RIVERSIDE REST, (Hinton News) – It is time for another edition of A Peek into Summers County’s Past. Each week, local history collector William Jones provides information on and photos of items in his collection. This week, Jones presents a survey map of Riverside Rest from 1950.
Where a small community now sits was once open farmland. Jones said, “Like so many small communities in Summers County, Riverside Rest, WV started as a large area of farmland. This farmland was purchased by S. D. Burnett. In 1950, he had it surveyed by C.J. Lilly, Surveyor in Hinton, and broken up into 253 lots, one tract consisting of 1.83 acres with a large fish pond. He then commenced selling the lots of what would soon become the community of Riverside Rest.”
Jones procured the survey map from a dear friend. The friend’s parents owned some of the lots created by S.D. Burnett. He stated, “I purchased this original 1950 survey map of when Mr. Burnett first started selling off the lots for his newly created community from my good friend John ‘Chub’ Clay’s estate auction. ‘Chubby’ as his friends had always called him, passed away in 2014. He was a ‘chubby’ child, and that nickname just stuck with him for 80 years. His parents, John and Lucille Clay, purchased six of the 50 ft by 150 ft lots and the fish pond in 1950.”
According to Jones, the Clays erected a structure to serve as a convenience store with living quarters on the upper floor. He said, “They built a unique Tudor-style structure that was meant to be a convenience store with living quarters in the second story. They operated the store for several years and had intentions of adding their ‘house’ to the left of the building, but that plan never came to fruition. Chubby, his father John, and his mother Loucil were all engaged in antique furniture restoration. During their time, they had built up a very successful restoration business that ran in conjunction with their store. It is what would now be referred to as their ‘side hustle’.”
Additionally, the Clay family were experts in furniture restoration. Speaking about the family, Jones said, “Chubby and John were the local experts in regards to stripping and restoring antique furniture, to replicating missing or broken pieces. Loucil restored the broken wicker and cane in a piece of furniture. If she replaced one caned seat, she did hundreds of them. The Clays were the go to people for the local citizens and the local auctioneers who dealt in antique furniture when they needed something restored or repaired.”
Friends are the cornerstone of our lives, and the same is true for the friendship between Jones and Chubby.
“Chubby is one of my friends that got me so deeply into local history and antiques. My great, great aunt and uncle, Tom and Georgia Harrah, also purchased nine lots from Mr. Burnett in 1950,” Jones said. “They moved to what had recently become Riverside Rest from White Sulphur Springs, where they had owned and operated a convenience store of their own. They became good friends with the Clays since they were all engaged in similar business and were some of the original residents of the community.”
Multiple businesses arose after the formation of the community. The list included an individual known for his gift at “well witching.” Jones noted, “Riverside Rest had numerous other businesses in its day. Smiths Junkyard started as a body shop. Lacy Rowan Honaker, Red as the locals knew him, started Honaker Well Drilling in the community’s early days. Red had the gift of performing ‘well witching’. The practice of locating water underground by using a forked stick. Current experts refer to well witching as pseudoscience. They say this because they believe it is mistakenly thought to have scientific backing. All I can say about the practice of witching is that as a child, I saw it performed numerous times, and it worked each time. There were numerous other businesses throughout the 70-plus years since the community was founded.”
Finally, Jones has a little-known fact about the area to share. He said, “One final interesting aspect involving Riverside Rest that is unknown by most people currently living, is the spring that comes down the side of the hill going towards Alderson. There is a stone wall and parking spot near the spring. The state of West Virginia built these stone structures at springs throughout the state along main roads in the days of the Model T. This was because cars would easily overheat. Especially when driving around the state on the curvy and mountainous terrain with no way of putting water back in your radiator. So the state utilized these random springs around the state and created a spot where you could pull off the road and do so if your car overheated.”
This brings us to the end of another edition of A Peek into Summers County’s Past. Be sure to check back next week for more on the local history.
If you have a story from Summers County’s past that you would like to share, send an email to news@hintonnews.com.
