A Preston County community

Amblersburg

Amblersburg was a small railroad community in northwestern Union District. Oren F. Morton described it as a railroad hamlet in his 1914 county history, placing it along the grade between Terra Alta and the Cheat River. Federal postal records preserve the spellings Amblersburg and Amblersburgh and document its postmasters, railroad connections, and surroundings.

Oren F. Morton, A History of Preston County, West Virginia (1914), pp. 32 and 256; National Archives postal records. See the linked sources and research notes below.

Postal location images: 4
Postmaster source images: 6
Earliest postmaster entry: 1854

A railroad hamlet

In his 1914 county history, Oren F. Morton placed Amblersburg in the northwestern part of Union District and called it a “railroad hamlet.” In a later description of the railroad descending from Terra Alta toward the Cheat River, he identified Rodamer’s and Amblersburg along the Eleven Mile grade. The account places this small community within the county’s railroad landscape.

The surviving postal location papers add details of that setting. An 1885 application and map identify the B&O Railroad, Salt Lick Creek, and nearby places including Rodamer and Rowlesburg. A questionnaire signed by John M. Nine on June 1, 1928, and its associated map again describe the railroad and creek.

Sources and research notes

Oren F. Morton, A History of Preston County, West Virginia, volume 1 (Kingwood: The Journal Publishing Company, 1914), printed pp. 32 and 256. Read the page 32 description. Explore the digitized book.

Morton also included Amblersburg among places whose names commemorated a surname that he said had disappeared from the county (p. 266). That observation does not identify a particular namesake or establish a founding date.

National Archives postal location records, M1126, roll 651, pages 326–329. The 1885 paper is an application; it does not establish that postal service first began in that year. The separate postmaster registers contain earlier entries, including March 25, 1854. The community’s founding date and the office’s reopening date remain unresolved.

Amblersburg postal history

Postal locations & maps

Four postal location images from 1885 and 1928 describe Amblersburg beside the B&O Railroad and Salt Lick Creek. The 1885 application reported a village population of 35 and a proposed service population of 100. These are figures reported in the application, not a census count or proof of the community’s founding date.

Explore all 4 postal records

About these records

Record dates are not necessarily office opening or closing dates. Applications and proposed moves retain their original qualifications.

National Archives · M1126, roll 651 · NARA pages 326, 327, 328, 329. View the original collection.

Postmasters of Amblersburg

Six federal source images record names and dates from Geo. C. Chipman’s March 25, 1854 entry through the office’s 1937 discontinuance annotation. The section preserves the crossed-out entry, repeated appearances, and unresolved notation. Recorded dates do not establish complete terms of service or the community’s founding date.

Explore Amblersburg postmasters