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PICTORIAL HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES AND TERRITORIES
#23 - WEST VIRGINIA

Size: 5" x 3"
Copyrighted: 1892
Lithographer: Donaldson Bros.

West Virginia - George Washington; Indian Raid; John Brown, Harper's Ferry

Reverse - Text
Left section: GRIND YOUR COFFEE AT HOME
Right section:
WEST VIRGINIA.
WEST VIRGINIA did not become a State until 1863, when it separated from Virginia on account of its Union sentiments. George Washington was one of the first land-owners, who, when a surveyor in 1750, entered and patented for himself 32,000 acres in the Ohio and Kanawha valleys. The Ohio Land Company, composed of Thomas Lee, Augustine and Lawrence Washington, and others, were probably the first to develop this State, and in 1750 they employed Christopher Gist to cross the Blue Ridge and spy out the country. Orders came from England to expel the French posts by force of arms, if necessary, and George Washington (then 22 years old and a major in the Virginia militia) was chosen to take a remonstrance to M. de St. Pierre, the French commander on the upper waters of the Alleghany and Lake Erie. This led to the French and Indian war and Braddock's defeat, which, however, was out of the State. In October, 1859, John Brown and a force of twenty-two abolitionists captured Harper's Ferry, intending to raise the slaves into revolt against the slaveholders. But the negroes failed to rise, and Brown was beleaguered in the engine-house by troops under Colonel Robt. E. Lee. Ten were killed; seven, including Brown, were hanged for treason, and five escaped northward.
During the Secession War the State was the scene of many fierce forays on both sides, and many a desperate fight was waged among its mountain passes. Since the close of the Civil War it has devoted itself to building railroads and developing vast natural resources in lumber and minerals.
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Washington on his Journey to the French Posts, 1753; An Indian
Raid; John Brown at Harper's Ferry, 1859.