Appalachian Community Histories – Lavalette, Wayne County: Railroad, Mills, Roads, and the Mystery Behind the Community’s Name
Lavalette sits only a short distance south of Huntington, but its history belongs as much to the winding valleys of rural Wayne County as it does to the expanding city to its north. Long before modern West Virginia Route 152 carried automobiles through the community, Twelvepole Creek and the surrounding hollows shaped where people could settle, farm, build mills, and travel.
The community that eventually became Lavalette developed along one of the most important transportation corridors in northern Wayne County. Its growth was closely connected to the Norfolk and Western Railway, the local timber and milling economy, the post office, and later the construction of improved highways linking Wayne County with Huntington.
Lavalette also carries one of the more intriguing place-name mysteries in the county. A widely repeated story connects the community with Lavalette Miller, the daughter of prominent West Virginian Joseph S. Miller. The surviving documentary record, however, suggests that the name was in use considerably earlier than some versions of that story claim.
Like many Appalachian communities, Lavalette becomes more interesting when local tradition is placed beside the records.
Before There Was a Lavalette
The valley surrounding modern Lavalette was settled long before the community appeared by that name.
Wayne County itself did not exist until January 18, 1842, when the Virginia General Assembly created it from the western portion of Cabell County. The act establishing the new county specifically followed ridges, creeks, and forks that would have been familiar landmarks to people living throughout the Twelvepole watershed. For anyone researching the earliest families around Lavalette, this division is important because deeds and court records created before 1842 may appear among Cabell County records rather than Wayne County records.
One of the better surviving glimpses of the older population comes from the Wayne County News. In February 1920, the newspaper published an account of the Bloss family, describing them as lifelong residents of the Lavalette neighborhood. Ezekiel S. Bloss and Martha Ann Morris Bloss were said to have been born on lower Twelvepole more than a century earlier and to have married in 1838.
That account places established families in the surrounding valley decades before either the railroad or the name Lavalette appeared in surviving community records. The settlement pattern was typical of nineteenth-century Wayne County. Families lived along creek bottoms and branches where land could be cultivated, water was accessible, and travel through the surrounding hills was at least possible.
The important point is that Lavalette did not suddenly spring into existence when a railroad station received a name. The railroad helped create a recognizable commercial community, but it entered a landscape where families had already been living for generations.
The Norfolk and Western Comes to Twelvepole
The most important transformation came during the early 1890s.
The Norfolk and Western Railway was extending its system toward the Ohio River while attempting to connect the rapidly developing coalfields of southern West Virginia with western markets. Through Wayne County, the railroad followed the twisting Twelvepole Creek valley.
Construction of the Ohio Extension began around 1890. By late 1891 trains were operating between Kenova and Dunlow, and the larger extension opened the following year. Communities throughout the Twelvepole corridor suddenly found themselves connected to a transportation network that could move passengers, mail, timber, livestock, manufactured goods, and other freight far more efficiently than traditional mountain roads.
Lavalette became one of the railroad points along that route.
Federal surveyors left an unusually precise record of the station. In its measurements along the Norfolk and Western from Shoals toward Wayne, the United States Geological Survey recorded “Lavalette, in front of station” and placed the top of the west rail at approximately 565 feet above sea level. The same survey continued south through Dickson, Ardel, Craig, and Wayne.
By 1904 there was no question that Lavalette was an established railroad and postal community. Henry Gannett’s federal Gazetteer of West Virginia, published by the United States Geological Survey, identified Lavalette simply but clearly as a “post village in Wayne County on the Norfolk and Western Railway.”
That short description captures the foundation of early Lavalette. It was a postal village with a railroad station, positioned directly along the transportation corridor connecting the Wayne County interior with Huntington and Kenova.
Lavalette in 1904
The most revealing snapshot of early Lavalette comes from the 1904 to 1905 West Virginia State Gazetteer and Business Directory published by R. L. Polk & Company.
The directory estimated Lavalette’s population at about 100. It placed the village twelve miles north of Wayne and ten miles south of Huntington, which provided the nearest banking facilities. Lavalette possessed telephone service, Southern Express service, and Western Union telegraph communication. H. B. Workman served as postmaster.
The directory then named several businesses and residents.
J. G. Bancroft worked as a blacksmith. Howard Hutchison and Mrs. L. E. Smith operated general stores. Pearley Smith and C. G. Smith dealt in livestock. E. L. Davenport served as railroad, express, and telegraph agent.
Perhaps the most significant business was Workman & Newman, which operated saw, planing, and grist mills.
