Moundsville

By Robert W. Schramm

From 250 to 150 B.C., the Adena people constructed a burial mound by moving 60,000 tons of earth. The resulting formation, the largest conical burial mound in the country, is located in the middle of the namesake town of Moundsville, West Virginia. Although the Grave Creek Mound, as it is now called, attracts spectators from miles around and is the showpiece of the locals, it is not the only noteworthy feature of the town. Fokker Aircraft Factory, the Fostoria Glass Company, United States Stamping Company, and the Marx Toy Company were all located in Moundsville and nearby Glen Dale, and many of the employees were town residents. The area is also home to the old West Virginia Penitentiary, which is now a national historical landmark, and the Daily Echo, a country newspaper that has been the voice of the community for more than 100 years. The county seat of Marshall County, Moundsville is a Southern town immersed in history and full of people dedicated to its preservation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Sep 18, 2012
• ISBN: 9781439629734

Robert W. Schramm

Author Robert W. Schramm has been associated with West Liberty State College as a student, professor, senior lecturer, staff photographer, and archivist for a total of 46 years. Examining literally thousands of photographs, he has chosen more than 200 vintage images to represent the college from the 1850s through the present day. Students, faculty, staff, and alumni will be delighted with each turn of the page as they view their beloved institution, its changes and growth, through the decades.

Book preview

LANDOWNERS’ MAP OF THE CITY OF MOUNDSVILLE, 1877. Made shortly after the towns of Moundsville and Elizabethtown were combined in 1865, this map shows how the two previous towns were located with respect to each other. Many of the street names have since been changed.

Moundsville

Robert W. Schramm

Copyright © 2004 by Robert W. Schramm

9781439629734

Published by Arcadia Publishing

Charleston, South Carolina

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2004109968

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This volume is dedicated to my beloved wife, Jeanne Vannoy Schramm, whose love and support has sustained me for over 37 years.

The history of Moundsville contains much that extends well beyond the borders of this small West Virginia city and is of national and even international interest. All of the images in this book have been enhanced using digital imaging so as to try to bring the past into the present for the benefit of the reader, who I hope will enjoy reading this history as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Robert W. Schramm, 2004

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

One - THE GRAVE CREEK MOUND

Two - THE FIRST SETTLERS and the FOUNDING of MOUNDSVILLE

Three - THE WEST VIRGINIA PENITENTIARY

Four - FOUR NATIONALLY PROMINENT INDUSTRIES

Five - LANGIN FIELD and AVIATION PIONEERS

Six - NEWSPAPERS and the ECHO

Seven - MOUNDSVILLE MEMORIES The Town and the People

Eight - MOUNDSVILLE TODAY

CHRONOLOGY

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A great deal of help is required to obtain the information needed for a book like this. It could not have been accomplished without the gracious cooperation and assistance of the following people, to whom I extend my profound appreciation: first and foremost, Marian and Charlie Walton and the staff of the Moundsville Daily Echo; also, Tom James, local historian; director Susan Reilly and reference librarians Cindy Heise and Diane Walter of the Moundsville–Marshall County Library; David Knuth, executive director of the Marshall County Chamber of Commerce; Dee Deroche, archaeologist, Grave Creek Mound Historic Site; Tom Tominack, general manager of the Wheeling–Ohio County Airport; Travis Zeik, curator of Oglebay Institute Mansion Museum; Luann Johnson of the West Liberty State College Library, Francis Turner, owner of the Official Marx Toy Museum, and Pat Kleinedler of the Moundsville Economic Development Council.

Also, my thanks go to the following individuals for lending photographs, postcards, and documents, and for providing information and reminiscences about Moundsville. Lynn Perry, J.E. Anderson, Robert E. Durig, Lorran Magers, Dale Anderson, Norma Strope Wood, James Tomlinson, John Kerns, Don Durig, Joe MacFadyen, William D. Cullum, Ruth Rogerson, Ed Tomlinson, Virginia Berry, Stanley Gamble, Vernas Williams, Bonnie Anderson, Eric Anderson, Naomi Lowe Hupp, Hugh Anderson, Donna Richards, Sarah Dean, Crystal Turner, and all the friendly citizens of Moundsville that I met in the process of preparing this history.

INTRODUCTION

Twenty-five thousand years ago the continent of North America was partly covered with icecap glaciers extending into the northern reaches of the United States. These glaciers acted as dams that stopped the northern flow of the rivers of the eastern United States, causing them to reverse course and begin flowing south. When the temperature of the earth increased, the ice melted and large volumes of melt-water flooded these streams and enlarged their channels. The only remnant of the preglacial north-flowing streams is the Monongahela River, which still flows north until it meets and joins the south-flowing Allegheny River to form the Ohio River.

With the passing of time the waters of the Ohio flowed more slowly, and the river began to meander. This broadened the river’s valley and resulted in large alluvial deposits forming on the inside edge of the bends in the river, where the water’s velocity was at its slowest. Gradually the river meanders moved downstream, causing new deposits which merged with the old, so that long flat plains of fine rich silt were created. These are known as flood plains, because when the river periodically overflows its banks it spills out onto these flat areas, where it spreads out. This causes the water to lose velocity, and thus suspended silt settles out so that a new layer of soil is deposited on the flood plain. It is on one of these flood plains of the Ohio River that our story begins.

Archaeological evidence indicates that around 1,000 B.C.E. prehistoric groups of Native Americans occupied a region extending from the east coast of the United States to the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys. Archaeologists refer to them as the Adena People, or the Mound Builders after their custom of creating earthen burial mounds. Usually these were small mounds, but the Adena People built a huge burial mound, 295 feet in diameter and 69 feet high, in the middle of an Ohio River flood plain. It was the largest conical burial mound built by these people.

When European explorers arrived, the Ohio River Valley was visited by a number of expeditions and frontiersmen. In 1749, a French expedition of 200 soldiers, headed by Capt. Celoron de Bienville, explored the upper Ohio Valley, including the flood plain where the large mound was located. They must have missed it, however, since there is no mention of it in their report. Captain Celoron buried several lead plates in the region, which claimed the lands on either side of the Ohio River by right of prior discovery (La Salle