West Virginia

WEST VIRGINIA

West Virginia is a state full of natural beauty yet it is plagued by economic difficulties. Its rugged terrain has made communication and transportation difficult. Though blessed with coal and timber resources, it has gone through many periods of economic depression. Although the economy improved throughout the 1990s, West Virginia is still one of the nation's poorest states

In the 1640s, before European settlers reached the land, Iroquois and Cherokee Indians inhabited the area which later became West Virginia. When Europeans did arrive, Shawnees, Delawares, and Tuscaroras disputed their claims. Early explorers were fur traders, two of whom, Robert Fallam and Thomas Batts, claimed the Ohio valley for England in 1671. The French also claimed the area, not surrendered until after the French and Indian War. Several thousand settlers inhabited the eastern panhandle area of the territory by 1750. More settlement in interior sections occurred through the time of the American Revolution (1775–1783), though periodic skirmishes with Indians slowed the pioneers' progress. West Virginia was originally part of Virginia, which was instrumental in forming the Union in 1788.

After the War of 1812 (1812–1814), conflicts developed between eastern and western Virginia. Slaveholding planters dominated the eastern section while the westerners were mostly small farmers or workers in small industries. The east controlled most of the state leaving the west with unequal representation, poor roads, unfair taxes, and other evidence of economic deprivation. In addition, according to one historian, "Most parts of western Virginia were like the Shenandoah region, a true borderland between the North and the South." (John Alexander Williams) Two constitutional conventions failed to settle the differences and it was not until Virginia seceded from the Union in 1861 that West Virginia decided to side with the North and separate from Virginia, entering the Union in 1863 as the 35th state. The state did not gain control of the upper panhandle area until 1871.

Trade developed naturally along the state's rivers in towns such as Wheeling and Harpers Ferry, but traversing the mountainous terrain of West Virginia has always been a challenge. Although Wheeling was the western terminus of the National Road, other roads were slow in coming and often almost impassable. The first successful railroad to be built was the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O), completed to Wheeling in 1852. Later railroads enabled the state to gain access to its timber and coal resources and opened up areas of the interior. The Chesapeake and Ohio, completed in 1873, extended westward from the old Virginia Central to the Ohio River. At its terminus was a new town called Huntington, after the railroad magnate who had financed the line. The two panhandles at the northwestern and eastern ends of the state can be seen as West Virginia's successful attempts to hold on to two important railroad corridors.

The rapid changes brought about by the American Civil War (1861–1865) and by the formation of a new state had some important consequences. Industrialism moved southward and eastward along the expanding railroads and new kinds of communities arose. Lingering rivalries between unionists and secessionists, along with the difficult transitions from an agricultural to an industrial economy, often caused open conflict. In the backward mountain areas, these sometimes erupted into the legendary "mountain feuds."

After the Civil War governors of both Republican and Democratic parties worked to improve transportation, encourage immigration, and change the tax structure to encourage business. Several powerful senators from West Virginia who had made large fortunes in coal, oil, timber, and railroads held sway over party politics in the state for many years. West Virginia industrialists often cooperated with businessmen from other states, giving the state an almost colonial economy dominated by outside interests. Republican governors of the early twentieth century, notably Stephen B. Elkins, supported progressive legislation such as safety regulations for coal mines, revised corporate tax laws, and highway improvements.

The exploitation of the state's vast coal resources after 1890 would not have been possible without the state's network of railroads, especially after the completion of the Norfolk and Western. The same could be said of timber resources: From 1908 to 1911, 1,500 mills produced up to 1.5 billion board feet of lumber annually. Technological improvements in the industry, such as the band saw and the geared locomotive, helped to increase production of lumber and transportation of logs. An unfortunate consequence of this boom period was the destruction of millions of acres of virgin forest. After the 1920s a decline occurred and lumbering was again an important sector of modern West Virginia's economy.

Since 1890 the United Mine Workers of America (UMHA) had been attempting to unionize West Virginia miners, often with violent consequences. One of the most dramatic episodes in United States labor history occurred in West Virginia in 1920–1921. In Mingo and Logan counties, federal troops were called in to quell miners' unrest at the Baldwin-Felts mine in 1920. The so-called "Matewan Massacre" involved the deaths of ten men when the conflict got out of hand. When a union member was gunned down in 1921 by a company guard, 3,000 angry miners marched along the Kanawha River, fighting for five days on Blair Mountain with a sheriff's posse until the violence was quelled by federal authorities, who threatened to use howitzers and poison gas dropped from several U.S. Army bombers which were deployed at the Charleston airport.

The Great Depression (1929–1939) of the 1930s was devastating to West Virginia, with the greatest effects felt in the coal industry. Volunteer relief workers had difficulty keeping up with the needs of unemployed miners. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's (1933–1945) New Deal programs, in combination with private philanthropy, brought a measure of economic stability to the state and helped to make the West Virginia Democratic Party the majority party. Later political developments also increased the power of labor unions in the state, particularly the UMWA, under the leadership of the dynamic John L. Lewis.

World War I (1914–1918) and World War II (1939–1945) brought several economic changes to the state as chemical, steel, and textile industries grew up in the Kanawha and Ohio river valleys and the eastern panhandle. Decreasing the state's reliance on mining, these industries added new economic dimensions to the state and gave it a more diverse character.

After World War II, however, West Virginia's coal industry went into a state of decline. Mechanization and strip-mining caused many mineworkers to lose their jobs, and many began to immigrate to other states. In 1960 West Virginia was one of the most economically depressed states. Though antipoverty programs in the John F. Kennedy (1961–1963) and Lyndon B. Johnson (1963–1969) administrations brought some measure of relief, the state's manufacturing and mining industries had declined dramatically. In the early 1980s West Virginia experienced a serious recession, particularly in the steel, glass, chemical, and mining industries. In 1985 West Virginia had the highest unemployment rate in the nation. In 1995 the per capita personal income was still only $18,444, the second lowest in the U.S., and 16.7 percent of the population lived below the federal poverty level.

In the 1990s things improved for the state in several ways. Industrial production is still strong in the Kanawha, Ohio, and Monongahela valleys. Coal and timber production increased and the state gained a number of federal projects under the tenure of Senator Robert C. Byrd, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. After the completion of Interstate Highway 64, tourism has also become an important sector of the economy. West Virginia's numerous, well-maintained state parks, glassmaking centers, and historic sites such as Harpers Ferry and the Cass Scenic Railroad have attracted approximately two million visitors a year.

See also: Coal Industry, Virginia

FURTHER READING

Conley, Phil, and William Thomas Doherty. West Virginia History. Charleston, SC: Education Foundation, 1974.

Rice, Otis K. West Virginia: The State and Its People. Parsons, WV: McClain, 1972.

——. West Virginia: A History, 2nd ed. Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky Press, 1993.

Williams, John Alexander. West Virginia: A Bicentennial History. New York: Norton, 1976.

Willis, Todd C., ed. West Virginia Blue Book, 1984. Charleston, SC: Jarrett, 1984.