Madison (West Virginia)

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Madison
Nickname : The Gateway to the Coal Fields
Boone County Courthouse in Madison
Boone County Courthouse in Madison
Location in West Virginia
Madison (West Virginia)
Madison
Madison
Basic data
State : United States
State : West Virginia
County : Boone County
Coordinates : 38 ° 4 ′  N , 81 ° 49 ′  W Coordinates: 38 ° 4 ′  N , 81 ° 49 ′  W
Time zone : Eastern ( UTC − 5 / −4 )
Residents : 3,054 (as of 2012)
Population density : 168.2 inhabitants per km 2
Area : 18.31 km 2  (about 7 mi 2 ) of
which 18.16 km 2  (about 7 mi 2 ) is land
Height : 214 m
Postcodes : 25130
Area code : +1 304
FIPS : 54-50524
GNIS ID : 2390612
Website : www.madisonwva.com

Madison is a city with the status " City " and the administrative seat ( county seat ) of Boone County in the US state West Virginia with 3054 inhabitants (2012).

geography

Madison is 25 miles southwest of Charleston . The US Highway 119 touches the place in the west. The Little Coal River flows through the city.

history

After a courthouse was built on the site , it was called Boone Court House , but was renamed Madison around 1865 , presumably in honor of James Madison , the fourth President of the United States. Other chroniclers consider the lawyer James Madison Laidley or the industrialist Madison Peyton active in the local coal business to be the namesake. Madison was officially founded in 1906.

The original courthouse in Madison went up in flames during the Civil War . The second courthouse, built from local bricks, was in use until 1913. The present courthouse was occupied in 1921 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places .

Since there are numerous and abundant coal deposits in the area, the main livelihood of the population was coal mining. The nickname of the place is therefore also: The Gateway to the Coal Fields (The gateway to the coal fields). When there were bloody clashes between miners and mine owners during the Battle of Blair Mountain in 1921 , Madison was a strategically important place during that mine war. In 2014 there was another dispute known as the “coal war”, but it was conducted with words and very emotionally. The reason for this are new, strict pollution limits for local coal-fired power plants, which make coal mining in the region so unattractive that up to 5,000 jobs have already been lost in West Virginia's coal fields. This has led to massive protests among the population.

Following a popular tradition, the West Virginia Coal Festival is held in Madison every June .

Demographic data

In 2012 a population of 3054 people was determined. The median age at this point was 42.1 years, on the order of West Virginia's 42.6 years. 13.0% of today's residents can be traced back to immigrants from Germany. Other significant immigrant groups from Europe during the early days of the town came from England ( 12.7%) and Ireland ( 13.0%) .

sons and daughters of the town

Individual evidence

  1. Zip Code
  2. ^ The West Virginia Encyclopedia
  3. City of Madison
  4. ^ Andreas Ross: The Coal Warriors of West Virginia , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of July 15, 2014
  5. City data

Web links

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