1882 · Brookside / Aurora area
Wilmer P. Vale bought 329½ acres from William Stone in 1882 and added two adjoining parcels in 1884 and 1885. Named Brookside for nearby Rhine Creek, the property developed into Aurora's largest resort complex, with a large hotel and cottages along the former Northwestern Turnpike.
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Read full entry and research notes →1883 · Rohr
The Preston County Historical Society's 1979 county history dates the establishment of Mt. Zion Church in the Rohr community to 1883. A 1972 Dominion-Post profile preserves an earlier construction tradition, reporting that Jacob Cale donated the ground, Henry Rohr and Edwin Gibson hand-split stone for the foundation, and nine-year-old Calvin Rohr carried water for the builders. On February 24, 1893, Jacob and Clarissa E. Cale formally conveyed the approximately one-half-acre church parcel to trustees of the Evangelical Association of North America; the deed expressly records that Mt. Zion Church was already standing on the land.
Research status: Verified to source
- Citation / research lead
Preston County Deed Book 74, p. 259, Jacob and Clarissa E. Cale to Evangelical Association church trustees, deed dated February 24, 1893
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Read full entry and research notes →February 11, 1911 · Terra Alta / Hopemont
The West Virginia Legislature passed an act authorizing a state tuberculosis sanitarium on February 11; the governor approved it on February 18. The authorization followed years of campaigning by the Anti-Tuberculosis League of West Virginia and its executive secretary, Dr. Harriet B. Jones, who had grown up in Terra Alta. The selected farm near Terra Alta belonged to Jones’s brother-in-law, W. T. White. White and his wife, Harriet’s sister Adaline Jones White, executed a deed conveying the property to the state on November 11, 1911. The institution became West Virginia’s first state tuberculosis sanitarium and was later known as Hopemont.
Research status: Verified to source
Read full entry and research notes →1942 · Cathedral State Park / Aurora area
Branson Haas sold the 118.5-acre tract containing Brookside Woods to the State of West Virginia for $13,000. The State Conservation Commission established Cathedral State Park, and Haas remained there as caretaker until his death in 1955. A separate 7.5-acre parcel was acquired later for park facilities.
Research status: Verified
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