Parkersburg

Parkersburg, a city and the county-seat of Wood county, West Virginia, U.S.A., on the Ohio river, at the mouth of the Little Kanawha, about 95 m. below Wheeling. Pop. (1890), 8408; (1900), 11,703, of whom 515 were foreign-born and 783 were negroes; (1906, estimate), 16,477. Parkersburg is served by the Baltimore & Ohio, the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern, and the Little Kanawha railways, by electric railway to Marietta, Ohio, and by passenger and freight boats to Pittsburg, Cincinnati, intermediate ports, and ports on the Little Kanawha. Parkersburg is the see of a Protestant Episcopal bishop. Oil, coal, natural gas and fire-clay abound in the neighbouring region, and the city is engaged in the refining of oil and the manufacture of pottery, brick and tile, glass, lumber, furniture, flour, steel, and foundry and machine-shop products. In 1905 the value of the factory products was $3,778,139 (21.9% more than in 190o). Parkersburg was settled in 1789, was incorporated in 1820, and received a new charter in 1903, when its boundaries were enlarged. About 2 m. below the city is the island which was the home of Harman Blenner hassett (q.v.) and bears his name.