From the Parkersburg Gazette/Courier, Dec. 8, 1849. (Photo Provided)

PARKERSBURG OF 1852 SEEN IN PAGES OF ‘THE GAZETTE.’

City Boasted Four Hotels Which Advertised Their Advantages and Hospitality.

Have you ever noticed how yesterday’s daily paper is already torn, and faded and soiled; that being true, what condition would you expect a copy to be in that it was printed more than eighty years ago? One that was printed in this city when such men as Abraham Lincoln, Washington Irving, and the poet Longfellow were still in their active years and prime of life?

The one in question is of the Parkersburg Gazette, dated June 19, 1852, and for a number of years has been carefully preserved by T.W. Carroll who lives halfway up to Elizabeth on state route 14. ‘Tis a four-page, seven column weekly, and its subtitle is Western Virginia Courier.

Some of the advertisements, all of which are in noticeably small type as compared to those found in newspapers today, are also quaint and interesting because of their content.

For example, the hotel, probably the one afterwards known as the Spencer House, and at one time owned by Jackie Horne, about the date in question changes hands, and the new proprietor had this to say to attract the traveler:

“Point House (near the steamboat landing), Parkersburg, W.Va. The subscriber announces to his friends and public generally that he has taken the large and commodious house on the Point, recently occupied by Richard Powell, one door above Gibbons store, which has been neatly and comfortably fitted up in a style that warrants him soliciting a call from travelers. Good liquors and staples always to be had, while the table will be supplied with the best our market affords.

“An excellent omnibus will run regularly every day, and if necessary three times a day, from this house to the Buena Vista Well.”

***

Place of Importance

This well, whatever it was and where it might have been, no one now seems to know, though it must have been a place of some importance at that time, as it is mentioned and daily passage to it is promised also by the card of the Rail Road hotel.

The hotel management announces that “being only a few yards from the usual landing, is in easy access by persons traveling upon the river, who may always be notified of the approach of steamers in time to get aboard.”

As inadequate, compared to our day [this was written in the 1930s], as transportation facilities must have been, there seemed to have been enough travel then, ten years before the Civil War, to support at least four hotels. The American hotel claimed that its boarding was as cheap as “any other respectable house in the west.” The fourth one was called the United States hotel.

Advertising a location near the boat landing, a well-trained hostler, and the fine qualities of liquor furnished, are items of an age that is gone forever. The trains, the bus, and airplanes have taken the place of boats and buggies as a means of travel; and the sale of legal whiskey is now confined, in this state, to the state-controlled store.

It seems like the Baltimore & Ohio railroad was then running trains as far west as Rollsburg. The Great Southwestern Mail and Stage route had its western terminus at Parkersburg, and advertised tri-weekly trips, “arriving at Cheat river, (Rollsburg) in time to connect with the evening train to Baltimore.” The time required between these two points was 24 hours. The increase in speed since then is about 400 percent.

***

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.