History Center Museum Exhibit

History Center Museum Exhibit

Date/Time
Date(s) - Sunday, August 11, 2019
1:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Location
History Center Museum

Categories No Categories


The Upshur County Historical Society presents the Summer 2019 Exhibit displaying ‘An Upshur County Scrapbook of Unusual and Interesting People, Places, Events and other Curiosities’. Please stop by sometime throughout the Summer to witness some of the ‘unusual & interesting’!

Each year, the volunteers of the Historical Society dedicate  hours and resources to offering an impressive summer exhibit. Not only will 2019 feature an interesting topic, the exhibit itself is housed within the oldest structure of Buckhannon – the History Center Museum. It was built in 1856 and was listed on National Register of Historic Places in 1992.

The History Center Museum was utilized during the Civil War; the structure was commandeered for use by the Federal government (as were most churches in this area) as a food commissary. Betty Hornbeck, in her book Upshur Brothers of the Blue and Gray, wrties that on August 30, 1862, following a battle of “Watertank Hill” in a Confederate victory known as “Jenkins Raid”, twenty to thirty captured Federal prisoners were marched first to the courthouse and….

“after the arms had been destroyed, the prisoners were taken to the Southern Methodist Church on West Main Street that was being used as a commissary. The church contained thousands of bushels of oats and corn, all of which were taken into the street and burned by the prisoners under order of Commander Jenkins. Green coffee beans were shoe deep in the street.”

The oil painting inside the Museum, over the front entrance depicts the looting and pillaging of the frightening night so long ago.