Turn-of-the-century Bramwell, western Virginia, had been an abundant town that is little more millionaires than just about any host to its size in the usa. Saved into the coal areas, 14 millionaires or simply 19, dependent on which account you read resided sumptuously along-side the city’s 4,000 residents. Within the very early 1880s, term distribute quickly for the development associated with the Pocahontas coal industry across the Virginia/West Virginia line. Great coal seams eight to 10 legs high started at Bramwell, W.Va. and extensive for 48 miles. Speculators, designers, business owners and miners flocked to your budding town, understood informally as Horseshoe Bend. Some miners originated from Pennsylvania coal areas, others straight from England, Scotland and Wales. Operators regarding the mines that are new immigrants at Ellis Island.
One fortune-seeker ended up being Joseph H. Bramwell, a unique York civil engineer, whom found its way to 1883. As very first postmaster of a postoffice that needed a appropriate label, he stated, „Every small baby features a title, and also this little city will need to have similar. We therefore name it Bramwell.“ Later on, Joseph H. became very very first president regarding the famed Bank of Bramwell, and a big-time real-estate investor. Unlike many millionaires whom remained around to reduce their cash through the Great Depression or once the mines started initially to play away into the 1930s and ’40s Joseph Bramwell soon gathered up their fortune and relocated to Switzerland.
By 1885, C.H. Durhing, a coal business engineer, had mapped down lots for domiciles and companies. In the Bluestone River’s horseshoe bend, he designed the 2 brick that is major to create a cross. A three-mile-long area that is chartered the mine web sites of Cooper to your western and Freeman towards the eastern. Each mining community complex had its very own homes, schools, churches, and shops. Found among them, Bramwell had been the hub.
Within Bramwell’s elongated limitations, six railroad bridges and six highway bridges crossed the looping, snaking Bluestone River, therefore the highway crossed the songs 3 times.
Bramwell ended up being a domestic oasis, where rich coal barons and their officials could reside in luxury making use of their families, all enjoying a sparkling social life, maybe even consuming the „beerine“ produced in a regional factory. a help system of merchants, ministers, physicians, lawyers among others undergirded their life style. A water company, telephone service and a weekly newspaper before 1900, the town had electric street lights.
Officials‘ Victorian houses had been avant-garde for the times. Imported furnishings had been typical. A copper roof covers the 24-room, 1910 Queen Anne-style Cooper house. Built of orange brick imported from England, its amenities included a indoor pool. The 1885 home of Dr. McGuffin, Bramwell’s very very very first doctor, had interior plumbing system, a bath, and a talking tube through the door to their room. The lovely blue 1895 Goodwill home has a ballroom. Imported Italian masons laid rock when it comes to 17-room, 6,500-square-foot, Tudor-style Thomas home.
The four major local mines each bore the title „Coal & Coke Company“: Mill Creek, Buckeye, Booth Bowen and Caswell Creek in Bramwell’s heyday. One business used 400 guys. a 16-foot-diameter fan ventilated 174 beehive coke ovens at another business. One mine produced 100,000 a lot of coal yearly. Miners blasted coal seams with gunpowder, then hand-loaded the coal into mule carts to carry it down. In 1889, per year following the city’s charter, miners got 1.05 for the coal automobile that held 2-1/2 tons. A good, efficient worker could load 4-1/2 automobiles per day. Accidents had been typical.
During the early days, the financial institution of Bramwell, through courtesy, managed the checking and savings makes up about regional residents. But it was tiny material contrasted to its genuine company. The well-heeled bank ended up being the economic center point for several southern western Virginia and points far past. As an example, it financed construction of Burning Tree nation Club in Washington, D.C. The bank sold more World War I Loan Bonds than any financial institution in the country for size and more information population.