The Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike was built in 1848, which was the general
path of US Route 250, today. It did go from Staunton through Monterey,
Huttonsville, Beverly, Buckhannon and Weston to Parkersburg.
You will be interested in in knowing about a 4-CD audio history that was
recently produced by the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike Alliance. Vol 1 deals
with early settlement, the route, westward expansion, surveying and
construction, the wagon era, the towns; tolls, maintenance and politics;
imported labor, bridges and the coming of the War. It is absolutely
fascinating; I have listened to the CDs at least a half-dozen times. The
superb background music was produced by people associated with the Augusta
Heritage Center at Davis & Elkins College. You will hear live oral history,
and Beverly is very much a center of attention on these four CDs. Michael
Kline (PhD Georgetown Univ.) and his wife Carrie are the narrators.
I have no business interest in the CDs nor with any of the producers. I am
an enthusiastic purchaser and consumer. I bought mine from the bookstore at
Davis & Elkins College, and plan to buy more for gifts. You might find
additional information at their website:
http://spturnpike.org/learn.htm
Wilmer L. Kerns
-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of marsha moses
Sent: Thursday, November 16, 2006 9:31 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: old Virginia roads
Sandy, what I am going to say is "gut feeling" not academic.....Looking
at the WV map for your Beverly, WV, I don't think that this location was
"on any established road". While I don't know the area first hand, I
can say that while raising our children we skiied at Snowshoe many
times. There was never a good way to go through the area that you are
looking at. It is IN THE MOUNTAINS. But it seems to me that often we
went through Elkins and then south and probably went right through the
middle of Beverly....although I don't remember it. You can also get to
Snowshoe from the south going from White Sulphur ....the "hot" route for
a while was to take 92 from White Sulphur Springs and then 39 to
Marlington and then 219 ...I don't know why we didn't take 219 from
Lewisburg from the beginning....
I asked my husband to look at this, too...he was in charge of the
driving back in those days...This is the way that he remembers it, too.
The area around Lewisburg would have been a pretty established area
quite early ....talking 1700's. My best guess is that from Rockbridge
County, your ancestors would have taken the best route from there to
Lewisburg and then the routes that are now 219 up into the moutains. I
think that there was probably a pretty decent trail from
Staunton/Lexington to Lewisburg/White Sulphur very early. Certainly
Cornstalk and his men had no trouble traversing the route during what I
call the Cornstalk Event of 1763 when many families were affected by
massacre/capture in a kind of last effort by Cornstalk to rid the area
of the white families.
I have just reread all of the above and I am not sure that I have been
entirely clear. Don't hesitate to ask more questions if I can be of
more help. I was using a DeLorme Atlas of WV as I talked about the
different routes. Marsha
bugnut wrote:
>In the late 1850s, some of my ancestors moved from the Lexington/Natural
>Bridge area of Rockbridge County, VA, to Randolph County, VA (now WV).
I've
>found a map of the old "Staunton, VA - Parkersburg, WV Turnpike." This
>turnpike went directly through Beverly, WV, where my ancestors settled.
>
>If they used the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike, then they had to take
>another road, first. I'd like to know what road (or roads) my ancestors
>might have taken to get to Staunton,VA from the Lexington/Natural Bridge
>area of Rockbridge County, VA. (Today, you'd take I-81.)
>
>Or, did they take another road which went from Lexington/Natural Bridge, VA
>to Beverly, WV in Randolph Co, WV? If so, what was it? Is there a map of
>that old road?
>
>Thank for you help.
>Sandy
>
>
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