History of Littleton
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~Business Section of Littleton: .Courtesy of Ruth Koontz~ *** |
~Martin Tunnel, Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church, and Parsonage:. Courtesy of Ruth Koontz~ |
.....The town of Littleton, originally called Milo, is located in Wetzel County's Clay District. It was named for a pioneer family by the name of Little who settled there.. The town is built on the banks of Big Fish Creek.
.....As with Burton and Hundred, a portion of the Baltimore and Ohio made its home in Littleton. The railroad did much to encourage settlement there. Again, many of the crew working on the construction of the railroad in this area were immigrants from Ireland.
.....One of the most noteworthy of all the B&O tunnels is the Board Tree tunnel, located just outside of Littleton. When the railroad was being planned, a decision had to be made as to the best way to construct the line to Wheeling. The logical route was to follow Fish Creek in Littleton to its junction with the Ohio River and, from there, up the Ohio to Wheeling. However, David McConaughey (a landowner and merchant in the community of Honeytown) promised Samuel Cameron (a B&O Official) that if the line was brought over the hill at Board Tree in Marshall County, just north of Littleton, and from there through Grave Creek (also in Marshall County), he would change the name of his town from Honeytown to Cameron. Cameron took McConaughey up on his offer. This would prove to be a disastrous choice, for there was a severely steep grade at Board Tree.
.....Needless to say, there were many engineering difficulties in this section of the railroad. In order for trains to successfully make it over this hill, a switchback method was used. The trains were separated into sections. On a temporary track composed of “Y” switches and sharply ascending tangents, powerful camel engines, built by Ross Winans, would each push or pull two cars, zig-zagging over the hill at Board Tree. Until a tunnel was built, this was the method used to traverse this section of railroad.
.....This tunnel was to be called Pettibone Tunnel, after its first contractor. Construction was well under way in the fall of 1851. Then, a cholera outbreak hit. Two months of work was lost at Pettibone Tunnel, where the epidemic was most severe. The tunnel had internal problems. Clay slate located in horizontal strata provided treacherous working conditions. Workers drilled and blasted in perpetual danger of falls. They also had to battle “bad air” deep inside the mountain. The workers endured these conditions, and by late June of 1852, they had let daylight through.
.....Meanwhile, Pettibone had fallen deeply into debt and he could no longer afford to keep the construction going. Hitchcock, Hummingbird, and Company took over as the tunnel’s contractors. Thereafter, the tunnel was called Board Tree after a local stream. The 2,360-foot tunnel was completed in early spring of 1853. It had taken two years and $265,000 to complete.
.....Wherever a tunnel was built (as part of Irish Catholic tradition) a church was erected. Thus, churches were built in Littleton and at Board Tree. The church at Board Tree was located on what is still known as “Catholic Church Curve.”
.....The train was the major means for the Catholic communities of Hundred and Burton to attend church on Sundays. Consequently, masses were regulated by train schedules. On Christmas Eve, the people of Burton and Hundred would come to church on the night train, then walk the tracks back home. They could be heard singing Christmas carols as they walked along the tracks and through the three tunnels.
.....Littleton played an important role in the Union war effort. During the Civil War, Littleton supplied much-needed resources to the Union forces opening an iron ore mine at the east end of the town. They shipped the ore to the east, by train, to make ammunition.
.....As did Burton and Hundred, Littleton enjoyed an oil and gas boom in the 1880’s, which provided many job opportunities.
.....In 1892, it was decided that the village should be incorporated. A meeting was held outdoors near Martin Tunnel by the watering tubs where locomotives stopped to fill their water tanks. Because of the location for the meeting, the convention was called the “Tub Convention.” Lindsey Ferguson was nominated and elected the first Mayor of Littleton.
.....In 1906, Littleton was ravaged by fire. The blaze began in A.M. Crow’s store in the middle of town. Volunteer firemen wanted to explode the Opera House using dynamite, in order to stay the path of the fire, but the owner refused to allow them to do so. The Fire Department in Wheeling put a fire engine on a flat car and made a record run on the B&O to Littleton. However, their efforts were in vain for they lacked the correct hose adapters and could do little for the town. More than half of the residences in town were destroyed. Also demolished were several stores, banks, a mill, a schoolhouse, and the B&O station. Before the year was over, rebuilding began. Brick buildings replaced wooden structures in the business section.
.....As a result of the disaster, Littleton also received a new school building. It was one of the first high schools in the state of West Virginia. Students came from Hundred and Burton, by train, to attend the school. Littleton also had a grade school. It closed in 1978 (along with Burton Grade School and Hundred Grade School) when Long Drain School was built in Metz, consolidating the three schools.*
*History Compiled by Courtney Dennis