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CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- A West Virginia State University archaeological field school has begun surveying the grounds of the 1838 Malden home once owned by John P. Hale, a key figure in the Kanawha Valley’s early commercial and political life.
Hale was a great-grandson of Mary Draper Ingles, among the first European settlers to set foot in the Kanawha Valley after she, her two children and a sister-in-law were taken captive in 1755 in a Shawnee raid on their settlement near present-day Blacksburg, Virginia.
At age 16, Hale moved from Ingles Ferry, Virginia, to Charleston, where he attended the Mercer Academy and later studied medicine with Charleston physician Spicer Patrick, who represented Kanawha County in the Virginia Assembly. Hale went on to complete his medical studies at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1845, after which he established a practice in Charleston.
But within two years, Hale closed his practice and moved on to other pursuits.
“He decided practicing medicine wasn’t as interesting as becoming a businessman,” said Michael Workman, associate professor and coordinator of the history program at West Virginia State, as he walked across the yard of Hale’s one-time home, past survey flags marking the grids to be surveyed.
Nearby, under the supervision of the project’s field director, Carl Demuth of Marshall University, a group of students carefully shoveled out a narrow pit as part of a preliminary “posthole survey” of the project area, to learn more about its soil types and what features or artifacts may be likely to be encountered.
“We will be looking for evidence of other structures on the property and for anything that might offer a glimpse into the daily life of people in this area in the 1800s,” Workman said.
Students taking part in the four-week field school also will research records at the West Virginia State Archives and the Kanawha County Courthouse to learn more about the 185-year-old house and Hale’s time in Malden, Workman said.
“We’ll combine what we learn from the literature searches with what we find here to try to come up with a clearer picture of what life was like here,” he said.
After taking leave of his career in medicine, Hale immersed himself in the booming salt-making trade underway at Malden since the early 1800s. He opened his own salt works near present-day Snow Hill Drive and began buying up and consolidating other salt properties. By the eve of the Civil War, Hale owned possibly the largest salt works in North America, according to the West Virginia Encyclopedia.
During the Civil War, Hale organized a Confederate Army artillery battery, which took part in the 1861 Battle of Scary Creek, and, in 1862, served as a field surgeon during the Seven Days Battles near Richmond.
He remained active in commercial ventures during the war.
In 1863, Hale helped organize a Charleston bank and began operating the first steam packet boat on the Upper Kanawha River. After the war, in 1868, he began operating the first steam-powered yacht on the Kanawha. The following year, he began operating the valley’s first brick-making machine.
By 1871, after the Kanawha Valley’s salt industry had virtually collapsed, Hale had moved to Charleston and, there, launched a series of “firsts,” including: Opening the city’s first gas company, theater, ice delivery service, steam laundry, steam-powered ferryboat, and barrel-making factory. Also in 1871, Hale was elected Charleston’s mayor.
An arguably larger achievement occurred the previous year, when he led a successful effort to have the state capital moved to Charleston from Wheeling, and then led a group of investors to build the first Capitol building here.
Hale opened the Hale House hotel near his downtown home in 1872. In later years, he was active in the coal and timber businesses, but focused much of his attention on the Kanawha Valley’s history, of which he wrote two books. In 1890, he helped found the West Virginia Historical and Antiquarian Society, which later became the State Archives.
He died in 1902.
During the four-week field school, students will be on site at Malden’s Hale House, at 4208 Malden Drive, from 9 a.m. to noon, Mondays through Thursdays. The public is invited to visit the site during class hours and participate in the dig. The project ends July 13.
The field school is receiving financial assistance from the West Virginia Humanities Council, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.