Jimtown, Randolph County, West Virginia facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jimtown
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 Jimtown
Location in West Virginia
Jimtown
Location in the United States
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| Country | United States |
| State | West Virginia |
| County | Randolph |
| Elevation | 2,392 ft (729 m) |
| Population
(2000)
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| • Total | 1,002 |
| Time zone | UTC-5 (Eastern (EST)) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-4 (EDT) |
| ZIP code |
26257 (Coalton, WV)
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| Area code(s) | 304 & 681 |
| GNIS feature ID | 1554810 |
Jimtown is a small, quiet community in Randolph County, West Virginia, United States. It's not a big city or town, but rather an area where people live without a formal city government. It's located right along U.S. Highway 33.
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Where is Jimtown?
Jimtown is found in the Roaring Creek District of Randolph County. You can find it on a road called County Route 151 today. This road used to be part of U.S. Route 33. Jimtown is about seven miles west of a larger town called Elkins.
How Jimtown Got Its Name
Jimtown wasn't always called Jimtown! It used to be known as Fair Hope. This name came from a one-room schoolhouse that was there from the late 1800s until about 1952. The school was located where Fair Hope, Findley, and Yeager roads meet today.
The community was later named after a man named James Jefferson "Squire Jim" Phillips (1855–1937). He was a farmer who owned most of the land where Jimtown is now. He also served as a "justice of the peace" for the Roaring Creek District. This meant he was a local official who helped keep the peace and settle small disputes.
Life in Jimtown
The people of Jimtown get their water services from the Norton-Harding-Jimtown Public Service District. This group makes sure homes and businesses have clean water.
The main road that goes through the community is County Route 151. Another important road is Jimtown Road, which connects Jimtown to a nearby community called Coalton.
The Old School Bell
On September 22, 2007, a special event happened in Jimtown. An old schoolhouse bell was moved to the steeple of Phillips Chapel. This bell came from the old Norton Grade School in Norton, West Virginia.
The bell was made on July 8, 1921, by the C.S. Bell Company. It was bought for the school around 1929 by the West Virginia Coal and Coke Company. This same company also generously donated the land where Phillips Chapel was built.
Phillips Cemetery
The Phillips Cemetery was started by the Moses J. Phillips family around the 1870s. It was created as a place where people who didn't have their own burial plots could be laid to rest. Moses J. Phillips was a farmer and coal miner. He also helped the community as a county "Overseer of the Poor" from 1872 to 1877.
The oldest known grave in the cemetery belongs to Dudley A. Gibson, a veteran of the War of 1812. He was buried there in 1873. You can find graves of soldiers from both the Union and Confederate sides of the Civil War in this cemetery.
