Crany | |
---|---|
Coordinates: 37°44′24″N81°32′09″W / 37.74000°N 81.53583°W | |
Country | United States |
State | West Virginia |
County | Wyoming |
Elevation | 1,506 ft (459 m) |
Time zone | UTC-5 (Eastern (EST)) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC-4 (EDT) |
ZIP codes | 24870 |
GNIS ID | 1549645 [1] |
Crany is an unincorporated community in Wyoming County, West Virginia, United States, situated along the Clear Fork. [2] It was one of the originally populated settlements of the region and is situated in a fertile farming plain. The community consists of small family farms, has retained much of the descendants of the original pioneers of the region, and was a historically important region for logging in the early 20th century. [3]
The origin of the name has been explained through two traditional stories stating that the community was named after the Crane Fork, a small tributary of the Clear Fork, which was later shortened to Crany deriving from the mountain dialect spoken by the pioneer settlers. Another explanation of the etymology may stem from a misprint of the word Cranny, meaning an obscure nook or corner. [4]
In 1795, the Valley that surrounds Crany was surveyed as part of Montgomery County, Virginia as a larger tract of land belonging to Joseph Tidball and Charles Myn Thurston. James Welch acquired the land patent and sold it to Joseph Mandeville in 1797. [5] Captain Ralph Stewart and his family were the first settlers of Crany arriving in 1800, although he did not legally own land in the county, Stewart settled in the Crany Fork Valley, where his children also settled and married into local families. [6]
Stewart was the second settler in the area within the modern-day county, along with John Cooke who settled and founded Oceana. Stewart first squatted on the land to escape being arrested for murders he committed, despite being later pardoned by the governor, he chose to live in the wilderness surrounded by mountains of the region that rise over 2,000 feet. Stewart's headstone stands at the mouth of Bee Branch in Crany. [7]
Ralph Canterbury, Daniel Gunnoe, and Perry Bailey were among the businessmen who operated several stores at different Crany locations in the 19th century. The Crany community had a school built in 1850, authorized by the county board of education led by William Brooks. Richard Brooks, William's father, was the first teacher. Two schools, Crany and Adkin, were established and served the children of the valley. The Crany school was abolished between the 1940s and '50s, while the Adkin school was abolished around 1965. The Crany Missionary Baptist Church was founded by Rev. James L. Marshall in 1886 and initially held services in the school and in homes. The congregation now meets in a modern building located midway through the valley. [8]
Wyoming County is a county in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 21,382. Its county seat is Pineville. The county was created in 1850 from Logan County and named for the Lenape word meaning "large plains".
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The Shenandoah Valley is a geographic valley and cultural region of western Virginia and the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia in the United States. The valley is bounded to the east by the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the west by the eastern front of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, to the north by the Potomac River and to the south by the James River. The cultural region covers a larger area that includes all of the valley plus the Virginia highlands to the west, and the Roanoke Valley to the south. It is physiographically located within the Ridge and Valley province and is a portion of the Great Appalachian Valley.
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Shavers Mountain, is a high and rugged ridge situated in the Allegheny Mountains of eastern West Virginia. It is about 35 miles (56 km) long, north to south, and several of its peaks exceed 4,000 feet (1,200 m) in elevation. Shavers Mountain is notable for being "bookended", at its northern and southern ends, by two exceptional natural areas: the Otter Creek Wilderness and the Gaudineer Scenic Area, respectively, both of which preserve small stands of old growth forest on the mountain.
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Freedom is an unincorporated community in both northeastern Caribou County, Idaho, and northwestern Lincoln County, Wyoming, in the United States; the Wyoming portion of the community is also a census-designated place (CDP). The population was 247 at the 2020 census.
Clayton is an unincorporated community in Summers County, West Virginia, United States. The community was first settled in 1813. Clayton once had a post office, which opened in 1879 and closed in 1959.
Shively is an unincorporated community located on the Smokehouse Fork of Big Harts Creek in Logan County, West Virginia, United States. Shively is accessed by County Route 3. It is situated 7.2 miles from Harts and 9.3 miles from Chapmanville.
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