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 > > To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html