HISTORY OF PARKERSBURG, WEST VIRGINIA AND ENVIRONS WITH PICTURES
(Part 2)
(Part 2)
A continuation of History and Pictures (past & present) of Parkersburg and Wood County, West Virginia as well as other areas along nearby Ohio and Little Kanawha Rivers are presented on this Web page.
With establishment of the Camden Refinery, connected with Standard Oil Company, and other nearby refineries like the one at Saint Marys,****** the city of Parkersburg became the chief source of kerosene for much of the South and West.
With establishment of the Camden Refinery, connected with Standard Oil Company, and other nearby refineries like the one at Saint Marys,****** the city of Parkersburg became the chief source of kerosene for much of the South and West.
Camden had also invested heavily in the northern West Virginia coal fields, where, at Monongah, the most tragic mine explosions in U. S. history occurred. The picture below describes the conditions for the rescue efforts at one of the mines. Note the old electric carbon arc light hanging on the right-hand side of the photograph.
On December 6, 2007, I took a photograph (below) of a monument placed in the Catholic cemetery in Monongah—my hometown.
This beautiful stone—from those who still care—gives an official toll of 361 men (and boys lost); but more reasonable estimates place the death toll much higher.
Nevertheless, moving back now to Camden's other interests, gas and oil, we should go on to point out that Parkersburg’s development as an industrial city greatly increased after the 1880’s, when more rich gas fields east of the city were tapped and industrial plants began increasingly using clean nearby natural gas instead of dirty distant coal as a manufacturing fuel.
After 1900, the oil fever abated, and by 1937 the last oil refinery in Parkersburg had closed. However, the manufacture of oil-well equipment and other commercial products continued.
With respect specifically to the state of industry in Wood County, in West Virginia, A Book of Geography, History and Industry, published in 1922, Dr. M. P. Shawkey tells us: “Farming is the principal occupation, though by no means the only one. Parkersburg, its county seat, has long been one of the leading cities of the state.”
With respect specifically to the state of industry in Wood County, in West Virginia, A Book of Geography, History and Industry, published in 1922, Dr. M. P. Shawkey tells us: “Farming is the principal occupation, though by no means the only one. Parkersburg, its county seat, has long been one of the leading cities of the state.”
He included the picture above in his work, and continued thus: “The Ohio River north and south, the Little Kanawha, extending into the interior of the state and three important lines of the Baltimore and Ohio provide excellent transportation facilities. Oil and gas development in its tributary, especially from 1895 to 1905, stimulated the growth of the city. The manufacture of oil-well supplies is still an important industry.
The city has also numerous other industrial plants, including a shovel factory, furniture factories, shoe, tile, machine, porcelain, and brick factories. A large part of the Little Kanawha valley is naturally a tributary to Parkersburg, and when the resources of that valley are more fully developed, especially its coal, oil, and gas, Parkersburg will be the beneficiary.”
Reporting on the industrial development in Parkersburg by 1941, our Guide to the Mountain State says that “Although it is one of the five major centers of population and manufacturing in West Virginia, the city proper is spared the usual congestion, smoke, and disorder of an industrial city, for most of the plants are grouped along the Little Kanawha River in an unincorporated section at the southern approach to the city.
“A few of the plants extend northward along the Ohio River front. In the 30 principal manufactories are produced equipment for oil and gas wells, shovels and garden tools, office furniture, fence and roofing supplies, glass tableware, milk bottles, shoes, corrugated fiber boxes, iron and steel products, silk yarn, vitrolite, and porcelain and tile products.”
“A few of the plants extend northward along the Ohio River front. In the 30 principal manufactories are produced equipment for oil and gas wells, shovels and garden tools, office furniture, fence and roofing supplies, glass tableware, milk bottles, shoes, corrugated fiber boxes, iron and steel products, silk yarn, vitrolite, and porcelain and tile products.”
One notable company that manufactured this equipment was the Parkersburg Rig & Reel Company.
It organized in 1896 and began operations in 1897, but its location is not listed in the blank spaces east of the B & O Main Railroad Station on this section of a large 1898 Parkersburg area map that I won on a recent Ebay auction.
