WEST VIRGINIA 



6251 



WEST VIRGINIA 



man states and certain territorial questions. 

 Roman Catholics, Lutherans and Calvinists 

 were given equal rights, and with certain excep- 

 tions the prince of each German state was au- 

 thorized to determine the religion of the people 

 under his jurisdiction. Those who dissented 

 from the established religion were to be per- 

 mitted to emigrate within five years. 



The independence of Switzerland and of the 

 United Netherlands was formally recognized. 

 in Pomerania, which belonged to Bran- 

 denburg, was ceded to Sweden, and Branden- 

 burg given certain cessions of territory as 

 compensation. One of the most important pro- 

 visions of the treaty was one which decreed the 

 cession of Alsace to France and confirmed that 

 country's claim to the three bishoprics in Lor- 

 raine. Three hundred years later, in 1871, Ger- 

 many wrested from France the Alsatian lands 

 and left in the hearts of the French a bitter 

 feeling that broke out afresh in the great war of 

 1914. Of the Peace of Westphalia the historian 

 Myers says: 



It stands at the dividing line of two great 

 epochs. It marks the end of the Reformation 

 period and the begin- 

 ning Of that Of the fm^^^^^^m^^^mt^^am 

 political revolution 

 Henceforth, 



broadly, men will fight for constitutions, not for 

 creeds. 



WEST SPRINGFIELD, MASS., a town in 

 Hampden County, in the west-central part of 

 the state. It is on the Connecticut River, op- 

 posite Springfield, of which it was a part until 

 its separate incorporation in 1774. Within the 

 city limits are several villages, and the place 

 contains the homes of many Springfield busi- 

 ness men. Interesting features are a park, a 

 town hall, public library and the old Day 

 House. Repair shops of the Boston A Albany 

 Railroad, paper mills and cigar factories are the 

 chief industrial establishments. The popula- 

 tion, which in 1910 was 9524, was 10,555 in 1916 

 (Federal estimate). See SPRINGFIELD (MASS.). 



WEST'VILLE, a town in Pictou County, 

 Nova Scotia, in the north-central part of the 

 province. It is on the Intercolonial Railway, 

 five miles west of New Glasgow and ten and 

 one-half miles south of Pictou. Like most of 

 the towns in this part of Pictou County. Wcst- 

 ville is important chiefly for its coal mines. 

 Saw mills and brick yards are of secondary im- 

 portance. Westville was founded in 1866, and 

 was incorporate <"1 in 

 1894. Population* 

 Capitol. || in 1911, 4 ,117. 



THE STORY OF WEST VIRGINIA 



'EST VIRGINIA, one of the South At- 

 lantic states, the only one in that group winch 

 is entirely cut off from the sea. The state was 

 war-born, and came to be known as the "storm 

 rhilil" of the War of Secession. Its inhabitants, 

 not sympathizing with Virginia in the secession 

 movement of 1861, separated from the parent 

 state, and adopting the motto, ''Mountaineers 

 are always free," organized a new common- 

 wealth. It is popularly known as the PAN- 

 HANDLE STATE, from its irregular projections ex- 

 tending northeast between Maryland and Vir- 

 ginia and north between Ohio and Pennsyl- 

 vania. The rhododendron, a wild shrub of the 

 mountains, has been chosen aa the flov. 



blem. 



Location and Size. The state occupies an 

 irregular area on the west slope of the Appa- 



lachian Mountains between Virginia and K.n- 

 tucky. By nature it seemed destined to be- 

 come an individual commonwealth, since it is 

 cut off from the surrounding states by natural 

 boundaries of mountain ridpr and i 



Havinu an area of 24,170 square miles, it 

 rank* fortieth in site among the state*; it i> 

 slightly Mnall. r than South Carolina, but al- 

 most twice as largo as the next smaller state, 

 its nnulilx.r. Maryhn.I; it i< pn-at.-r in sifC 

 than the combined areas of the two Canadian 

 provinces of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward 

 Island. 



The People. The native inhabitants of the 

 state are for the most part descendants < 

 ginia mountaineers and hardy pioneers from 

 Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky. 

 In the government census of 1910, West Vir- 



