The Cholera Epidemic in Guyandotte

Currently, we are living through a global pandemic. This is not the first time in history that humans have experienced a widespread disease that has killed many and it likely will not be the last. 

While sharing stories on the Guyandotte ghost tours, we talked about a pandemic disease that wiped out millions of people worldwide. A series of seven cholera pandemics have occurred throughout the world over the past two-hundred years. Even in modern times, small outbreaks of cholera persist in parts of the world.

So, what is cholera exactly? It is a very infectious disease that causes watery diarrhea and dehydration. Cholera is caused by eating or drinking food or water contaminated with the bacteria from human feces. It was primarily spread through contaminated water in the 1800s due to the lack of sanitation and sewage treatment and was also spread by undercooked seafood that had been in contaminated water. The onset of symptoms would come on quickly and harsh for some, while others only had mild or even no symptoms at all. Death could come quickly for someone infected, often in a matter of hours. 

Cholera was first known in the United States in 1832, likely arriving with immigrants from Europe. Cholera reached the larger cities along the Ohio River by way of travel along the river. Guyandotte was a busy river port on the Ohio River, so it was inevitable that cholera would eventually find its way there and to other nearby river cities. 

In the late 1840s, a cholera outbreak hit the Ohio River area between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, killing several hundred people. The outbreak brought on panic. One of those who would succumb to cholera was Logan, West Virginia resident Anthony Lawson. 60 year old Lawson was traveling the Ohio River as a merchant, on his way home to Logan. He got off the boat at Guyandotte, sick with cholera. He died soon after arriving at Guyandotte. He was buried in the Guyandotte cemetery. 

In 1849, another non-resident of Guyandotte, Harriet "Hannah" Stoddert, 61 year old widow of Senator George W. Campbell of Nashville, Tennessee was traveling to Virginia with her children when she fell ill with cholera and died just a few hours later. She is buried at Nashville City Cemetery next to her husband. 

I discovered a published memoir from a gentleman from St. Louis. In 1850, fearing for his health, he would go to Virginia to join his wife, she had left ahead of him. He made his way to Cincinnati by steamboat, then the next day boarded another boat bound for Pittsburgh, but the Virginia passengers would land at Guyandotte. Many of the passengers were fleeing their home cities due to the cholera epidemic. The gentleman told of how he stayed at a hotel in Guyandotte overnight, and several of the other passengers that were on board with him had fallen ill. His anxiety about cholera kept him up that night, he only fell asleep after he departed Guyandotte by stagecoach to continue his journey on to Virginia.

A newspaper article from the Baltimore Sun in 1854 provided a short listing of cholera epidemic deaths that spanned from Virginia (West Virginia) to Tennessee, citing that two fatal cases of cholera had occurred in Guyandotte. 

Rev. Robert Fox was a traveling preacher from Catlettsburg, Kentucky. He had traveled to Gallipolis in late June of 1873 to preach funerals for cholera victims. Upon his return, he stopped in Guyandotte to preach at the Guyandotte Methodist Episcopal Church, when he fell ill with the sickness. He died shortly thereafter at the home of Andrew J. Keenan. 

The cholera pandemic was frightening for people living in those times. In the early 1800s, people did not know how it was transmitted or even what caused the disease. It wasn't until the mid-1800s that the bacteria that caused cholera was discovered, but it took another 30 years before information on how to fight it was ever published. Cholera was wiping out entire families and hundreds were dying daily in some of the larger cities, and clearly, smaller towns like Guyandotte were not spared. 

The cholera pandemic finally went away, with no new outbreaks in the since 1911. With better sewage and water treatment, quarantines and hygiene practices, cholera was pretty much eliminated in the United States. There have been other widespread epidemics such as Smallpox, Yellow Fever, Typhoid Fever, Scarlet Fever and the Spanish Flu and today's Covid-19. Reading through the articles about the cholera pandemics of the last hundred years, the similarities to today are a little eerie. As they say, history always repeats itself. 

Photo of a grave in the Guyandotte Cemetery. All photos on this site are property of Melissa Stanley unless otherwise noted.

