WEST VIRGINIA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 9 



From the above information, it will be seen that Lewis 

 County has 18 post-offices and 20 rural free delivery routes. 



Towns and Industries. 



There are only two incorporated towns in Lewis County, 

 but there are numerous thriving villages that have no town 

 charters. 



Weston. 



\\~eston, the county seat of Lewis, is located on the West 

 Fork River, at the point where it receives the tributary streams 

 of Stonecoal and Polk Creeks. The following account by 

 Lewis 4 gives the early history of the town : 



"Weston, the county seat, was established a town under the name 

 of 'Preston,' January, 1818, on lands of Daniel Stringer and Lewis 

 Maxwell; Henry McWhorter, William Peterson, James M. Camp and 

 Robert Collins were appointed trustees. By an Act of February 20, 

 1819, the name of the town was changed to 'Fleshersville.' This, how- 

 ever, does not appear to have been satisfactory, for on the 19th of 

 the following December, it was enacted that the town established in 

 f he county of Lewis, by the name of 'Preston,' afterward changed to 

 'Fleshersville,' shall hereafter be known by the name of 'Weston.' " 



\Yeston is built principally on the flood plain of the West 

 Fork River, its general elevation being about 1025 feet above 

 sea level. It owes its existence principally to the county busi- 

 ness and partly to the unsurpassed agricultural region which 

 entirely surrounds it and for which it is the natural supply 

 point. In addition to these features, it has one of the largest 

 eleemosynary institutions in the State, and has also an impor- 

 tant glass manufacturing industry. One of its largest sources 

 of income and growth is the great natural gas industry that 

 surrounds it and for which it handles most of the supplies. It 

 is not unusual on Monday mornings to see one hundred heavy 

 wagons loaded with pipe and gas well supplies starting for the 

 various fields. 



The town is served by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, 

 the branches of which, as previously described, extend in three 

 directions and offer good facilities for distribution and supply. 



Virgil A. Lewis, History of West Virginia, p. 636; 1889. 



