Learn why Elder John Alderson spent his first months in the Alderson area at Jarrett’s Fort; what behavior would draw the ire of the early Baptist Church; the earliest fort in our area; “The Christmas Anna Angel;” and other interesting chapters from Alderson’s past in the newest edition of the “Alderson History Highlights and Tantalizing Tidbits” series published by Alderson Main Street. Titled “Visiting the Past,” this new volume covers Alderson’s history from the very earliest settlement to the space age.
Author Belinda Anderson has, once again, outdone herself in finding little known facts and researching the history of buildings and people. “Alderson has such an amazingly rich history. There are so many stories of people and places to tell,” Anderson said.
Volume X is available in person at the Alderson Artisans Gallery, 101 Railroad Avenue or online at www.aldersongallery.com/shop or by ordering through Alderson Main Street. The order form is on the AMS Facebook page.
All ten volumes are also available individually or as a set that may be extra welcome this holiday season. What a great Christmas gift for family and friends who may not be able to follow country roads home to West Virginia this year. Anderson recaps the volumes as follows:
Volume I – Read about the railroad wreck that littered so much tobacco, flour, and bacon that local storekeepers sold none of those commodities for a month.
Volume II – An Alderson inventor who was awarded a patent for a still in 1897 – but it’s not the kind you are probably imagining.
Volume III – Read about the stories of heroism that saved lives during Alderson’s thousand-year flood.
Volume IV – Alderson was founded because of forbidden love.
Volume V – America’s first female ambassador and her husband, a captain of the Danish King’s Guard, lived in Alderson in a home that is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Volume VI – Learn about the hardware store that sold everything from turkeys to sheetrock. Read the memo with the store’s request to “ship us…7 Widows.”
Volume VII – Read about the lion and the traveling salesman, the Alderson native who became a Jazz Age sensation and the family that turned a three-story brick warehouse into a home.
Volume VIII – This special edition commemorates six decades of West Virginia’s Largest Fourth of July Celebration.
Volume IX – Read about TickTock’s clock, the story of how the pedestrian bridge came to be decorated with lights every Christmas and the movie made by a major studio from a book written by a former Alderson student.
Whether you live in Alderson or far away, these volumes of history, meticulously researched and prepared by Anderson, are a trip down memory lane that will celebrate the holiday season.