CHAPTER TWO
THE TOUCH OF CAPITAL: RAILROADS, TINDER, AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE BACKCOUNTIES
THE TOUCH OF CAPITAL: RAILROADS, TINDER, AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE BACKCOUNTIES
West Virginia's semicentennial was celebrated in 1913 with an array of activities and venues. Most popular were the speeches of prominent businessmen and politicians such as Henry Gassaway Davis, who still remembered the day when West Virginia became the thirty-fifth state. In retrospect, however, few words better crystallize the spirit, pride, and sense of accomplishment than the poem "West Virginia" written for the occasion by Herbert Putnam:
To-day we celebrate
The ripe achievements of our fifty years:--
The mastery
Of forest, field, and mine, the mill which rears
Its bulk o'er many a stream, the forge and factory's
Incessant hum,
The railways linking mart to mart and home to home,
The growth of trade in each emporium,
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