Jimtown, Randolph County, West Virginia

Jimtown is an unincorporated community on U.S. Highway 33 in Randolph County, West Virginia, United States.

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Jimtown is located in Roaring Creek District of Randolph County on present day Route 151 (formerly U.S. Route 33), about seven miles west of Elkins, West Virginia. It was formerly known as Fairhope for the one room school (late 1800s - c.1952) which was located at the present day intersection of Fairhope, Findley, and Yeager roads. Jimtown was named for James Jefferson "Squire Jim" Phillips (1855-1937), a farmer who served as a Justice of the Peace for Roaring Creek District. Jimtown was originally the land deeded to the Phillips family around 1844. It is part of the Norton-Harding-Jimtown Public Service District which provides water services to the community. Jimtown is also the home of the Phillips Chapel United Methodist Church, which was built with the help of many residents of the community who pulled together the funds and their own labor to complete the building in 1951. The land on which the church stands was sold to the congregation by the Midland Corporation, aka the *West Virginia Coal and Coke Company, for the sum of $1.00 in 1945. Many family reunions and civic groups utilize the church's adjacent park and pavilion. The Phillips Cemetery was established by the Moses J. Phillips family around the 1870s as a burial ground for the poor and indigent. Civil War veteran, farmer, and coal miner Moses J. Phillips served as a county Overseer of the Poor from 1872 through 1877. The oldest known grave is that of War of 1812 veteran Dudley A. Gibson, which dates back to the year of 1873. Both Union and Confederate veterans of the Civil War are buried there. Many Phillips family descendants, as well as residents of Jimtown, are also resting there. A portion of the historic Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike (completed in 1848) passes near the community. The Civil War battle of Rich Mountain was fought nearby, on this route. The mountain where the battle occurred can be seen from atop a hill on the Jimtown Road. Many descendants of the Phillips family still reside in Jimtown, as well as the large Miller and Broschart families, who either reside in Jimtown or participate in their yearly reunions at the Phillips Chapel park and pavilion. *On September 22, 2007, the school house bell which hung in the bell tower of the old Norton Grade School was placed in the steeple at Phillips Chapel. Ironically, the number 28 C.S. Bell Company steel alloy bell, cast on July 8, 1921, was purchased for the school around 1929 by the West Virginia Coal and Coke Company. Norton is an old mining town.