Taylor County WV Archives History - Books .....Taylor County Resources, 1876
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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 415-416 (Taylor County)

The surface of this county is very hilly, many of the hills being quite high. 
Laurel Hill range passes through this county, but flattens out so as to be 
nothing more than a high range of hills. The land is mostly quite fertile, 
and most of it is arable. The soils are sandy loam, calcareous, and clay loams.
On the hills they are 4 to 12 inches: on the bottoms, 6 to 15 inches deep. 
The hills are about as productive as the levels. 

The crops are Corn, Wheat, Oats, and Grass. Corn produces 25 to 50 bushels; 
Wheat, 8 to 15 bushels; Oats, 15 to 25 bushels. 

The Taylor County Agricultural and Mechanical Society holds an annual Fair 
at Grafton, and distributes about 83,000 in premiums. 

The value of the agricultural land, when improved, is $20 to $60; of timber land, 
$12 to $25. For the privilege of mining the 7 foot gas coal seam, without the 
surface land, average price $100 per acre; for the same privilege for the 5 foot 
seam, $20; for the 4 foot seam, $10, etc. Price of timber, stumpage, good Oak 
and Poplar, $4 per tree; Walnut, $5; other trees, $2; at the mills, $7 per 1,000. 

Principal industries: farming, stock raising, and lumbering. 

Principal exports: horses, cattle, timber, lumber, cooperage stuff, and coal. 

Markets: for timber, the mills in the county, where it is manufactured into 
plank, shocks, etc., and sent east. Some logs sent down the Monongahela to 
Pittsburgh. For stock, the markets are eastern cities; for grain and general 
produce, the villages of the county. 

Minerals: abundance of good coal in large seams; iron, in workable quantities; 
good limestone, for agricultural and building purposes; excellent sandstones, 
for building; good fire clay. 

Mines: Coal -- Tyrconnell mines, Flemington mines, Claysville mines, 
Pruntytown mines; the latter two for local use. 

Manufactures: Webster woolen factory, 2 steam furniture mills at Grafton, 2 
steam furniture mills at Fetterman, 1 steam excelsior mattress factory at 
Grafton, where there are also 1 foundry and machine shop, the Baltimore and 
Ohio repair shops, 1 wood pump factory, 3 shook factories, 2 steam planing, 
sash and door factories, 1 cigar factory, making 596,400 cigars annually. 
Besides these there are in the county 12 steam saw mills, 6 steam flouring 
mills, 11 water grist mills, on Tygart's Valley river, and its tributaries; 
6 tanneries. There are 6 water mills in Taylor county, on the river, within 
a distance of 15 miles. The principal stream is Tygart's Valley, which has, 
at Grafton, a large boom. It is capable of floating rafts, and is navigable 
for batteaux and canoes all the year. 

Present means of transportation: Baltimore and Ohio railroad (main stem) and 
Parkersburg Branch, Tygart's Valley river, and two principal turnpike roads. 

In contemplation: Slack water of Tygart's Valley river, and Buckhannon Mineral 
railroad. 

Schools: West Virginia College at Flemington, High School at Grafton, and 46 
public schools. Churches, 3. Postoffices, 11. 

Population, 9,367. Value of taxable property, $4,058,763.27. 

County seat, Pruntytown, with a population of about 800. 

Newspaper, Grafton Sentinel, weekly. 


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