Theresa's Haunted History of the Tri-State

In this section of Theresa's Haunted History site, you'll find some wonderful historic homes and buildings throughout the tri-state!  These sites aren't necessarily haunted, but their rich history earn them a place of honor.  However, if you DO have any ghost stories concerning any of the following submissions...please contact me at theresarhps@yahoo.com  !

 
This stately home was built in what is now Charleston's West Side in 1852 for James Madison Laidley.  William Preston, an English immigrant, was chosen as the builder and stonemason.  

The home, named Glenwood for the nearby rocky glen, was built in the Greek Revival Style.  James was the son of James Grant Laidley, and the founder of the Western Register, an early Charleston newspaper.  He also served as a member of the Virginia legislature in the late 1840s, and by 1852, and amassed quite the fortune through his saltmaking operation, located in present-day Kanawha City.

By 1857, financial issues caused Laidley to sell Glenwood to Judge George Summers, who will be discussed later in Haunted WV!   After leaving the family home near Winfield, WV, George and his wife, Amacetta, plus their children moved into Glenwood.  Amacetta was the niece of James Madison Laidley.

After Amacetta died in 1867, followed by George in 1868, the home passed to his son, Lewis Summers, named after George's brother.  In 1954 the home was restored by owners Lucy and Elizabeth Quarrier, the last surviving members of the family line.  Lucy later gave the house to the city for historic preservation, and today it is open by appointment for tours.

National Register Application 

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Union Baptist Church in Milton is located along the old James River Turnpike Road.  In 1788, the James River Turnpike opened through this area of Cabell County, opening access to the area settlement.  That same year, a log church known as the Union Church was constructed on the site of the present Union Cemetery.  This church served as a house of worship to several denominations until the year 1810. That year, Rev. John Lee and Rev. John Alderson established the Union Baptist Church, with the old Union Church serving solely as a Baptist house of worship. 

By 1847 the congregation was outgrowing its log church, so a 600 acre piece of property was purchased just east of the site.  The church was completed and dedicated in the year 1849, and is the structure that stands today.

During the Civil War, the church played a vital role.  It was occupied by Union troops, who used the church as a garrison to protect the one-lane covered bridge spanning the Mud River.  The bridge was an important link to the James River and Kanawha Turnpikes, and by the end of the war, the church was almost completely gutted.

Union Baptist was restored in 1867, but  it is said you can still see evidence of the war in the form of bullet holes, bayonet marks, etc.  Please click the above picture for more photos, including one of a possible bullet hole!

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 Nearly 100 children were removed from the Kanawha County poor farm in the summer of 1934 after the Charleston Gazette found that children were kept in the same unsanitary quarters as 200 adults. "Bed bugs and other vermin crawl out of the crumbling old walls ... to torment them at night. Sick old men, nauseatingly inflicted with loathsome diseases, come in personal contact with them by day. The danger of horrible death by fire ... eternally hangs over them," the Gazette reported.

The article got results. Within two weeks, children from the poor farm were taken to Putnam County to spend the summer at the Salvation Army Camp Kump. Articles said the children were trained in behavior, health and character building for placement in private homes. Built in 1895 to hold 75, the poor farm was on a 120-acre site along the Kanawha River and W.Va. route 25, just west of Dunbar. William (Billy) Knight Roberts II relates the following. "In the early 1930s as a boy growing up in Dunbar, WV, I remember a large brick building in the center of large farm at Institute west of Dunbar in KANAWHA County. To the local people this place was known as the "POOR FARM". Institute was the site of a college for black students, and the poor farm was located between the College and the Kanawha River, as I recall." 

Click HERE for the above article from the Charleston Gazette.

According to this source, in 1953, it was converted to a work farm for jail inmates.