Researching Abelina Suarez's family

[lgarcia]

I would be most interested to learn about Ugradstudent's sources regarding Anmoore. I'm trying to write about my family's life in Anmoore but I'm not finding many sources.

[Ron Gonzalez]

Meadowbrook had a post office in John Bart's store. John had a store in Meadowbrook, much like Joe Alvarez had in Spelter. Like other things of the past, his store is no longer there.

[Art]

Meadowbrook was the train stop. Spelter was the post office. Ziesing was the town name.

Thanks, Ron. As you remember, were all three names were used at the same time or did they change over time from one name to another? When were these names used? When you were a kid, or when your grandparents first arrived, or some other time?

I was under the impression that Meadowbrook existed long before Zeising, and that the area where Zeising (or Spelter) is was probably a farm before it became the site of a factory and its company town. I think Suronda had a paper that talked about a transition of the town name from Zeising to Spelter over time.

Am I remembering correctly?

[Ron Gonzalez]

Art,

As I remember it all three names were used when I was a kid . I do know that the post office in Spelter was established on March 20, 1928. I don't know about the Meadowbrook post office.

The plant site was originally known as Power Hill. Du Pont Power Company purchased the land and located a Power Plant on the property sometime before 1900. The Power Mill operated for several years but was closed down after an explosion during the year 1901. Soon after the explosion the property was sold to the Fairmont Coal company (Consolidation Coal Company) who in 1910 sold it and leased approximately 300 acres of Pittsburgh coal to Grasselli Chemical Company. The Grasselli Chemical Company immediately started construction for a plant and building homes for their employees. The plant started production during the year 1911 and by 1916 the townsite consisted of 175 homes.

Meadowbrook had a train station. All freight was address Meadowbrook, if you had a letter the address was Spelter, and we went to school at Ziesing.

[Ron Gonzalez]

The Grasselli Chemical Company also owned and operated a natural gas field to furnish fuel for Meadowbrook and Grasselli plants. This gas field extended over much of Harrison County. They operated a gas compressor station at Wolf Summit and a trunk lines for gas extended from wells located at Wolf Summit,Lost Creek, Lumberport, Grasselli, Glen Falls, and Meadowbrook. The gas wells and lines were sold in 1927 to Hope Natural G.as Company.

An ice plant was constructed and production started in 1915 to supply ice for the plant and people living in the townsite. The plant was closed down during 1935.

[Art]

Yep. That's a confusing bunch of names! Thanks for the info.

What was the official name of the school, Ron? Zeising Elementary School?

Doesn't that article say that Zeising was the name of the plant superintendent or some other manager?

Do you know when did the name Zeising get dropped officially? Hmm. There are still people who say Zeising, aren't there? They mean the town of Spelter, don't they?

[Ron Gonzalez]

Art

The Fairmont & Clarksburg Traction Company operated trolley cars on the hourly schedule on the west side of the river and the plant stop was "Ziesing" (named for Richard Ziesing, General Manager of the Grasselli Zinc Division).

Would that mean that the stop was named after him? The school was named Ziesing JR High, grades 1 to 9. We went to high school at Victory High School in Clarksburg.

The official name of the townsite has always been Spelter, as a plat is recorded in the office of the County Clerk of Harrison County showing the townsite of Spelter.

I have a year book from the "old days." On the outside cover is written "Ziesing Jr High School 1949." Confusing, indeed. Yes, when we say Ziesing we are talking about Spelter, and when we say Spelter we are talking about Ziesing.

[Art]

Wow. That's stranger than I had imagined, Ron!

I suspect that Morrison simply wrote a confusing sentence about the naming of Zeising. I'm pretty sure I've read something (maybe the same article in a different section?) that said the town or factory or something was named after Zeising, too.

Here's another confusion. There are references to both "Ziesing" and "Zeising" online, although there are more for Zeising. Which spelling does Morrison use?

[lgarcia]

On a recent visit to Clarksburg, I read a City Directory from the 1920's that lists my great grandfather, Ulpiano Fernandez - and his son, Tim Garcia - were boarders in the home of Jos. Suarez. Does anyone know whether this would have been Josephine Suarez? So now I'm most interested in Anmoore's Suarez family. I'd like an update on the Fairmont State student who was writing on the Suarez family. Please advise if anyone knows of Jos. Suarez in Anmoore - plus any update on the status of the Suarez research.

Thank you.

[Art]

Does it list an address?

You may want to check the 1920 census records. Maybe someone here knows how to do that. There are online records, but you may have to have an account with one of the online genealogy research sites.

Or maybe you can do it on ancestry.com. Here's a search I tried.

---------------------

¿Está listado una dirección?

Tal vez valga la pena buscarle en el registro del censo de 1920. Seguramente hay alguien aquí quien sabe cómo hacerlo. Hay registros en línea, pero no sé si hay que tener una cuenta con una de los sitios de la investigación de genealogía.

O quizás puedas hacerlo con ancestry.com. Aquí hay una búsqueda que intenté.

[Bob]

Among her other accomplishments, Abelina Suarez established a professorship at Fairmont State University (WV). For more information see http://www.fairmontstate.edu/news/news_ ... efault.asp