Those mills reveal much about the economy surrounding Lavalette.
A sawmill transformed the region’s timber into usable lumber. A planing mill could prepare finished boards and building materials. A gristmill processed the corn and grain produced by neighboring farms. Combined in one operation, Workman & Newman occupied a central place in both the agricultural and timber economy.
The railroad made that kind of business more valuable. Lumber no longer had to serve only nearby customers. Manufactured goods could arrive more easily, and livestock or timber products could be shipped toward larger markets.
Lavalette was still small, but by the opening years of the twentieth century it had developed many of the institutions expected of a rural commercial center: a depot, post office, telegraph connection, telephone service, stores, a blacksmith, livestock dealers, and mills.
Who Was Lavalette Named For?
The origin of the name Lavalette is more complicated than many modern accounts suggest.
One frequently repeated version states that the community was named for Lavalette Miller, the daughter of Joseph S. Miller, sometimes claiming that the naming was connected with her wedding in 1904.
There is good evidence connecting the Miller family with the Norfolk and Western.
Joseph S. Miller was an important political and commercial figure in the region. A National Register of Historic Places nomination for his Kenova home states that he helped purchase rights-of-way for the Norfolk and Western Railroad as it developed its line through the area. Miller had previously served as West Virginia state auditor and as United States Commissioner of Internal Revenue during President Grover Cleveland’s first administration.
The same National Register documentation confirms that Miller had an only daughter named Lavalette. In 1904, her wedding and reception were held at the family’s large Queen Anne house in Kenova. The nomination describes the wedding as a gala event reported by the local newspaper.
Those facts make a connection between the community name and Lavalette Miller entirely plausible.
The problem is the date.
The West Virginia State Archives place-name index records “Lavalette” in Wayne County in 1894, a full decade before the 1904 wedding.
Even if the archival date represents a map, postal reference, or another contemporary listing rather than the exact day the community received its name, it demonstrates that Lavalette was already being used well before the wedding.
By 1904, the federal government likewise recognized Lavalette as a post village, and the state business directory described a functioning community of approximately 100 residents.
The strongest conclusion, therefore, is a cautious one.
The community may indeed have been named for Lavalette Miller, particularly considering her father’s documented connection with the Norfolk and Western, but the surviving evidence does not support the claim that the community first received that name as a wedding gift in 1904. If Lavalette Miller was the namesake, the naming must have occurred earlier.
The distinction matters because local history often changes slightly as stories are retold. A real connection between a person and a place can gradually acquire a specific event or date that the original records do not actually support.
The Lavalette and Hustler Mystery
Another unusual problem appears in the historical record.
The West Virginia State Archives lists Lavalette in 1894 and gives “Also Hustler” beside the entry. A separate place-name entry identifies Hustler in Wayne County between 1907 and 1920 and connects it with Lavalette.
At first glance, that could suggest that Hustler was simply an alternate or temporary name for Lavalette.
The 1904 to 1905 state directory complicates that interpretation.
Its Hustler entry describes a village of approximately 250 people located ten miles north of Wayne and six miles from Lavalette, which it specifically identifies as Hustler’s shipping point. J. M. Goodall served as postmaster, and mail arrived three times each week.
The same directory separately listed Lavalette with its own population, businesses, railroad station, and postmaster.
That is strong contemporary evidence that, at least around 1904, the directory regarded Lavalette and Hustler as distinct localities rather than two names for precisely the same village.
The apparent contradiction may reflect changing postal boundaries, rural neighborhoods, shifting place names, or the way government agencies classified small communities differently from local residents. Until postal site-location records, postmaster appointments, deeds, and contemporary maps are compared in detail, the relationship between Hustler and Lavalette should remain an open question rather than being forced into a simple explanation.
Families, Stores, and Everyday Lavalette
The written record becomes richer during the early twentieth century because newspapers began capturing pieces of everyday community life.
The 1920 Wayne County News account of the Bloss family tied one of the county’s older families specifically to the Lavalette neighborhood and lower Twelvepole.
Commercial life also continued after the period recorded in the Polk directory. The West Virginia State Archives preserves photographs identified as the Newman & Ray Country Store in Lavalette in 1925. The photographs belong to a small collection of Wayne and Lincoln County business images and offer a rare visual record of the sort of country store that served communities during the period when automobiles were beginning to compete with the railroad.
Stores in communities such as Lavalette performed functions extending well beyond retail sales. They were places where residents collected news, exchanged information, arranged purchases, met neighbors, and connected with commercial networks reaching into Huntington.
