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Kanawha County, West Virginia (formerly Virginia) was formed in 1788 from Greenbrier and Montgomery counties. It is today the most populated of West Virginia counties inasmuch as it encompasses Charleston, the state capital. Ruth Dayton's history of Upper Kanawha pioneers and their homes, first published in 1947, is a wonderful companion volume to her Greenbrier Pioneers and Their Homes, also available from Clearfield Company (see Item 9164). The Kanawha volume concentrates on the region of the Kanawha Valley "formed by the confluence of the New and Gauley rivers, to Davis Creek, a tributary which joins the Kanawha a few miles below Charleston, WV." Mrs. Dayton's approach, once again, is to blend architectural history and genealogy in chapters devoted to Kanawha's historic sites and the people who built, occupied, or were otherwise connected with them. As was the case with the Greenbrier book, this sequel features more than twenty delightful line drawings of Kanawha pioneer homesteads drawn by the artist Naomi S. Hosterman. Among other things, the book covers the formation of the county, its geography, and its role in the American Revolution. There is also a bibliography and a brief appendix listing the earliest justices, civil officials, military officers, and trustees of Kanawha. What will command the attention of genealogists, however, are Mrs. Dayton's biographical/genealogical essays concerning the following Kanawha families or pioneers: Anne Bailey, Bream, Clendenin, Cobb, Craik, Dickinson, Donnally, Hansford, John Harriman, Samuel Hensley, Simon Kenton, Littlepage, Lovell, MacFarland, Miller, Montgomery, Morris (including a detailed genealogy in the Appendix), Benjamin Morris, Patrick, Dr. Richard Putney, Quarrier, Rand, Rogers, Anne Royall, Ruby, Ruffner, Shrewsbury, Levi Welch, and Col. Henry Wood.

This volume is available on our Family Archive CD 7520.