SIXTEEN MILES OF HISTORY

BY

Georgia Golden Heaster

On US. Route 250, between Grafton and Philippi, there is a sixteen mile stretch of road that is unusually rich with historical landmarks and Civil War memories.

At Grafton, we drive past the old B. and O. railroad station, once the hub of transportation in Western Virginia, now the site of the Annual Railroad Festival. At 11 East Main Street we visit the Mothers Day Church, known as the International Shrine. A bronze marker on the lawn says: "Andrew Methodist Episcopal Church of Mothers' Day Service - First held May 10, 1908. Founder, Miss Anna Jarvis. Minister, Dr. H. C. Howard."

It is open to visitors on week days during the summer and special services are held here on Mothers' Day. It is a two story building of handmade red brick, with a tall bell tower and stained glass windows on every side, showing Biblical scenes and quotations. In the Sanctuary, a large number of oil paintings of Biblical scenes, by George Blaney, are hung in massive gilt frames between the windows and beside the altar.

On the second floor is the Jarvis Memorial Room where Mrs. Jarvis and members of her family taught primary classes in Sunday School for so many years. The room contains memorabilia of the church and the Jarvis' family.

There are Two special portraits on one wall. One is of Mrs. Anna Reeves Jarvis, who cared for a large family and yet was a leader in civic and church organizations for the betterment of Taylor County. Beside it is the portrait of her daughter, Miss Anna Jarvis, who spent most of her life and all of her fortune to carry out her Mother's wish that someday there would be a special day to honor all the mothers of the world.

The first formal Mother's Day Service was held here on the morning of May 10, 1908. A similar service was held in the afternoon at the Wanamaker Auditorium in Philadelphia. And the lovely custom of wearing pink and white carnations in honor of mothers, living or dead, was begun.

In 1910, Gov. William Glasscock, proclaimed the second Sunday in May as the official Mothers' Day of West Virginia. Other states soon followed suit. In 1912, the Methodist Conference in Minneapolis made a resolution to honor Mothers' Day and in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation making it a National Day.

The portraits show two very beautiful women. But, a person looking at them will be aware of two very different personalities. Mrs. Jarvis appears as serene, firm yet gracious, and lovable. Miss Anna Jarvis gives the impression of impervious determination, strength and drive.

Two women who reached their goals by very different methods - we owe Mothers' Day to both of them.

The Church is surrounded by a two-acre flower garden which contains the same kinds of shrubs and flowers which Mrs. Jarvis grew in her own garden at her Grafton home. Here are the fragrant old-fashioned roses with which she graced so many important events in the community. Here, too, are the pansies, the mignonette and the clove pinks which she gave so freely to friends and passers by, and tucked into the large baskets of food which her husband, Granville Jarvis, gave to the poor and needy. She knew instinctively, what we now pay psychiatrists to tell us, that people need food for the spirit as well as the body.

As we leave Grafton, we pass the National Cemetery, where hundreds of soldiers, northern and southern, are buried. On Memorial Day, special services are held here; the school children of Grafton put flowers on the graves of both the Blue and Gray.

A few miles down the road at Webster, we read a marker saying, "This is the birthplace of Miss Anna Jarvis." It is a plain, two-story frame house where Mrs. Jarvis lived during the first years of her marriage. Grieved by the deaths of her young children, she organized Mothers' Clubs in Webster to improve the sanitation of the community, and to provide pure water and milk for the children.

During the early days of the war, soldiers were quartered in her home, sometimes northern boys and sometimes southern boys, depending on who held Grafton at the time, and Mrs. Jarvis mothered them all. She and Mr. Jarvis wrote letters for the homesick young boys to help them keep in touch with their families.

Later in the war, when northern and southern soldiers were dying from wounds and disease, General George Latham called on Mrs. Jarvis and her Mothers' Clubs for help. She responded, and they gave equal care to all the men.

Nearby is Pruntytown, the site of The Mothers' Friendship Day. At the end of the Civil War there was great bitterness between families and neighbors of the opposite sides, which threatened to end in serious violence. Mrs. Jarvis was the leader in the program. At an all day meeting, where union people dressed in gray, and Confederate people dressed in blue, gave speeches and prayers, and led the singing of The Star Spangled Banner and Dixie, and ended with Auld Lang Syne. Many friendships were renewed and the danger was averted.

Driving two miles off on a secondary road, brings us to Tygart Dam, a Federal dam for flood control, which saved the towns of Grafton and Fairmont during the 1985 floods.

Below the dam is Tygart Park, with lodge, restaurant, cabins and camping grounds. The lake and river provide boating, fishing, skiing, and scuba diving. Beside the golf course, there is also a large tract of woodland for hiking and nature study.