These quality products eventually worked their way into petroleum producing centers throughout the world.
Its Parkersburg plant, once one of the largest in the world, was located at 620 Depot Street, along the B & O Railroad tracks.
Before becoming Parmac, Inc., a subsidiary of Maloney Crawford Tank Corp, in 1966, six hundred persons busied themselves in its long, low rambling, multi-windowed factory that covered nearly two blocks beside the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad tracks.
An old 1922 ad for “The Parkersburg Rig & Reel Company,” up for auction on Ebay today (7/20/08), reads: “Quality Service, Experience has taught the right kind of timber to use for building rigs.” At that time, lumbering was still a big industry in Wood County and in the counties surrounding Parkersburg, and this giant manufacturer in the oil industry was making good use of its product. However, at the time, the available supply of trees was rapidly falling to the axe and saw; so, shortly thereafter, the company went to “all-steel rigs.” Its 1951 ad, also up for auction on Ebay now, advertises: “We put oil well drilling on a solid foundation,” and displays an “all-steel” drilling derrick.
The company claimed to have pioneered the development of the portable drilling rig and that “Parkersburg gave the industry the hydraulic brake.”
The Parkersburg Rig & Reel Company's contributions were significant—important elements in our local history.
The Ames Baldwin Wyoming Company plant, among about 30 others, is another factory that was a prominent employer that made a significant contribution to Parkersburg's history. The Ames shovel plant, as it was later affectionately called, was first built between Myrtle St. and Broadway, and later expanded into a No. 2 plant down the street. The first factory was erected in 1931 and employed 600 men during peak production. Many Wood County workers traveled to the shovel plant on rails that belonged to the Monongahela-West Penn trolley system, which later became City Lines of West Virginia.
Parkersburg saw its first trolleys in 1884. The light horse-drawn trolleys left piles of stench lying behind them and often slipped off the tracks into the muddy streets, so people were pleased to see the cleaner and more dependable electric streetcars arrive in 1888. And, after all, every city and most small towns were building the faster and more efficient electric trolley systems to meet all the trains, so Parkersburg, with two B & O Railroad stations, could hardly allow itself to be an exception.
In 1903, the city’s traction company connected to an interurban line that reached Williamstown, West Virginia, then later crossed on the bridge over the Ohio River to Marietta and on into the Buckeye State. Electric trolley development reached its peak about 1918. Thereafter, very slowly at first, but later more rapidly, traction companies fell into bankruptcy and their cars disappeared from the American scene. They enjoyed a reprieve during World War II when gasoline-fed vehicles ceased to be manufactured for private purchase and rubber tires and gasoline were rationed. However, toward the end of that decade, the release of government rationing and the pent-up demand for private automobiles sent consumers on a buying binge, and their new mode of transport was driving most of those wonderful streetcar memories into the pages of history.
Parkersburg saw its first trolleys in 1884. The light horse-drawn trolleys left piles of stench lying behind them and often slipped off the tracks into the muddy streets, so people were pleased to see the cleaner and more dependable electric streetcars arrive in 1888. And, after all, every city and most small towns were building the faster and more efficient electric trolley systems to meet all the trains, so Parkersburg, with two B & O Railroad stations, could hardly allow itself to be an exception.
In 1903, the city’s traction company connected to an interurban line that reached Williamstown, West Virginia, then later crossed on the bridge over the Ohio River to Marietta and on into the Buckeye State. Electric trolley development reached its peak about 1918. Thereafter, very slowly at first, but later more rapidly, traction companies fell into bankruptcy and their cars disappeared from the American scene. They enjoyed a reprieve during World War II when gasoline-fed vehicles ceased to be manufactured for private purchase and rubber tires and gasoline were rationed. However, toward the end of that decade, the release of government rationing and the pent-up demand for private automobiles sent consumers on a buying binge, and their new mode of transport was driving most of those wonderful streetcar memories into the pages of history.
