Summers County Historical Society hosted a team of WVU public history graduate students this week in connection to a $5,000 Fulcrum Grant awarded to the society.
Donna Brown Brewster, historical society member, said the grant is to place a historical sign at the former site of the Price Hotel – once the Black hotel for the county.
In addition to the sign, Brewster was able to connect with Jennifer Thornton, Ph.D., WVU Teaching Assistant Professor of Public History, and expand the project to include research into the county’s Black history.
The students field research included looking at old newspapers, yearbooks and other materials at the Hinton Library, perusing court records, exploring cemeteries, and visiting Lincoln School, the segregated school for Black students.
According to Thornton, the goal for the students is to become better researchers, learn local history, and the types of places to find those resources.
“It’s a really wonderful opportunity for students to get outside of Morgantown, and learn more about West Virginia and have experiential learning,” said Thornton. “They do so much better work when the do something not just for me but that’s going out in the real world.”
The Klan
Emily Curtin, a student from Morgantown, will be researching Ku Klux Klan and racial tensions between its members and Blacks in the area during the 1920s.
While researching at the library, Curtin found volumes of The Dart, Hinton High School’s yearbook, with evidences of KKK presence.
She also found records of a police force judge who was the Grand Dragon of West Virginia in Hinton, which means he had superior rank within the KKK.
“He was the judge for the police court here so you can imagine how that may have effected things,” Curtain said.
According to Ben McMullin, also of Morgantown, his research topic is studying Black business owners and home ownership in Summers County.
He said tracing information can be difficult to confirm.
“It’s not very accurate especially when it comes to certain topics that were not as well discussed in books that were written a long time ago,” said McMullin. “Especially when it comes to Black history.”
By looking into census information, he will be able to cross check how many of the black population either rented or owned property and then compare it to national statistics.
“Were there more, were there less. Also, trying to find out financially, how much they earned and see if they earned more were they house owners, if they earned less was it less, unless it was something weird like they earned less, but they owned more houses. Trying to find anything I can on that,” he shared.
Black churches of the time
The teams are also looking for resources on known Black churches at the time.
According to Frank Fitch – Fort Ashby, W.Va., student – those churches include the Main Street Baptist Church and Pederson Methodist Church, which are no longer standing.
The Second Street Baptist Church is still here and is a National Park Service landmark.
“There’s one significant figure on the Second Street Baptist Church and it’s founding which is Christopher H. Payne,” Fitch said. “He was a politician later in life, but for most of his life he was a pastor and a teacher. He’s probably one of the more significant figures.”
After visiting the Esquire Cemetery, which is part of Hilltop Cemetery just outside of Hinton, Erica Uszak, Cleveland, Ohio, felt sad.
“They have cleaned up parts of the cemetery but a lot of the cemetery you can’t get to because it is so overgrown with thickets.”
She noted how it was hard to see where people were buried because the headstones are no longer there and some of the older graves are impossible to get to due to the overgrowth.
“I hope to uncover some of the people that are buried there and how the cemetery came to be and bring more awareness to it so that maybe people can come back and identify more of the people in the cemetery and maybe maintain it a little more,” said Uszak.
Prized railroad history
Undeniably, Summers County has a lot of railroad history. That topic is being covered by Olivia Howard, a WVU student from Cumberland, Maryland.
Her focus is on the railroad workers and their unions.
There were four big unions for the railroad, but they were for white workers only.
Howard said it appears that a lot of the railroad accidents and deaths among Black workers were due to not getting the same kind of protection as white workers.
“Really, and they couldn’t even fight for their protection,” she said. “They didn’t have a platform for that.”
According to Thornton, each of the public history students, most of which are working toward their masters, will be doing a research paper.
For Brewster and Thornton both, the hope is to compile the students’ findings and then publish it through the historical society or WVU.
“It may be a long project. It’s a lot of information,” Brewster said.
While the end goal of the Fulcrum grant is the actual sign for the Price Hotel, Thornton is also asking the students for a proposal for additional interpretative materials that can be developed if the historical society wants.
“For example, maybe piggybacking on what the National Park Service has for their Black history driving tour, and a pamphlet or materials related to what they find,” suggested Thornton.
For now, the students must take what they achieved with 3 days in the field and continue to research back on campus to fill in more of the blanks.
“It can be hard to find information in rural communities and for Black history resources as well. You must be persistent and ask lots of questions,” said Thornton.
The students were fortunate to have made several connections while here.
Brewster and the historical society lined up numerous experts in Black history and for the railroads and cemeteries, to collaborate with as they continue their project.
“I think coming here has been important. Really the experts of the history are right here. We learned a lot by coming here. It’s important for students to experience, too,” said Thornton.
“For this type of project, you have to talk to people and you have to listen in order to learn.”
