Tag: Monroe County

Jenkins Begins Raiding Western Virginia: August 22, 1862

On August 22, 1862, newly appointed Confederate Brigadier General Albert Gallatin Jenkins began a raid through Western Virginia. It was in response to a string of events that began with Robert E. Lee’s impending invasion of Maryland.

Earlier that month, the Union Army had shifted some 5,000 troops from the Charleston area to help protect Washington, DC. So, the Confederates took advantage of the troop reduction.

Jenkins launched his raid from Salt Sulphur Springs in Monroe County with 550 troops. The Confederates rode first into the Tygart Valley and skirmished with U.S. forces near Huttonsville. Next, they traveled to Buckhannon, Weston, Glenville, Spencer, and Ripley.

On September 4, the raiders crossed the Ohio River in Jackson County—about 60 miles north of Jenkins’s home at Green Bottom—and became the first to raise a Confederate flag on Ohio soil. They soon returned and skirmished with Union forces at Point Pleasant before moving on to Buffalo in Putnam County. On September 8, the raiders defeated a Union force at Barboursville and then rode through Wayne, Logan, and Raleigh counties. In all, Jenkins’s raid covered 500 miles.

Deadline Approaching for West Virginia Flood Unemployment

West Virginians who are out of work due to recent deadly floods are facing a deadline to apply for unemployment benefits.

The deadline to file a claim for employees or residents of Kanawha, Greenbrier and Nicholas counties is Wednesday.

Those in Clay, Fayette, Monroe, Roane, Summers, Pocahontas and Webster counties have until Friday.

People who live or work in Jackson and Lincoln counties have until Aug. 4.

The Disaster Unemployment Assistance offers benefits for people who are ineligible under the state’s regular unemployment insurance. Farmers, self-employed people and others may be eligible for the Disaster Unemployment Assistance.

Union Secures Funding for $2.5 Million Water Project

The town of Union has secured funding for a water project that will extend service to one of Monroe County's largest private employers.The funding package…

The town of Union has secured funding for a water project that will extend service to one of Monroe County’s largest private employers.

The funding package includes an $826,400 grant announced last week by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration and a $1 million grant earlier this year from the Appalachian Regional Commission.

Jeff Johnson with the Region I Workforce and Development Council tells The Register-Herald that United Technologies Corporation contributed $445,000 in matching funds. The project will extend water service to the company’s plant a mile north of Union.

The project is expected to ease water shortages for Union’s water system and for the plant. The plant employs more than 400 workers.

A timetable for the project hasn’t yet been set.

Judge Bars Pipeline Surveyors from Couple’s Property

A judge has ruled that the developer of a proposed natural gas pipeline can’t survey a West Virginia couple’s property without their permission.Monroe…

A judge has ruled that the developer of a proposed natural gas pipeline can’t survey a West Virginia couple’s property without their permission.

Monroe County Circuit Court Judge Robert Irons said Mountain Valley Pipeline failed to show that the project would provide sufficient public use to justify entering private property without an owner’s permission.

Irons issued an injunction on Wednesday, Aug. 5, sought by Bryan and Doris McCurdy, of Greenville. The pipeline company sent the couple a letter citing eminent domain early this year threatening legal action if they didn’t allow the surveyors onto their property.

Mountain Valley Pipeline spokeswoman Natalie Cox said the company will review the judge’s order and consider its options.

The 330-mile pipeline would transport natural gas from Wetzel County to another pipeline in Pittsylvania County, Virginia.

The pipeline would require a 125-foot construction easement and 75-foot permanent easement.

E-Filing Expands to Monroe County

E-filing is expanded again, now to its third county in the state.

West Virginia Judiciary’s Unified Electronic Filing System, or e-filing for short, started in Marion County in August 2013, and then in April of this year, it expanded for the first time to Jefferson County. On Tuesday, it expanded again to Monroe County.

E-filing allows circuit courts to have electronic backups of both confidential and public cases.

Only a handful of other states have currently gone fully to e-filing, and the goal is to make West Virginia one of those additional states.

Once the system is statewide, it would be paid for by the user. The Supreme Court is paying for the upgrade in technology in all circuit clerks’ offices. Public documents will eventually be accessible from any computer anywhere.

April 23, 1857: Spanish-American War Hero Andrew Rowan Born in Monroe County

  Andrew Rowan, made famous as the subject of a patriotic essay, was born in Monroe County on April 23, 1857. In 1898, the United States was on the verge of war with Spain over the island of Cuba. President William McKinley needed military intelligence from Cuban General Calixto Garcia. The Army chose Lieutenant Andrew Rowan to deliver the message.

He sailed in a small fishing boat from Jamaica across 100 miles of open sea. His men then hacked their way through a dense Cuban jungle to avoid Spanish patrols. After finding and delivering the message to Garcia, Rowan made a perilous trip back to the U.S. He was later awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

Rowan would become one of the Spanish-American War’s most famous heroes because of a surprisingly popular essay. The year after the war, writer Elbert Hubbard detailed Rowan’s heroic act in a small pamphlet entitled Message to Garcia. Hubbard lauded Rowan as an example to young men who needed ‘‘a stiffening of the vertebrae.’’

Andrew Rowan died in 1943 at age 85 and was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery.

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