Kanawha Salt: The Stories of Jesse Cox are the personal recollections of a Kanawha Valley businessman whose fore bearers were involved in the industrial development of West Virginia. The stories were told to his great-grandson.
The purpose of the book is to explore the early industrial history of Kanawha County, WV from the early land grants and settlers to the intricately interlocked technological innovations that are the basis of the Kanawha Valley’s wealthy aristocracy.
The book investigates the possible relationships between generations. It also touches on race relations; it investigates the emotional reaction to and understanding of the parts payed by our history in the shame of slavery.
Bill attended Horace Mann Elementary, Fernbank Elementary, and Thomas Jefferson Junior High in Charleston, Episcopal High School, Alexandria, VA, and Yale University, CN where he received his BA in Architecture in 1964. He took graduate classes at George Washington University, in Washington and at University of Charleston back in West Virginia where in 1993 he was awarded a Master degree in Humanities from The West Virginia State University Graduate College.
Bill Drennen has written three books: One Kanawha Valley Bank, A History, Red white Black and Blue: a dual memoir of race and class in Appalachia, and a fictionalized history: Kanawha Salt: The Stories of Jesse Cox. He also taught history at West Virginia State University, and Shepherd College and served as president of the Jefferson County Historical Society on whose board he still serves.