I Love This Place: Hundred, WV

The landscape of Hundred, WV is popping with new happenings, yet things still feel as comfortable as a home cooked meal.

Truth is, everything in Hundred is a family affair, generations in the making – and tasty too. (We’ll get to the homemade pies later!)

“Henry Church is one of my great greats on my mother’s side of the family, the Butchers,” Barber Dave Reishell tells me. We’re talking family history in between walk-in haircuts at the shop he operates on High Street in Waynesburg, tucked behind 7-11 near the banks of Ten Mile Creek.

Henry Church, or Old Hundred died in 1860 at age 109, bequeathing his well-earned nickname to the town that grew up around the cabin he built on Fish Creek. Family lore says he got there sometime in the late 1700s. The original deed was verified and the land was had for a musket, according to great uncle Richard Butcher, who always had a story for Dave as he was growing up. 

When Dave took up the torch of family historian, he learned that Henry Church was a Kings Guard assigned to Lord Cornwallis when the British pushed south to the Carolinas during the end days of the seven-year war that won America its independence. He was taken prisoner by Lafayette’s army in Petersburg, Virginia and turned over to a family in Chester County, Pennsylvania “on his honor. He fell in love with the daughter.” 

Family lore doesn’t say when Henry and his Quaker wife Hanna crossed the Alleghenies and took old Indian trails to start their new life, first in Wadestown, then further downstream on Fish Creek. But a legend was born in 1852 when Old Hundred and his wife could be seen rocking on the porch and waving as the B&O Railroad passed through town. 

To those who live here, or, like Dave have deep family ties, this community seems timeless and never changing.  But when the flood of July 2017 poured through town, uprooting some of that past, something new was born. Balancing those two realities is taking me on State Rt. 18 South once more, dropping off the Warrior Trail at Nettle Hill onto the Pennsylvania side of Fish Creek, where all streams flow to the Ohio River. Climbing the hill from New Freeport to Garrison then down to Hundred, Route 18 crosses the Mason Dixon Line and becomes State Route 69. There, the first post-flood change is a welcome surprise. The newly paved macadam road and its crisp yellow lines leads to the edge of town, then turns into Pennsylvania Avenue before dead ending at State Route 250. New signage includes a neighborly note that four-wheelers are allowed on the streets with a town permit.

The hard work and new technology that Mayor Chip Goff, council members, first responders and the community at large have initiated since the flood sparkle in the afternoon light. The narrow feeder stream that hugs the left edge of the road showed its might in 2017 when it took out the bleachers of the football field on its way to destroying the fire station and its equipment and damaging dozens of homes and establishments, leaving a war zone in its wake. Now fresh paint and new construction are the norm. The community swimming pool, playground and pavilion are ready for summer and the new fire station is impressive. Hundred received state of the art fire and rescue equipment including three fire engines and a rescue ambulance that belongs to the county along with two of its own, according to the Tyler Star News when fire chief Keith Williams was interviewed in 2021. 

Hundred continued to make the news that year as the grants and funding sources acquired after the flood were put to good use, removing damaged properties and repairing and rebuilding to attract new business to Pennsylvania Avenue while keeping the old ones up and running.

“I took the job with the idea of making a difference, now I believe we have to go a step further and create an amazing town,” Goff told the Wetzel Chronicle. On “The Town of Hundred” website that difference can be seen, read and responded to. It gives residents easy access to paying bills and contacting officials and outsiders get a window into the fun to be had when visiting. 

Memories of the flood are still there to be reckoned with as residents work through loss, including what the pandemic year of 2020 had to offer. But the wartime mindset also brought out the best and that camaraderie is alive and well.  

“It was fun considering the circumstances,” Rose Teagarden of Teagarden’s Treasures had a smile that matched the streaks of happy color in her hair when I stopped to say hello and take a look at her new digs in the old Alpine Theater. This is where generations of kids watched Westerns in the 1940s and later, folks came to enjoy live bands when Rose’s father had it open as a music venue. “When the flood hit we lost everything and had to move from our old store but the donations came in from everywhere and haven’t stopped. We work together. People are so giving.” The shop puts together basket raffles to pay for gas cards for doctors appointments and Rose is proud of the volunteer work that has been done in Hundred to help cancer survivors through Relay for Life and other community support groups and organizations. 

“When people need help they know they can find it here. If you have something to give, we can take it.”

The Alpine sign still hangs above the stage filled with bridal gowns and the dance floor is a waltz of clothing racks, furniture, house goods and toys for those in need, free for the asking. Up front are the treasures Rose has for sale. When you stop by expect to say hello to Sara Price of Smithfield who smiles when I ask how she got here. “I came to help with the flood and stayed to volunteer with Rose.”

Further down the street the second hand bookstore takes the overflow from the Hundred Library and sells it for spare change; next-door is the senior center and on the corner the old brick bank building that has seen many reincarnations now houses We Care, a food distribution center for the community.

Across the street is where the tasty part of Hundred begins but hardly ends. 

Allison’s Pizza just opened near the fire station and at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue, the nineteenth century building that houses the Rt. 250 Corner Café is a blast from the past complete with antiques in the window. Freshly remodeled, this long established eatery welcomes you to come on in and enjoy the home cooking that happens here. What’s the special besides plenty of homemade pies? Bake Steak on Wednesdays brings in diners from Mannington and the garbage plate breakfast platter makes some folks across the state line – a fact I can vouch for. The menu can be found online, along with all the daily specials.

Hang a left on 250 and go half a mile and you’ll find the one and only Miss Blue’s Restaurant. Homemade pies of course and peanut butter cake, plus breakfasts like grandma made and food that get praises from strangers online, where the menu can also be found.

Here on the eastern side of town a small, well tended covered bridge strikes a picture perfect pose as it crosses Fish Creek. Lori’s Cup of Joe Coffee Cabin along the trail is wonderfully adorable but unfortunately closed so I headed to Hundred Library just as school was letting out across the road to learn more about this DIY town that’s been holding on to its history and sense of community even when the weather’s against you for decades, maybe centuries. I finally got myself loose from this place where I’m making new friends just by stopping by and headed home to Greene County.

Those who want to grab a homemade pie for the road are in luck. When I stopped by Four Sisters Market going west on 250 I found a rack of pies by the register and a display by the deli that showed what it looked like in 2017 when Fish Creek jumped the bank and left its mark a few feet up on the outside wall.

Those days are history now, hung on walls to remember things did get pretty wild but here we are.

If you’re from Hundred, you know – it all goes better with a piece of homemade pie.