Schilansky Dress Shop, Schilansky Market, Imperial Hotel (Image courtesy of Joseph Dumire)
Many towns in West Virginia experienced lightning-fast growth as they became a part of a network of railroads. These towns usually had abundant resources like coal or timber that provided jobs for the towns’ residents. Many towns were built by companies– employees of coal companies would live in houses owned by the company they worked for. However, this was not always the case. One town that was built by residents instead of a coal company is Thomas, West Virginia.
Thomas, West Virginia was settled in the 1880’s. Today, East Avenue and Spruce Street sit up the hill from the Blackwater Canyon Trail which runs along the Blackwater River. The Blackwater Canyon Trail began as a railway in 1884 when the West Virginia Central and Pittsburg Railway laid down tracks. The railway brought a diverse group of immigrants to Thomas and was a vital part of the coal and timber industries.
When Immigrants came to new towns to work in the coal or timber industries, they needed a place to live. Because of this, many companies would build houses for employees. The houses in these towns all looked the same like you can see today in Cass. This wasn’t the case in Thomas. Instead, people in Thomas built their own homes. Immigrants coming from places like Poland, Russia, Austria, or Italy stayed true to the architectural styles they had experienced in Europe. Buildings and houses each had balconies and porches that reflected the diverse group of immigrants in the town.
Safety notice in multiple languages (Image courtesy of Joseph Dumire)
Immigrants in Thomas also embraced their diversity through language. Not every person came to Thomas knowing English, so the mines communicated in many different languages. Safety signs were posted in seven languages to ensure every worker could read them. One man, Wladyslaw Dackiewicz, worked as an interpreter for the Davis Coal Company. Dackiewicz could read, write, and speak in eight languages, making him the perfect person to aid communication within the company.
Other parts of life in Thomas existed in many different languages. West Virginia’s only Italian newspaper was founded in Thomas. Established in 1905, La Sentinella del West Virginia provided Italian speaking West Virginians with local and national news from both the US and Italy. Local businesses would place ads in this newspaper. Some were in English but most were in Italian. Notices about jobs let Italian speaking immigrants know about potential jobs. In one edition, a list for mining jobs in Fairmont is followed by news from Italy. This newspaper gave Italian immigrants a way to stay connected to their past while supporting their lives in West Virginia.
Learn more about immigration to our region in our 2019 exhibit “Creating Culture: Ethnic Groups in the AFNHA”.
Joe DePollo Store in 1916, today home to the Purple Fiddle (Image courtesy of Joseph Dumire)
