(side bar)On April 20, 1863, Confederate Gens. William E. "Grumble" Jones and John D. Imboden began a raid from Virginia through present-day West Virginia on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Taking separate routes, they later reported that they ma…
The first well in West Virginia drilled solely for petroleum was located near the mouth of Burning Springs Run. The well was drilled with a "spring pole" by the Rathbones and others from Parkersburg, begun in 1859 completed May 1860. Produced at t…