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State of West Virginia
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Flag Of West Virginia
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Mountain State
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Charleston
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Charleston
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Joe Manchin (D)
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"http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Vrhbosna/Jay_Rockefeller" class="copylinks">Jay Rockefeller (D)
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US-WV
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is a
State of the
United States in the region of
Appalachia , generally known as ''The Mountain State''. West Virginia broke away from the Commonwealth of
Virginia during the
American Civil War and was admitted to the Union as a separate state on
June 20 ,
1863 .
The
Census Bureau considers West Virginia part of the
South because of its location below the
Mason-Dixon Line , although the state's
Northern Panhandle extends farther north than
Staten Island, New York and
Jersey City, New Jersey , even though the
USGS designates it as a
Mid-Atlantic state. Many in the state's
Northern Panhandle and North-Central region feel an affinity for
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania , while those in the
Eastern Panhandle feel a connection with the
Washington, D.C. Suburb s in western
Maryland and
Virginia and
Southern West Virginia ns often consider themselves
Southern ers. The state is noted for its
Timber and
Coal Mining heritage and
Labor Union organizing mine wars in particular.
See Also: Geography of West Virginia
See Also: List of counties in West Virginia
List of West Virginia county seats
West Virginia is bordered by
Pennsylvania to the north; by
Ohio to the north and west; by
Kentucky to the west; by
Maryland to the north and east; and by
Virginia to the east and south. The
Ohio and
Potomac River s form parts of the boundaries.
West Virginia is the only state in the nation located entirely within the
Appalachian Mountain Range , and in which all areas are
Mountainous ; for this reason it is nicknamed ''The Mountain State''. About 75% of the state is within the
Cumberland Plateau and
Allegheny Plateau regions. Though the relief is not high, the plateau region is extremely rugged in most areas.
is often covered in clouds.]]
On the southeastern state line with areas can also be found within the forest. Outside the forest to the south, the New River Gorge is a 1,000 foot (304 m) deep canyon carved by the
New River . The
National Park Service manages a portion of the gorge and river which has been designated as the
New River Gorge National River , one of only 15 rivers in the U.S. with this level of protection.
Other areas under protection and management include:
The native
Vegetation for most of the state was originally mixed
Hardwood Forest of
Oak ,
Chestnut ,
Maple ,
Beech , and
White Pine , with
Willow and
American Sycamore along the state's waterways. Many of the areas are rich in
Biodiversity and scenic beauty, a fact that is appreciated by native West Virginians, who refer to their home as ''Almost Heaven''.
The underlying rock strata are
Sandstone s,
Shale s,
Bituminous Coal beds, and
Limestone s laid down in a near shore environment from sediments derived from mountains to the east, in a shallow inland sea on the west. Some beds illustrate a
Coast al swamp environment, some river delta, some shallow water. Sea level rose and fell many times during the
Mississippian and
Pennsylvanian eras, giving a variety of rock strata. The Appalachian Mountains are some of the oldest on earth, having formed over 300 million years ago.
See Also: History of West Virginia
The area now known as West Virginia was a favorite hunting ground of numerous
Native American peoples before the arrival of
European settlers. Many ancient man-made earthen mounds from various
Mound Builder cultures survive, especially in the areas of
Moundsville ,
South Charleston , and
Romney . Although little is known about these civilizations, the artifacts uncovered give evidence of a complex, stratified culture that practiced
Metallurgy .
of Virginia]]
In 1671, General
Abram Wood , at the direction of Royal Governor
William Berkeley of the
Virginia Colony , sent a party which discovered
Kanawha Falls . In 1716, Governor
Alexander Spotswood with about thirty horsemen made an excursion into what is now
Pendleton County .
John Van Metre , an Indian trader, penetrated into the northern portion in 1725. The same year,
German settlers from
Pennsylvania founded New Mecklenburg, the present
Shepherdstown , on the
Potomac River , and others followed.
