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The McClain Printing Company (MPC) is a printing company specializing in books of West Virginia history and lore. The company was incorporated in 1958 in Parsons, West Virginia as an outgrowth of the local weekly newspaper, the Parsons Advocate .
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The McClain Printing Company (MPC) is a printing company specializing in books of West Virginia history and lore. The company was incorporated in 1958 in Parsons, West Virginia as an outgrowth of the local weekly newspaper, the Parsons Advocate .
In 1943, Ken and Faith Reynolds McClain had bought the Parsons Advocate which had been founded in 1896. Mr. McClain was approached around 1957 by West Virginia University professors who feared that early local West Virginia histories would be lost if they were not reprinted. In 1958, the newspaper undertook the reprinting of Alexander Scott Withers’ classic history, Chronicles of Border Warfare, as its first venture in book publishing. When McClain retired in the early 1970s, his son-in-law and daughter, George and Mariwyn Smith, moved to Parsons. George took over the printing company and Mariwyn the newspaper. When George Smith retired in 1997, son Kenneth E. Smith became the third generation to operate the company.
In its first 35 years of existence, the MPC produced comprehensive county histories of over 35 West Virginia counties, as well as thousands of other titles. These included the works of West Virginia poet laureate Louise McNeill, folklorists such as Ruth Ann Musick and James Gay Jones, bestselling volumes such as Howard B. Lee’s Bloodletting in Appalachia and Roy B. Clarkson’s Tumult on the Mountains, and reprints of classic local histories by W.C. Dodrill, Wills DeHass, Hu Maxwell, and others.
Commercial printing was added as a service several years ago. Today, the MPC pursues offset printing, a book binding service, a typesetting service, and magazine and book publishing and printing. Much of their printing services consist of commercial printing such as pamphlets, catalogs, pocket folders, magazines, post cards, brochures, flyers, etc. Although MPC does occasionally still finance historical books or reprints, it is now predominantly a private book publisher. It does not take profits from any of its author's book sales as “vanity presses” do. MPC products may be found on offer throughout the United States.
Tucker County is a county in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 6,762, making it West Virginia's fourth-least populous county. Its county seat is Parsons. The county was created in 1856 from a part of Randolph County, then part of Virginia. In 1871, a small part of Barbour County, was transferred to Tucker County. The county was named after Henry St. George Tucker, Sr., a judge and Congressman from Williamsburg, Virginia.
Fort Cumberland was an 18th-century frontier fort at the current site of Cumberland, Maryland, USA. It was an important military and economic center during the French and Indian War (1754–63) and figured significantly in the early career of George Washington.
The Tygart Valley River — also known as the Tygart River — is a principal tributary of the Monongahela River, approximately 135 miles (217 km) long, in east-central West Virginia in the United States. Via the Monongahela and Ohio rivers, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River, draining an area of 1,329 square miles (3,440 km2) in the Allegheny Mountains and the unglaciated portion of the Allegheny Plateau.
Okonoko is an unincorporated community in Hampshire County in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Okonoko is located in northern Hampshire County, along the Potomac River and the CSX Cumberland Subdivision of the former Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
Indian Mound Cemetery is a cemetery located along the Northwestern Turnpike on a promontory of the "Yellow Banks" overlooking the South Branch Potomac River and Mill Creek Mountain in Romney, West Virginia, United States. The cemetery is centered on a Hopewellian mound, known as the Romney Indian Mound. Indian Mound Cemetery is also the site of Fort Pearsall, the Confederate Memorial, Parsons Bell Tower, and reinterments from Romney's Old Presbyterian Cemetery. The cemetery is currently owned and maintained by the Indian Mound Cemetery Association, Inc.
Cheat Mountain is an exceptionally high and rugged ridge situated in the Allegheny Mountains of eastern West Virginia, USA. It is about 50 miles (80 km) long and more than five miles (8 km) wide at its widest. Its highest point is at its southernmost end at Thorny Flat, which has an elevation of 4,848 feet (1,478 m). Several other knobs rise above 4,000 feet (1,200 m) along its length.
