Let's all take a trip back down memory lane! Meadow Creek is an unincorporated community on the New River in northern Summers County. Lewis Gwinn owned the lands upon which the town of Meadow Creek was built. In 1871, Summers County officials issued a license to William Gwinn to sell "ardent spirits" at the mouth of Meadow Creek. The Chesapeake & Ohio Railway (C&O) completed its line along the New
River in 1873 and sometime prior to 1879 opened a station at Meadow Creek. A book printed by the C&O in 1879, "Route, Resorts, and Resources of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, of Virginia and West Virginia", indicated that Meadow Creek was a point of shipment for a considerable amount of choice oak, poplar and walnut timber (generally in square logs) to the Eastern cities and to Europe as well as stave and assorted timber, hoop-poles and locust tree-nails. A tram-railroad, built up along Meadow Creek, was used to haul timber to the C&O at Meadow Creek. A ferry, offering transport across New River, operated at Meadow Creek during these early years. During the 1870s, one of the largest general merchandise stores in Summers County was located at Meadow Creek. By 1910, Meadow Creek's population had grown to 250 persons, and the town was poised to become a important junction point on the C&O line with a branch line railroad soon to be built into the plateau region above the New River Gorge. From this branch line huge qualities of lumber would be shipped to locations across the continental U.S., and most of it would travel via the hamlet of Meadow Creek. During the 1910s, the Sewell Valley Railroad was built from Meadow Creek Station on the main line of the C&O northeastward along Meadow Creek and down Sewell Creek to Rainelle on Meadow River, and thence down the latter stream to Wilderness (Nallen P. O.), 1/2 mile north of the common corner of Fayette, Greenbrier, and Nicholas Counties. The Geological Survey for Fayette County, printed in 1919, noted that the Sewell Valley Railroad had an immense traffic in lumber from the large band mills at Rainelle, Honeydew and Nallen. At its peak, the Meadow River Lumber Company's operation at Rainelle was the largest hardwoods saw mill in the world. The rail line also hauled coal from a mine in one mile northward from Rainelle. The section of the Sewell Valley's line to Wilderness was built during the early part of 1916; the line from Meadow Creek to Rainelle was completed several years earlier, in 1909. The Sewell Valley Railroad was incorporated on November 22, 1907. In 1916, the Sewell Valley Railroad was about 21 miles in length. By June 30, 1912, the Sewell Valley Railroad owned three locomotives, a combination baggage/coach, a box car, and four flat cars. The Sewell Valley Railroad, along with the Greenbrier & Eastern and the Loop & Lookout Railroad, became part of the Nicholas, Fayette & Greenbrier Railroad in 1928, when that road was created by mandate of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) so that the C&O and the New York Central Railroad (NYC) could have equal access to the coal fields located along the Gauley River and the Meadow River. The NF&G was jointly owned by the C&O and NYC and was about 40-50 miles in length. One of two surviving steam locomotive operated by the Sewell Valley Railroad is now owned by the Steamtown National Historic Site. Meadow River Railroad Company #1, formerly owned by the Sewell Valley Railroad, spent its entire working life in East Rainelle. The other, Meadow River Lumber Company No. 7, is owned by Cass Scenic Railroad. Neither of the two locomotives are in operating condition. The Sewell Valley Bank was opened in Meadow Creek in 1918. During the 1980s, The New River Company built a large coal processing plant at Meadow Creek, that operated for only a few years. The plant was dismantled in the mid-1990s. The King of England gave a Land Grant to the GWINN family that included the Meadow Creek Valley in the State of West Virginia. This document is recorded in the Monroe County (WV) Court House. Moses GWINN was the original owner and later, William GWINN brought the Western half of the Meadow Creek Valley. With the building of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad in 1875, the town of Meadow Creek became a railroad Terminal. RAINES was responsible in building the Sewell Valley Railroad to supply the largest hardwood lumber mill. As the town grew, a general store was built and owned by J.E. and William Abraham GWINN. Later, the passenger trains and local freight trains made scheduled stops and the Sewell Valley passenger train also ahd a regular, daily scheduled stop at Meadow Creek. New businesses such as the Sewell Valley Bank, Withrow Furniture and Funeral Parlor, Tom Mosley's Restaurant, and the United States Post Office served the growing town of Meadow Creek. On the South side of New River in Raleigh County, which was across the river from Meadow Creek, small settlements that were named New Pear, and Abraham sprang up. The sawmill and mining towns were located along the Sewell Valley Railroad. The town of Meadow Creek had it's own water and electric power system until the present light system became the owners. The electric power was the result of a dam built by J.E. GWINN across Meadow Creek. Mr. GWINN was at that time the owner of the dam and water system. The Baptist Church was built in Meadow Creek in 1908. In 1974, the New River Company, which is a part of the Chessie System, built the present coal cleaning plant that is located on the Moses GWINN property at Meadow Creek.
