Kanawha County

Kanawha County Courthouse
administration
US state :	West Virginia
Administrative headquarters :	Charleston
Address of the administrative headquarters:	County Courthouse 407 Virginia St East Charleston, WV 25301-2524
Foundation :	November 14, 1788
Made up from:	Greenbrier County Montgomery County , Virginia
Area code :	001 304
Demographics
Residents :	193,063  (2010)
Population density :	82.5 inhabitants / km 2
geography
Total area :	2359 km²
Water surface :	20 km²
map
Website : www.kanawha.us

Kanawha County [ kəˈnɑː ] is a county in the state of West Virginia in the United States . The county seat is Charleston , which is also the capital of the state.

geography

Pocatalico River at Sissonville .

The county is located southwest of the geographic center of West Virginia and covers an area of ​​2,359 square kilometers, of which 20 square kilometers are water. It is bordered clockwise by the following counties: Roane County , Clay County , Fayette County , Raleigh County , Boone County , Lincoln County , Putnam County, and Jackson County .

The main geographic axis of the county is the Kanawha River and its tributaries Elk River and Coal River . In the north the Pocatalico River flows through the county, which further west also flows into the Kanawha River. Most of the county is forested, and settlements are essentially limited to the river valleys. In the south of the county is the Kanawha State Forest , which serves as a recreational area for the greater Charleston area.

history

prehistory

Criel Mound, a burial mound in South Charleston.

The oldest traces of settlement date from around 8500 BC. u. Z. During excavations in St. Albans, traces of different dates from 7000 to 2000 BC were found. u. Z. found. The nomadic Indians of the Adena culture lived in the following period up to around 100 in what is now Kanawha County. They built numerous burial mounds , two of which are still preserved today. Around 100 settled Indians settled in the area. Around 700 they began to grow grain in the valleys. Before the arrival of the Europeans, members of the Moneton tribe, who belonged to the Cherokee , lived around St. Albans . At the end of the 17th century, the Mohawk and Seneca came , displacing all resident tribes, and by 1755 no Monetons lived in the county. The Kanawha Valley became a border zone between the Cherokee and Mohawk and Seneca tribal areas. There were no more permanent settlements, only a few Shawnee groups hunted in the river valley. In 1768, the Virginia government formally took control of the area with the Treaty of Fort Stanwix . The river valley was a hunting ground for the Shawnee Indians until the 19th century. The last wild buffalo in the Kanawha Valley was killed in 1815.

Establishment of the county and formation of today's county area

After the area was for a long time due to the warlike Shawnee exclusion zone, the first settlers settled in the area of ​​the county in 1773. However, they were killed or driven away by the Indians after a short time. After the Shawnee were defeated by the whites in the Battle of Point Pleasent in 1774 , Europeans were able to settle permanently in the valley of the Kanawha River. In 1779, during the War of Independence, the fight against the Shawnee was abandoned and the settlers had to leave the valley again. In 1786 the first permanent settlements were established. In April 1788, George Clendenin and a group of soldiers settled in what would later become the urban area of ​​Charleston. The first houses were built as Fort Lee at what is now Kanawha Boulevard and Brooks Street.

Kanawha County was formed on November 14, 1788 from parts of Greenbrier County and Montgomery County (Virginia). It was named after the Kanawha River. It was not until October 1, 1789 that the founding was actually completed and the administrative facilities of the county were built. The county was then about ten times the size of today and consisted of the southwestern quarter of what is now West Virginia. Little by little parts were transferred to other counties. George Clendenin and Andrew Donnally, Sr. were the county's first MPs to the Virginia House of Delegates . In 1794 the city of Charlestown (from 1818 Charleston ) was founded. In 1795 Kanawha County was added to part of Greenbrier County, today this area belongs to Nicholas County . A narrow strip of land in the north of the then county fell to Wood County in 1800 . This area is now part of Roane County and Jackson County .

Loss of territory through the establishment of other counties led to the current form of Kanawha County until 1856. In detail, these were: Mason County (1804), Cabell County (1809), Nicholas County (1818, with a further assignment of territory in 1823), Logan County (1824), Jackson County (1831), Braxton County (1836), Gilmer County ( 1845), Boone County (1847), Putnam County (1848), Lincoln County (1855), and Roane County (1856). In the 1830s, the county gained what is now its southern tip from Fayette County .

Later story

At the beginning of the American Civil War , the county was partly occupied by Confederate armies and partly by Union armies. In the Battle of Charleston on September 13, 1862, the Confederates were able to conquer the city of Charleston, but lost it again to the Union a few weeks later. In 1863 the state of West Virginia was finally founded. It wasn't until 1873 that the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad built the first steam-powered railroad along the Kanawha River. Previously, horse-drawn trams were operated on wooden rails in the valleys of Paint Creek and Field's Creek, which were used to carry the extracted raw materials to the river.

Charleston was the capital of the state from 1870 to 1875 and finally since 1885. In 1887 the county received its first electric utility.

