Taylor County WV Archives History - Books .....Taylor County History, 1840's ************************************************ 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. Taylor County History from Callahan's Semi-Centennial History of WV Semi-Centennial History of West Virginia By James Morton Callahan, Professor of History and Political Science West Virginia University Published by the Semi-Centennial Commission of West Virginia, 1913 Pages 119-120 (The First Railroad) West of the southern part of Preston was a region retarded in development organized as Taylor county in 1844 following the new stimulus to greater development resulting from the opening of the Northwestern turnpike. Its first village of any importance was Williamsport, or Pruntytown, situated near the ferry across Tygart's river, whose growth was influenced first by Rector College which reported 110 students in 1840, and later by its selection as the county seat. In 1845 it had grown to a town of thirty dwellings, three stores and two churches. Wonderful changes in the industrial and social life of the country followed the construction of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. Shipments of cattle and other sources of wealth were made with larger profits. Timber resources were utilized, agricultural interests were improved, coal mines and other mineral deposits were opened, manufacturing and commercial interests flourished and thriving business centers were created. Fetterman, bright with prospects of rapid growth, became a way station only through enthusiastic over-confidence of its citizens which induced them to elevate the price of land beyond that which the railroad promoters proposed to pay. Grafton, founded in the woods at Three Forks, -- its first house constructed by Mr. McGraw one of the many "railroad Irish" whose descendants have become prominent and useful in the affairs of the state -- grasped the opportunity which Fetterman failed to seize, obtained the location of railroad shops and buildings, became the division stop for the change of engines and crews, and later flourished as the terminus of the Parkersburg branch known as the Northwestern Virginia railroad. Largely the creation of the Baltimore and Ohio, the new town also later received a new stimulus to growth by securing the location of the court house which in 1878 was finally removed from Pruntytown. Its railroad facilities attracted capital to the town, gave it excellent manufacturing plants and made it quite a mercantile center. Before the extension of branches of the Baltimore and Ohio it was the market for all the timber from Buckhannon and Valley rivers -- which was floated down and caught in the boom above the town, but later the timber was sawed nearer its source and the lumber shipped by railroad. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/wv/taylor/history/firstrailroad.txt File size: 3 Kb