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History · Pickens

Pickens’ post office opened in 1891, and 50% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1913 on and old-book passages.

1891first post office
0on the National Register
50%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Pickens began

When was Pickens founded?

1891

The Pickens post office opened in 1891, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Florence (1872), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

2020 census: 41135 years
Founding year: the first Pickens post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Pickens’ past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Pickens are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
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Start Pickens’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Pickens’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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The story

How Pickens came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Pickens.

Read it all →

In 1891, George M. Whitescarver (1831–1914), a railroad official and coal and timber magnate, along with several other investors, purchased a large tract of land in Randolph County from James Pickens Jr. Here they built several planing mills and a sawmill that had a capacity of ten million feet per year. Pickens was founded and named the following year, by which time the railroad had been extended to that point.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Pickens in 1916

Passages that mention Pickens, cut from the printed page as they were published.

dren, Ralston and Mary. Mr. Daniels was educated in public schools and Fairmont Normal. He taught school several terms and was principal of Pickens public school. At present he holds a responsible position with the Western Maryland Railroad.
A history of Randolph County, West Virginia, from its earliest exploration and settlement to the present time1916 · page 341Read the page →
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dren, Ralston and Mary. Mr. Daniels was educated in public schools and Fairmont Normal. He taught school several terms and was principal of Pickens public school. At present he holds a responsible position with the Western Maryland Railroad.

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Mr. Pickens made some improvements on his holdings in Randolph in the fifties, but did not move to the county until 1868. He was a leading spirit in the location of the Swiss Colony at Helvetia and Florence and was largely instrumental in the building of the railroad from Buckhannon to Pickens, and…
A history of Randolph County, West Virginia, from its earliest exploration and settlement to the present time1916 · page 434Read the page →
Read the text

Mr. Pickens made some improvements on his holdings in Randolph in the fifties, but did not move to the county until 1868. He was a leading spirit in the location of the Swiss Colony at Helvetia and Florence and was largely instrumental in the building of the railroad from Buckhannon to Pickens, and was a director of the road before it was absorbed by the B. & O. He brought the first steam saw mill to the county in 1873.

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

Timeline

Pickens, 1872 to 1913

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1872Post officeThe Florence post office opens
  3. 1891Post officeThe Pickens post office opens
  4. 1893Post officeThe Florence post office closes
  5. 20th century
  6. 1913On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

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On the map

Pickens on the map, 1913 to 1977

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Pickens. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Pickens on the 1913 USGS mapPickens on the 1977 USGS map1913Pickens sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Pickens.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices and old corners

Pickens’s post office has been open since 1891. Another post office, Florence, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Florence
1872–1893
Pickens
1891–today
18701950today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Florence

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about Pickens’ history

What year was Pickens founded?

The Pickens post office opened in 1891, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.