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. 

Spring Hill Cemetery - Huntington, WV

Spring Hill cemetery was established 1873, just two years after the city of Huntington, West Virginia was incorporated. Today, the cemetery has over 80,000 burials. The cemetery started with around 30 acres but has expanded over the years to 110 acres currently. The oldest known grave dates to 1838, however, the first official burial wasn't until 1873. The name of the cemetery is believed to come from an old spring house that once stood near where the first bodies were buried.

One of the most locally well-known memorials that stands at Spring Hill is for the victims of the Marshall University plane crash of 1970. The crash killed all 75 people on board, including 37 members of the Marshall University football team, as well as coaching staff, boosters and crew members. Six of the victims that died in the crash were unable to be identified and are buried at the memorial site.

Many of Huntington's earliest families and citizens are buried here. In fact, in the early years of the cemetery, many bodies were reinterred here from other smaller cemeteries and family cemeteries. Large obelisks and private family mausoleums bear the names of many of these early settlers and leaders of Huntington and Cabell County.

There are over 300 Civil War soldiers buried at Spring Hill, many of whom were killed in battle. At least two that are buried here were killed during the Confederate raid on Guyandotte in November of 1861. Two Civil War Generals are buried in the cemetery, Confederate General Albert Gallatin Jenkins and Union General John Hunt Oley.

According to an article published in Huntington Quarterly, a newspaper article from 1918 reported that there had been more buried that year than during other similar periods. Records indicate that over 1,000 burials that year. The article also states that high number of interments was likely due to the worldwide Spanish flu epidemic that hit Huntington in 1918.


The history of this cemetery is captivating, but even if you don't know much about the history or the stories of those whom are buried here, the cemetery is still a beautiful place to talk a stroll. The artwork of old intricately carved stones and stained-glass windows that bring color and light into the darkened mausoleums are mesmerizing. In the spring, the flowering trees and bushes are bright with colorful blooms. While a cemetery can bring sadness and memories of loss, I find wandering through this cemetery to be peaceful as well as it being a place of wonder and tranquility.

Spring Hill is known to have a few rumors of mysterious paranormal occurrences too. While there aren't many specific stories of hauntings within the cemetery that I could find, one thought comes from the possibility of restless spirits wandering over from the State Hospital that is located directly across the street from the cemetery. The state hospital is the second oldest in West Virginia, created in 1897. A fire at the hospital in 1952 killed 17 people.

Many people simply associate cemeteries with being haunted, that the spirits of those buried here roam free, or even come to visit their own graves. I am not sure if you will find any ghosts if you wander through Spring Hill, but I highly recommend a visit whether you are looking for ghosts, history or just a nice place to go for a walk.



Photos on this site are property of Melissa Stanley, unless otherwise noted. Historic information sources: Find a grave, Huntington Quarterly & The WV Encyclopedia.