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• Sheltering Arms Hospital

  … 1901. Sheltering Arms was a pioneer in prepaid health care, as coal and rail companies agreed to charge workers a monthly rate for … . The war drew away many nurses and interns. The postwar coal slump and 1919 strike decreased the hospital’s income. These …

• Shinnston

  … Shinnston grew slowly over most of the 19th century, then boomed late in the century with the exploitation of local "coal":https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/1349, "oil, and gas":https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/1600. The …

• Belgians

  … from an area economically similar to West Virginia. The Charleroi basin of the Hainaut province in Belgium was dependent upon coal mining, steel production, and window-glass manufacturing. The Belgians’ new homes in north-central West Virginia and the …

• Slavery

  … extensive industrial use of slaves in "coal mining":http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/ … at the salt furnaces worked as coal miners, teamsters, kettle-tenders, steam engine … number of Blacks continued to mine coal and manufacture salt during the war. …

• Hulett Smith

  Hulett Carlson Smith (October 21, 1918-January 15, 2012) was West Virginia’s 27th governor. Born in Beckley, Smith grew up in the world of business and politics. His father, Joe L. Smith, a newspaper publisher and bank president, was mayor of Beckley, a …

• Van Bittner

  Labor organizer Van Amberg Bittner (March 20, 1885-July 19, 1949) was one of the "United Mine Workers of America’s":http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/835 most durable infighters for nearly 40 years beginning in 1911. A "John L. Lewis& …

• Socialist Party

  … Trades and Labor Assembly, and most important of all, the West Virginia State Federation of Labor. Socialists were especially popular with coal miners and were able by 1916 to control both District 29 and District 17 of the "United Mine Workers" …

• Harold Houston

  … , Houston had led the successful legal defense of Sid Hatfield and other defendants charged with murder in the shootout with coal company detectives known as the "Matewan Massacre":http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/1576. Houston was a …

• South Charleston

  … , came to work at the "glass factory":https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/2116. Other factories followed, lured by cheap coal, natural gas, and salt, and by easy access to rail, highways, and the Kanawha River. During "World War I& …

• Anne Spencer

  … graduated, Spencer spent summers and holidays in Bramwell. Between 1899 and 1901, she taught school in the McDowell County coal towns of Maybeury and Elkhorn, before moving permanently to Lynchburg. In 1901, she married former classmate Edward Alexander …

• Sports

  … the Mountain States League had teams in six West Virginia cities. Amateur baseball thrived in the smaller towns and "coal camps":https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/1370, with teams sponsored by mines and other companies. The emergence of …

• Bill Blizzard

  Unionist William ‘‘Bill’’ Blizzard (September 19, 1892-July 31, 1958) was the son of Timothy Blizzard and activist "Sarah Rebecca ‘‘Mother’’ Blizzard":http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/546. He became one of West Virginia’s most influential …

• Bluefield Daily Telegraph

  … .wvencyclopedia.org/articles/63 doctrines and boasted of being ‘‘an acknowledged authority on matters pertaining to the Pocahontas-Flat Top Coal Field,’’ according to the special edition of November 1, 1896. Shott, who later served in Congress and the …

• Bluestone River

  … one of which enfolds "Bramwell":http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/641, the old ‘‘millionaires’ town’’ built by the coal operators in Mercer County. It is likely that "Mary Draper Ingles":http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/849 …

• Statuary

  … , a World War II sailor, and an aviator from the Korean War. Statues outside the nearby Cultural Center depict a coal miner, firefighter, and police officer. There is a fine frontiersman statue on the east side of the capitol complex, representing the …

• Stonecoal Lake

  … the 3,000-acre Stonecoal Lake Wildlife Management Area. The lake was built in 1972 to provide water to the Allegheny Energy’s coal-fired power plant in Harrison County. The lake is well-known for its fishing, with smallmouth bass, muskellunge, walleye, …

• Streams

  … , Tug Fork, Greenbrier, New, Gauley, Elk, Coal, Kanawha, Little Kanawha, Cheat, Tygart Valley, … reservoirs is used to generate steam in coal-fired power plants, and the power of … , and hundreds of millions of tons of coal and chemicals are shipped on these …

• Botany

  … . Millspaugh was a close friend of "Lawrence Nuttall":http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/1712, a New River coal operator, who collected nearly 1,000 flowering plant species near Nuttallburg and Keeneys Creek. John Sheldon taught botany at …

• Braxton County

  … Gassaway was a major division point on Davis’s "Coal & Coke Railway":http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/ … http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/750, and, until recent years, coal mining. The largest employers are, respectively, the county …

• Brick Industry

  … considered by early brick makers to make the finest bricks, was used until the supply was depleted; then gas, and later coal, were used to fire or harden the bricks. Successive generations of these families started companies that operated "flatboats, …

• Browns Island

  … into the 1900s. Everett Ferguson acquired the entire island in 1925 and sold it in 1946 to Weirton Ice and Coal Supply Company, operated by the immigrant entrepreneur, Michael Starvaggi. In 1957, "Weirton Steel":http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/ …

• Tackett’s Fort

  Tackett’s Fort was located at the mouth of the "Coal River":https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/1365 at present "St. Albans":http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/151. Lewis, Samuel, and Christopher Tackett and friend John Young …

• W. D. Thurmond

  … with his father’s family. He was a pioneer New River coal operator and founded one of the most notorious boom towns in … Hill. His grandson, Walter R. Thurmond, was an important early coal operator in "Logan County":http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/ …

• Thurmond’s Rangers

  … in this capacity. On October 26, 1864, Capt. Philip Thurmond was killed in action at Winfield, Putnam County. A postwar surveyor, coal operator, and land agent, Capt. William D. Thurmond founded the New River Gorge town of Thurmond in the 1880s. He died …

• Burnsville

  … County in 1899. The West Virginia & Pittsburgh Railroad came through in 1892. It was intersected by the "Coal & Coke Railway":http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/1337 in 1906, making Burnsville a railroad junction town. Paddlewheel …