SUMMERS COUNTY W.Va. (Hinton News) – Telling these weekly histories about Summers County has little perks occasionally. Monday, November 3, I received an email from Mark Hank in reference to the piece I had recently written about Puckett’s Pharmacy in Hinton. The conversion, as it so often does with historians, spiraled into other topics.
We started talking about the community of Rollensburg and Talcott, more specifically, their post office. That transpired to me mentioning how Griffiths Creek at one time was known as Santafee with a post office. I mentioned how the only thing I had ever seen that referenced this community was a little notebook that was found in my great-grandfather, Fred Owen Thomas’s, railroad desk.
He took this history lover by surprise when he sent me a copy of the original Postal Service application for the establishment at Santafee. He told me that he is working on a history book on the post offices in Summers County. I won’t give much information about it, so you can be surprised by the very detailed information he has uncovered. This includes several names of places in the county that, if I were a betting man, I would bet you have never heard of them before.
I took a chance on something. Remember, in one of my early stories, I discussed the community of Valley Heights above the Pence Springs Flea Market. And explained how my late friend and fellow Summers County historian John Kesler had told me that when this community was first formed, it had been established as Reno, W.Va. Not that I did not believe him, because John was the “go-to man” about anything relating to the history of the area. But I sought out verification so others would believe this interesting fact.
This was around 20 to 23 years ago when he told me that. I wrote to the late Senator Robert C. Byrd about verifying this post office. He sent me the date it was formed and the first post masters name. But I had nothing that said “Reno, W.Va” on it specifically. I have looked and looked for decades now and found nothing, but I still went out on a limb and asked Mark about Reno.
He responded with what you see here. It is the original Post Office Application for the proposed establishment of a post office at Reno, Summers County, W.Va., dated Oct. 23, 1907. I was thrilled to say the least! Notice the communities of Clayton, Hungrets Creek, and Pence Springs are all referenced in this document.
It “only” took 20 plus years to come across this official proof, maybe I will find a postcard or some piece of mail with the Reno stamp on it in the next 20 years, so if I am still writing this column in 2045, I will do a 3rd installment on Reno, haha. I am looking forward to purchasing and reading Mark’s book once it’s released.
