Marmet (pronounced mar-MET) is a town in

Kanawha County Kanawha County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 180,745, making it West Virginia's most populous county. The county seat is Charleston, which is also the state capital and most po ...

West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...

, United States, along the

Kanawha River The Kanawha River ( ) is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately 97 mi (156 km) long, in the U.S. state of West Virginia. The largest inland waterway in West Virginia, its watershed has been a significant industrial region of th ...

. The population was 1,501 at the 2020 census. The community was re-named in 1900 after the local Marmet Coal Company, which had the name of its proprietors Edwin,

Otto Otto is a masculine German given name and a surname. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants '' Audo'', '' Odo'', '' Udo'') of Germanic names beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity". The name is recorded fr ...

, and William Marmet. The town name was changed from Brownsville. The town name prior to 1829 was Elizaville that was founded in 1780 by Leonard Morris.

Geography

Marmet is located at (38.245148, -81.567510). According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the town has a total area of , of which is land and is water.

Demographics

2010 census

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2010, there were 1,503 people, 616 households, and 397 families living in the town. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . There were 700 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 96.5%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 1.6%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.2% Native American, 0.2% Asian, and 1.5% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 0.3% of the population. There were 616 households, of which 26.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.2% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 15.7% had a female householder with no husband present, 6.5% had a male householder with no wife present, and 35.6% were non-families. 30.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.29 and the average family size was 2.83. The median age in the town was 46.2 years. 18.5% of residents were under the age of 18; 9.4% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 20.6% were from 25 to 44; 28.7% were from 45 to 64; and 23.1% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the town was 43.5% male and 56.5% female.

Battle of Blair Mountain

In August 1921, thousands of pro-union coal miners organized in Marmet and marched 60 miles to Mingo County through Boone County and then into Logan before entering into Mingo. The aim was an attempt to free striking miners who had been arrested after the governor declared martial law. This confrontation between armed miners’ and the coal companies' army constituted the largest pitched battle in the history of the labor movement in the United States and became the largest insurrection on U.S. soil since the American Civil War. The

battle A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force co ...

only ended after

President Harding Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of the most popular sitting U.S. presidents w ...

called in the army to suppress the uprising. Once the military intervened, the miners laid down their weapons and the fighting ended.

References

{{authority control Cities in West Virginia Cities in Kanawha County, West Virginia Populated places on the Kanawha River Charleston, West Virginia metropolitan area