The Eastern Color Printing Company was a company that published comic books, beginning in 1933. At first, it was only newspaper comic strip reprints, but later on, original material was published. Eastern Color Printing was incorporated in 1928, and soon became successful by printing color newspaper sections for several New England and New York papers. Eastern is most notable for its production of Funnies on Parade and Famous Funnies, two publications that gave birth to the American comic book industry.
Canaan Valley Resort State Park is a state park in the eastern United States, within Canaan Valley in Tucker County, West Virginia. Located in the highest valley east of the Mississippi River, the park contains the second-largest inland wetland area in the United States. The valley featured the first commercial ski development in West Virginia.
Alexander Scott Withers was a Virginia slave owner, lawyer, planter, magistrate, teacher and delegate to the First Wheeling Convention (1861) establishing the state of West Virginia. He is celebrated as the author of Chronicles of Border Warfare (1831), a history of the early white settlement of western Virginia and consequent conflicts with American Indians. He sold two of the children he fathered with a slave to slave traders further South.
Canaan Valley is a large bathtub-shaped upland valley in northeastern Tucker County, West Virginia, USA. Within it are extensive wetlands and the headwaters of the Blackwater River which spills out of the valley at Blackwater Falls. It is a well-known and partially undeveloped scenic attraction and tourist draw. Since 1994, almost 70% of the Valley has become the Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge, the nation's 500th National Wildlife Refuge, with Canaan Valley Resort State Park and Blackwater Falls State Park nearby.
The Sinks of Gandy — also called the Sinks of Gandy Creek, or simply "The Sinks" — are a modestly celebrated cave and underground stream at Osceola in eastern Randolph County, West Virginia, United States. The Sinks are on private property within the Monongahela National Forest.
Hu Maxwell was a local historian, novelist, editor, poet, and author of several histories of West Virginia counties.
Earl Lemley Core was a botanist and botanical educator, researcher, and author as well as a local West Virginia historian. He was founder of the Southern Appalachian Botanical Club and editor of its journal, Castanea, for thirty-five years. He was a teacher and professor at West Virginia University (WVU) from 1928 to 1972. He served for four years on the Morgantown City Council, and served as mayor of Morgantown for two years. The Earl L. Core Arboretum at WVU was named in his honor in 1967.
Job is an unincorporated community in Randolph County, West Virginia, United States. It is 4.5 miles (7.2 km) south-southwest of Harman and is situated where Stink Run enters the Dry Fork Cheat River. The earliest settler there was Thomas Summerfield, who came in 1784.
Cassell is a British book publishing house, founded in 1848 by John Cassell (1817–1865), which became in the 1890s an international publishing group company.
Moorefield and North Branch Turnpike was a turnpike in the U.S. state of Virginia built to facilitate travel and commerce between the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at Green Spring on the North Branch Potomac River and Moorefield. Today, Green Spring Road, Harriott-Wappocomo Road, and West Virginia Route 28 encompass most of the Moorefield and North Branch Turnpike's original route.
Laneville is an unincorporated community in Tucker County, West Virginia, United States. It lies on Red Creek along the southern border of the Dolly Sods Wilderness in the Monongahela National Forest.
The Downtown Morgantown Historic District is a federally designated historic district in Morgantown, Monongalia County, West Virginia. The district, encompassing approximately 75 acres, has 122 contributing buildings and 2 contributing sites including commercial and public buildings, residences, and churches. The district has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since May 2, 1996. Ten of the contributing buildings are listed separately on the National Register of Historic Places. Significant structures located within the historic district are the Monongalia County Courthouse, the Metropolitan Theater, and the Old Morgantown Post Office.
The Virginia Argus and Hampshire Advertiser, often referred to simply as the Virginia Argus, was a weekly newspaper published between July 1850 and August 1861 in Romney, Virginia. The paper's circulation of 800 copies was the second-highest in Hampshire County, after the South Branch Intelligencer's. The Virginia Argus ceased publication following its closure by the Union Army during the American Civil War, after which it was not revived.
Lawford is an unincorporated community in Ritchie County, in the U.S. state of West Virginia.
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