King
Charles II Of England , in 1661, granted to a company of gentlemen the land between the Potomac and
Rappahannock rivers, known as the
Northern Neck . The grant finally came into the possession of
Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax Of Cameron , and in 1746, a
Stone was erected at the source of the
North Branch Potomac River to mark the western limit of the grant. A considerable part of this land was surveyed by
George Washington between 1748 and 1751. The diary kept by the surveyor indicates that there were already many squatters, largely of German origin, along the
South Branch Potomac River . Christopher Gist, a surveyor in the employ of the first
Ohio Company , which was composed chiefly of Virginians, explored the country along the
Ohio River north of the mouth of the
Kanawha River between 1751 and 1752. The company sought to have a fourteenth colony established with the name . Many settlers crossed the mountains after 1750, though they were hindered by Native American depredations. Presumably, few Native Americans lived within the present limits of the state, but the region was a common hunting ground, crossed also by many war trails. During the
French And Indian War the scattered settlements were almost destroyed.
In 1774, the Crown Governor of Virginia
John Murray, 4th Earl Of Dunmore , led a force over the mountains, and a body of militia under General Andrew Lewis dealt the
Shawnee Indians , under
Cornstalk , a crushing blow during the
Battle Of Point Pleasant at the junction of the Kanawha and the Ohio rivers. Native American attacks continued until after the
American Revolutionary War . During the war, the settlers in Western Virginia were generally active Whigs and many served in the
Continental Army .
Social conditions in western Virginia were entirely unlike those in the eastern portion of the state. The population was not homogeneous, as a considerable part of the immigration came by way of Pennsylvania and included Germans, Protestant
Ulster-Scots , and settlers from the states farther north. During the
American Revolution , the movement to create a state beyond the Alleghanies was revived and a petition for the establishment of "Westsylvania" was presented to
Congress , on the grounds that the mountains made an almost impassable barrier on the east. The rugged nature of the country made slavery unprofitable, and time only increased the social, political and economic differences between the two sections of Virginia.
The convention which met in 1829 to form a new constitution for Virginia, against the protest of the counties beyond the mountains, required a property qualification for
Suffrage and gave the slave-holding counties the benefit of three-fifths of their slave population in apportioning the state's representation in the U.S. House of Representatives. As a result, every county beyond the Alleghenies except one voted to reject the constitution, which nevertheless passed because of eastern support. Though the Virginia constitution of 1850 provided for white male suffrage, the distribution of representation among the counties continued to give control to the section east of the
Blue Ridge Mountains . Another grievance of the est was the large expenditure for internal improvements at state expense by the
Virginia Board Of Public Works in the East compared with the scanty proportion allotted to the West.
See Also: West Virginia in the Civil War
, a leader during the First
Wheeling Convention ]]
In 1861, only nine of the forty-six delegates from the area located in present state of West Virginia voted to secede. Almost immediately after the vote to proceed with
Secession prevailed in the Virginia General Assembly, a mass meeting at
Clarksburg recommended that each county in northwestern Virginia send delegates to a convention to meet in
Wheeling on
May 13 ,
1861 . When this First
Wheeling Convention met, 425 delegates from 25 counties were present, but soon there was a division of sentiment. Some delegates favored the immediate formation of a new state, while others argued that, as Virginia's secession had not yet been passed by the required referendum, such action would constitute revolution against the United States. The
United States Constitution provides that no state may be divided without its consent. It was decided that if the ordinance was adopted (of which there was little doubt), another convention including the members-elect of the legislature should meet at Wheeling in June. At the election on
May 23 , 1861, secession was ratified by a large majority in the state as a whole, but in the western counties 40,000 votes out of 44,000 were cast against it.
