The New International Encyclopædia/Charleston (West Virginia)

CHARLESTON. The capital of West Virginia and county-seat of Kanawha County, about 130 miles south by west of Wheeling, at the junction of the Kanawha and Elk rivers, and on the Chesapeake and Ohio, the Kanawha and Michigan, and other railroads (Map: West Virginia, C 3). It has regular steamboat communication with the principal river ports, and is an important shipping point for coal, salt, and timber. There are deposits of natural gas and oil in the neighborhood. The manufactures include iron, engines and boilers, furniture, carriages, fire-brick, lumber, and woolens. Charleston has also boat-building yards, color and veneer works, and railroad shops of the Kanawha and Michigan. The chief buildings are the Capitol, the custom-house, and the county court-house. A fort was built at Charleston about 1786; the town was incorporated in 1794, and the city in 1870. Charleston has been the capital since 1870, with the exception of the period 1875-85, when Wheeling was the seat of government. Population, in 1890, 6742; in 1900, 11,099.