A surviving letter published in the Wayne County News in January 1925 shows another side of community life. Written from Lavalette, the letter discussed tax collection and county government, demonstrating that residents of the community participated actively in public debates extending beyond their immediate neighborhood.
Lavalette was never simply a railroad stop. It was a community whose residents were tied through business, family, government, schools, churches, roads, and agriculture to the larger life of Wayne County.
From Railroad Village to Highway Community
If the railroad helped define Lavalette in the 1890s, roads increasingly reshaped it during the 1920s.
The change can be followed unusually well through court records and newspapers.
In 1920, the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals considered Haws v. County Court of Wayne County, a dispute involving road construction in the county. The proposed route was described as beginning at Kenova and proceeding up Twelvepole via Lavalette to Wayne. The case demonstrates Lavalette’s growing importance as a transportation point between the county seat and the Ohio River communities.
Road building accelerated soon afterward.
On November 16, 1922, the Wayne County News announced that the newly constructed hard-surfaced Huntington-Lavalette road had opened to traffic. The newspaper called the opening memorable in the road-building history of Wayne County.
The route left Huntington, crossed Ritter Hill toward Hodges, followed Camp Creek, and reached the Twelvepole road near Lavalette. From there travelers could continue toward Wayne.
The significance was enormous.
For the first time, reliable automobile travel began challenging the railroad’s position as the dominant connection between Lavalette and Huntington. Residents who once depended heavily upon train schedules could increasingly travel by car, truck, or bus.
Another major section was completed in 1923. The Wayne County News reported that a hard-surfaced route between Huntington and Lavalette would become continuous once the final stretch opened before Thanksgiving.
By 1925, the Huntington Automobile Club was publishing detailed road logs through Lavalette, Wayne, Dunlow, Crum, Williamson, Logan, and Charleston. The community had become part of a regional automobile corridor extending far beyond northern Wayne County.
The railroad had created one version of Lavalette.
The highway created another.
Flooding Along the Creek
Transportation through a creek valley always came with risks.
In January 1926, flooding placed water over the Wayne-Lavalette road at three separate locations. The Wayne County News reported flooding near the Sanders Spurlock farm, Wilsons Creek, and Garretts Creek. Traffic was interrupted, although only briefly.
The same issue mentioned George E. Byer, who had moved with his family from Huntington to a farm near Lavalette and reported enjoying life in Wayne County. That small newspaper item captures another transition occurring around the community. Improved transportation allowed families to maintain connections with Huntington while living in the countryside.
Lavalette increasingly occupied an intermediate position between rural Wayne County and the expanding Huntington metropolitan area.
Beech Fork Lake and a Changing Landscape
The twentieth century brought another major change to the watershed with the development of Beech Fork Lake.
Congress authorized the Beech Fork project through the Flood Control Act of 1962 as part of a larger federal system intended to reduce flood damage throughout the Ohio River basin. The dam was completed in 1977, and the lake opened for recreational use in May 1978.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers identifies Beech Fork Lake as being near Lavalette. The project impounds a large section of the Beech Fork watershed and serves flood-control, recreation, fish, and wildlife purposes.
Its construction added another layer to Lavalette’s historical relationship with water.
Twelvepole Creek and its tributaries had once helped determine where settlers could farm and travel. They later guided railroad engineers through the mountains. Flooding periodically disrupted roads and communities. By the late twentieth century, the same watershed had become part of a federally managed flood-control and recreational system.
Lavalette Today
Modern Lavalette is no longer defined by a railroad depot or a cluster of businesses surrounding a mill.
It is officially recognized by the United States Census Bureau as a census-designated place. The 2020 Census recorded 932 residents within the Lavalette CDP.
State Route 152 now occupies the transportation role that the Norfolk and Western once played in connecting much of northern Wayne County. Nearby Beech Fork Lake draws visitors for recreation, while Huntington remains only a short drive to the north.
Yet pieces of older Lavalette survive in the documentary record even where the physical landmarks have disappeared.
There was once a railroad station where federal surveyors measured the rail at approximately 565 feet above sea level. There were saw, planing, and grist mills operated by Workman & Newman. There were general stores, livestock dealers, a blacksmith, telegraph service, a postmaster, and a railroad agent.
There were old families whose connection to lower Twelvepole reached back generations before the community had a documented name.
Then came the hard roads, automobiles, flood-control projects, suburban connections, and the gradual transformation of a railroad village into the modern community seen today.
Why Lavalette’s Story Matters
Lavalette provides an unusually useful example of how Appalachian communities developed.
Its history was not shaped by one enormous coal mine, a courthouse, or a single industrial corporation. Instead, the community emerged from several forces working together.
