Benwood West Virginia WV Warrant Search

Benwood, West Virginia Benwood is a city in Marshall County, West Virginia, along the Ohio River. It is part of the Wheeling, West Virginia Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,585 at the 2000 census.Benwood was chartered in 1853 and incorporated in 1895. The name of the city is derived from 'Ben's Woods', as Benjamin McMechen (1777 - 1855) inherited that portion of land from the estate of his father, William McMechen (1724 - 1797), and built his homestead upon it. The neighboring city of McMechen is named after William McMechen and his family, who were among the earliest settlers of this area. Geography Benwood is located at 40°00′46″N 80°44′02″W / 40.012748°N 80.734008°W / 40.012748; -80.734008 (40.012748, -80.734008).According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1.8 square miles (4.8 km2), of which, 1.2 square miles (3.2 km2) of it is land and 0.6 square miles (1.5 km2) of it (32.07%) is water. Demographics As of the census of 2000, there were 1,585 people, 706 households, and 429 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,268.7 people per square mile (489.6/km2). There were 811 housing units at an average density of 649.2 per square mile (250.5/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 98.23% White, 1.14% African American, 0.06% Native American, 0.06% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, and 0.44% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.19% of the population.There were 706 households out of which 25.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.7% were married couples living together, 17.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 39.1% were non-families. 34.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 17.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.25 and the average family size was 2.90.In the city the population was spread out with 22.0% under the age of 18, 8.6% from 18 to 24, 26.3% from 25 to 44, 22.0% from 45 to 64, and 21.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 81.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 78.9 males.The median income for a household in the city was $20,478, and the median income for a family was $27,232. Males had a median income of $23,906 versus $16,827 for females. The per capita income for the city was $15,543. About 19.5% of families and 21.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 30.6% of those under age 18 and 16.2% of those age 65 or over. Neighborhoods Benwood is partitioned into 4 sections (North Benwood, Center Benwood, South Benwood and Boggs Run) each connected by either Marshall Street or West Virginia Route 2.North BenwoodNorth Benwood is the primary commercial area of the small city and contains a small shopping plaza, a grocery store, a gas station and several other small business and fast food restaurants. While all of Benwood lies in a flood zone, North Benwood tends to be hit hardest by the floods of the Ohio River.Center BenwoodSlightly to the south lies Center Benwood, which is the primary residential section of the city and contains Benwood City Park (founded in 1973 and includes a swimming pool, two picnic shelters, a basketball court, a baseball/softball field, a playground and a miniature golf course), the 4th Street playground (which also has a picnic shelter), the city building, the fire, water and police departments, the post office and the original Undo's Family Restaurant. Center Benwood is laid out in a rectangular grid, approximately 1 mile around divided 4 blocks long and 3 streets wide. Center Benwood used to be hit very hard by the devastating floods of the Ohio River, but a flood wall was constructed along Water Street (the street that runs along the banks of the Ohio River) in 1982, thus protecting that section of Benwood from the river floods seen in the last three decades (1990, 1991, 1996, 2004, 2005 and 2011).Center Benwood is also the home of Saint John Roman Catholic Church. Saint John Church was founded in 1875, but the original church was destroyed in the Ohio River Flood of 1884. The present church was built on the site of the original church in 1891. According to the parish history book (which also includes the history of Benwood and the surrounding