“Why West Virginia Histories instead of History? Because these books are not a history of the Mountain State; they examine moments from that history, ranging from the time when West Virginia was still the western part of Virginia through the 1960s, the decade that marked 100 years of statehood independent from Mama Virginia.
Most of the articles originally appeared as “Once, Long Ago,” my column that ran each Sunday in the Clarksburg Exponent Telegram newspaper, March 1998–November 2014. Drawn from old newspapers, county histories, out-of-print books and other sources, most stories cover forgotten or little-known events such as the Lincoln County farm wives’ fraud ring or why the town of Alderson has a leash law for lions.
Each book is indexed and contains 100 articles including updates, additional material and never-before-published articles, separated into themes.”