In 1954, a boy named Billy started listening to the stories of his great-grandfather, Jesse Cox, who was in his nineties at the time and had been a prominent Kanawha Valley businessman who had listened carefully to stories of the early industrial history of the area. The author, William Drennen, recreates the stories he heard as a boy. Drennen graduated from Yale and earned a Masters from West Virginia State. He taught history both at West Virginia State and Shepherd College. He serves on the board of the Jefferson County Historical Society.
Shepherdstown, West Virginia: The Aerial Image, 2018. 139 pages with maps, an article by Anne Royall (1769-1854) entitled “Salt Works at Kanawha County” as the Foreword; an excerpt from an article by W. S. Laidley (1839-1917) entitled “History of West Virginia and Kanawha County West” as Appendix B, and a Bibliography. Hardback with a pictorial cover.