areas) released in 1975 for the church's centennial celebration, immigrants of fifteen different European nationalities (English, Irish, German, Hungarian, Italian, Bohemian, Croatian, Slovak, Austrian, Dalmatian, Serbian, Slavic, Polish, Welsh and Romanian) settled in the four sections of Benwood and raised their families there.South BenwoodSouth Benwood lies below Center Benwood and contains the majority of the city's industrial developments.Boggs RunThe Boggs Run area of Benwood contains the land extending from Marshall Street at the mouth of Boggs Run to Browns Run. That portion of land was annexed to the city of Benwood on November 7, 1944. Boggs Run (the creek that runs through the land) is named after John Boggs (1738 - 1826), who staked his claim to the land surrounding the creek in 1774 and settled there with his family along the creek. In 1798, he sold the land at Boggs Run and moved with most of his family to Pickaway County, Ohio where he lived the remainder of his life. He is buried in the Boggs Family Cemetery (Elmwood Farm) in Logan Elm Village, Pickaway County, Ohio.Boggs Run has seen many devastating flash floods through the years, but one of the worst in recent history occurred August 31 - September 1, 1975. Two other significant flash floods in the 20th Century occurred June 14, 1990 and September 17, 2004. In the event of an Ohio River Flood, the mouth of Boggs Run is flooded both by the river and the creek, as the river flood backs up the flow of the creek.Outlying AreasWhile the areas of Benwood Hill and a portion of Boggs Run beyond Saint Matthew Lutheran Church where Browns Run flows into Boggs Run are provided with some services from Benwood's public works, they fall outside the city limits and are not directly parts of the city.Former NeighborhoodsHarmony Hill was a residential area of Benwood that was located on the hillside between the mouth of Boggs Run and Schad's Crossing (former entrance to the north end of Center Benwood at Fourth Street) along West Virginia Route 2. Kentucky Heights was another residential area located on the hillside along Route 2 between Schad's Crossing at Center Benwood and The Bellaire Bridge. The houses of both areas were all razed to make way for the relocation of West Virginia Route 2 through the construction of the present four lane highway in the mid 1960s. Education Benwood was once home to several public schools and two Roman Catholic private schools, one of which is still in operation.Public SchoolsThere was a public elementary school in Center Benwood. It was first located in the Methodist church building on Main Street. Later, the school was located in a structure built on Water Street. The school closed in the early 1950s. Both structures that once housed the school were later razed.A public elementary school was located in North Benwood and closed in the early 1950s as well. The Croatian Cultural Club building housed this school.South Benwood had a public elementary school, but it was destroyed by fire in the early 1910s. Union High School (later Union Junior High School) was built on the site of the South Benwood school on Marshall Street in 1913. Union operated as a high school (grades 9, 10, 11 and 12) from the time it was built until the end of the 1967-1968 school year. Union High School was consolidated with two other public high schools in Marshall County (Moundsville High School and Sherrard High School, which both became junior high schools and are still in operation) in 1968 to form John Marshall High School in the city of Glen Dale in Marshall County. John Marshall High School opened at the beginning of the 1968-1969 school year and is still in operation. Union then became a junior high school (grades 7, 8 and 9) until it closed in 2003 at the end of the 2002-2003 school year.Boggs Run Elementary School is located on Boggs Run Road beyond the Benwood city limits. It was first housed in a wooden structure, but was later replaced with a brick structure on the same site about 1927. The school closed in 1990 at the end of the 1989 - 1990 school year. The brick school building still stands, and it now houses a Halloween museum.Private SchoolsSaint James and Saint John School is a Roman Catholic elementary and middle school (preschool through