The Kanawha Hotel at Elizabeth, circa 1900. Photo from an undated Wirt County Historical Society newsletter. (Photo Provided)

Excerpts from the 1865 story by a reporter from the New York Herald, taken from Dave McKain’s book, ‘Where It All Began,” conclude:

“August 7, 1865 — Home again to say [that] I have reached the monumental city, after a tour of four weeks through the oil regions of western Pennsylvania and West Virginia. And I must here state that the best avenue of approach from the eastward to the latter is the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad which after all the vicissitudes of the war, become again solidly established as one of the main arteries of communication between the great east and the great west.

“Results — I believe it to be only necessary for a person to make the tour I have to be satisfied that whatever may be the operations of stock jobbers on the petroleum exchanges in New York and elsewhere, or whatever may have been the rascalities of swindlers and bogus operators in oil all over the country, the petroleum interest is still one of great magnitude and importance. To say that it is ‘played out’ is ridiculously erroneous. If there has been a falling off in the production on Oil Creek [Pennsylvania] the yield there is still a source of immense wealth. What may have been lost on that hitherto grand oil centre is recovered three-fold by the developments on Pithole Creek and the adjacent territory. What has been lost during the rebellion in West Virginia is being rapidly recovered through the tornado, and worse than all, by bad legislation in Congress. Those who did not avail themselves of the advice given in these columns last year to beware of bogus companies have suffered. Those who have made judicious investments as a general thing have had no more cause to complain than if they had risked their money in California or China, or in breadstuffs or provisions, or in the regular stocks of the stock board. Speculation, in all things and at all times, is hazardous. A little oil is a dangerous thing; sink deep or do not sink at all.”

“Elizabeth, July 1865 — “…It is twenty miles from Parkersburg and eight from Rathbone City, or Burning Springs. Elizabeth has been subject to many vicissitudes during the war, having been visited and despoiled by both parties, bushwhackers doing the most damage. The principal [rooming] house is the Virginia Hotel formerly kept by J. Weaver but now owned by Lanning F. Oakley, late of San Francisco and Wm. L. Beauchmant (sic) of New Jersey, who are so well content with their business and prospects that they have sent for their families to join them. They have a very clean and snug hotel. Upon the arrival of a Herald representative being made known, a handsome American flag, which had been withdrawn on account of a threatened thunderstorm, was flung to a salute from the heaven’s artillery that made the earth tremble.

“Elizabeth is well supplied with lawyers, the California bar strongly represented. As the business of these oil regions revive [from the war], the services of the disciples of Blackstone are brought into requirement; but the lawyers who are most in favor are those who understand the practice of “Standing Stone.”

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Bob Enoch is president of the Wood County Historical and Preservation Society. If you have comments or questions about Look Back items, please contact him at: roberteenoch@gmail.com, or by mail at WCHPS, PO Box 565, Parkersburg, WV 26102.