Coming back to US. Route 250, we drive a few miles farther, and enter the grounds of Alderson-Broaddus College, which gives degrees in the Arts and Sciences, and in Nursing. Nearby is Broaddus Hospital, and the Hockey Field. We may wander about the campus, among the old trees and modern sculptures and, perhaps, stop for a moment of worship at the very modern Wilcox Chapel.

Then we go out on the front lawn of the New Main Building and look down at the peaceful panorama below, with the little town of Philippi sitting comfortably between the hills and the Tygart River.

It was not always so peaceful. We are standing beside the replicas of the two cannons which were placed here to begin the first battle of the Civil War. The plan was to cut off the exits to the Fairmont Beverly Pike, now US 250, and capture Gen. Porterfield's entire army at Philippi. A single shot would be the signal that all the companies were in place. But, a southern sympathizer heard Col. Kelly's men placing the canon, and fired a shot, which was mistaken for the starting signal. The two cannon fired canisters and a six pound cannon ball into Philippi.

The Confederates had been warned, and without the ammunition to stand and fight, had planned to retreat up the Beverly Pike, if necessary. Pickets had been sent out to watch, but tired of the heavy downpour of rain, they said, "No damn Yankee will march in this rain," and went back to town.

The sudden attack awakened the Confederates, and on horseback, on wagons, on foot, they raced up the Pike toward Belington.

Because of the heavy rain and misdirection the Union men did not arrive on time to close the Southern Exit. They rushed after the men but it was too late. Some Appalachian Wag called it "The Philippi Races", and the name was so apt that the first battle of the Civil War is sometimes listed in history books as "The Philippi Races."

There was some light skirmishing in Philippi. Col. Kelley was severely wounded and two southern soldiers lost their legs.

The Union men, Who had slogged through the mud and rain all night, were too exhausted to follow. They just moved in to the warm quarters so recently vacated.

The Wheeling Intelligencer boasted, truthfully or not, that Kelley's men got there in time to drink Col. Porterfield's hot toddy.

At the bottom of the hill, at the junction of US 50 and Route 119, we read the legend painted in big letters on the end of the covered bridge that crosses the Tygart River: "Phillips W.Va. Scene of the First Land Battle of the Civil War, erected in 1862 served both the North and South in passage of troops and supplies across the mountains into Virginia."

If the old wooden bridge could communicate with us, it would give us volumes of Colonial history, for it was a vital link between the two sections of Virginia, as well as serving as a passageway for the soldiers. Sometimes men and horses were sheltered under its roof. It changed hands several times.

It had a narrow escape during the Jones Imboden Raids. Col. William Jones had it stuffed with straw, ready to be set on fire at the approach of Union men. Elder Joshua Corder saved it, barely by earnest prayer, and partly by the logical argument that the Confederates might need it themselves sometime as an escape route. Col. Jones did not light the fire.

In 1937, it was in danger again after a boy fell through the rotten flooring and was drowned. "That settles it," said the State Road Commission, "The old bridge will have to go. We will move it down the river a little way for a landmark, and build a strong iron bridge."

But the people of Barbour County had grown up with that bridge. They didn't want to keep it as a landmark, they wanted to travel through it. They yelled as only an Appalachian can yell, and won! Steel rods were inserted inconspicuously into the yellow poplar timbers. The bridge was moved onto temporary piers, a strong concrete foundation was built, and the bridge was swung up in the air and settled on its new foundation. It survived the 1985 floods.

Today, in 1986, it still carries its share of the heavy traffic from US. 250 and US. Route 50. When Lem Chenoweth built a bridge, he built it to last.

On its one hundredth birthday, the people gave it a 'wing-ding' of a party that lasted three days. They reenacted the Battle of Philippi; they held processions through the bridge, of people on foot and wagons and buggies; they even reenacted the Jarvis' Wedding Procession.

Oh the third night they gave a pageant, "Monarch of the Tygart," in the amphitheater on Broaddus Hill, in which the characters were played by children and grandchildren of the builders of the bridge. As Lucy O'Neal wrote, "so stands the bridge, the symbol of the dreams of our forefathers."

As we drive through the two lane bridge into Philippi, we see the rounded red tiles of the Spanish Roof of the old Bano Passenger Depot, which is now a museum.

We walk up main street a couple of blocks to the red stone Barbour County Courthouse, whose massive bulk is lightened and given a Gothic look by its tall bell tower, its many windows, its dormers, spires and turrets.

We rest on the cool shaded lawn where county programs are held, and then stroll up the street past old time houses, with their wide verandahs and see the places where Samuel Woods and Spencer Dayton once lived - two lawyers whose friendship was so damaged by the war that they never spoke to each other again.

This is one war story that had a storybook ending, when Sam's granddaughter, Ruth Woods, married Spencer's grandson, Arthur Dayton, and they lived happily after.