Huntersville Traditions takes over historic jailhouse

Huntersville and Marlinton, W.Va. – The Pocahontas County Historical Society was the benefactor and bestower of generosity during the past week. Last Thursday, the non-profit woodworking center Pocahontas Woods donated a new sign to the society for the Confederate Cemetery on the grounds of the Pocahontas County Historical Museum in Marlinton. Several Confederate soldiers were buried at the site in 1861 after dying of measles. Society treasurer and author Bill McNeel is working with historians in Georgia to identify the unforgotten soldiers. The Society plans a cemetery rededication ceremony this summer.

Pocahontas Woods master craftsman Mike Hefner made the engraved oak and maple sign. McNeel thanks Hefner for the donation.

“I definitely want to thank Pocahontas Woods and Mike for doing this – for making this replacement sign,” he said. “The original sign – it goes back – it was made soon after the museum opened in the mid 60s. So, it lasted pretty close to 50 years. We expect- hey Mike – we expect this sign to last us an equal length of time. Got a guarantee on it? But I can’t say how much I appreciate what they’ve done here at Pocahontas Woods for us.”

Hefner says it’s good to support the community.

“I think it’s always a good thing to have a good relationship with the community,” he said. “I mean – that’s who’s going to be there for you – your community. It was the very first project we got to do on our new router – our new CNC router we got. That was my learning experience on the router. It was fun and pretty neat to do something like that.”

Pocahontas Woods offers training to learn and use the high-tech CNC router. Call 799-6985 for more info.

On Monday night, the Historical Society held a joint meeting with Huntersville Historical Traditions at the Huntersville Schoolhouse. During the meeting, the Society voted unanimously to donate the Huntersville Jail to Huntersville Historic Traditions.

The stone and brick jailhouse was built in 1882 and served as the county jail until the county seat moved from Huntersville to Marlinton in 1891. The Historical Society has owned and maintained the structure since 1984.

Buckeye lawyer Roger Forman discusses the purpose of the transfer.

“It was done out of the desire – that the Huntersville group is so active and so involved and really cares for that jail,” he said. “It was given to the Historical Society and they’re giving the same thing back – hopefully in as good a condition, if not better, because you put on a roof during that period.”

Huntersville Traditions president Tim Wade says his group accepts the donation.

“Huntersville Historical Traditions gladly accepts the jail property, with the understanding that, if Huntersville Historical traditions group ceases to exist, the jail property will be deeded back to the Pocahontas County Historical Society,” he said. “It was a unanimous vote. Thank you.” (cheering and applause)

McNeel invites everybody to visit the Pocahontas County Historical Museum, especially on 6 and 7 July during Pioneer Days.

“We have, as always, we open seven days a week,” he said. “Mondays through Saturday open eleven to five and on Sundays from one to five. Khristian Smith is our host again, as he did last summer – host for most of the summer. We will have a number of – on Friday and Saturday during Pioneer Days – a number of demonstrators over there at the museum. We do have a number of people coming – crafts people and people to demonstrate their crafts.”

The museum holds an impressive array of historic and prehistoric artifacts from Native American times into the 20th century. For more information, call 304-799-6659.