Guyandotte is a historic neighborhood in the city of

Huntington, West Virginia Huntington is a city in Cabell and Wayne counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is the county seat of Cabell County, and the largest city in the Huntington–Ashland metropolitan area, sometimes referred to as the Tri-State Area. A h ...

, that previously existed as a separate town before annexation was completed by the latter. The neighborhood is home to many historic properties, and was first settled by natives of France at the end of the eighteenth century. Guyandotte was already a thriving town when the state of

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

was formed from part of

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. Located at the confluence of the

Guyandotte River The Guyandotte River is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately 166 mi (267 km) long, in southwestern West Virginia in the United States. It was named after the French term for the Wendat Native Americans. It drains an area of t ...

and the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

, it was already a regional trade center with several industries of its own when the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) reached its western terminus nearby just across the Guyandotte River in 1873. This event was soon followed by the formation and quick development of the present city of Huntington which was named in honor of the C&O Railway's founder and then principal owner

Collis P. Huntington Collis Potter Huntington (October 22, 1821 – August 13, 1900) was an American industrialist and railway magnate. He was one of the Big Four of western railroading (along with Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker) who invested ...

History

First settled in 1799, Guyandotte was established on a tract of land belonging to the Savage Grant, a parcel of land in western Virginia granted to veterans of the

French and Indian War The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the ...

. These veterans served under Captain John Savage. The original grant extended from the present site of Milton, West Virginia in the east, to the

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

side of the Big Sandy River, then part of Virginia, in the west. Nearly all of present-day Huntington is situated on land that was part of the Savage Grant. Before it was annexed by Huntington, Guyandotte was an old Federal Era town and has homes dating back to 1820. A graveyard containing 18th-century French and Colonial-era settlers with surnames such as LeTulle, Holderby, and Buffington, continues to exist in the neighborhood. Huntington was known as Holderby's Landing prior to 1871, and members of the Buffington family held tracts of land that later became the Huntington Land Company. The Buffingtons were the only revolutionary-era Savage Grant claimants to continuously reside within the area, and later generations of Buffingtons were associated with Marshall College (now

Marshall University Marshall University is a public research university in Huntington, West Virginia. It was founded in 1837 and is named after John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the United States. The university is currently composed of nine colleges: L ...

) and were business partners of Collis P. Huntington. The

Confederate Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...

general

Albert Gallatin Jenkins Albert Gallatin Jenkins (November 10, 1830 – May 21, 1864) was a Virginia attorney, planter, slaveholder, politician and soldier from what would become West Virginia during the American Civil War. He served in the United States Congress and ...

' plantation home, Green Bottom, is located in nearby Lesage. Green Bottom was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. At the time of Huntington's founding, Holderby's Landing was already the home of Marshall College, a

normal school A normal school or normal college is an institution created to Teacher education, train teachers by educating them in the norms of pedagogy and curriculum. In the 19th century in the United States, instruction in normal schools was at the high s ...

that had been founded in 1837 as Marshall Academy. Originally, Marshall Academy was essentially a

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...

, under control by the

Southern Methodist Episcopal Church Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, ...

, and intended to serve

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

students from wealthy families. In 1857, the school became Marshall College, which in turn became a public institution in 1867. The college later became

in 1961 and now occupies a large portion of the city to the immediate east of the downtown CBD. Historic buildings at Guyandotte include the Madie Carroll House and the

Zachary Taylor Wellington House Zachary Taylor Wellington House is a historic home located at Huntington, Cabell County, West Virginia. It is a two-story I house form dwelling. It was originally constructed about 1847, as a small, -story, hall-and parlor house. About 1870, a ...

, both listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

References

External links

* http://www.wvculture.org/history/thisdayinwvhistory/0105.html {{Huntington, West Virginia Pre-statehood history of West Virginia Huntington, West Virginia