Andrew's world West Virginia history

    Pepperoni rolls are a west Virginia staple, I've never met anybody who doesn't love them! Well, not any west Virginians anyway. You see them everywhere here in WV, in stores, restaurants, I even remember them being served at school for lunch. Pepperoni rolls originated in Fairmont, wv. I think that much is fairly common knowledge but it wasn't until this past August (2022) that  I was able to pinpoint exactly where. It's a place called country club bakery.  I was in Fairmont on a little outing with my mom and dad, when my dad, whose from the Fairmont area, happened to mention it and I was like "I gotta see it!".      It didn't take much research to figure out this place was the real deal. The first pepperoni roll was sold here in 1927 by a guy named Giuseppe "Joseph" Argiro. The pepperoni rolls were intended to be a quick lunch for coal miners. The Italian-american treat caught on and now the things are ubiquitous arou

  Photo sourced from Roadsideamerica.com  The Golden Delicious apple can trace its origins to a family farm in Clay county in 1905, the Mullins farm to be exact. Despite the way it has been marketed, it is not closely related to the Red Delicious apple. It is a cultivar, which means it was grown by human manipulation, and is one of fifteen of the most popular apple cultivars in the united states.      The Golden Delicious came from a chance seedling (unintentional breeding). Possibly between the Grimes Golden and the Golden Reinette. At first the Golden Delicious was locally known as Mullins Yellow Seedling.      Anderson Mullins sold the tree and propagation rights to stark brothers nurseries for $5,000.      The Golden Delicious was designated the state fruit in 1995. Clay county has hosted a festival in the apples honor every year since 1972.

The best ghost stories  consist of just a little bit of fact, in my opinion. West Virginia is full of those but perhaps the most well known is the story of the Greenbrier ghost.      The story concerns the murder of Zona Heaster Shue in 1897. Her husband, Edward Shue, was accused. Initially, her death was judged as death by natural causes but then Zona's mother started having visions of her daughter speaking to her, she swore that these weren't dreams but visions she had while awake. Zona's mother was several miles away on the night her daughter died. Now some might argue that this was probably just a case of a mother-in-law getting even with her son-in-law, which would make sense because Zona's mother, Mary Jane Robinson Heaster, was said to not like Mr. Shue and opposed the marriage but you need to read on to form your own opinion.      Zona visited her mother four nights, and described her murder in detail to her mother. She said that her husband had attacked her in

    A modern view of the industrial park. Photo sourced from clio.com Everybody in the Charleston area knows about the South charleston ordnance center AKA Industrial Park. How much do you really know, though? Did you know the buildings were originally built for WWI by the Navy? I can't say for certain exactly what year because I've heard and read different things, some say it was built before the war but others say during the war. My personal opinion is that it was started during the war, I say that because I know that it wasn't completed in time to produce a lot for WWI.       In 1922 the plant was closed because of the naval treaty of 1922. It was reopened in 1939 and contributed a lot to WWII. They produced tiny tim rockets (air to ground rockets), torpedo flasks and more than 130,000 of the huge gun barrels for navy ships. .     Photo of the Naval Ordnance plant. Sourced from clio.com inside of the Naval Ordnance plant. Photo sourced

             The Battle of Charleston sign Picture sourced from wikipedia.com            The year was 1862, which was one year prior to the birth of West Virginia. As you should all know, West Virgina seceded from the Confederacy in 1863. This is why I don't understand why so many people here in WV choose to fly the rebel flag.🤦      Anyway, the confederates under General William W. Loring decided to move into the Kanawha Valley of what was then Virginia and take the city of Charleston. This decision was made after general Cox's Kanawha Division left to go help the Union army in Maryland. Colonel Joseph Andrew Jackson Lightburn was left in charge of the Union forces that remained in Charleston.      On September 6th, General Loring and his men headed out from Narrows, Virginia.      On their way north to Charleston, they ran into union forces around Fayetteville on September 10th and fought several skirmishes over those next few days which drove the Federals north.

   The coal wars were a series of conflicts between Coal Companies and Coal Miners between 1912 and 1921. In my opinion this was the coolest and most badsss thing to ever happen in west Virginia and it always bothered me that this gets little mention in history books.        It all began in Paint Creek/ Cabin Creek in 1912. Miners went on strike demanding better pay, to have the right to trade where they wanted and recognition of their union, the UMW.      The companies responded by hiring The Baldwin-Felts agency to guard the mines. They also hired men from the south and from NY to work in the mines to keep operations running.     After the agents arived, coal miners either moved out of or were evicted from their company owned homes. They moved into coal camps supported by the union. The union supplied the miners and their famlies with canvas tents. The agents built forts around the mines that were outfitted with machine guns. They had a train they called the "bull moose special&

Paranormal activity in Alum creek, wv?      Over the past several years, there has been a story circulating about a church and cemetery in Alum  Creek. There is a little confusion about exactly which church, seeing as there are several in the small community. In my opinion, it's the Forks Of Coal Missionary Baptist Church. There's something about the confluence of two rivers that seems to stir up activity      The church itself was founded in 1832 and sits below a historic cemetery, according to Wikipedia.      According to Theresa's Haunted History of the Tri-State, several witnesses have reported seeing an older gentleman who seems confused, but disappears when approached.      Now, its possible that he's just a fellow mourner, or perhaps he lives in one of the houses near the cemetery? We may never know, but I'd at least like to believe he's the ghost of someone who's buried there http://theresashauntedhistoryofthetri-state.blogspot.com finda