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Preface
- West Virginia University Press
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PREFACE * * * THE OAK THAT GRACES the mountain-slope has come from an acorn planted by an errant squirrel. From a seed as small, dropped in a Kanawha Valley mail-bag in equal unconsciousness of hidden germlife , this volume has grown, little by little. Like the forest oak, its growth has been natural, without pruning or “pinching back,” or artistic fashioning of any sort. The only aim has been to make it true to nature and to life, however homely its phase. A single letter with a striking reference to mineral resources, followed by other correspondence, a tour of observation in behalf of the Department of Agriculture, exploration of State archives and national census schedules, and free conferences with intelligent business men of West Virginia, led to the exhibit made in the United States Report of Agriculture for 1863. Enterprising citizens of other States, attracted by these resources, wished to know more of their character and extent. In answer to such demands, from all sections of the North, the author has been induced to prepare this little volume, as intervals of leisure afforded opportunity. It was a virgin territory, practically unknown to industrial writers, without records of its natural wealth or reported transactions of agricultural or geographical societies. Hence this is but a partial and cursory west vrgna survey, preliminary in its nature, and by no means exhaustive of the subject . As such it is presented, and not as a mature and full exhibit of the natural resources and industrial condition of West Virginia. To the following persons, among many others, acknowledgments for valuable information and suggestions are gratefully tendered: Hons. W. T. Willey, P. G. Van Winkle, J. G. Blair, K. V. Whaley, and C. D. Hubbard, representing the State in Congress; United States District Attorney, Benjamin H. Smith; United States Assessor, A. G. Leonard; Governor, A. I. Boreman; Hon. John M. Phelps, President of the State Senate; Senators Burley, Carskadon, Stevenson, and Young; Delegates, McGrew, McWhorter, Ruffner, and Crawford; Messrs. W. P. Smith and J. B. Ford, of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad; Messrs. H. Hagans, J. H. D. Debar, C. S. Richardson, A. W. Campbell, and J. E. Wharton. The favors of others, however small, are held in equal remembrance. J.R.D. Washington, D.C. August, 1865. ...