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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. (WEST VIRGINIA.) 



Soldiers' Monument. The Legislature of 

 1901 made an appropriation and provided for a 

 commission for the erection of a State monument 

 to 9 unclaimed dead of the First Washington 

 Volunteers, buried in the Masonic cemetery at 

 Olympia. The design adopted consists of a pedes- 

 tal of Walla Walla polished granite 10 feet high, 

 surmounted by a bronze figure of a soldier 6 feet 

 tall, in fatigue uniform similar to that of the 

 regiment. 



WEST VIRGINIA, a Southern State, ad- 

 mitted to the Union June 19, 1863; area, 24,780 

 square miles. The population, according to each 

 decennial census since admission, was 442,014 in 

 1870; 618,457 in 1880; 762,794 in 1890; and 958,- 

 800 in 1900. Capital, Charleston. 



Government. The following were the State 

 officers in 1901: Governor, A. B. White; Secretary 

 of State, W. M. O. Dawson; Treasurer, Peter Sill- 

 man; Auditor, Arnold C. Scherr; Attorney-Gen- 

 eral, Romeo H. Freer; Superintendent of Schools, 

 Thomas E. Miller; Adjutant-General, S. B. 

 Baker; Librarian, S. W. Stark; Bank Examiner, 

 C. B. Kefauver; Secretary of the Board of Agri- 

 culture, J. O. Thompson; Labor Commissioner, I. 

 V. Barton; Mine Inspector, J. W. Paull; Game 

 and Fish Warden, E. F. Smith; Presiding Judge 

 of the Supreme Court of Appeals, M. H. Dent; 

 Associate Judges, Henry Brannon, H. C. Mc- 

 Whorter, George Poffenbarger. All the State offi- 

 cers are Republicans except Judge Dent. 



State officers are elected for terms of four years 

 at the time of the presidential elections, and are 

 inaugurated on the 4th of the following March. 

 The Legislature meets biennially in January of 

 the odd-numbered years. 



Finances. The receipts in the Treasurer's 

 office for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 1901, 

 were: State fund, $1,672,644.39; general school 

 fund, $436,877.96; school fund, $79,263.92; total, 

 $2,188,786.27. The disbursements were: State 

 fund, $1,606,241.89; general school fund, $458,133.- 

 14; school fund, $151,134.10; total, $2,215,509.13. 

 Balance to credit of State fund Oct. 1, 1900, 

 $228,819.96; general school fund, $387,460.71; 

 school fund, $518,468.55; total, $1,134,749.22. 

 Total of receipts and balance, $3,323,535.49; sub- 

 tracting disbursements leaves a balance in 1901 

 of $1,108,026.36. 



In addition to this there was to the credit of 

 the State, Sept. 30, 1901, in bonds, stocks, and 

 other investments of the school fund, $649,249.50. 

 The amount paid out for criminal charges for the 

 year was $125,000. 



The chief sources of income for the year ending 

 Sept. 30, 1901, were these: Licenses, $306,277; 

 corporation license on charter, $380,506; railroad 

 taxes, $78,041 ; interest on deposits and stocks 

 and bonds, $68,549; sundries, fines, etc., $26,977; 

 capitations, $157,055; land, $295,023; buildings 

 on land, $53,435; lots, $58,299; buildings on lots. 

 $92,887; intangible personal property, $101,376; 

 tangible personal property, $86,974. 



The large increase of receipts in 1901 arises 

 principally from the operation of the new corpora- 

 tion law, the increase from this source being $240,- 

 000 over the previous year. There was also $88,- 

 000 increase in receipts from license taxes, and 

 $32,000 from redemption of lands, owing to the 

 enactment of the law diverting these taxes from 

 the irreducible school to the general fund. 



Militia. The Adjutant-General's report for 

 1901 gives an enrolment of 1.049 men in the State 

 militia, with 125,000 available. 



Education. In 1901 there were employed 

 7,350 teachers in the public schools, which num- 

 bered 6,000. The total enrolment was 235,000, 



and the total cost of the schools $2,250,000. The 

 total enrolment of the university at Morgantovvn 

 and the 2 preparatory schools at Montgomery 

 and Keyser was 1,013, the university enrolment 

 being 882. The appropriation for the university 

 was $137.700. There are 6 normal schools. 



Public Institutions. The State in 1901 

 maintained the following institutions: Home for 

 Incurables at Huntington; insane asylums at 

 Weston and Spencer; Deaf, Dumb, and Blind 

 Asylum at Romney; Boys' Reform School at 

 Pruntytown; miners' hospitals at Welch, McKen- 

 dree, and Fairmont; colored institutes at Ka- 

 nawha and Bluefield; Home for Girls at Salem; 

 Storer College. 



The second building of the Asylum for Incur- 

 ables was opened in February. 



In 1901, 189 United States prisoners and 265- 

 State prisoners were received at the Penitentiary, 

 at Moundsville. 



Thei West Virginia Historical and Antiquarian 

 Society reports for the year 1901 more than 6,000 

 volumes, 4,000 pamphlets, many valuable manu- 

 scripts, maps, and- a large collection of valuable 

 autographs. The museum contains tens of thou- 

 sands of relics, curios, and a fine exhibit of the 

 timber, coal, marble, building-stones, fire and 

 brick clays, and other products of the State, with 

 specimens of its manufactures. A historical maga- 

 zine, to be issued quarterly, was established in 

 1901. 



Resources and Products. West Virginia, 

 stands third in the production of coal, the quality 

 of which is unsurpassed, as it is particularly free 

 from sulfur. In 1901, 23,000,000 tons of coal were 

 mined, 380 mines being in operation in 52 coun- 

 ties; 20,290,991 tons, valued at $18,104,391.90, 

 were produced in .21 counties. In 90 of the mines 

 390 electrical machines were used, which reduced 

 the number of miners from 33,000 to 32,386. 

 Forty new mines were opened, one in Mingo Coun- 

 ty being the largest in the world. The average 

 number of days spent in mining coal was 225, the 

 average wages per man $46.65 per month. 



The United States Steel Corporation leased 

 from the Pocahontas Coal Company 50,000 acres 

 of coal-field, also 3,000 coke-ovens which had an 

 output of 1,500,000 tons of coke. The price paid 

 was $20,000,000. 



In the production of coke West Virginia stands 

 second. In 1901, 3,000,000 tons of coke were pro- 

 duced, valued at $3,635,051.76, the ovens being 

 in operation two hundred and thirty-five days. 

 The State stands first in the production of petro- 

 leum, 20,000,000 barrels being produced in 1901. 

 The State also leads in oil and natural gas, the: 

 famous white-sand oil being considered the best 

 in the world. The gas-wells are the largest to be 

 found. In 1901 the manufacture of glass was 

 trebled, many capitalists coming to this State 

 from Indiana, where they had shut down large 

 factories because the gas in that region had given 

 out. The oil line is extending toward Pennsyl- 

 vania. Gas-wells are now in operation for 1,000 

 square miles around Charleston. 



Perhaps the greatest source of wealth is the 

 timber, there being 15,000 square miles of fine 

 timber-land. Here are the largest mills in the 

 world for hardwood, 100,000,000 feet of which 

 was produced in 1901. The output of poplar was 

 150,000,000 feet, and of spruce 60,000,000 feet. 



Although called the Mountain State, West Vir- 

 ginia's area is from 25 to 30 per cent, in fertile 

 valleys, especially adapted to stock grazing and 

 growing of small fruits. The largest orchard in 

 the world is in Randolph County. It covers 

 1,740 acres, and contains 200,000 trees. 