Andrew J. Keenan House

Located on Main St. in Guyandotte, this home was believed to have been built in the 1820s by William Stone. The home later was purchased by Mark Russell. Russell was the first Gentleman Justice of the County Court; he was also Sheriff. Andrew Keenan purchased the home from the Russell's in 1845. 

Andrew was born in Nicholas County in 1819 and was a saddle maker by trade. He first married in 1838 but his first wife died in 1849. Keenan then married again in 1850 in Cabell County to Sarah Scott. In 1865, he married for the third time after yet again becoming a widower. His third marriage was to Mark Russell's daughter, Melcena. According to census records, it appears that Andrew Keenan married for a fourth and final time in 1867.

On November 10, 1861, Guyandotte was stormed by Confederate troops and a total of 98 Union soldier recruits that were camped in town as well as citizens known to have Union sympathies were captured and taken prisoner during the raid. The Keenan home was used to house these men overnight. The next morning, the men were tied together, two by two, and marched out of town heading to Richmond. 

Andrew Keenan was noted as being an exemplary Christian gentleman. He was a member of the Guyandotte Methodist Episcopal Church, south and he was a leader in that denomination. In 1873, a cholera outbreak that started in New Orleans, reached the Ohio Valley by way of steamboat travel along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. A preacher by the name of Rev. Robert Fox, had just returned from preaching funeral services for cholera victims in Gallipolis, Ohio. He preached services at the Guyandotte Methodist Episcopal Church upon his return, then fell ill with cholera himself. Rev. Fox died the following day, July 1, 1873 at the home of Andrew Keenan. It is said that during the cholera epidemic, that the Keenan home was used as a temporary hospital for cholera victims. 

The house is one of the oldest in Guyandotte still standing. In the 1980s a fire damaged the interior of the home and destroyed a back addition. During the early 2000s, it housed the KYOVA genealogical society before being vacated and used as a storage building. In recent years it was sold off and has been converted into apartments. The condition of the building has since deteriorated since the above photo was taken in 2011. 

All photos on this site are property of Melissa Stanley unless otherwise noted. 

Judge Henry Clay Warth House

This home is probably one of the lesser known historic houses in Guyandotte. During the time my old team and I were offering the Guyandotte haunted history walking tours, we only had this home as a stop for a couple tours. When people came to our tours, even if we were offering a history only tour, people wanted to hear ghost stories. Not every home has a ghost story, not every home is haunted. To my knowledge, this home is not haunted but the first owner did have a relatively significant place in Huntington's history.

Judge Henry Clay Warth was President of the Central Banking Company and the Mutual Land Company of Huntington, WV. Warth served on the House of Delegates and during that time, he introduced a bill that would create juvenile courts in the state. He later was elected to the bench of the Cabell County Common Pleas Court, he served in that position for 28 years. He as known was a no-nonsense Judge.

His wife Ruth was the daughter of Chester Parsons, a philanthropist who had made a fortune in retail and wholesale hardware. The couple had one son together and resided in Guyandotte for a time. His Guyandotte home was built in 1905 and once overlooked the Ohio River, however in the 1940s, a floodwall was installed blocking that view. Judge Warth's father resided with them in the Guyandotte home at the end of his life, his father passed away there in 1937.

I happened upon his father's gravesite during a paranormal investigation of the Bruce Chapel Church in Mason County, WV. The little historic country church located on a hillside near Gallipolis Ferry was once abandoned until a few years ago. There is a graveyard surrounding the church, and Judge Warth's father is among those buried there.

During the Flood of 1937, Guyandotte was hit particularly hard. Men surveying the flood arrived to Guyandotte in Coast Guard boats, and Judge Warth had not been heard from in several days. They approached his home and saw a candle flickering in the window. The judge climbed out from a window and onto the roof, he spoke to a reporter that was in the boat. The reporter offered him a copy of the local paper and his reply was "no thanks, I have mine". Warth died in 1952 at the age of 72 and is buried at Huntington's Woodmere cemetery,

In 1960, Judge Warth's grandson, Henry Warth III, would find himself on the other side of the law. He was a gunsmith by trade. One evening, while his wife was attending a baby shower with a friend, she had left the care of her children to her friend's 12-year-old daughter and 13-year-old niece. Upon their return, the women found deceased bodies the both teen girls in the home, shot to death. The Warth children were missing along with their 29-year-old father. Warth was later found with his children and arrested for the murder of the two young girls.
                 

