Cabell County Timeline

Cabell County Chronology

1813

•   January, 1813 Barboursville was chartered by an Act of the
    Virginia General Assembly.

1814

•   The James River Turnpike traversed the frontier from Lexington,
    Kentucky to Charleston, Virginia.  In 1814, the road was extended
    to Barboursville in present-day Cabell County.

1837

•   Marshall Academy, predecessor of Marshall University, was
    formed.

1861

•   The first engagement during the Civil War in Cabell County was
    the Battle of Barboursville on Fortification Hill in 1861.

1873

•   The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway completes its line across the
    state, from White Sulphur Springs to Huntington.
•   Joseph Harvey Long purchases the Huntington Herald.  He
    installed and operated the first stereotype and linotype in
  West Virginia.

1884

•   The Ohio River floods Huntington.
•   Telephone exchanges are installed in Huntington and Moundsville.

1887

•   Huntington replaces Barboursville as the Cabell County seat.

1889

•   The Huntington Advertiser begins publication.

1893

•   The Huntington Herald, later the Herald-Dispatch, begins publication.

1903

•   A pavilion is built in Huntington for picnics, square dancing, and
    family reunions.  It eventually became Camden Park.

1913

•   March 27 - 30.   Huntington and Parkersburg are flooded by
    the Ohio River.  Thousands were left homeless.

1914

•   Oct. 14.  A glass manufacturing plant, later part of the
    Owens-Illinois Company, begins operations in Huntington.

1916

•   Main Street, which was once James River-Kanawha Turnpike
    and later U.S. Route 60, became the town's first brick street
    in Barboursville.

1922

•   May.  International Nickel Company plant begins operation
    in Huntington.

1923

•   Huntington became home to the state's first radio station.

1926

•   Huntington's first span across the Ohio River, the Sixth Street
    Bridge, opens.

1928

•   May 7.   The Keith-Albee Theater, one of the largest in the nation,
    opens in Huntington. The Opening program featured a comedy
    called "Good Morning, Judge" a newsreel, and five stage acts.
    But the theater itself, with its elaborate Interior, clearly was
    the star of the evening.

1936

•   Morris Harvey College moves from Barboursville to Charleston.

1937

•   Jan. 26 - 27.  Huntington's worst flood paralyzes the entire
    city and leaves 6000 homeless.

1949

•   Oct. 24.  WSAZ-TV in Huntington begins regular programming.
    It is the first television station in the state, operating on
    channel 5.

1970

•   Nov. 14.  A Southern Airways plane carrying almost the entire
    Marshall University football team, coaches, and other athletic
    department personnel, crashes on a hillside as it approaches
    Tri-State Airport in Huntington.  All 75 aboard were killed.

1976

•   A medical school is established at Marshall University, giving
    West Virginia a second major medical training center.

1992

•   Dec.  The Marshall University Thundering Herd win's the
    NCAA I-AA National Championship at Marshall Stadium.

1993

•   March 12 - 14.  A blizzard paralyzes West Virginia, Dumping at
    least a foot of snow in every county.  Nine are killed in the state,
    In a 24-hour period, there are 28 inches of snow in Beckley,
    24 inches in Bluefield, 24 inches in Morgantown,  22 inches in
    Huntington, 20 inches in Parkersburg, and 18 in Charleston.

1998

•   Nov. 3.  Marie Redd, a professor at Marshall University, is elected
    to the state senate from Cabell County.  She is the first female
    African American to serve in the senate.

•   Source:  Excerpts from Jeff Miller's "Timeline of WV"