Families had already settled along Twelvepole before Wayne County was created. The Norfolk and Western then brought a railroad station and direct access to regional markets. Mills and stores turned Lavalette into a small commercial center. Improved roads connected the community more closely with Huntington. Federal flood-control projects later altered the surrounding watershed.
Even the uncertainty surrounding its name tells an important historical story.
Lavalette Miller was a real person. Her father really was connected with the Norfolk and Western. Her 1904 wedding really did take place at the Miller home in Kenova. Yet the West Virginia State Archives places Lavalette on the historical record by 1894.
Rather than weakening the story, that discrepancy makes it more valuable.
It reminds us that local history is not simply a collection of stories passed from one generation to another. It is an investigation. Newspapers, railroad records, business directories, deeds, postal documents, maps, court cases, photographs, and family records sometimes confirm tradition, and sometimes force us to reconsider it.
Lavalette survives today beside the same creek valley that shaped its beginnings.
The depot is no longer the center of the community. The sawmill and gristmill no longer define its economy. Automobiles long ago replaced passenger trains as the ordinary way residents travel toward Huntington or Wayne.
But beneath those changes remains the older geography of Twelvepole Creek and the history of a small Wayne County community that grew where farms, timber, railroad tracks, mills, roads, and Appalachian families met.
Sources & Further Reading
Gannett, Henry. A Gazetteer of West Virginia. Bulletin 233. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1904. https://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/0233/report.pdf
R. L. Polk & Co. West Virginia State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1904–1905. “Lavalette.” Detroit: R. L. Polk & Co., 1904. https://ldsgenealogy.com/WV/books/West-Virginia-state-gazetteer-and-business-directory-pt-1-part-50.htm
R. L. Polk & Co. West Virginia State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1904–1905. “Hustler.” Detroit: R. L. Polk & Co., 1904. https://ldsgenealogy.com/WV/books/West-Virginia-state-gazetteer-and-business-directory-pt-1-part-46.htm
United States Geological Survey. Spirit Leveling in West Virginia, 1896 to 1908. Bulletin 399. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1910. https://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/0399/report.pdf
United States Geological Survey. Spirit Leveling in West Virginia, 1896 to 1915. Bulletin 632. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1916. https://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/0632/report.pdf
National Archives and Records Administration. Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832–September 30, 1971. Microfilm Publication M841, Records of the Post Office Department, Record Group 28. https://www.archives.gov/research/post-offices/postmasters-1832-1971.html
National Archives and Records Administration. Post Office Reports of Site Locations, 1837–1955. Microfilm Publication M1126, Records of the Post Office Department, Record Group 28. https://www.archives.gov/research/post-offices/locations-1837-1950.html
West Virginia State Archives. “Place Names in West Virginia.” Entry for Lavalette, Wayne County, 1894. West Virginia Archives and History. https://archive.wvculture.org/history/archives/placenames/placnaml.html
West Virginia State Archives. “Place Names in West Virginia.” Entry for Hustler, Wayne County, 1907–1920. West Virginia Archives and History. https://archive.wvculture.org/history/archives/placenames/placnamh.html
West Virginia Division of Culture and History. Joseph S. Miller House. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. https://wvculture.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Joseph-miller-house.pdf
West Virginia State Archives. “Wayne County Records.” County Court Records, Microfilm Holdings and Collections. https://archive.wvculture.org/history/archives/bluenote.html
Virginia General Assembly. “An Act Establishing the County of Wayne.” January 18, 1842. Reproduced by West Virginia Archives and History. https://archive.wvculture.org/history/counties/wayne01.html
White, M. Wood. White’s Topographical, County & District Atlas of West Virginia. Philadelphia: M. Wood White, 1873. Wayne County map. https://www.davidrumsey.com/maps1120365-28431.html
United States Geological Survey. Lavalette Quadrangle, West Virginia. Surveyed 1957, published 1959. https://pastmaps.com/map/lavalette-wayne-county-wv-usgs-topo-1957-p1959
