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Authors Unearth History of Forgotten Hancock County Mining Community

Photo by Janice Kiaski Authors Thomas Zielinsky of Weirton, right, and George Hines III of New Cumberland check out copies of their newly released book, “Rockyside, A Forgotten Mining Community,” an undertaking that constituted two years of local research.

NEW CUMBERLAND — A tiny, forgotten mining community just north of New Cumberland is about to be a little less so.

And that’s thanks to the pursuit and perseverance of two Hancock County men and the release of a book they hope will fuel even more interest and information.

“Rockyside, A Forgotten Mining Community” constitutes the work of author New Cumberland native Thomas Zielinsky of Weirton and co-author George Hines III of New Cumberland.

“We’re very excited about finally releasing the book after almost two years of research, stomping around up on that hillside,” Zielinsky said earlier this week.

“From just what we were able to do is preserve a piece of history that without us doing this book, nobody would have remembered that Rockyside once existed, and both sides of my family — my mother’s and my father’s — came off of that hillside,” Zielinsky added, referring to his parents and grandparents. “Both my mother and father were born on Rockyside before their families moved into New Cumberland in the mid-1930s,” he said.

An initial book signing will be held from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday at the Swaney Memorial Library, located at 100 N. Court, New Cumberland. A second book signing will be held from 1-2 p.m. Aug. 3 at the Weirton Area Museum and Cultural Center, located at 3149 Main St., Weirton.

The books will be available for purchase at both book-signing locations in addition to Davis Brothers Pharmacy, 559 Carolina Ave., Chester, and Village Pharmacy in Chester.

Rockyside was once located along W.Va. 2, just south of where the West Virginia State Police Barracks are now. It is the hillside located 1 mile north of New Cumberland along W.Va. 2.

The community had an estimated 50-year existence, from about 1880 to roughly 1930, and thrived on nearby mines and potteries. Its mines were a source of clay.

Few people know, however, according to Zielinsky, that this small community at one time was home to more than 300 people, mostly immigrants from eastern Europe.

The interest in Rockyside stemmed from an oral history Zielinsky’s father created in response to a request by his daughter-in-law — a teacher who had requested a perspective on New Cumberland’s early history to share with students.

His interest was further fueled through conversations with John Kuzio of New Cumberland, who died in February at age 96. Kuzio was a local history buff whose sharp memory and recollections of New Cumberland area history impressed Zielinsky and Hines.

“Mr. Kuzio was a wealth of information,” Hines said, recalling how he also had shared stories with him from the days when Hines’ grandfather worked in the mines.

Zielinsky and Kuzio began a list of those who lived in the community, and Zielinsky started sketching out the potteries that once stretched all the way down to Kings Creek. Many of those families emigrated from Austria, Czechoslovakia and Russia.

Zielinsky shared what he identified as the greatest finds from the two-year research period, chief among them, “We found evidence that Rockyside, the hillside really did exist, along with a school, church and little community.”

They also “met so many incredible and kind people who were willing to take time and share what they remembered about this forgotten community” and uncovered the only picture of the first Catholic church to be built on Rockyside in 1904.

In addition to that, they uncovered “what remains of brick foundations and other structures so we could recreate what that hillside once looked like,” making it “priceless,” and to have come across mine maps and payroll journals “of those people who actually worked in those brickyards and clay mines,” which Zielinsky said “has been worth all the time and effort we spent.”

“George and I found original mine maps when the section of road got installed and actually talked to the owner of a brickyard who had mine maps. George got payroll journals that marked when my grandfather first started at the Rockyside hillside, so all of that kind of gelled, and then we eventually started putting together a picture of what the hillside looked like,” Zielinsky said.

On Rockyside’s beginning, Zielinsky said, “The best we could find is from 1830 when clay started coming out of Holbert’s Run and was being shipped to Pittsburgh. In 1832-34 they started building the first brickyard south of New Cumberland. The brickyards really didn’t get started north of New Cumberland until 1840 to 1845, and as they started to develop, they needed more workers,” he said, noting Capt. John Porter, who owned clay mines and brickyards, went to eastern Europe to bring workers to Rockyside. “That’s about when they started building the first barracks for men around 1870-1875, and from there on, those brickyards started to develop and come into production fairly quickly,” he said.

The journey from research to book has been an amazing one in Zielinsky’s observation, “as a person born and raised in New Cumberland to have uncovered so much information.”

He is grateful to the people, who although sometimes reluctant, nonetheless began remembering 90 years of detail. He also regrets that Kuzio, who helped Zielinsky get started, didn’t live to see the finished work.

“The project was exciting because after all these years, George and I have been able to recreate what this hillside once looked like,” Zielinsky said. “The challenge was to get as much information from the few remaining people so we would be as accurate as possible. Once information began coming in, we were able to successfully develop an image of that lost community. We were able to document a very important, lost piece of history. The people we contacted became excited to once again remember what their youth was like. As more conversations began, their minds remembered more and more details.

It allowed them to remember Rockyside,” he said.

Zielinsky said the book is “for future generations to know what the city of New Cumberland contributed to the world.”

“We’re hoping once this comes out and people start to remember a little more and get in a nostalgic mood about family, that they go down to their basements or up in their attics,” Zielinsky said, mindful it might be the springboard for pictures or information.

Inquiries can be directed to Zielinsky by phone at 304-723-3263 or by email to tzielinsky@comcast.net

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