The Tragic Fate of Guyandotte!
Guyandotte Virginia, now West Virginia had a Booming Start.
Today, Guyandotte is one of Huntington’s 15 neighborhoods and the oldest section of the city.
Sixty-one years before Huntington was incorporated, Guyandotte was a town, a peaceful commercial center
at the confluence of the Ohio and Guyandotte rivers.
Guyandotte was first settled in 1796 on a portion of lot 42 of the Savage Grant, allotted to John Savage, an officer who served under Col. GeorgeWashington at the battle of Great Meadows. It grew rapidly and in1810 the Virginia Assembly passed an act establishing a town by the nameof Guyandotte.
By 1835 Guyandotte had 40 homes, 5 stores, several churches, a school, a grist mill, a sawmill, and two cabinet makers. One of the better known businesses was the Buffington Mill, reportedly the largest flour mill between Cincinnati and Pittsburgh.
Illustration by Teresa Lynn Anderson Lycons
In 1848 a suspension bridge was built over the Guyan River. In the early 1850’s locks and dams were built and Guyandotte became the site of a thriving timber industry.
Guyandotte was named for one of the rivers bordering it. Because of its choice location, natural resources and logging industry, Guyandotte kept reasonably prosperous until 1861. Then it was nearly burned to the ground by Union troops during the war between the states.
The Civil War had a major effect on Guyandotte. Although few residents were slave holders, they were incensed by what the viewed at interference with their rights as Virginians to practice slavery. Guyandotte was a “hot bed of secession,” and was reportedly the only town along the Ohio to do so and the Virginia state flag stood proudly on the riverbank.
November 11, 1861: The burning of Guyandotte
The Civil War hit home in the Cabell County town of Guyandotte on November 11, 1861. Union troops burned the town in retaliation over a raid pulled off the day before by Confederate cavalry. Joe Geiger, who has written a bookabout the Civil War in Cabell County, says Guyandotte’s fate was the resultof suspected collaboration with the Confederate raiders and the town's secessionistreputation.
Geiger: It’s not really clear exactly how many buildings were burnt. But practically the entire business section was burned and a number of houses as well. It's interesting to note Confederate sympathizers' houses were not the only ones targeted. Many houses belonging to people of Union sympathies were burned as well.
In the fall of 1861, Guyandotte served as a hostile host to a Union recruit camp. The recruits were not able to put up much of a fight against the raiders. They were taken prisoner and forced to march to New Bern, Virginia.
Geiger: Ithink some of the animosity came about because of the march of the prisoners. It began at a full run. They were tied two-by-two with rope and were herded out of town. Apparently, quite a few of the Guyandotte secessionist women were dressed up with their aprons and were yelling at the prisoners and such. The march was very torturous from what I gather.
When news of the raid reached the northern press, it was exaggerated as a massacre. In the northern panhandle town of Moundsville, 4 secessionists were assaulted and 3 were jailed. Union men also went to the homes of other secessionists and ordered them to leave town.
The Wheeling Intelligencer newspaper called Guyandotte the “ornaryestplace on the Ohio River” and said it ought to have been burned earlier.
By 1872, Guyandotte had rebuilt but the emergence of the neighboring city of Huntington as the western terminus of the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Railway eclipsed it. Legend has it that the C&O’s president Collis Huntington established the new city after he was arrested in Guyandotte for riding his horse on the sidewalk.
Though no later engagements in the area was so spectacular, considerable activity appears to have continued throughout the war. Animosity ran high, unwilling men were pressed into service in the Confederate Army, foragers stripped farms of livestock and portable food stuffs and the Home Guards committed acts of unnecessary oppression. A miasma of apprehension clouded life during the Civil War years.
Link: To read more about this article click the link below.
http://www.wvculture.org/history/journal_wvh/wvh54-2.html
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