Richardson, West Virginia

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The community was founded Charles H. Richardson in 1866. Richardson was the village's postmaster for a time. He served in the West Virginia House of Delegates in 1885. The village boomed c.1900, an event linked to oil and gas discovery. The community had a water mill on the West Fork of the Little Kanawha, as well as a church, general stores, a hotel, a barbershop, a shoemaker, a blacksmith shop, a doctor's office, drug store, a lumber dealer, and numerous livestock producers. After the oil and gas boom came to the area in the early 1900s, drilling was followed by the construction of a large gas compressor station with company houses, and featured 20th century rejuvenation of the village.