Retired Professor Recounts History of Rices Landing
Washington PA Observer
Reporter
2 February 2012
WAYNESBURG - Dr. Bruce Barnett, retired professor at Waynesburg
University, told a meeting of the Cornerstone Genealogical Society
that one of the first places to be settled in Greene County was
Rices Landing.
Barnett began his presentation by showing the video, "The History
of Rices Landing," a video narrated by the late Murray Kline and
his wife, Norma.
According to legend, George Washington and his troops crossed the
Monongahela River in 1755, at what is now Rices Landing, to join
forces with Gen. Braddock to combine their forces against the
Indians and French.
Some of those who accompanied Washington where Christopher Gist,
Thomas Hughes, John Swan and Henry Vanmeter. Swan and Vanmeter
returned in 1765 and purchased land on different branches of Swans
Run, later Enoch Run and now called Pumpkin Run, Barnett said.
The present location of Rices Landing was obtained by virtue of a
Virginia certificate in 1780 by John Rice. It was a tract of 389
acres which he patented under the name "Prospect."
An 1850, red brick, two-cell jail, where Joseph Sedgwick, a
justice of the peace, housed prisoners, still stands. At one time,
there were two hotels in Rices Landing - the Monongahela House and
the House Hotel, and in 1885, Thomas Hughes and Jack Lucas had the
Monongahela House built. It was a large three-story structure
fashioned of homemade bricks and it served as a popular business
mart for lumber dealers.
Before the building of Lock 6, the Monongahela River could easily
be crossed on horseback, except during high water. Navigation on
the river remained unreliable until the Monongahela Navigation Co.
built canals in 1836.
Lock 6, built 1854, continued in operation until 1965 when it and
Lock 5 where demolished and replaced by the Maxwell Lock and Dam.
By 1859 the new navigation system brought prosperity to Rices
Landing. A ferry system, operated by Hughes and later by the Kline
family, crossed the Mon and gave access to Fayette County and
Brownsville but a flood in 1936 ended this ferry system.
During the last half of the 19th century and the early part of the
20th century, a large number of businesses were in operation. The
population was about 1,200 at that time.
J.R. Hewitt operated a store on Main Street and a livery stable
next to the river. There were grocery stores and dry good shops,
soda fountains and three photograph studios.
The Rices Landing Stoneware Factory was established by Isaac
Hewitt Jr., and it stood along the Mon River on Water Street.
W.A. Young & Sons Foundry & Machine Shop was established
in 1900 on the Andrew Jackson and Young farm. The Vesuvius
Manufacturing company manufactured diamond circular vibrating
stone saws for wood saw mills, steam engines and all kinds of mill
machines.
Additional activity came to the town with the opening of the River
District Coal Fields, most of which were owned by the H.C. Frick
Coal Co., a subsidiary of the U.S. Steel Co.
In 1902 the H.P Dilworth company sank the first deep mine shaft in
Greene County.
In 1906 the Pittsburgh, Virginia, & Charleston Railroad, later
the PA Railway, extended its line from west Brownsville past the
Dilworth mine to a new freight and passenger station,near Third
Avenue in Rices Landing.
In 1913 the line was continued to the mines in Crucible and
Nemacolin and by 1915 passenger service to Fairmont, W.Va., was
offered.
There were no schools in Rices landing until about 100 years after
the town was established. The Hewitt School is the earliest on
record. Red School was on the Old Hill Road and Strawn School was
destroyed in a 1944 tornado.
The video shown at the meeting has been converted to a DVD and is
available for viewing in Cornerstone's library.
The next meeting of Cornerstone Genealogical Society will be at 7
p.m. Feb. 14 and will feature Suzanne Wiley and her antique
valentines. Meetings are held in the old log courthouse on Greene
Street and the public is invited.