by Barbara Minor
A project two years in the making came to fruition Saturday as Van Camp descendants met to dedicate a roadside marker.
Located on W. Va. 180 between the two entrances to Paden Fork, the sign commemorates the Van Camp families who made their homes in the area in the late 1700's until the early 1900's. Beecher Rhoades of Camden, W. Va. and Dr. Jack Furbee of Milford, Ohio, great grandsons of John Marshall Van Camp, welcomed spectators and family members to the roadside dedication.
"My sister, Joanne, and I grew up here. Our mother attended the Van Camp school," Furbee said. "his was a teaming little community."
The area, approximately 1,000 acres, was purchased by John Squire Van Camp in 1837, according to the Van Camp-Martin history published in the History of Wetzel County, "W. Va. 1983. The acreage soon took the name of the owner, becoming known as Van Camp and soon housed a church, school, post office and general store.
John Marshall Van Camp, the son of John Squire and grandfather to Furbee and Rhoades, married Mary Belle Martin on Dec. 16, 1861. Then on Aug. 15, 1862, John Marshall enlisted in the Union Army for service in the Civil War. Stationed at Parkersburg, Cumberland and Petersburg, John Marshall Van Camp served in the engineering corps of the Army until being wounded in 1865.
Mary Belle died in childbirth eight years later, leaving John Marshall a widower and the supporter of four children. John Marshall later married Margaret Ann Martin (Mary Belle's sister) and fathered nine more children. John Marshall is buried in the Van Camp Cemetery, just 25 yards from the sign marking the area.
"We've got some heroes buried in that cemetery up there," Rhoades said. "My great grandfather Bradford Long who served in the Ohio Infantry during the Civil War is buried there, along with my great grandfather John Marshall.