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The community of Sandstone is located on New River in the western end of
Summers County. It was first settled by the Richmond family on the
Raleigh County side of New River in the early 1800's. A Post Office was
moved to the Summers County side of the river and the name was changed
to New Richmond. The Post Office and a trading post were operated by
John A. RICHMOND, grandson of the original settler. Prior to the
establishment of Summers County, it was largely a rural community with
scattered settlers along both sides of new River, on Lick Creek, Laurel
Creek, Chestnut Mt., Hump Mt., and Sewell Mt.
The community began to boom with the coming of the railroad. The station
at New Richmond was the natural geographical outlet for a large area to
the outside world. It became an important shipping point for agriculture
products, livestock and timber while merchants and citizens received
most of their merchandise and farm supplies at this station.
At the time of the formation of Summers County, New Richmond rivaled
Hinton as the commerce center of the new county and there was a short
lived attempt to establish the county seat at this point.
There was another New Richmond on the C&O in the State of Ohio so in
order to avoid confusion the railroad named the station Sandstone and
for several years the Post Office and station had different names but in
1915 the name of the Post Office was changed to Sandstone. The name
Sandstone came from the rock quarry of that native stone which was
located on the Richmond land near the present Junior High School. When
the Washington Monument was being constructed in the nations capitol, a
stone was requested from each state to be included in the monument. the
stone from West Virginia was secured from this quarry and in 1884 it was
placed in the monument.
During the late 1800's and early 1900's the community was rapidly
settled with most of the activity revolving around the railroad. There
were several passenger trains each day and in addition to those people
arriving and departing, there was always a crowd of onlookers. This
along with the freight, baggage and mail being loaded and unloaded made
each train arrival an exciting event. Almost daily, local freights
picked up cars of lumber, logs and cross ties from the side track and
occasionally livestock was picked up from the stock pens. At the same
timie, the railroad was setting off cars of flour, fertilizer and other
merchandise for merchants to unload.
The first drug store in the county was operated by Dr. Samuel WILLIAMS
at New Richmond during the construction of the C&O Railroad. John A.
Richmond had the first store. This store and post office was located in
the lower end and later was moved into a three story building near the
depot where it was operated by his son, John William RICHMOND. Other
early businesses were: a planing mill first owned by the GRAHAM brothers
and later by Calvin HONAKER. J.A. GRAHAM and Charles LUSHER had a
mercantile business and this was later sold to Lon TULLY. Jeff WITHROW
had a store on the hill. O.T. HONAKER had a small general store on the
Rt. 20 side of the tracks before this road was paved and later moved
into the J.A. GRAHAM building. For a while there was a movie house
operated by LUSHER and WINGFIELD. Sam GILLIAN opened a store on the hill
and John GILLIAN had a store on Laurel Creek. S.C. CANTRELL had a store
about 100 yards up the tracks from the depot. George GILLIAN had a
restaurant across the tracks from the depot and later Sam GILLIAN opened
a second store in this building which was operated by his niece, Mrs.
Eula KIBLER. For many years, Bill and Babe SIMMONS operated a store in
the lower end that was later demolished during the construction of I-64.
J.C. and Mary HONAKER were probably the most enterprising business
people in the community for many years. J.C. first had a livery stable
and after the coming of the automobile, he had a garage. Jess and Mary
took over the mercantile store from his father, operated a taxi service
and for a time operated a bus line from Hinton to Rainelle. Dr. Samuel
WILLIAMS was probably the first doctor, later a Dr. RIFFE had an office
in the lower end. Dr. J.W. STOKES began his medical practice at
Sandstone and Dr. J.T. JOHNSON had an office in the Cantrell Store
Building. Jess TAYLOR and Lonnie BURDETTE had barber shops. Willa
HUDDLESTON SURBAUGH operated the Tea Room. The Fairmont Cream Station
was operated by Warren HUDDLESTON and later Mattie GRAHAM. Simon CALES
had a blacksmith shop on the hill and later a store at this point.
Emmett and Elmer GARTEN took over the store from the HONAKERs and this
store together with the post office and two homes were demolished by
fire in 1961.
The building was re-built and in recent years stores have been operated
by Charles W. BOYD, Bill HOLT and Jim Tom TOLER. Some depot agents were:
Oather BURDETTE, J.A. GRAHAM, Luther RICHMOND, A.E. BALL and Fred
HUDDLESTON.
Sandstone was a thriving community through the middle of this century
but in recent years it has lost much of it's commerce and population. As
the passenger trains were discontinued, the depot closed and was later
demolished. The High School was consolidated into Hinton High School and
a community that supported as many as five general stores at one time
was at times without any.
ADDENDUM to above: Interstate 64 is now completed and there is a
Sandstone exit. The Sandstone High School is no longer used and was
demolished in the summer of 1999. Students now attend Summers County
High School.
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