Tag: Moundsville

Honeywell, Olin To Pay To Clean Up Superfund Site Near Moundsville

The EPA and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection reached a settlement with the two companies.

Two chemical companies will pay for the cleanup of a Superfund site along the Ohio River.

Honeywell and Olin will pay at least $8 million to clean up a contaminated site south of Moundsville, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Tuesday.

The EPA and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection reached a settlement with the two companies. The actual cleanup cost could be more, the EPA said.

Mercury and chloromethane are the primary contaminants in the soil and groundwater at the site, and the cleanup will contain and remove it.

The Hanlin-Allied-Olin Superfund site is named for the various companies that operated there for the past 70 years. Allied is now part of Honeywell.

The site was added to the Superfund program’s National Priorities list in July 1999. Superfund sites are federally designated abandoned or uncontrolled hazardous waste sites.

July 23, 1919: Novelist Davis Grubb Born in Moundsville

Novelist Davis Grubb was born in Moundsville on July 23, 1919. He came from a prosperous background, but his family was hit badly by the Great Depression and evicted from their home. The incident likely influenced his later writings, which often criticized politicians and wealthy capitalists.

He first tried his hand as a graphic artist but realized his writing talents were more marketable. Grubb’s first commercial writing endeavor was a script for a 1939 radio show that aired in Clarksburg. He also acted in the show.

Grubb gained instant notoriety in 1953, when his first novel was published. The Night of the Hunter loosely retold the story of Harry Powers, West Virginia’s deadliest serial killer. In 1955, The Night of the Hunter was made into a classic film starring Robert Mitchum.

Most of Davis Grubbs’s 11 books were set in Appalachia. In 1971, his novel Fool’s Parade was turned into a movie starring Jimmy Stewart and George Kennedy, with scenes shot on location in Moundsville.

In 1977, Grubb returned to West Virginia for a statewide speaking tour that lasted two years. He died in 1980 at the age of  61.

September 27, 1777: Captain William Foreman and 21 Men Killed by Indians at Present McMechen

On September 27, 1777, Captain William Foreman and 21 men, including two of his sons, were killed by Indians at present McMechen in Marshall County. The latter half of 1777 was a time of bloody conflict between settlers and Indians in the Ohio Valley. Four weeks earlier, Indian warriors aligned with the British in the Revolutionary War had attacked Fort Henry at Wheeling.

After the assault on Fort Henry, a call went out on the frontier for troops. Among those to respond was Captain Foreman of Hampshire County. When further reports of Indian raids came in, Foreman, Captain Jacob Ogle, and 44 men were sent to check on Fort Tomlinson at present Moundsville. The search party discovered the fort had been attacked and abandoned within recent weeks. On their return back to Wheeling, Foreman and his column of 21 men were ambushed in their camp at McMechen.

The next day, a small group from Wheeling buried the slain men in a common grave near the scene of the ambush. In 1875, their remains were transferred to Mount Rose Cemetery in Moundsville.

April 16, 1923: Governor Arch Moore Born in Moundsville

Arch Moore was born in Moundsville on April 16, 1923. During World War II, he was severely wounded in the face and had to learn to talk again during his long hospital recovery. The Republican was elected to the state legislature in 1952 and to Congress four years later.

In 1968, he was elected West Virginia’s 28th governor. Moore was one of the most skilled politicians and perhaps the most controversial governor in state history. He fired more than 2,600 striking highway workers while leading an expansive road-building campaign. He also helped settle a national coal strike, fought for teacher pay raises, and initiated a statewide kindergarten program.

After a change to the state constitution, he became the first governor in more than a century to serve two consecutive terms. He was elected to an unprecedented third term in 1984, but, with corruption allegations hanging over him, he lost his reelection to Gaston Caperton in 1988. In 1990, Moore was convicted on federal charges of mail and tax fraud, extortion, and obstruction of justice. He served three years in prison. Arch Moore died in 2015 at age 91.

March 18, 1932: Mass Murderer Harry Powers Executed at Moundsville State Penitentiary

On March 18, 1932, convicted mass murderer Harry Powers was executed at the West Virginia Penitentiary in Moundsville. The story of his grisly murders unfolded in late 1931, with lurid details that sounded more like a pulp fiction novel than reality.

Over time, the Clarksburg resident had been scamming untold wealthy women through lonely hearts club magazines. When his lies started catching up with him, he murdered two of the women: Dorothy Lemke of Massachusetts and Asta Eicher of suburban Chicago. He also killed three of Eicher’s children. The victims were found at a garage owned by Powers in Quiet Dell, south of Clarksburg.

The murder scene became a morbid spectacle, as locals sold tickets and souvenirs. Powers’s trial in Clarksburg turned into another macabre circus, as Moore’s Opera House was converted into a makeshift courtroom. Reporters from across the country poured into town—always looking for the next shocking spectacle to report on during the Great Depression.

The murders inspired West Virginia native Davis Grubb’s most famous novel, Night of the Hunter, which was made into a classic movie, with Robert Mitchum in the starring role.

December 24, 1852: B&O Railroad Completed Near Moundsville

On Christmas Eve 1852, the last spike was driven on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad between Baltimore and the Ohio River. The event occurred at Rosbys Rock near Moundsville.

The Baltimore and Ohio—known as the B&O—changed the course of West Virginia history. It produced the first coal boom in the northern part of the state and led to the rapid growth of towns like Harpers Ferry, Martinsburg, Grafton, Parkersburg, Wheeling, and Clarksburg. During the Civil War, it played into the military strategies of both sides, and its tracks were repeatedly damaged and then repaired. When West Virginia statehood leaders carved out the new state’s borders, the eastern panhandle counties were included primarily to keep the B&O in West Virginia and outside of Confederate Virginia.

After the war and well into the 20th century, the B&O was a major force in the economies of West Virginia and the nation. By midcentury, though, it was suffering economically. In 1973, the B&O name disappeared when it was merged with the Chesapeake and Ohio and Western Maryland railways to form the new Chessie System, which is now CSX Transportation

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