In April of 1947, Parkersburg's last cars ran on the 14-mile interurban line between Parkersburg and Marietta, Ohio. One of its cars, passing from Marietta over the old Ohio River toll bridge, originally built specifically for streetcars, is pictured above entering Williamstown, West Virginia.
This photograph, like the other, is made from a 35MM slide taken by Dr. H. R. Blackburn, and it shows City Lines of West Virginia's car no. 629, one of the last for Marietta from downtown Parkersburg, leaving at 2 AM, April 14, 1947. Enthusiastic passengers packed into the trolley at this ungodly time of the night to ride one of the old electric chauffeurs into streetcar history.
On May 26th of the same year, City Lines made the last run on the Viscose line along Camdern Avenue, which operated from a loop in downtown Parkersburg to the Viscose plant across the Little Kanawha River and to the short South Side feeder line.
Nevertheless, returning now to the Ames shovel plants, we find that its owner first advertised its main product as “the shovel that built America.” Ames Shovels were first manufactured in at North Easton, Massachusetts, in 1774, and this claim is based on the fact that they were used to dig trenches at Bunker Hill and on the battlefields of every war in which the United States has engaged. But just like the lettering on the sign above is beginning to show, this Parkersburg memory is slowly peeling away.
I L L U S T R A T E D N O T E S
* “The Point” at the confluence of the Ohio and Little Kanawha Rivers served as a landing point for packets, flatboats, and steamboats, and served as the landing for the Parkersburg-Belpre Ferry Boat in later years.
Bridges across the Ohio eventually discarded its necessity anymore, and the Nina Paden, seen in the old photograph above, was the last vessel of its kind to operate from the point—in 1916.
The landing now serves the stern-wheeler that makes regular excursions to Blennerhassett Island from Parkersburg.
**A photograph of the latest Wood County courthouse stands above. The medieval architecture of this massive five-story courthouse, constructed between 1899 and 1901, follows the Richardsonian Romanesque style. One of the greatest U. S. architects, Henry Hobson Richardson, set forth the design with its massive rough-cut stones, cavernous door openings, stilted arches, and ornamental carvings.
Efforts of a few determined citizens in the 1970’s saved this beautiful building from the wrecking ball when Parkersburg’s Central City Urban Renewal Project wanted to demolish this piece of Parkersburg history. Unfortunately, however, the contractors gutted the interior, and this stained-glass entrance to an old main courtroom on the third floor seems to be the only interior piece of old artwork worth photographing. Wood County's workers are cordial, and the building administrator offered to escort me up to the stately bell tower.
However, after perusing his fine photographs already taken of Wood County's herald, I decided another picture was not worth the difficult and precarious climb.
Note the lightning rods pointing up to the sky in the photograph above of the Courthouse bell tower from its backside in the afternoon sunshine of another day, which presents a different shade of color for the stone and sky than the photograph above it, which was taken in the early morning sunlight.
Lightning destroyed the steeple on the previous courthouse, the fourth in a line of Wood County Courthouses overlooking the Point. The photograph below shows its replaced rounded steeple above its typical Southern design. Apparently, the pointed design of its original bell tower was not well grounded, and was challenging Jove's fire to come blazing down from the heavens to light up its Classical Greek columns. Defiance can be very destructive in any age, and its architects apparently proved it once again.
The courthouse bell in Wood County's fifth courthouse is seldom rung. Since the beginning of the new Millennium, its voice has only spoken twice—once to ring in a new century and a second time to honor those who perished in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, a day that should never be forgotten!
Beside the beauty of this courthouse and other attractions in Wood County, its current as well as former residents can appreciate less tangible contributions that will outlast this wonderful structure gleaming in the morning sunlight. They are two brighter memories—recollections of two great men from Wood County who were instrumental in the formation of the State of West Virginia: John W. Moss and Arthur I. Boreman. Moss was elected president of the first Wheeling Convention organized to discuss the issue of the separation of the western counties from the slave state of Virginia and of the formation of a new state—in accordance with the Constitution of the United States. Boreman—for which the three flags are waving above on the grounds of his namesake—was elected president of the second Wheeling Convention on the same issue and also elected the first governor of the State of West Virginia.
