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== History == The Town of Piedmont is situated in the Allegheny Front mountain range along the [[Potomac River|North Branch of the Potomac River]]. A century prior to the chartering of Piedmont, the area was opened for European settlement with the creation of [[Hampshire County, West Virginia|Hampshire County]] in 1754 by the colonial government in Virginia. The region was the scene of hostile interactions between European settlers and pro-[[Kingdom of France|French]] Native Americans during the [[French and Indian War]]. Owing to its location and natural resources, the Piedmont area attracted German, Scotch-Irish, Swiss, English, and Italian immigrants, making the region more diverse than the primarily English-American Hampshire County. These cultural differences within the county, as well as growing population in the years leading up to the Civil War would later contribute to the formation of a new county. The village of Piedmont was settled by people seeking to extract coal from the Allegheny Front mountain range which extends for several miles to the south of the town. Its strategic location at the intersection of [[Georges Creek Valley|George's Creek Valley]], an industrial center in neighboring Maryland, made Piedmont a desirable location for a depot on the [[Baltimore and Ohio Railroad]] as it pushed west on its route to Wheeling and the Ohio River. The original main line of the B&O railroad reached the site of Piedmont on July 21, 1851. Two years later in 1853, the railroad reached the [[Ohio River]] at [[Wheeling, West Virginia|Wheeling]], connecting [[Baltimore, Maryland]] with a direct route leading to the rapidly-growing [[Northwest Territory]] states. The line through Piedmont remains a segment of the B&O system, now part of [[CSX Transportation]]. With the arrival of the B&O and the building of a roundhouse and rail yard, the Town of Piedmont was chartered in 1856.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kenny|first=Hamill|title=West Virginia Place Names: Their Origin and Meaning, Including the Nomenclature of the Streams and Mountains|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015009099824;view=1up;seq=512;size=125|year=1945|publisher=The Place Name Press|location=Piedmont, WV|page=486}}</ref> During the [[American Civil War]] (1861β1865), the town of Piedmont was frequently raided by the [[McNeill's Rangers]] in an effort by the [[Confederate States of America|Confederates]] to disrupt B&O train service. Despite the interruption of the war, the region continued to develop new industrial and commercial institutions, leading to the creation of [[Mineral County, West Virginia|Mineral County]] in 1866 (separated from Hampshire County).<ref name="Mineral County">{{cite web|last1=Canfield|first1=Jack|title=Mineral County|url=https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/1801|website=e-WV|publisher=West Virginia Humanities Council|access-date=June 26, 2017}}</ref> Along with neighboring [[Grant County, West Virginia|Grant County]], these two new counties were the first created in the state of West Virginia which itself was separated from Virginia in 1863. In 1888, [[William Luke]] established the West Virginia Paper Company (now Verso Luke Mill) on {{convert|50|acres}} of [[Maryland]] land known as '''West Piedmont''' (now [[Luke, Maryland]], adjacent to the larger town of [[Westernport, Maryland]]), fueling further development of the region. Notable residents of Piedmont have included U.S. Senator [[Henry Gassaway Davis]] who worked as a storekeeper and railroad agent before opening the region's largest coal mines on the "Big Vein" on the Allegheny Front.<ref name="Mineral County"/> [[Leslie Thrasher]], a noted illustrator whose work was featured on the covers of [[Liberty (general interest magazine)|Liberty]] magazine and the [[Saturday Evening Post]] was born in Piedmont on September 15, 1889. [[Jazz]] musician and composer [[Don Redman]] was born in Piedmont on July 29, 1900. [[Henry Louis Gates]], a professor of African-American history at [[Harvard University]], was raised in Piedmont, an experience he described in his 1994 book ''Colored People''.<ref name="Gates Memoir"/> Steve Whiteman, lead singer for the glam/rock band Kix was raised in Piedmont and graduated from Piedmont High School.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.times-news.com/news/slice_of_life/piedmont-s-steve-whiteman-of-kix-works-as-music-teacher/article_734b93f2-61af-5489-b9c5-458590770bb8.html|title=Piedmont's Steve Whiteman of Kix works as music teacher|last=Times-News|first=For the Cumberland|work=The Cumberland Times-News|access-date=October 23, 2017|language=en}}</ref>
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