West Virginia State Archives. “Newman & Ray Country Store, Lavalette, 1925.” Photograph Collection Ph90-011. https://archive.wvculture.org/history/collections/photographaccessions.html
The Wayne News. Wayne, WV, 1886–1919. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn86092387/1919-05-22/ed-1/
Wayne County News. “Only Sixteen Living Descendants of Bloss Family.” February 5, 1920. West Virginia Archives and History. https://archive.wvculture.org/history/wcn/wcn200205.html
Wayne County News. “Wayne County World War Memorial.” May 11, 1922. West Virginia Archives and History. https://archive.wvculture.org/History/wcn/wcn220511.html
Wayne County News. “Huntington-Lavalette Road.” November 16, 1922. Wayne County Genealogical and Historical Society. https://waynewv.com/wcghs/oldsite/Old%20Newspapers/Newspapers%201922.htm
Wayne County News. Letter from Lavalette concerning county government and taxation. January 15, 1925. West Virginia Archives and History. https://archive.wvculture.org/History/wcn/wcn250115.html
Wayne County News. “Huntington Automobile Club Road Log.” August 27, 1925. West Virginia Archives and History. https://archive.wvculture.org/History/wcn/wcn250827.html
Wayne County News. Report on flooding along the Wayne-Lavalette road. January 28, 1926. West Virginia Archives and History. https://archive.wvculture.org/History/wcn/wcn260128.html
Wayne County News. Report on construction of the Lavalette-Kenova route and State Route 75. September 16, 1926. West Virginia Archives and History. https://archive.wvculture.org/History/wcn/wcn260916.html
Wayne County News. Profile of Adrian C. Sullivan and Price’s Creek School. November 4, 1926. West Virginia Archives and History. https://archive.wvculture.org/History/wcn/wcn261104.html
Haws v. County Court of Wayne County, 86 W. Va. 650, 104 S.E. 119 (1920). https://openjurist.org/86/wva/650/haws-v-county-court-of-wayne-county
Krebs, C. E., and D. D. Teets Jr. Cabell, Wayne and Lincoln Counties. Morgantown: West Virginia Geological Survey, 1913. https://books.google.com/books?id=9MgbAAAAMAAJ
United States Army Corps of Engineers. Beech Fork Lake Water Control Manual. Huntington District. https://water.sec.usace.army.mil/cda/documents/wc/3324/BBF_16082024_WCM_redacted.pdf
United States Army Corps of Engineers, Louisville District. “Beech Fork Lake.” Accessed October 10, 2026. https://www.lrd.usace.army.mil/Missions/Projects/Article/3641178/beech-fork-lake/
United States Geological Survey. Hydrologic Studies of the Beech Fork and Twelvepole Creek Area. Open-File Report. https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/1981/0902/report.pdf
West Virginia State Historic Preservation Office. Reconnaissance-Level Architectural Survey, Wayne County, West Virginia. 2017. https://mapwv.gov/shpo/docs/PDFs/ArchitecturalSurveys/RMU-51.pdf
Marshall University Special Collections. “Cabell-Wayne Historical Society Collection, Collection 0099.” Marshall Digital Scholar. https://mds.marshall.edu/cabell_wayne_hist_soc_collection/
West Virginia and Regional History Center. “Wayne County Newspaper Clippings Collection, A&M 0168.” West Virginia University Libraries. https://archives.lib.wvu.edu/repositories/2/resources/2486
West Virginia Archives and History. “Wayne County News Historical Articles.” https://archive.wvculture.org/History/wcn/wcntoc.html
Wayne County Genealogical and Historical Society. “Historic Newspaper Archive.” https://wcghswv.org/old_news_articles.php?thisPage=old_news_articles
Norfolk & Western Historical Society. “Surviving Stations.” https://www.nwhs.org/data/SurvivingStations.html
KYOVA Interstate Planning Commission and Michael Baker International. Wayne Branch Rail-Trail Feasibility Study. 2024. https://www.kyovaipc.org/Wayne_Branch_Rail_Trail_Feasibility_Study_12_Dec_2024_reduced.pdf
Kirby, Wesley D. A Brief History of Wayne Community. 1926. West Virginia Archives and History. https://archive.wvculture.org/hiStory/agrext/wayne.html
Taylor, Mildred. History of Wayne County, West Virginia. 1963. Bibliographic information available through e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia. https://wvencyclopedia.org/entries/892
West Virginia State Archives. “Jay O’Dell Collection, Sc2005-002.” Archives and History Accessions, 2005. https://archive.wvculture.org/history/archives/accessions/05acc.html
U.S. Census Bureau. “2020 Census Designated Places, West Virginia.” TIGERweb. https://tigerweb.geo.census.gov/tigerwebmain/Files/bas25/tigerweb_bas25_cdp_2020_tab20_wv.html
Author Note: This article began with a simple question about how Lavalette developed along Twelvepole Creek, but the records revealed a surprisingly complicated story behind the community’s name. I have tried to separate documented history from local tradition, particularly where the 1894 evidence conflicts with the later story surrounding Lavalette Miller.