Little-known Farley Monument recalls origins of family in W.Va.

A monument at Old Farley memorializes Drewry Farley.
PIPESTEM, W.Va.—Of the thousands of people named "Farley" who can claim to hail from southern West Virginia, almost all come from one place —"Old...

Three little-known facts about West Virginia's moundbuilders

The largest of the two Oak Mounds rises overlooks the West Fork River.
The term “moundbuilder” is often used to describe two ancient cultures that archaeologists now know as the Adena and the Hopewell. These peoples lived...

How Pruntytown reformatory became a bogeyman in W.Va.

A farmhouse at Pruntytown was once part of the infamous boys' reformatory complex.
PRUNTYTOWN, W.Va.—If you were an unruly boy growing up in West Virginia before the 1980s, there's a chance your misbehaviors were met with the...

Devil's Saddle poem tells of girl's meeting with "granny witch"

Throughout the history of Appalachia, one may encounter the legend of granny witches—solitary women believed to possess uncanny powers. Many served in very real...

How the "Tug Fork" in southern West Virginia got its name

Ostenaco prepares for council on New River, West Virginia
WILLIAMSON, W.Va.—Of all the placenames associated with West Virginia, that of the Tug Fork of the Big Sandy River may be the subject of...

How the West Virginia town of "Hundred" got its name

In the 1850s, illustrator Porte Crayon (David Hunter Strother) captured Henry Church "Old Hundred" for Harper's Magazine.
HUNDRED, W.Va.—There was a time in the 1850s, soon after completion of the B&O Railroad, when passengers would clamber to the car windows to...

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