Clendenin, a History

Clendenin
Taken from History of Charleston and Kanawha County West Virginia and Representative Citizens, W.S. Laidley, Richmond Arnold Publishing Co., Chicago, 1911.

The town of Clendenin was incorporated May 20, 1904. This municipality is located on the east bank of the Elk river in Big Sandy district of Kanawha county, at the mouth of Big Sandy river on the Coal & Coke Railroad, twenty miles from Charleston. There are by the census of 1910 a population of 815 persons therein - and this is the first time that it has been numbered.
It is the outgrowth of the Coal & Coke road and the Charleston, Clendenin & Sutton Railroad, the C & C succeeding the C.C. & S.R.R. Previous to said railroad running there, a town was on the opposite side of the Elk and was sometimes designated as "Mouth of Big Sandy" and sometimes known as "Chilton" after Squire Chilton, who for several years resided therein, and represented said district on the old county court.
The municipal part of the business is now done on the east side of Elk near the depot, and the station is known as "Clendenin." Besides the railroad, there are several country roads leading into the town, coming down Elk on both sides and other roads coming from other parts of the county - if we may be pardoned for speaking of the ways as roads, for of all ways that either teams or horses or people had to pass over, some of these are the worst, and few, if any, could be worse than the streets. All this is made so by the unusual amount of hauling with heavily-laden wagons, which is in consequence of the oil and gas pipes taken from Clendenin.
Navigation on Elk and Big Sandy rivers is about the same as it has ever been, but the encroachment on the roads is somewhat improved of late and the road packets generally come in on schedule time or next week.