Andrew's world West Virginia history

  If you had read my last post, you'd know about the Tacketts. Well, this post is about the Ruffners. You hear that name a lot around Charleston, Ruffner park, Ruffner Avenue and so on, but who are the Ruffners? Joseph Ruffner came to what is now Charleston from the Shenandoah Valley in the the spring of 1725 after he bought 500 acres of land along the Kanawha river from John Dickinson. Unfortunately, Joseph died  March 23rd, 1803. After Joseph, Sr. Passed, all of his lands went to his sons. Joseph's Son, David and his brother Joseph, Jr. pioneered the salt industry in the Kanawha Valley. The two devised ways and tools for drilling the first salt well into the Kanawha bedrock. In 1831, David laid out the town of Malden on his land.  I read once that a visitor in the early 1800's described Charleston as "just a few cabins on the river bank". One of those cabins was surely the Ruffner cabin (Rosedale), which I had the privilege of seeing about a year ago. It now sit...

You've probably heard me mention the Tacketts (originally spelled Taquett) at least once over the years. I'm very proud of my heritage. I had always heard stories about my ancestors (my moms huge into genealogy) but never really knew much until last christmas (2021) I received a book written about Lewis Tackett, jr. Lewis Tackett -pioneer: early days in Virginia from my mom and dad. The funny thing is, when I was young, we lived in St. Albans, WV and walked past the historical marker for Tackett's fort daily and had no idea that was our ancestors, that was before my mom  got into genealogy. Turns out Lewis Tackett, sr. was my moms 6th great grandfather.      The Tackett family lived in the Shenandoah valley of Virginia in the late 1700's (Lewis, jr was born 1773). At that point Virginia was still a Colony of England. They moved across the Allegheny mountains to the Greenbrier valley for awhile in about 1780 or so. The federal government (now, of America) wanted to ex...