Although the COVID 19 Pandemic has caused severe hardships on local businesses and nonprofit organizations, many have found ways to remain viable and the Historical Society is no exception.
As many of you may know, the Doddridge County Museum, located in the old county jail across the street from the Doddridge County Courthouse, has been closed to the public during the past year due to the pandemic. The volunteers have been updating and reorganizing it to better serve those who come from all over the country in search of family history, or just to enjoy a stroll through our county’s past through its many artifacts. Visitors have come from such states as CA, FL, GA, IA, IL, KY, MI, MO, NC, NJ, NY, OH, PA, SC, TN, TX, VA, WV, WY and more.
The museum will reopen on May 3 on the same schedule as before (Mon, Wed, Fri from 12 p.m. – 4 p.m.
To the County Commission’s credit, they have provided the old jail to the Historical Society for housing of the county’s artifacts at no cost to them. They have installed air conditioning units, as well as provided a total of $7,000 in funds annually for the payment of basic utilities for the museum, Smithton Depot, Krenn School, and Hickory Ridge Log School, for which the Society is grateful.
The following is a list many of the accomplishments the D. C. Historical Society has made during the pandemic:
- The Historical Society managed the maintenance and upkeep of Blockhouse Hill Cemeteries through the hard work of Leggett Contracting with the help of the County Commission as per agreed upon.
- The Society returned to regular monthly meetings in December 2020.
- Reorganized Genealogy Room and created a WV Research Room.
- Paid for the restoration of the Chapman J Stuart gravesite to its original condition and have begun work on the Jennings gravestone with expectations of completion to be within the next few weeks. The fine work was done by Leggett Contracting.
- Raised over $15,000 in donations from local citizens for the digitization of 4,000+ rare local newspapers donated to the Historical Society by The Herald Record owners, Bob and Tammy Beamer, many of which exist nowhere else. The Archives in Charleston has copies of some on microfilm which require a special machine to view, do not work on computers, and do not have word search capabilities, making a search for individual things quite difficult unless you know the date of the item for which you search.
- Historical Society volunteers personally delivered these newspapers for digitization at their own expense, using their own vehicles. Professional scanning with keyword search capabilities (OCR) by CompuCom, Inc. in Pittsburgh, PA has already begun and is expected to be completed at the end of this month or soon after. Donors of $1,000 or more are anxiously waiting to receive their copies of these precious historic treasures. Their wait is nearly over.
- A Society volunteer personally purchased a special scanner, and the digitization of all genealogy/family history books are currently being scanned with keyword search capabilities by volunteers.
- Historical Society has doubled its sale of dedication bricks last year. Those bricks are currently being engraved and will be placed as soon as possible after we receive them. The Historical Society is photographing each brick as it is placed and will email to purchaser upon request when supplied with an email address.
- Historical Society hosted and sponsored the “Back the Blue Drive” which amazingly received nearly a 100-vehicle response. The drive began at Toll Gate on U.S. 50 and continued to Salem, where the group exited and returned onto U.S. 50 to continue back toward West Union with their beautiful American flags and Thin Blue Line flags proudly flying on most vehicles. It was a site to behold.
- The Historical Society gave a “This meal is on us” card to each state and local officer. Local restaurants honored these cards and the Historical Society picked up the tab. This was made possible by donations from the citizens of the county who wanted to show their respect and appreciation for all that our police officers do for us every day.
- The Historical Society purchased Thin Blue Line flags and erected them on Main St., West Union in honor of our police officers.
- Has continued to publish weekly articles and educational word search puzzles in the Herald Record on the history of our county and our state which have received praise from individuals across the country.
- Hosted numerous guests visiting from across the country and help to locate their ancestor’s family farms and businesses.
- Researched family connections for individuals referred to them by members of the courthouse, city hall, library, and local businesses.
- Made fieldtrips to local cemeteries; recorded GPS locations and cemetery conditions and obtained aerial photographs of them by High-Flyer Dynamics (a drone imaging company).
- The Society initiated a project to ascertain the names of the unidentified graves in the old County Infirmary Cemetery. Plans are to erect a large gravestone with the names of those in unmarked graves that have been identified. If you should know the name of anyone buried there or you believe might be buried there, the Society wants to hear from you so they can include that name once and if it is verified.
- Made fieldtrips to one-room school sites & recorded GPS coordinates.
- Worked on the book project, “The Photographic History of Doddridge County” to be published this summer.
- D. C. Historical Society decided to discontinue the Columbian Hotel project at the Dec. 2020 monthly meeting. The consensus was to raise funds, remove the hotel and provide a site for something beneficial to the community. After receiving input from the County Commission, Town Council, local business leaders, and members of the community, it was hoped an agreement could be reached, and progress could move forward. Ideas have included a playground for the town’s children, a town square including a large gazebo, a youth center, public housing, business offices, and a permanent home for The Doddridge County Museum with business offices included on the top floor.
- The Society had already contacted development companies from out of state and in state to ascertain the interest level in providing housing for the town to replace the old Columbian Hotel.
It has been said that it was the dream of Historical Society president, Patricia Harris, to find out what could be done at this point. When asked, Harris said her only dream is to live long enough to see West Union prosper and if she could be a small part of that, she would be well pleased. She went on to say that she had purchased the property out of her own pocket after locating the previous owner through research and chose to deed it to the Historical Society with the intent that it would at some point benefit the community, if not as a hotel, then something else.
If you would like to join or make a donation to the Doddridge County Historical Society, contact Patricia Harris at 304 873-1540, [email protected], or you can download a membership form from the Historical Society’s popular Facebook page at www.facebook.com/doddridgecountyhistorical.