The Useful resource Barn, a part of the Phelps-Tavenner Analysis Heart at 2401 Camden Ave. in South Parkersburg is owned and operated by the Wooden County Historic and Preservation Society. Analysis hours had been just lately expanded to incorporate Saturday. The small constructing to the correct is the summer time kitchen. It, and the stone and brick hearth had been rebuilt on the identical basis as the unique. (Photograph Supplied)
You probably have questions on native historical past, or your loved ones’s historical past, the historic society is out there that can assist you discover solutions. Over time, historic society members and others have donated a big assortment of sources. The final six years have been spent sorting and cataloging books, newspaper clippings, photos, atlases, scrapbooks, and household histories. We really feel that we now have them sufficiently organized in order that we are able to, hopefully, assist you to discover the knowledge you want. Saturday hours have been added for the comfort of those that want to do analysis however are unable to return throughout our common Wednesday hours (9 a.m. to three p.m.).
The Phelps-Tavenner Analysis Heart assortment has over 300 books of native curiosity, a lot of them uncommon. We’ve got 400 household histories obtainable — some with sizeable quantities of knowledge. We’ve got over 600 recordsdata of articles and photos on such topics as authorities, disasters, church buildings, faculties, companies, and all subjects in between. Out there for analysis functions are maps, uncommon atlases, cemetery data, scrapbooks, and so on. As a bonus, our E book Retailer has native historical past books and booklets on the market.
For those who, or maybe a scholar in your loved ones, need to discover an area historical past matter, please go to the Phelps-Tavenner Analysis Heart for analysis and/or a tour of our beautiful Phelps-Tavenner Home, on Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to three p.m. or Saturdays 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Can’t make these hours? Name Bob Enoch at 304-483-9863, Dottie Bibbee at 304-489-1629 or Diana Hill at 304-699-5231 for particular preparations.
Concerning the Phelps-Tavenner Home: The Nationwide Register nomination signifies that the house was constructed by Col. Hugh Phelps, circa 1810. The historic society really feel it was nearer to 1799, and that that is the very home by which the primary county commissioners had been chosen and by which Wooden County was created. Phelps was the son-in-law of Capt. James Neal, and accompanied him in 1785, establishing the primary everlasting settlement in what’s now Parkersburg.
Col. Phelps, (1766-1823) was the second-Excessive Sheriff of Wooden County. Early Wooden County historian and genealogist John A. Home thought of Phelps as being the “Grasp thoughts of the Little Kanawha Colony, Grasp Spirit of the New County.”
Following the dying of Phelps within the “sickly season” of 1823 and his spouse’s dying (the daughter of Capt. Neal) in 1824, their brick dwelling was bought by Thomas Tavenner (1776-1857). Tavenner, Deputy Sheriff beneath Phelps, grew to become Excessive Sheriff in 1821. Of Tavenner, Wooden County historian Stephen Chester Shaw writes, “Tavenner, throughout his residence within the county, crammed a large sphere in public life, possessing a powerful vigorous structure, and pure enterprise habits. He was a person of fast sensibilities and robust emotions, sympathizing with the struggling of their misery.”
Members of the Tavenner household lived within the brick home constructed by Hugh Phelps till 1940.
***
Bob Enoch is president of the Wooden County Historic and Preservation Society. You probably have feedback or questions on Look Again objects, please contact him at: [email protected], or by mail at WCHPS, PO Field 565, Parkersburg, WV 26102.