The Second Wheeling Convention met as agreed on
June 11 and declared that, since the Secession Convention had been called without the consent of the people, all its acts were void, and that all who adhered to it had vacated their offices. An act for the reorganization of the government was passed on
June 19 . The next day
Francis H. Pierpont was chosen governor of Virginia, other officers were elected and the convention adjourned. The legislature, composed of the members from the western counties who had been elected on
May 23 and some of the holdover senators who had been elected in 1859, met at Wheeling on
July 1 , filled the remainder of the state offices, organized a state government and elected two United States senators who were recognized at
Washington, D.C. At that point, therefore, there were two state governments in Virginia, one pledging allegiance to the United States and one to the
Confederacy .
The Wheeling Convention, which had taken a recess until
August 6 , then reassembled on
August 20 , and called for a popular vote on the formation of a new state and for a convention to frame a constitution if the vote should be favorable. At the election on
October 24 ,
1861 , 18,489 votes were cast for the new state and only 781 against. The convention began on
November 26 ,
1861 , and finished its work on
February 18 ,
1862 , and the instrument was ratified (18,162 for and 514 against) on
April 11 ,
1862 .
(as it appears today) changed hands a dozen times during the
American Civil War .]]
On
May 13 , the state legislature of the reorganized government approved the formation of the new state. An application for admission to the Union was made to Congress, and on
December 31 , 1862, an enabling act was approved by President
Abraham Lincoln admitting West Virginia, on the condition that a provision for the gradual abolition of slavery be inserted in the Constitution. The Convention was reconvened on
February 12 ,
1863 , and the demand was met. The revised constitution was adopted on
March 26 , 1863, and on
April 20 , 1863, President Lincoln issued a proclamation admitting the state at the end of sixty days (
June 20 ,
1863 ). Meanwhile officers for the new state were chosen and Governor Pierpont moved his capital to
Alexandria where he asserted jurisdiction over the counties of Virginia within the Federal lines.
The question of the constitutionality of the formation of the new state was brought before the and
Jefferson counties lying on the Potomac east of the mountains, in 1863, with the consent of the reorganized government of Virginia voted in favor of annexation to West Virginia. Many voters absent in the Confederate Army when the vote was taken refused to acknowledge the transfer upon their return. The
Virginia General Assembly repealed the act of secession and in 1866 brought suit against West Virginia asking the court to declare the counties a part of Virginia. Meanwhile, Congress, on
March 10 ,
1866 , passed a joint resolution recognizing the transfer. The Supreme Court, in 1871, decided in favor of West Virginia.
During the
American Civil War , West Virginia suffered comparatively little.
George B. McClellan 's forces gained possession of the greater part of the territory in the summer of 1861, and Union control was never seriously threatened, in spite of the attempt by
Robert E. Lee in the same year. In 1863, General
John D. Imboden , with 5,000 Confederates, overran a considerable portion of the state. Bands of guerrillas burned and plundered in some sections, and were not entirely suppressed until after the war ended.,
Romney .]]
The area which became West Virginia furnished about 36,000 soldiers to the Federal armies and somewhat less than 10,000 to the Confederate. The absence in the army of the Confederate sympathizers helps to explain the small vote against the formation of the new state. During the war and for years afterwards partisan feelings ran high. The property of Confederates might be confiscated, and in 1866 a constitutional amendment disfranchising all who had given aid and comfort to the Confederacy was adopted. The addition of the
Fourteenth and
Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution caused a reaction, the
Democratic Party secured control in 1870, and in 1871, the constitutional amendment of 1866 was abrogated. The first steps toward this change had been taken, however, by the
Republicans in 1870. On
August 22 ,
1872 , an entirely new constitution was adopted.
Beginning in
Reconstruction , and for several decades thereafter, the two states disputed the new state's share of the pre-war Virginia government's debt, which had mostly been incurred to finance public infrastructure improvements, such as canals, roads, and railroads under the
Virginia Board Of Public Works . Virginians, led by former Confederate General
William Mahone , formed a political coalition which was based upon this theory, the
Readjuster Party . Although West Virginia's first constitution provided for the assumption of a part of the Virginia debt, negotiations opened by Virginia in 1870 were fruitless, and in 1871, that state funded two-thirds of the debt and arbitrarily assigned the remainder to West Virginia. The issue was finally settled in 1915, when the
United States Supreme Court ruled that West Virginia owed Virginia $12,393,929.50. The final installment of this sum was paid off in 1939.