eighth grade) on 7th Street in Center Benwood. The school was housed in several different buildings in the immediate area during the course of its history (dating back to 1860) before the current school building was built during 1952-1953 and opened in 1954. It is connected to the back of Saint John Roman Catholic Church. At the end of the 1970-1971 school year, Saint John School in Benwood (where the current school is housed) was consolidated with Saint James School in McMechen, and the school became known as Saint James and Saint John School in 1971. Saint James and Saint John School is the only school still in operation in the city of Benwood.Saint Catherine School was a Roman Catholic elementary and middle school (first through eighth grade) that was located in North Benwood. The building, which once stood on the site of the parking lot of the former Pickway Shoe Store (later the Payless ShoeSource) on Marshall Street, was originally used as a Roman Catholic chapel dedicated to Saint Catherine from 1924 to 1929. In 1929, a school by the same name was opened in the chapel building and continued to operate until Saint Catherine School closed in 1962 at the end of the 1961-1962 school year.The majority of the students who attended Saint James and Saint John School in Center Benwood and the former Saint Catherine School in North Benwood went on to attend high school at Bishop Donahue Memorial High School in McMechen, which was founded in 1955 and is still in operation. Coal Mine Disasters 1924 Wheeling Steel Corp. Benwood Mine DisasterBenwood was the location of the tragic 1924 Coal Mine Disaster. At approximately 7:05 AM EST on Monday, April 28, 1924, the coal mine of the Wheeling Steel Corporation's mill located in Benwood exploded, killing all 119 men who were working in the coal mine at the time, the majority of whom were immigrants of Polish, Italian, Greek, Croatian, Serbian, Hungarian, Austrian, Russian, Ukrainian and Lithuanian descent.1942 Hitchman Mine DisasterEighteen years after the devastating 1924 explosion at the Wheeling Steel mine, Benwood was once again the location of another tragic coal mining disaster. On Monday, May 18, 1942, the coal mine of the Hitchman Coal & Coke Company exploded, killing 5 men. Founding Families McMechen and Boggs FamiliesThe namesake of Benwood, Benjamin McMechen (1777 - 1855), was the son of William McMechen (1724 - 1797) and Sidney (née Johnson) McMechen Stricker (1744 - 1810). Sidney Johnson McMechen married George Stricker (1740 - 1810) after the death of William McMechen.Nancy Boggs (1786 - 1846) was the daughter of John Boggs (1738 - 1826), the namesake of Boggs Run, by his second marriage to Mary (née Williamson) Barr (1748 - 1828), who was the widow of Robert Barr (1750 - 1778).Benjamin McMechen married Nancy Boggs on November 27, 1804. They had fourteen children together - six sons and eight daughters. Their children were as follows:Sidney McMechen (1805 - 1887), who married Thomas H. List in 1822. William McMechen (1807 - 1888), who married 1) Mary Blake in 1834 and 2) Lucinda Bonar in 1863. Hiram McMechen (1808 - 1877), who married Hannah Armstrong in 1853. David McMechen (1810 - 1879), who married Mary Jane Cummins in 1848. James Hanson McMechen (1813 - 1889), who married Elizabeth Ann Sehon in 1836. Mary McMechen (1814 - 1870), who married 1) Joseph Bushfield in 1838 and 2) Jesse Lazeaur in 1868. Elizabeth McMechen (1816 - 1883), who married John R. Morrow in 1843. Jane Taylor McMechen (1816 - 1877), who married Benoni Swearingen Good in 1842. Benjamin Benson McMechen (1818 - 1849), who never married. Lydia McMechen (1820 - 1865), who never married. Ellen McMechen (1822 - 1906), who married Elbert Halstead Caldwell in 1847. Susan Lambdin McMechen (1824 - 1898), who married Eugene A. Hildreth in 1851. Shepherd McMechen (1827 - 1874), who married Alcinda Cockayne in 1868. Sallie Boggs McMechen (1830 - 1879), who married Aaron Kelly in 1854. Benjamin McMechen and Nancy Boggs McMechen were originally buried in McMechen Cemetery in McMechen, Marshall County, West Virginia (just south of Benwood) where the parents of Benjamin McMechen (William McMechen and Sidney Johnson McMechen Stricker) are buried. Benjamin and Nancy McMechen were exhumed in 1906, and their remains