Slanesville, West Virginia
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Slanesville is an
unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...
in northeastern Hampshire County in the
U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...
of
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 ...
. Slanesville is located at the crossroads of Bloomery Pike ( West Virginia Route 29) with Slanesville Pike (Hampshire County Route 3) and Cold Stream Road (Hampshire County Route 45/20). Slanesville Pike and Cold Stream Road formerly made up the Springfield Grade Road that ran from Capon Bridge to Springfield. According to the 2000 census, the Slanesville community has a population of 691.


History

The community of Slanesville was earliest inhabited by generations of the Slain family in the late 18th century and upon its settlement it was known as Cross Roads because of its prime location at the meeting of the Martinsburg (old West Virginia Route 45) and Springfield (West Virginia Secondary Route 3) Grade Roads. Slanesville then took the name of Slain's Cross Roads after the prominence of the Slain family in the vicinity of the community. It was also misspelled as Slane's Cross Roads which would later influence its current name. Slanesville was then referred to as Dog Town because of the Slain family’s large number of dogs. Finally, the community was referred to as Slainsville and then Slanesville after Thomas Slain in the 1857 when a
post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...
was established here. Slanes Knob (1,588 ft), located near Capon Bridge, is also named for the prominent Slain family in the area. Slanesville differed from its neighboring communities of
Bloomery A bloomery is a type of metallurgical furnace once used widely for smelting iron from its iron oxides, oxides. The bloomery was the earliest form of smelter capable of smelting iron. Bloomeries produce a porous mass of iron and slag called ...
and North River Mills early on because it never became the center of major industry. Bloomery to its northeast was a center for
iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...
smelting and blooming, while North River Mills, like its name suggests, was a center for mill production on North River. Slanesville was predominantly a farming community throughout most of its history and served as a popular
stagecoach A stagecoach (also: stage coach, stage, road coach, ) is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by ...
stop in the early 19th century along the Martinsburg and Springfield Grade Roads. The only signs of limited industry in Slanesville were two blacksmith shops run by the Hockman family and a
cider Cider ( ) is an alcoholic beverage made from the Fermented drink, fermented Apple juice, juice of apples. Cider is widely available in the United Kingdom (particularly in the West Country) and Ireland. The United Kingdom has the world's highest ...
mill. Later a store was erected close to the intersection of the Martinsburg and Springfield Grade Roads. The Old Henderson Store was purchased and operated by Glenn and Opal Heavner in the 1940s. When the “New Road”, Route 45 (now Route 29) was cut the Heavners purchased land and built the “New Store”, Heavner’s Grocery. The post office was then moved from its old location on Braddock Road at the old intersection and housed in a corner of the new store. The old store was torn down and the Heavners donated a portion of the land to the Slanesville Presbyterian Church. In the 1960s an addition to the store was added for a new post office. The store was sold in 1973 and has changed hands many times. It is now known as Slanesville General Store . A fire in the summer of 1955 cost the community three buildings and this led to the formation of the Slanesville Volunteer Fire Department that same year. The owners of Heavner's Grocery donated land adjacent to the store and the men and women of the community built the firehouse and community center. The Slanesville VFD is still located in the same "downtown" location. The Slanesville Presbyterian Church is also located in "downtown" across Slanesville Pike from the general store. The community’s Slanesville Elementary School along WV 29 south of town was host to President
George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...
in April 1991 when he landed by helicopter in a field adjacent to the school to award Rae Ellen McKee the National Teacher of the Year award for 1991. A fifth grade remedial reading teacher, McKee was chosen from among the nation's more than 2.5 million elementary and secondary public school teachers.


Churches

* Christian ** Mount Union Christian Church, Bloomery Pike (WV Route 29) *
Mennonite Mennonites are a group of Anabaptism, Anabaptist Christianity, Christian communities tracing their roots to the epoch of the Radical Reformation. The name ''Mennonites'' is derived from the cleric Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland, part of ...
** Slanesville Community Mennonite Church, Slanesville Pike (CR 3) *
Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...
** Slanesville Presbyterian Church, Slanesville Pike (CR 3)


See also

* Camp Waldo Schmitt


References


External links


Slanesville Presbyterian Church
Slanesville Pike (CR 3)
Foothills Farms
Spring Gap Road (CR 2) * {{authority control Unincorporated communities in Hampshire County, West Virginia Unincorporated communities in West Virginia