Top photo - Warth house front view taken in 2011.Middle photo - John Warth headstone at Bruce Chapel Cemetery. Bottom photo - Warth house side and back view taken in 2020. All photos on this site are property of Melissa Stanley unless otherwise noted. 

Guyandotte High School - A Brief History

The old Guyandotte High School was built in 1893, it was known by many as the Richmond Street School. Although the school was primarily used for high school students, eventually an overflow of elementary school students was also attending.

By 1919, possibly earlier, the school was no longer in use as other larger schools had been built in the area. Huntington High school was opened in 1916 and the old Guyandotte Elementary was opened in 1917.

The school went up for auction and the highest bidder was the Western Star Masonic Lodge #11. The lodge is the oldest in Cabell County and was chartered in 1818. The first meeting was held at the Barboursville court house in 1820, but by 1824 the lodge was moved to Guyandotte. The lodge became dormant by 1826 due to the Morgan Incident. A new charter was 1849, that charter was thought to have been destroyed in 1861 during the Confederate raid on Guyandotte and subsequent burning of much of the town. he original lodge building was located on Guyan Street, near the Third Ave. bridge. Today the building is still in use by the Masonic Lodge. 

Top photo - Guyandotte Masonic Lodge 2020. Bottom photo: Unknown photographer/source of photo. Historic information for the Masonic Lodge summarized from the original context written by Theresa Racer-Cheshire for the Haunted & Historic Guyandotte Tours. All photos on this site are property of Melissa Stanley unless otherwise noted. 

Guyandotte's Cursed Railroad Bridge

In the late 1800s, the railroad was beginning to push its way through the little town of Guyandotte, West Virginia. In 1871, Collis Potter Huntington established the new town of Huntington, just west of Guyandotte. The new city would become the primary location of operation of the C&O railroad line that Huntington built.

Many of the residents of Guyandotte worked for both the C&O railroad and the B&O railroad, both lines ran right through town. While many of the men of Guyandotte worked for the railroad to provide for their families, there were also many hazards associated with working in the rail industry. Over the years, numerous railroad accidents have taken the lives of some of those men. One incident took place involved a man driving home from work, he was driving over the tracks at the old Buffington St. crossing, when an oncoming train crashed into his vehicle, killing him. The train derailed as a result of the crash, stopping just short of plunging into the Guyandotte River at the Main St. crossing. The old bridge near that crossing is still standing abandoned today.

The other rail bridge in Guyandotte that is still in use today and has seen its share of tragic events. That bridge was once part of the old C&O rail line that is today owned and operated by CSX. The bridge spans the Guyandotte river just at the end of Special Metals Corp. Many years ago, this bridge gained the reputation as being cursed with many referring to it as the "hoodoo" bridge.

Three separate accidents have left their mark on this ill-fated bridge, these took place in 1880, 1889 and again in 1913. I was unable to locate information on the 1880 accident, but the subsequent accidents certainly resulted in fatalities. On November 27, 1889, a freight train fell through the bridge, one man was killed as well as a horse that was being shipped to Brownstown, West Virginia.

The last accident that occurred on this bridge happened on January 1, 1913. A second track was being added to the bridge, men were on the bridge working when a train approached to cross. The workers signaled to the engineer to proceed across the bridge. Once the trains engine made its way to the center, the bridge gave way, sending the train, the train's engineer and the men working on the bridge, into the icy waters of the Guyandotte River. The engineer and six men that were working on the bridge were killed. Some of the bodies were recovered days later, including the engineer. The bridge once again was repaired and has been in use ever since.

In more recent times, several people have been killed by trains while attempting to cross the bridge on foot.

All photos on this site are property of Melissa Stanley unless otherwise noted. Top photo - Modern photo of the bridge. Middle photo - from Marshall University Special Collections Jan 1, 1913 accident. Bottom photo - source unknown, from the Jan 1, 1913 accident.