The new State’s first governor and other officers were inaugurated on June 20, 1863, when Governor Pierpont turned over to them the government of West Virginia, and retired to Alexandria, the new capital of Virginia. Visitors who travel to Fort Boreman Park, overlooking Parkersburg, might want to keep this information in mind.
***Parkersburg has always built schools, and continued to improve them over the years. “At present, we have about one hundred and fifty standard four-year high schools and nearly fifty more two-year or three-year schools” in West Virginia, wrote Dr. Shawkey in 1922.
“Many of our modern schools are equipped much better than were the good colleges of fifty years ago,” and he was referring to the photograph above.
The new Parkersburg High School building, with a concrete football stadium on its 27-acre campus, was just five years old at the time. This beautiful three-story Tudor-styled structure is one of the oldest school buildings in the state of West Virginia, and the new additions have only slightly changed its Old English character. A comparison may be made with the photographs above.
Another fine looking school, among a few others not yet razed, is older than the (now North) Parkersburg High School.
The William McKinley Elementary School, built with taste and for durability—unlike the flimsy shoe-box buildings of today—is over a hundred years old and apparently still in use. South Parkersburg received its own high school after the City incorporated the south side of the Little Kanawha River in 1950.
****Transport of oil, timber, and other products on the Little Kanawha River in the nineteenth century was facilitated by a system of five dams and locks.
By the early twentieth century, their transport shifted to the railroad, river traffic diminished, and the dams and locks fell into disrepair.
Therefore, the U. S. Government took control of them and made extensive repairs in 1905 and 1906.
The exhaustion of natural resources around the Little Kanawha and its tributary, the Hughes River, and the development of good roads and trucks mainly account for the rapid decline in river traffic over a 25-year period between 1912 and 1937. Eleven boats traveled the river in 1912.
The steam-propelled Louise made daily round trips between Parkersburg and Creston. Gasoline powered boats followed in her wake. By 1937, however, no boats were running on the Little Kanawha River.
Since then, the U. S. Government has abandoned the system of locks and dams, and they have gone to ruin. The water has fallen to its natural level because the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers is now focused on much larger and more important dams and locks, in the Ohio River near Parkersburg. The sequence of my recently taken photographs above illustrates their importance and grandeur.
*****Wood Countians also maintain this artillery piece as a memento of the their sons and daughters who have fallen in America's numerous wars. My cousin, Gary Moss, is one of Parkersburg's heroes who, among many others, fell in the Vietnam War. Mayor Dean T. Jackson presented this old naval cannon to the City of Parkersburg in memory of Quentin G. Creel.
Our local TV Station WTAP makes sure that it covers all the local events, especially those concerning our veterans and the new additions added to their memorials at Parkersburg City Park.
******These pictures give us two quick glimpses of what was once a prominent oil refinery in the Parkersburg area. These rusty remnants, overgrown with vegetation and neglect, were once functional implements of the old Pennzoil-Quaker State Company. The Saint Marys Refining Company later acquired this facility—designed to produce lubricating oils, waxes, gasoline, jet fuel, and other petroleum products. The refinery is located on Route 2 in the town of St. Marys and covers about 70 acres that includes the main plant area with the truck loading rack and the bluff or cliff area with the rusty oil tanks peeking through the trees.
The company that operates the GOMART stores, according to my recent conversation with one of the guards at the plant, now uses salvageable elements of this facility for bulk storage of fuel for their transportation needs, and the photograph below apparently confirms his information.
This eyesore, now under the scrutiny of the Environmental Protection Agency, is undergoing demolition and removal of its useless elements situated on contaminated soil affecting the local groundwater.
My excursion across the grounds for photographing purposes was limited by the vigilant gate guard who wanted to keep me from inadvertently setting off an unseen explosive charge.
I hope you have enjoyed seeing the short history, photographs, maps, and attractions posted on this transferred Parkersburg, West Virginia Web page.
I hope you have enjoyed seeing the short history, photographs, maps, and attractions posted on this transferred Parkersburg, West Virginia Web page.
