Looking Back: South Side Events | News, Sports, Jobs

THE NEW FACTORY

Will soon be ready to begin operations.

The South Side Pottery Co. plant, at the foot of East street, will be ready to begin operations in two or three weeks. Nearly all the elegant and expensive machinery has been installed and the engine and boiler are expected to arrive Wednesday. There has been some delay in obtaining the material necessary for the construction of the kilns, but seven carloads of this material have arrived and the kilns will be built immediately.

The Parkersburg Sentinel

September 14, 1903

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South Side Citizens Discuss Incorporation

The members of the general incorporation committee of South Parkersburg, appointed at a meeting of citizens about a week ago, met last evening at the office of Mrs. Lenora Satterfield, justice of the peace, and discussed the plans for incorporation. Two committees were appointed, one with Captain J. Ross as chairman, to make a survey of the territory included in the plan, including such data as the number of houses, voters and residents in that section, and another committee, composed of Judge Reese Blizzard, George Dye and E. E. Florence, to interview the mills of South Parkersburg in an attempt to ascertain their position on the question submitted to the section.

Chairman Ross, of the Survey Committee, will appoint six subcommittees to assist him in carrying out the survey, one for each district of the territory which may be included in the incorporation. The general committee is composed of Mrs. Lenora Satterfield, chairman and secretary, Amos Tebay, Amos Matheny, Amos Kenney and Forrest Hill.

At the meeting, it was explained that the South Side does not plan to incorporate until the next session of the Legislature.

Once the work of the investigation commissions has been completed, the data collected will be presented at a public meeting of citizens from the districts of Lübeck and Tygart.

Parkersburg News

January 20, 1926

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CONDITION OF EXPLOSION VICTIMS IMPROVES IN HOSPITALS

Thousands continue to flock to South Parkersburg to view the rubble

The victims of the gas explosion at the Backus Hotel, Camden Avenue, South Parkersburg, continued to feel better last night and are expected to recover, although some of them will have to remain in the hospital for a long time. Mrs. Edith Pierce, who was the most seriously injured, showed great improvement, doctors said. Her three children, all hospitalized, were also doing better. The explosion occurred about 6 o’clock Monday night, burying about a dozen people under the rubble of the two-story frame building. In addition to the six hospitalized, a half-dozen others were slightly injured, including Lloyd Backus, 914 Virginia Avenue, who suffered a shattered hand, several broken ribs, cuts and bruises.

According to what was learned last night from official sources, no official investigation is planned into the cause of the explosion. It was indicated that if the explosion proved fatal to any of the persons present in the hospital, an investigation might be necessary to establish the cause of death, but no investigation is planned beyond that. It has been established with some certainty that the explosion was caused by a leak of natural gas, since almost all the persons present in the building smelled the gas.

Thousands of people continued to flock to South Parkersburg Tuesday to view the rubble of the hotel. Some of the wreckage has been cordoned off and guards have been deployed to the property, replacing city and state police who spent most of Monday night there.

Firefighters have been repeatedly questioned as to why the fire did not start in the ruins. An official of the Hope Natural Gas Company said Monday after the explosion that an explosion of the force that destroyed the hotel could, of its own accord, have extinguished any fire in the building, like a nitroglycerin explosion. The gas, he believed, would have been contained in the space between the walls of the hotel, causing the lower walls to swell and explode.

Parkersburg News

March 6, 1929

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Bob Enoch is the president of the Wood County Historical and Preservation Society. If you have any comments or questions about Look Back articles, please contact him at [email protected], or by mail at WCHPS, PO Box 565, Parkersburg, WV 26102.

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