[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Page 14379]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PIEDMONT, WEST VIRGINIA

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, this year marks the 150th birthday of the 
town of Piedmont, WV. This little town, charted in 1856, is located on 
the North Branch of the Potomac River in the northeastern corner of 
West Virginia.
  In the late 19th Century, the town of Piedmont bustled with economic 
activity. A period of prosperous growth began when the Baltimore Ohio 
Railroad established a locomotive shop complex and switching yard in 
the area, and the town became an important freight-generating point on 
the B&O line.
  When local entrepreneurs persuaded surrounding railroads to turn from 
wood to coal for firing their locomotives, the coal industry in the 
region boomed.
  In the 1880s, William Luke established the West Virginia Paper 
Company's paper mill--Westvaco--in Piedmont, which became a major 
source of jobs for Piedmont residents. This included native 
Appalachians, migrant African Americans, and European immigrants, 
especially Italians and Irish. Therefore, soon after the opening of the 
paper mill, Piedmont became a town saturated with ethnic neighborhoods. 
A resident of Piedmont has written that, ``Piedmont's character has 
always been completely bound up with the Westvaco paper mill.''
  This Town of Piedmont features some unique characteristics. For 
example, ``Ripley's Believe It or Not'' once pointed out that Kenney 
House Hill in Piedmont is the only street in the world from which a 
person can enter all three stories of the same building!
  Piedmont is also known for a number of famous residents it has 
produced. This includes Don Redman, a famous jazz musician and 
composer, who wrote a number of hit arrangements for American music 
greats like Jimmy Dorsey, Harry James, and Count Basie.
  Henry Gassaway Davis was a giant in the coal mining and banking 
industries in the late 19th Century, and a two-term U.S. Senator from 
West Virginia. In 1904, Davis was the Democratic nominee for Vice 
President--he was 80 years of age at the time, making him the oldest 
person ever nominated for President or Vice President on a major party 
ticket.
  Thousands of people throughout the United States know of the town of 
Piedmont becauce of the writings of another of the town's famous 
residents, the nationally renowned writer and eminent scholar, Henry 
Louis Gates. Dr. Gates is the W.E.B. DuBois Professor of Humanities at 
Harvard University and Chairman of Harvard's Department of African and 
African American Studies Program.
  In his memoir, Colored People, Dr. Gates discusses life in Piedmont 
during the 1950s. The book, which reflects on his childhood in this 
small rural community, before and during the civil rights movement, is 
a vivid portrayal of the people of Piedmont, whom he describes as 
``virulent nationalists--Piedmont nationalists.'' ``[N]estled against a 
wall of mountains, smack-dab on the banks of the mighty Potomac,'' 
writes Dr. Gates, ``we knew God gave America no more beautiful 
location. `` According to Gates, the town's credo is: ``all New York's 
got that Piedmont's got is more of what we got. Same but bigger.'' 
``Otherwise,'' he writes, ``the advantage was all to Piedmont.''
  Mr. President, I congratulate the town of Piedmont, the little town 
``on the side of a hill in the Allegheny mountains,'' as Dr. Gates 
calls it, on its 150th birthday which the town will celebrate with its 
``Homefest.'' I wish the town the best of success on this milestone 
event.

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