CHARLESTON

This article appears in Volume V05, Page 945 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: CHA-CHR

CHARLESTON , the

capital

CAPITAL (i.e. capital stock or fund)
CAPITAL (Lat. caput, head)

of West Virginia, U.S.A., and the county-seat of Kanawha county, situated near the centre of the state, on the N. bank of the Kanawha river, at the mouth of the Elk river, about 200 M. E. of Cincinnati,

Ohio

OHIO

, and about 130 M. S.W. of Wheeling. Pop. (189o) 6742; (1900) 11,099, of whom 1787 were negroes, and 353 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 22,996' It is served by the Chesapeake &

Ohio

OHIO

, the Toledo & Ohio Central, the Coal & Coke, and the Kanawha & West Virginia (39 M. to Blakeley) railways, and by several river transportation lines on the Kanawha river (navigable throughout the year by means of movable locks) connecting with Ohio and Mississippi river ports. The city is attractively built on high level land, above the river; in addition to a fine customs

house

HOUSE
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
Gothic
- GOTHIC
it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

, court

house

HOUSE
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
Gothic
- GOTHIC
it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

and high school, it contains the West Virginia state capitol, erected in 1880. The libraries include the state law library, with 14,000 volumes in 1908, and the library of the state Department of Archives and History, with about 11,000 volumes. Charleston is in the midst of a region

rich

in bituminous coal, the shipment of which by river and rail constitutes one of its

principal

PRINCIPAL

industries

INDUSTRIES

. Oil wells in the vicinity also furnish an important product for export, and there are iron and salt mines near. An ample

supply

SUPPLY (through Fr. from Lat. supplere, to fill up)

of natural gas is utilized by its manufacturing establishments; and among its manufactures are axes, lumber, foundry and

machine

shop products, furniture, boilers, woollen goods, glass and chemical fire-engines. The value of the city's factory products increased from $1,261,815 in 1900 to $2,728,074 in 1905, or 116.2%, a greater rate of increase than that of any other city (with 8000 or more inhabitants) in the state during this period. The first permanent white

settlement

SETTLEMENT
SETTLEMENT, ACT OF

at Charleston was made soon after the close of the War of Independence; it was one of the places through which the streams of immigrants entered the Ohio Valley, and it became of considerable importance as a centre of transfer and shipment, but it was not until the development of the coal-mining region that it became industrially important. Charleston was incorporated in 1794, and was chartered as a city in 187o. Since the latter year it has been the seat of government of West Virginia, with the exception of the decade 1875-1885, when Wheeling was the

capital

CAPITAL (i.e. capital stock or fund)
CAPITAL (Lat. caput, head)

.

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