Washington County

NEWPORT A history of Pleasants county [West Virginia] would be incomplete without more than a passing allusion to the village or town of Newport, on the Ohio side of the river, directly opposite the old shipping port of Vaucluse. Although it is outside of the political limits of the county, yet it has had a great deal to do, directly and indirectly, with the development of the land on the West Virginia shore. For many years before Vaucluse was established the stores at Newport afforded facilities for commerce and were frequented by our people, and the old mill at that village was depended upon for the grinding of corn and wheat. I am indebted to Miss Eleanor F. Adkins of Newport for information concerning the early history of that place. In the spring of 1798, ten years after the first settlement was made at Marietta, the Dana family came from Massachusetts and made a new home on the broad bottom land which became the site of Newport. They were soon followed by the Greene family, coming from Rhode Island, and it was not long until a large clearing had been made in the forest and several rude but comfortable log cabins were erected. But such habitations were not satisfactory to these people from New England, who had been accustomed to more substantial homes, and in 1808 Daniel Greene built the first brick house, that now is occupied by the Greenwoods. The Adkins home, just above the town, was built in 1810 by Luther Dana, and was for many years conducted as an inn or tavern, the old sign "Temperance House," even now resting in the attic. The old river road originally passed between this house and the river, and it was in this building that the first postoffice was located. It requires no great stretch of fancy to picture Temperance House as the temporary lodging of many eminent travelers, and one tradition is that William Henry Harrison campaigning for the Presidency in 1840, delivered an address in the shade of a large sycamore, whose stump still may be seen in the lawn. In 1815 William Dana built the third brick house near Milltown, and the fourth brick house, erected several years afterward, was that now occupied by the Greenes. The famous old stone mill at Milltown was built about 1815. It is said that William Dana's sympathy was aroused for a number of Irish families who had been stranded here over the Winter, and in return for his kindness in providing them with food and shelter they dug and walled the mill race. This tradition reminds me of a similar one on the West Virginia side of the river. It has often been related that after the completion of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad to Parkersburg the Irish workmen who had been employed in its construction struck across the country to St. Marys for the purpose of embarking on a steamboat, but the river became closed with ice, and they were doomed to spend the Winter in this neighborhood. In return for housing and food, they are said to have erected the stone walls or fences which yet stand along the roads on either side of Middle Island creek about a mile from its mouth. Near the old mill is the famous elm, a magnificent tree rising to the height of one hundred feet, and measuring twenty-nine feet around its trunk. For many years the old brick building at the top of the Newport wharf has been a landmark. It was built probably along in the forties, and used as a store until the great flood of 1913, since when it, has served as a town hall and a polling place. Ebenezer Battelle is credited with building the first log house of considerable size, which in liater years was covered with weather-boarding and is now occupied by the Gale sisters. Other early settlers mentioned were the Newport, Bosworth, Ferguson, Little, Adkins, Greenwood, Reynolds, Edgell, Hayes and Gale families. It has been supposed by some that the town derived its name from the first of those families mentioned above, but the name was actually taken from the city in Rhode Island. It was not until 1839, more than forty years after the first settlement, that the town was platted into regular streets and lots by Ebenezer Battellle. Caleb Greene conducted the first school in his own home in 1801, and three years later the first schoolhouse was erected, 26x36 feet in dimension, heated from a large open fireplace, and lighted through greased paper windows. It stood in the Haysville community, and was replaced with a brick structure. Later two grade schools were established, one at Milltown and the other at Newport, and also a high, school at the latter place. The people of that vicinity have always born a high reputation for educational culture. A resident of Newport, Erastus Adkins, was a member of the second class graduated from Marietta College, in 1839, and since that time the community has produced many college and university graduates. In the matter of religion, also, Newport has stood well in the front. As elsewhere, services were first held in private homes and in school houses, but when the first Methodist society was organized in 1825 with about twenty members, it was held necessary to have a building of their own, so four years later the first house of worship was erected. Forty years afterward a new and larger edifice was built, and the old structure was transformed into the township high school. A Presbyterian society was formed in 1838, holding services in the school house, the (ministers coming from Marietta, one being the Rev. Henry Smith, a former president of Marietta College. The society was not strong enough to build, and in 1869 it disbanded, the membership being transferred to the Marietta church of that denomination. In the early days the Baptists formed part of the Little Muskingum organization, but meetings were held in the school house at Newport until 1841, when a church was built, which was dedicated in the following year, about twenty years after the first recorded meeting was held. About twenty years ago the Church of Christ established an organization, which has been continued under the supervision of the denomination at St. Marys. Newport has never possessed any large manufacturing industries. In the early days of oil production there were several cooper shops. Later a Somali cigar factory operated for a few years. After the old mill at Milltown ceased to function, another was built on the river bank, operated first by horse power and later by steam. This mill did a large business for several years, and for a time, the company maintained a branch warehouse in St. Marys. The village of about six hundred people is beautifully located on a broad river bottom that rises gently from the water edge to a considerable height above flood stage, the main street skirting the foot of the solitary hill described in a former chapter of this book as having once been probably circled by the Ohio river. The large area available gives plenty of space for detached residences, each surrounded by lawns or gardens, giving an air of ease and Comfort. Like most of the towns on the Ohio side of the river, it has been known for many years as a "steamboat town," that is to say, many of the people have been and still are interested in river navigation. This is especially true of the Greene and Greenwood families, who have long been owners and navigators of steamboats. Newport is also a "good roads" town, being on Ohio State Road 7, extending along the river from Cincinnati up to Pittsburgh, besides on North National Road 50, which crosses the river over the new bridge at St. Marys, affording easy and direct communication to all parts of the nation. Many points of interest are in the vicinity, and the view from the "Lone Tree Hill" sometimes known as "Adkins Point," is famous for its great scope of vision up and down the Ohio. The well-kept cemetery attracts many visitors and its beautiful and orderly condition is a certain index of the thrift and culture of the people. The hrst burial in it was that of Nathaniel Little in l808, and it contains the remains of most of the early settlers. I recall that several years ago a resident of Newport pointed to a peculiar work on the side of one of the low sandy hills in the edge of the town, saying that it was an uncompleted race track. If so, the curious feature of the attempt was the inversion of the usual construction of such a course. Instead of having the track in an open arena, visible from the surrounding grounds, this peculiar track wound around on the outside of the hill, the spectators having their stand in the center and looking down upon the entire performance. Why the novel project was abandoned was not revealed. But perhaps it could not be called so eccentric as the work of Benjamin W. Willard on Cow Creek in Pleasants county. He was an early settler, said to have been contemporary with Christian Schultz, and like the latter was evidently a well-read man, judging from the books in his library, an appraisement list of them being on record m the county clerk's office. In the days "before the war," when Mr. Willard was getting up in years, he entertained an idea of constructing his sarcophagus out of a huge rock on the hillside just above the creek road. His house, a two storied structure with an upper veranda, stood a short distance above the old mill. Sitting on the veranda, where he had a plain view of the rock, he caused his slaves to work with pick and chisel, directing and urging them in their task. For some reason, perhaps because of the emancipation of the slaves, the sepulchre was not finished; but a very neat, well shaped cavity, almost large enough to contain a casket, remains as a more lasting monument to "his memory than a highly polished granite slab in a cemetery. Transcribed by C. Anthony from A History of Pleasants County, West Virginia by Robert L. Pemberton, 1929