History
Orlando in the Mid-1900s
Although recent research has identified errors in them,
the following sources
are invaluable for their
contribution to the scarce body
of Orlando historical information.
Orlando Community
1941(?) origin and author unknown. Found in Heritage of Braxton County, West Virginia 1995, published by S. E. Grose and the Braxton County Heritage Book Committee. pg 58.
The Blakes and Riffles,
Back Seven Generations
Monograph.by Lee Washington Blake dated July, 1953 Weston
Cinderella City
newspaper article by Mary Mazza
in The Weston Democrat Wednesday, November 2, 1977
Indian Wars
1850 Census
Civil War
Railroad Years
Downsizing:
1930s-'70s
Orlando Entering the 21st Century
1. The settling of the confluence of Oil Creek and Clover Fork by the Skinners, Poseys, Riffles and the Blake families in the 1820s to '50s.
2. The Civil War and Reconstruction. Orlando was not a divided community. It was Confederate. It and its neighboring towns were called "Dixie" by neighbors as close as Weston. Its sons fought and died for Dixie, and the hurt continued long after the war was over.
3. The railroad's coming and leaving is the best documented. The trains stopped in Orlando for less than 30 of its more than 200 year history.
4. Gas and oil production in the 1920-50s. Wealth was dumped indiscriminately on a few lucky farmers whose land had gas wells on them. Many moved out of Orlando, to the bright lights of Weston. Combined with the loss of wealth from the trains leaving, it tore the fabric of the town.
5. The communications revolution. It didn�t have the immediate onset the other upheavals have had; For its slow origins we have to look to the advent of the radio and auto, then better roads. I witnessed the last part of this upheaval: the time before I-79 came along in the 1970s and satellite TV brought outside world to the hills in a big way.
