Route 50 passes through the middle of Romney, a town of approximately 1,800 people in the eastern part of West Virginia. It is the oldest town in West Virginia (1762).
Romney is the county seat of Hampshire County, and both Romney and Hampshire County have had a difficult history with wars. In 1928, local citizens erected a statue in front of the Hampshire County courthouse in Romney to honor those killed in “the World War.”
The inscription on the base of the statue is a quote from the second stanza of the poem, “In Flanders Fields,” by John McCrae. He wrote it after the death of a friend in a World War I battle, while he sat in the back of an ambulance at Ypres, Belgium. Here it is:
We are the dead.
Short days ago we lived,
Felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved.
There are 27 names.
During the time of the American Civil War, Hampshire County voted in favor of the Confederacy. That didn’t settle the matter for Romney, which was on the preferred route for armies traveling north and south through the surrounding mountainous territory. The result? According to a historical marker in Romney, Union and Confederate forces swapped control of the town 56 times.
Today, Romney is fighting a battle of a different kind:
This is a spotted lanternfly, a species native to China, India, and Vietnam, where it is kept in check by natural predators. It arrived in the U.S. in eastern Pennsylvania, where it was first recorded in 2014. Finding no inhibiting predators, within five years it spread to 14 counties in Pennsylvania, and onward into the nearby states. It can badly damage trees and agricultural products. Romney and West Virginia are on the alert.
In more positive agricultural news, Romney hosts the West Virginia Peach Festival in late summer.
Should you attend, and if you are very fortunate, DoodleBugs Desserts will be there. That means you will be able to sample their Peach Foldovers — delicious! And an excellent way to remember Romney as you continue on Route 50.
Unkind folks have said that Hampshire County is named after a pig, specifically the Hampshire Hog. The connection is tenuous, however, since the breed was not officially recognized as “Hampshires” until 1907. It’s more likely the county was simply named after County Hampshire, in England. Still it could be considered an honor to be named after hogs that have been described as “exhibiting good carcass quality when used as meat animals.”
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The Hampshire Hog photo is from Wikimedia Commons.
All other photos by the author.