Guyandotte's Early History
In 1670, French
explorer, Rene Robert LaSalle was the first known white man
to visit what is now Guyandotte. LaSalle and his party of
men were on an expedition down the Ohio River, briefly
stopping in the area. The first settlement at Guyandotte
would be established around 1680 where trading between the
native people and white settlers began. Over time the native
people would come to lose respect for the settlers and up
until the early 1800’s attacks on the white settlers were
common.
By 1772 a grant of land was made to
John Savage for his military service in the French and Indian War. Much
of the Savage Land Grant would later become what is present day
Guyandotte. In 1796 Savage sold this land to William Buffington, who
would purchase lot 42 consisting of 3,423 acres of land. Buffington
willed the land to two of his sons, who would soon settle and build
homes overlooking the confluence of the Ohio and Guyandotte Rivers.
In 1809 Cabell County was formed by
which time Guyandotte had already become a prosperous area. In 1810, the
Virginia Assembly established the town of Guyandotte that would be
located on twenty acres of the land owned by Thomas Buffington. Three
years following, lots of land would be sold at auction by town trustees.
In 1835 it was said that Guyandotte had 40 dwellings, a church, a
school, stream grist and sawmill, five storehouses, a saddler and other
merchants.
In 1861 when the Civil War began,
Guyandotte would soon be torn by divided sympathies. When a Union
recruiting camp was setup in the town, local Confederate leaders got
word of this and began marching toward Guyandotte. On the evening of
November 10, 1861, Confederate raiders stormed the town taking Federal
recruits prisoner. By the next day the Union Army in retaliation of the
attack, would burn nearly two thirds of the town to the ground.
Sometime around1869 Railroad Tycoon,
Collis P. Huntington was searching for a location for his new railroad
terminus and came to Guyandotte while he was surveying land. Huntington
chose the area just west of Guyandotte to build the terminus and there
he established a new city in 1872, naming the city after himself.
In 1810 Guyandotte would celebrate
its Centennial however, just one year following, Guyandotte was
incorporated to become a part Huntington.
The name Guyandotte is believed to
originate from several sources, or perhaps a combination of the two. The
first idea is the name Guyandotte came from the Native American tribe,
Wyandot, who were present in the area. The second theory is the name
came from a French trader by the name of Guion, who would name the
Guyandotte River after himself and the Wyandot. Regardless the name
stuck and surveyors would call the area “Guyandot”.
On October, 1 1895 the official
spelling of “Guyandot” would be given by the WV Board of Geographical
Names. At that time the name was restored to the last form in which more
than 100 years prior was used by Jefferson in his “notes on Virginia”