were moved to Greenwood Cemetery in Wheeling, Ohio County, West Virginia where they, along with several members of their family, were re-interred on October 15, 1906. Thirteen of their fourteen children (Sidney, William, David, James Hanson, Mary, Elizabeth, Jane, Benjamin Benson, Lydia, Ellen, Susan, Shepherd and Sallie) and their spouses are buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Wheeling, Ohio County, West Virginia. Hiram McMechen and his wife, Hannah, are buried in McMechen Cemetery in McMechen, Marshall County, West Virginia.William McMechen (1724 - 1797) had the following three children by his first marriage to Rachel Rosanna Nevins (died in the 1750s):James McMechen (1748 - 1825), who married Hannah Davidson in 1779. David McMechen (born about 1751; died 1810), who married Margaret Carroll in 1803. a daughter (first name unknown), who married a man by the surname of Broom. William McMechen remarried to Sidney Johnson. They had the following six children:Nancy Agnes McMechen (1769 - 1806), who married Samuel McColloch about 1789. William McMechen (1772 - 1832), who married Ellen Bowles Armistead in 1800. Sarah McMechen (1775 - 1851), who married John Boggs (1775 - 1861) in 1799. Benjamin McMechen (1777 - 1855), who married Nancy Boggs (1786 - 1846) in 1804. Sidney McMechen (1783 - 1869), who married Thomas Barr (1772 - 1830) in 1797. Jane McMechen (born about 1788), who married 1) James Taylor in 1806 and 2) John Boggs (widower of her sister Sarah) in 1853. John Boggs (1738 - 1826) was married twice. His first spouse was Jane Irwin (circa 1740 - 1783), whom he married about 1762. They had nine children together - four sons and five daughters. Their children were as follows:William Boggs (born 1763; captured and held prisoner by Native Americans as a young man, but eventually escaped). James Boggs (1764 - 1791; killed by Native Americans near Cambridge, Ohio). Lydia Boggs (1766 - 1867), who married 1) Moses Shepherd in 1784 and 2) Daniel Cruger in 1833. Martha Boggs (1772 - 1851), who married 1) James McFarland and 2) Jacob Johnson. Elizabeth Boggs (born about 1773; died in infancy about 1774). John Boggs (1775 - 1861), who married 1) Sarah McMechen (sister of Benjamin McMechen) in 1799 and 2) Jane McMechen Taylor (widowed sister of Benjamin McMechen) in 1853. Moses Boggs (born about 1777). Jane Boggs (1779 - 1855), who married her stepbrother, John Barr, in 1799. Mary Boggs (born about 1781), who married John Engeart. After the death of Jane Irwin Boggs in 1783, John Boggs married Mary Williamson Barr (1748 - 1828), the widow of Robert Barr (1750 - 1778), about 1785. They had four children together - one son and three daughters. Their children were as follows:Nancy Boggs (1786 - 1846), who married Benjamin McMechen (1777 - 1855) in 1804. Elizabeth Boggs (born 1788), who married David Crouse in 1807. Sarah Boggs (born about 1789). David Boggs (1790 - 1800). The stepchildren of John Boggs (children of Mary Williamson Barr and Robert Barr) were as follows:infant Barr (born and died 1772) Thomas Barr (1772 - 1830), who married Sidney McMechen (sister of Benjamin McMechen) in 1797. John Barr (1774 - 1847), who married his stepsister, Jane Boggs, in 1799. Jane Barr (1776 - 1799), who married Benjamin Newell. Isabella Barr (1778 - 1844), who married 1) James Denny in 1797 and 2) William Florence. The eldest daughter of John Boggs by his first marriage to Jane Irwin was Lydia Boggs Shepherd Cruger (February 26, 1766 - September 29, 1867), who played a significant role in the history of Wheeling, West Virginia. Lydia Boggs Shepherd Cruger and Nancy Boggs McMechen were half sisters. Lydia Boggs was first married to Moses Shepherd (November 11, 1763 - April 29, 1832) in 1784. Moses Shepherd built Shepherd Hall (Monument Place) in 1798, the stone mansion that still stands near the Forks of Wheeling Creek in the Elm Grove area of Wheeling, West Virginia. After the death of Moses Shepherd in 1832, Lydia remarried to widower Daniel Cruger (December 22, 1780 - July 12, 1843) on July 16, 1833 in Ohio County, West Virginia (then Virginia). Lydia Boggs Shepherd Cruger died at Shepherd Hall on September 29, 1867 at the age of 101. Media Benwood is home to WVJW-LP, a listener supported commercial-free radio station.