Award winning author, and International speaker. President of the Archer Alexander Memorial Foundation. Member of the Missouri Speakers Bureau and the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. President of the Boone’s Lick Road Association. Executive Director of the Missouri Germans Consortium. She has been writing for over 35 years and published several books on local history, German immigration, and other topics. Currently working on To Tell a True Story – Archer Alexander.
Strayed about town without any acquaintance and all the feeling of a stranger in a strange place.
Written in 1829, this is the journal of William M. Campbell. This is also the story of Archer Alexander, an enslaved man born in Lexington, Virginia, who was taken to Missouri in 1829. There are 38 entries in Campbell’s journal, which begins on August 20, 1829 that you can read and follow the story of Archer Alexander. Campbell’s journal is located in the Archives at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia and is being shared here so that we may hear all the voices, including those whose voices were not shared originally. The photos were taken by me when visiting Virginia for research and then following the pathway that Campbell shares in his journal. Please keep in mind the context of the time in which this journal was written. Feel free to share your comments directly on this blog or join in on the discussion in the St. Charles County History Facebook Group. You may sign up for email alerts of the daily blog posts below.
27 August 1829 – Traveled twelve miles to Stockton’s for breakfast, excellent fare. The turnpike ends eight miles from Ganly [Gauley]. A new contract had just been taken by Trimble and Thompson to continue to Charleston, 30 miles at the rate of $1595 per mile, bridges included. Very cheap road. The sixty miles between Charleston and Sandy will be let out on the first of October. We this day passed through the rich narrow bottoms of Kanawha, a great part of which is covered with a heavy crop of corn. Ten miles of the valley are called “the Licks” from their being covered with salt works. There are sixty furnaces which manufacture 2,000,000 bushels of salt annually.* The manufacturing of salt would be much more extensive if it were not entirely monopolized by a company. It will someday be a place of much more importance. The buildings about the salt works are miserable shells and hovels, temporary and unsubstantial. We passed the Burning Springs and came to Charleston about night. Charleston is a town about as large as Lexington, Virginia. It is built on a bottom along the Kanawha River. One street is laid off along the margin of the river, scarcely leaving room for a row of houses between the street and the river; here all the business is done. The other street has but few houses on it. The beauty of the town is very much diminished by the row of houses on the river bank. The houses are principally of wood, some brick.
Written in 1829, this is the journal of William M. Campbell. This is also the story of Archer Alexander, an enslaved man born in Lexington, Virginia, who was taken to Missouri in 1829. There are 38 entries in Campbell’s journal, which begins on August 20, 1829 that you can read and follow the story of Archer Alexander. Campbell’s journal is located in the Archives at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia and is being shared here so that we may hear all the voices, including those whose voices were not shared originally. The photos were taken by me when visiting Virginia for research and then following the pathway that Campbell shares in his journal. Please keep in mind the context of the time in which this journal was written. Feel free to share your comments directly on this blog or join in on the discussion in the St. Charles County History Facebook Group. You may sign up for email alerts of the daily blog posts below.
Rain – drove on, came to New River, passed along its stupendous cliffs, by a magnificent road, crossed Goly* Bridge, toll $1. This is an open bridge lately erected by B and S. It is built on piers at the same place the Arched Bridge formerly stood. It is an handsome bridge. Two miles below the bridge we passed the great falls of Kenewha*, a great natural curiousity, an admirable site for water works. A great quantity of timber is sawed here and several hundred large flat boats are built here for the purpose of taking salt down the Ohio. Staid all night at Huddleston’s; fared very well. Had a good deal of conversation with the citizens of Ohio, Mississippi and Indiana, who were traveling and had called to stay all night.
Written in 1829, this is the journal of William M. Campbell. This is also the story of Archer Alexander, an enslaved man born in Lexington, Virginia, who was taken to Missouri in 1829. There are 38 entries in Campbell’s journal, which begins on August 20, 1829 that you can read and follow the story of Archer Alexander. Campbell’s journal is located in the Archives at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia and is being shared here so that we may hear all the voices, including those whose voices were not shared originally. The photos were taken by me when visiting Virginia for research and then following the pathway that Campbell shares in his journal. Please keep in mind the context of the time in which this journal was written. Feel free to share your comments directly on this blog or join in on the discussion in the St. Charles County History Facebook Group. You may sign up for email alerts of the daily blog posts below.
This is one of the most beautiful sights in West Virginia. The wood mills that once made flatboats for travel down the Ohio River are today’s paper mills. The lumber industry fuels the economy. Traveling the side roads such as Route 60, the Midland Trail and a National Scenic Byway one sees so much more history and beauty. Photo by Dorris Keeven-Franke.
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