The new state benefited from development of its mineral resources more than any other single economic activity after
Reconstruction .
Salt mining had been underway since the 18th century, though it had largely played out by the time of the American Civil War, when the red salt of
Kanawha County was a valued commodity of first Confederate, and later Union forces. There was a greater treasure not yet developed, however, that would fuel much of the
Industrial Revolution in the U.S. and the steamships of many of the world's navies.
The residents (both Native Americans and early European settlers) had long-known of the underlying
Coal , and that it could be used for heating and fuel. However, very small "personal" mines were the only practical development. After the War, with the new
Railroad s came a practical method to transport large quantities of coal to expanding U.S. and export markets. As the
Anthracite mines of northwestern New Jersey and Pennsylvania began to play out during this same time period, investors and industrialists focused new interest in West Virginia.
Geologist s such as Dr.
David T. Ansted surveyed potential coal fields and invested in land and early mining projects.
The completion of the
Chesapeake And Ohio Railway (C&O) across the state to the new city of
Huntington on the
Ohio River in 1872 opened access to the
New River Coal Field. Soon, the C&O was building its huge
Coal Pier at
Newport News, Virginia on the large harbor of
Hampton Roads . In 1881, the new Philadelphia-based owners of the former
Atlantic, Mississippi And Ohio Railroad (AM&O) which stretched across Virginia's southern tier from
Norfolk , had sights clearly set on the Mountain State, where the owners had large land holdings. Their railroad was renamed
Norfolk And Western (N&W), and a new railroad city was developed at
Roanoke to handle planned expansion. After its new president
Frederick J. Kimball and a small party journeyed by horseback and saw firsthand the rich
Bituminous Coal seam which his wife named "Pocahontas", the N&W redirected its planned westward expansion to reach it. Soon, the N&W was also shipping from new coal piers at Hampton Roads.
In the northern portion of the state and elsewhere, the older
Baltimore And Ohio Railroad (B&O) and other lines also expanded to take advantage of coal opportunities as well. By 1900, only a large area of the most rugged terrain of southern West Virginia was any distance from the existing railroads and mining activity.
Beginning in 1898, Dr. Ansted's protégé
William Nelson Page , a
Civil Engineer and mining manager in
Fayette County , teamed with investors to take advantage of the undeveloped area. They acquired large tracts of land in the area, and Page began the
Deepwater Railway , a
Short-line Railroad which was chartered to stretch between the C&O at its line along the
Kanawha River and the N&W at
Matoaka , a distance of about 80 miles (130 km). Although the Deepwater plan should have provided a competitive shipping market via either railroad, leaders of the two large railroads did not appreciate the scheme. In secret collusion, each declined to negotiate favorable rates with Page, and they did not offer to purchase his railroad since they had many other short-lines. However, if the C&O and N&W presidents thought they could thus eliminate the Page project, they were to be proved mistaken.
One of the
Silent Partner investors Page had enlisted was millionaire industrialist
Henry Huttleston Rogers , a principal in
John D. Rockefeller 's
Standard Oil Trust and an old hand at competitive "warfare" with deep pockets. Instead of giving up, Page (and Rogers) quietly planned and then built their tracks all the way east to across Virginia, using Rogers' private fortune to finance the $40 million cost. When the renamed
Virginian Railway was completed in 1909, three major railroads were shipping ever-increasing volumes of coal to export from Hampton Roads. West Virginia coal was also under high demand at
Great Lakes ports as well.
As coal mining and related work became a major employment activities in the state, there was considerable labor strife as working conditions, safety issues, and economic concerns arose. Even in the 21st century, mining safety and ecological concerns were challenging to the state whose coal continued to power electrical generating plants in many other states.
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