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Chapter 9: Antebellum Economic Life
- The University Press of Kentucky
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Antebellum Economic Life EconomicDiversity.Throughoutmost of the nineteenth century, economic life in West Virginia centered on agriculture. The amount and distribution of rainfall, length of the growing season, retention of moisture and soil fertility by vast forestlands, and exceedinglyrich lands along the streams and in mountain valleys favored the cultivation of a wide variety of crops and the promotion of animal husbandry. Except for a few sections, notably the Eastern Panhandle, where large landowners with diversified plantations made use of slave labor, most of West Virginiaremained a land of yeoman farmers. These farmers often had prosperousholdings, but in the recesses of the mountainsfarms were often of marginal quality and provided little more than mere subsistence. Although tied to agriculture, West Virginians perceived something of the possibilities of coal, timber, iron, salt, clay, and other resources. Inadequate investment capital, critical problems in transportation by both land and water, the absence of developed markets, and in some areas shortages of labor seriously retarded the development of natural resources. When West Virginia became a state, industry was yet in its infancy, but salt, timber, coal, and iron productioneven then offereda glimmer of a futurein which the industrialsector of the economy would take precedence over the agricultural. Agricultural Advances. The simple agrarian-woods economy of pioneer times continued to satisfy many West Virginia families, but most aspired to a more sophisticated,or at least a more comfortable, existence. Their aspirations required greater attention to horticultureand stockraising and to the production of marketableproducts. German farmersset a worthy examplefor improvement of agricultural practices. Unlike others, who depletedthe soil through wasteful methods, they strove to preserve its fertility and made successive plantings on tracts for fifteen years or longer. They sheltered and fed their livestock in winter and gave special attention to the construction of their barns. Perhaps the first improvements in stock breeding in West Virginia were carried outby MatthewPatton, who livedon the SouthBranchof thePotomac in Pendleton County. At the end of the Revolutionary War, Patton purchased improved English cattle through a Maryland importing firm. He crossed the English cattle with native stock to produce "Patton cattle," highly regarded for their size and milking qualities. Patton cattle later became favorites in the Antebellum Economic Life 81 Bluegrass region of Kentucky, to which Patton and members of his family migrated in 1790.' Cattle raising quickly assumed a place of importancein animalhusbandry. Cattlemen, particularly along the South Branch, drove herds each spring to mountain pastures, where they grazed upon nutritious natural grasses throughout the summer. Many residents contracted with Kentucky and Ohio cattlemento graze animalsen routeto Baltimore,Washington,and Philadelphia markets in orderthat they mightreach their destinationsin bettercondition.The completion of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to Wheeling in 1852stimulated cattle raising west of the Alleghenies. The village of Lost Creek in Harrison County, for instance, in time became one of the largest cow towns on the rail line. Farmers also gave attention to other livestock. By 1825 thousands of Merino sheeproamed the hillsides of the Northern Panhandle. John G .Jackson of Clarksburg, an agricultural reformer better known for his political and industrial activities, had by then made improvements in his ovine stock. Horses were first used only as pack or draft animals, but as personal wealth accumulated,the demand for carriage and riding horses increased.Anne Royal1 noted that by 1823the Greenbrierregion had large numbers of horses conspicuous for their size and beauty, whereas only a few years before such animals were rare. Striking as improvements were, in most mountainous areas farming changed but little before the Civil War. Peter H. Steenbergen,John Lewis, and Lewis Summers, prominent promoters of scientific agriculture in the lower Kanawha Valley, declared in 1840 that "with some exceptions the tillage of cleared lands has not advanced beyond the first rudiments of h~sbandry."~ Fan-Related Industries. Among farm-related industries that developed beyond the domestic stage during the nineteenth century were milling, textile manufacturing, and distilling. As early as 1795 the tub mill, which replaced hand mills and horse mills, began to giveway to the water gristmill, andby 1825 improved merchant mills were common throughout much of the state. Flour millingwas centeredinthe MonongahelaValleyand in the Eastern andNorthern panhandles. Wellsburg, for example, exported some thirty to forty thousand barrels of flour annually to New Orleans. Wheelinghad three steamflour mills, and West Liberty had six mills within a three-mile radius. Most families made their own linsey-woolsey, with flax providing the "chain" and wool the "filling," until the first decade of the...