The county hit the media in 1974 when the school board approved new textbooks. Complaints about allegedly unpatriotic and unchristian quotations and doctrines in the books led to the authorities having the books checked, but then allowing them. This in turn led to violent protests, led by Reverend Marvin Horan. Bomb attacks on several schools and shots on school buses were the result. Horan was sentenced to prison in 1975 and the protests subsided and the books were finally approved.

economy

The main economic asset at the beginning was agriculture until salt deposits were discovered in 1797. The Charleston area quickly became a major salt producer. In 1815 James Wilson found large amounts of natural gas while searching for salt, and two years later coal was found, which is still mined today, especially in the south of the county. Crude oil had already been found in 1807, but notable deposits were not developed until 1909.

traffic

The county has good transport links. Three interstate highways ( I-64 , I-77 and I-79 ) and two US highways ( 60 and 119 ) cross or begin in the county. North of Charleston is Yeager Airport , from which several daily flights to Washington, Chicago and other cities depart. Amtrak operates the Cardinal express train , which stops three times a week in Montgomery and Charleston and connects the counties with Washington, Cincinnati , Indianapolis and Chicago. The Kanawha Valley Regional Transportation Authority (KRT) operates local buses throughout the county . It is the successor to the Charleston tram , which ran from 1888 to 1939 and, in addition to city routes, also owned overland routes from Charleston to Dunbar, via South Charleston to St. Albans and via Marmet to Cabin Creek Junction, and also operated bus routes as early as the 1920s.

Localities

In the county there are municipalities ( Citys ), rural communities ( Towns ) and so-called Census-designated places (CDPs). There are also countless small hamlets that are not parish .

• Citys: Charleston , Dunbar , Marmet , Montgomery (mostly in Fayette County), Nitro (partly in Putnam County), Saint Albans , Smithers (mostly in Fayette County), South Charleston
• Towns: Belle , Cedar Grove , Chesapeake , Clendenin , East Bank , Glasgow , Handley , Pratt
• CDPs: Alum Creek (partially in Lincoln County), Big Chimney , Chelyan , Coal Fork , Cross Lanes , Elkview , Jefferson , Pinch , Rand , Shrewsbury , Sissonville , Tornado

Demographic data

Population development
Census	Residents		± in%
1800	3239		-
1810	3866		19.4%
1820	6399		65.5%
1830	9326		45.7%
1840	13,567		45.5%
1850	15,353		13.2%
1860	16,150		5.2%
1870	22,349		38.4%
1880	32,466		45.3%
1890	42,756		31.7%
1900	54,696		27.9%
1910	81,457		48.9%
1920	119,650		46.9%
1930	157,667		31.8%
1940	195,619		24.1%
1950	239,629		22.5%
1960	252.925		5.5%
1970	229,515		-9.3%
1980	231.414		0.8%
1990	207,619		-10.3%
2000	200,073		-3.6%
2010	193.063		-3.5%
Before 1900 1900-1990

Age pyramid of the Kanawha County

As of the 2000 census , Kanawha County had 200,073 people in 86,226 households and 55,960 families. The population density was 86 inhabitants per square kilometer. The racial the population was composed of 90.46 percent white, 6.97 percent African American, 0.21 percent Native American, 0.85 percent Asian, 0.02 percent from the Pacific island area and 0.21 percent from other ethnic groups Groups; 1.27 percent were descended from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race was 0.59 percent of the population.

Of the 86,226 households, 26.5 percent had children and young people under the age of 18 living with them. 49.0 percent were married couples living together, 12.3 percent were single mothers, 35.1 percent were non-families, 30.8 percent were single households and 12.5 percent had people aged 65 years or over. The average household size was 2.28 and the average family size was 2.84 people.

For the entire county, the population was composed of 21.3 percent of residents under 18 years of age, 8.4 percent between 18 and 24 years of age, 28.1 percent between 25 and 44 years of age, 25.6 percent between 45 and 64 years of age 16.5 percent were 65 years of age or over. The average age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 90.7 males. For every 100 women aged 18 or over there were statistically 87.1 men.

The median income for a household in the county is $ 33,766 , and the median income for a family is $ 42,568. Males had a median income of $ 33,842 versus $ 24,188 for females. The per capita income was $ 20,354. 11.2 percent of families and 14.4 percent of the population were below the poverty line. Of these, 20.6 percent were children or adolescents under 18 years of age and 10.5 percent were people over 65 years of age.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Kanawha County in the Geographic Names Information System of the United States Geological Survey . Retrieved February 22, 2011
2. ↑ Cohen 1987, pp. 2-3.
3. ^ Cohen 1987, p. 11.
4. ^ Cohen 1987, pp. 19-21.
5. ^ Cohen 1987, p. 108.
6. ↑ http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/textbooks/
7. ^ Karl Priest: Protester Voices — The 1974 Textbook Tea Party. Poca WV: Praying Mantis Press, 2010.
8. ^ Cohen 1987, p. 154.
9. ^ Cohen 1987, p. 128.
10. ^ Cohen 1987, p. 162.
11. ^ US Census Bureau _ Census of Population and Housing . Retrieved February 28, 2011
12. ↑ Extract from Census.gov . Retrieved February 28, 2011
13. ↑ Kanawha County, West Virginia , 2000 census datasheet at factfinder.census.gov .

literature

• Stan Cohen: Kanawha County Images. A bicentennial history 1788–1988. Charleston WV: Pictorial History Publishing Co., Kanawha Bicentennial, Inc., 1987.

Web links

Commons : Kanawha County, West Virginia  - Collection of pictures, videos, and audio files

Coordinates: 38 ° 20 ′  N , 81 ° 32 ′  W