Exchange is a former stopping point along the Coal & Coke Railway and a ghost town in Braxton County, West Virginia.
Exchange is a former stopping point along the Coal & Coke Railway and a ghost town in Braxton County, West Virginia.
The Smyth survey for 56,000 acres, which included most of the Exchange community, was patented in 1798. 2 The patent was later acquired by a company in New York City while the title was held for many years by Dr. Willard Parker. A special tax titles law was enacted by the Virginia legislature in 1838 which allowed for land to be sold as title titles. Bitter legislation with the Smyth family resulted in a compromise, with residents paying 30 cents an acre for the Smyth title.
After a mill in nearby Cuplip was closed in 1891, H.F. Shaver built a small water mill along Perkins Fork a few miles south. 2 A small community, initially referred to as Millburn by Shaver, began to develop around the mill. 1 Henry Gerwig built a store in 1893, which was later operated by Jacob Riffle, Henry Lloyd, Lloyd and Bender, and O.J. Lloyd. 2 The mill was acquired and enlarged by the Lloyd brothers in 1908.
The Coal & Coke Railway was surveyed in 1903, graded in 1904, and erected in 1905, with the first trains running through the community in the following year. 2 The community was renamed Exchange after the post office was established in August 1904 2/1906. 1
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Further Reading
- History of Exchange from the West Virginia Archives and History
Sources
- Kenny, Hamill. West Virginia Place Names: Their Origin and Meaning, Including the Nomenclature of the Streams and Mountains. Piedmont, WV, 1945: The Place Name Press. p. 235.
- “Exchange Community.” West Virginia Archives and History.
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