Marion County WV Archives History - Books .....Marion County Resources, 1876 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Connie Burkett TaylorWVusgwArch@gmail.com August 13, 2008. Resources of West Virginia By Matthew Fontaine Maury and William Morris Fontaine Prepared Under the Direction of The State Board of Centennial Managers. The Register Company Printers, Wheeling. 1876. Pages 388-390 (Marion County) The surface of the county is rolling and hilly, the hills being often quite high, and the valleys narrow. The soil is usually pretty deep, and naturally fertile. It is a loam, clayey, sandy, or calcareous, from 6 to 8 inches deep on the hills, and 10 to 12 inches on the levels. The land is well adapted to the production of Grass, Corn. Wheat, Oats, Rye, Potatoes, and Buckwheat. There is little difference between the yields on the hills and levels. The average without manures is as follows: Corn, 30 to 40 bushels; Wheat, 12 bushels; Oats, 30 bushels; Potatoes, 75 to 100 bushels; Rye, 15 bushels. An annual Fair is held at Fairmont; the amounts given out in premiums are not reported. Principal industries, farming, stock-raising, coal mining, and lumbering. Principal exports, stock, farm products, lumber and coal. Large amounts of sawed and cooperage stuff are sent from along the line of the railroad, and large exports of excellent gas coal are made from the vicinity of Fairmont. Markets for stock, Baltimore; for timber, Baltimore, eastern cities, &c.; for coal, eastern cities. Minerals: A large and fine seam of Gas Coal, and other workable seams; good Limestone for agricultural and building purposes; good Sandstones for building; good Potter's Clay, manufactured at Palatine; Clay near Palatine suitable for Potter's slip; excellent Tin Clay, mined and manufactured at Nuzum's Mills, by the Glade Tin Brick Company. The following coal mines are in operation: The Gaston mines of the Fairmont Gas Coal Company, the West Fairmont mines, of the West Fairmont Gas Coal Company; the Palatine mines, of the O'Donnell's ; the Central mines, of O. Jackson. Manufactories: These have not been fully reported, and we cannot give them in any detail. There are ten cigar factories in the county, making 242,100 cigars in 1875; a pottery in Palatine; a fine brick manufactory at Nuzum's Mills; at Fairmont. Palatine and other points, there are 9 steam Flouring mills, most of them have saw attachments; 9 Water mills; Furniture shops; a Foundry and Machine shops; Agricultural Machine manufactory, &c.; Flouring mills, &c., &c.; at Valley Falls, is a Saw mill and Shook factory; at Farmington, Flour and Grist mills, a Tannery, &c.; at Mannington, a good deal of lumber and shocks are shipped; there are here Flouring, Grist, and Saw mills, a Planing mill, a Wagon Factory, a Foundry, &c., &c. Principal streams are, the West Fork, Tygart's Valley, and Monongahela, all navigable for timber rafts and batteaux in full stages. Good sized steamers have several times been up as high as Fairmont in very high stages of water. The present lines of transportation are, the Baltimore and Ohio railroad and turnpike roads; in contemplation, are the improvement of the Monongahela river, the Northern and Southern, West Virginia railroad. The Fairmont Normal school is at Fairmont. Public schools, 94, Churches, 37; Post Offices, 21. Population, 12,107. Value of taxable property, $4,169,099.06. County seat, Fairmont, a thriving town on the Monongahela river. Newspapers, Fairmont Index, Fairmont West Virginian, Mannington Ventilator, and Golden Rule. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/wv/marion/history/resources1876.txt File size: 4 Kb