Barboursville

The early histories also tell us that the Nile produced wonderful crops 

for Egypt, and stress the point of good cultivation. The Chinese, also, 

one of the oldest known nations found out years ago, that their land would 

have to be preserved carefully to feed their increasing populations. So 

they terraced the hillsides from bottom to top to keep the soil from 

washing away; today, any soil so washed away is carried back in baskets. 

With the dense population of today, the Chinese people are on the verge of 

starvation, and great care is needed to preserve what they have left. 

Which of these courses will we take? Shall we sap the land by unadvised 

farming, and make of it a desert waste to our children's children, or hand 

it down to future generations more fertile, richer than it is today? This 

should be food for thought. Let us not make the mistake of planting "corn 

and tobacco" until we sap the land our fathers gave us. 

One of the first battles of the Civil War was fought in Barboursville on 

July 11, 1861, between the Wayne and Cabell County militia under Colonel 

Ferguson, and the Second Kentucky under Colonel Woodruff. The militia 

could not stand up under the bayonet charge, and retreated in haste, 

leaving one dead, a Mr. Reynolds, from Milton, and Absolom Ballinger 

wounded. Federal loss, five killed and eighteen wounded. I though our 

Militia was well trained, but lost confidence in them when I watched them 

in action during this fight. Our second fight was on Main Street in 

September 1862 between the Eighth Virginia Cavalry and a regiment of Ohio 

Cavalry under Colonel Powell. This battle was fought after night. Both 

sides retreated, one Union soldier being killed. The Eighth Virginia 

Cavalry was commanded by General Jenkins, and most of the boys from our 

county belonged to it.  They were sent here when Loring took the Kanawha 

Valley, to cut off the retreat of the Union forces. They were the first 

Confederate soldiers to invade Ohio. They crossed into Ohio at Ravenswood, 

and recrossed at Greenbottom, arriving here just in time to meet the 

retreating Federals.   

Cabell County Courthouse Our old court house, built about 1814 was located 

between Music Hall and the college. It had a whipping post near it. The 

first lawyers, I remember, were Henry J. Fisher, George W. Summers, 

Benjamin Smith and Gideon W. Camden; David McComas, Green Samuels, and J. 

H. Brown. There were very few criminal cases. Horse stealing was more 

frequent than any other crime.  

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