I, Harry Miller, would like to tell you what I know about the history of Athalia. I am now 85 years old and I came here with my grandparents from Charlestown, WVA. in 1921. I was about 9 years old. We moved into a place at the foot of the hill called the Fuller Place. At that time I was about old enough to venture into Athalia or go to the store on the corner. It was Clarks Store. We had two stores in Athalia then. They were General stores. You could go in and trade your eggs for food or anything in the store. Sometimes my Grandmother Ret Tull would go to the store with one or two chickens and trade them.

Athalia had a big sawmill and a cooper shop belonging to the Wylies. There was a ferry boat called The Whisper, belonging to the Becketts. Frank Beckett had a towboat and barges. He had a towboat called the Maggie B that caught fire and burned down. (packet boats)

The road through Athalia was a mud road. You could not go to Huntington down Route 7, you would get stuck in the mud. In them days to go to Huntington you would have to cross the river in a rowboat. That was before the steam ferry existed and you had to catch the train at the train depot at Lesage, WVA. There was a bell on the top of the river bank to ring for someone to come and get you . Usually it cost a dime. The packet boats would land at Athalia Landing to unload and take on freight. There was Chris Green, Tom Green, Garden C. Green and the Cardell. When they were coming up the river they would blow for landing down about Shrumms Point. Then about everyone in town would go down on top of the bank and watch the deck hands unload and load the boats. That was about all the excitement there was here at that time.

There was lots of fruit to load on the boats. They loaded barrels and bark, lumber, and apples .There was several apple orchards here, there was Fred Kaisers Orchard, Hoovers Orchard, Wylies Orchard and Bill Knights Orchard. There was apple trees about anywhere you could plant one. And most homes had and apple tree or a cherry tree in the yard .And most people had a chicken lot on the back of the lot and a pig pen was common.

I remember the oxen's would pull the logs to the mill and sometime they would get down on their knees and the driver had a long black whip to make them go. They cut the lumber to make every part of the barrels the heading, staves and the hoops. The Cooper shop was beside the mill. In the summer the Showboat would stop and they would play the clyope. You could hear it miles back in the hills. The GreenBriar, The Bryant and the Golden Rod.

Oh! I forgot to tell you the name of the other store, Bill Wylies General Store on the corner of Ferry Street and Rt.7 and I forgot to say that they would ship sorghum molasses on the steamer. Athalia had a jailhouse two cells. My Father, Frank Miller was the Mayor and for several years he was the Justice of the Peace. And sometime or other we had five gas stations, not all at one time. Two grocery stores and a Barbecue, one garage one blacksmith shop . There was one time even one barbershop in town.

There was two churches in town the Church of Christ and the Dillon Methodist Church, now they have torn down the Church of Christ. After Clarks store went out of business the store changed hands and finally burnt down and now there is a used car sales in the place of the store. We now have a gun shop here in town and just recently there is a pet store.

Athalia is incorporated and it's over 100 years old, incorporated in 1887. The high school use to be in Athalia on the corner of Myrtle and Rt. 7 . Grade school was the last building down on the west side of Rt.7 in the lower end of town. Later they moved the high school down to Rome where the East Grade School is now. Then later they built a new High School and called it Fairland . The Rome Rural High School was here in the 1920's and 30's.
As well as I can remember, the electric came here in 1929. One time, when the ferry was operating, one carload on the WVA. side, it didn't stop on the boat and went over the side. All the people in the car drowned. I think their last names were Fulks, but I'm not sure.

You are visitor !

Last revised & editted, by jls, with the context remaining the same on September 13, 2000.