Pre-Star City

According to Native American oral tradition, Indigenous peoples have lived here since time immemorial, and archeological studies indicate that one site in the region is about 19,000 years old. Early Native Americans interacted and traded with other peoples by way of the Monongahela River and other waterways, with trade routes extending in all directions, including to the Gulf Coast, Great Lakes, and beyond the Rocky Mountains. Peoples who lived here around 500 to 1,000 years ago are referred to by researchers as the Monongahela Culture. Monongahelan villages typically had small, round dwellings arranged in concentric circles around a plaza, and early peoples had a varied diet that included meats, vegetables, fruits, and nuts. Native Nations also had complex societies with governmental, medicinal, and spiritual practices, as well as their own distinct languages, arts, and recreation, and many modern Native peoples still practice some of these traditions today. The area later became a farming community whose residents considered themselves members of Jimtown/Hamilton across the river, and families including the Pickenpaughs, Yeagers, and Andersons collectively owned several hundred acres around present-day Star City. Jimtown was named for its founder, James Hamilton, who operated a ferry, a general store, and post office. In 1903, the Keystone Industrial Company purchased 423 acres along the Mon River and what is now Collins Ferry Road from the Yeagers and Andersons, and this land became home to the Randall Glass Company and its workers. The small town was known as Randall until Louis Kauffeld Sr. bought the land for the Star Glass Company. The D.I.B. Anderson Farm, built during this time, is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Star City, West Virginia · United States