"Carriages of Monroe County"

The Historical Society is pleased to announce the availability of "Carriages of Monroe County", based on our recent campaign to raise interest in our project to build the Carriage House Museum in Union. It incorporates some 25 articles published in The Watchman over the last year, together with 73 illustrations. These articles were well received and we were asked for copies of some of them, like "The Meaning of Chalybeate" and "Taking the Waters", so we decided to publish them in one 76 page volume.

This book employs modern digital technology and the volume is a "print-on-demand" book so we can order more copies as needed without incurring start-up costs. This book was produced in our county by Ba Rea of Bas Relief LLC and this has included Photo-Shop repairs of many of the vintage photos to restore the fading and damage that has occurred over the years. The book contains 43 vintage photographs and every effort has been made to identify the individuals, locations and dates represented by the pictures. These pictures come from collections in our Museum, from The Watchman, from the WVU Library, from Culture & History in Charlestown as well as from 15 individuals here and around the country who responded to our requests in The Watchman. Most communities in the County are represented in the photos, and the dates cluster around 1910, but range from 1860 to 1945.

Color pictures of our carriages and wagons are included as is a chapter on the raising of the timber-frame structure that will hold them. Also included are eight period advertisements from various sources, including The Watchman, and various catalogues and travel brochures of the time. This book is designed to take the reader back to a time when the technology of travel was vastly different and a time when Monroe County was a major tourist venue in the South.

The cost of "Carriages of Monroe" is $19.00 and all proceeds go the Historical Society. You can obtain copies at the Museum. For those of you outside the County, the book is listed on the publications page of our website, with ordering instructions. The book was designed for Monroe residents, past and present, but is also available on Amazon.com and they have sample pages on display.