Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Rock Cave yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Rock Cave is a census designated unincorporated community in Upshur County, West Virginia, United States. The town is located southwest of Buckhannon at the junction of West Virginia Route 4 with County Routes 11/2 and 20/28. As of the 2020 census, Rock Cave had a population of 319. Throughout the community's history, Rock Cave has been known as Bob Town, Centerville, and Centreville. The community's name is a corruption of Rock Lava, which referred to rocks purportedly of volcanic origin unearthed near the town site. Rock Cave's public schools are operated by Upshur County Schools.
Its first post office opened in 1859.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Rock Cave in 1907
Passages that mention Rock Cave, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The history of Upshur county, West Virginia, from its earliest exploration and settlement to the present time ..1907 · page 319Read the page →
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John Wesley Wilson kept the first store at Rock Cave in 1851. He hauled his goods mostly from —————, Va. Joe Pringle kept a store near the road at the Jehu Hyre place on the head waters of Bull Run in the year 1854 or 1855; and Samuel Talbot kept the first store in the Beechtown settlement.
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The history of Upshur county, West Virginia, from its earliest exploration and settlement to the present time ..1907 · page 454Read the page →
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A Baptist church had been organized by J. W. Alvis at a log school house, near where Rock Cave now is and the same house had been used by the Methodist with Robert Curry as leader. With 13 other persons, we organized a Baptist Church at Rock Cave in 1850, in April, 1851, I joined, and soon we united in a Union Sabbath school during the summer time. After Brother Alvis left, Rev.
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
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 Wikimedia Commons (6), 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.
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