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 expan

    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.