by Charlotte Cavender
Charleston Daily Mail, Charleston, West Virginia
September 4, 1985
ANSTED - Nestled between Hawks Nest State Park and the New River Gorge Bridge is this tiny mountaintop town with a historical charm all its own.
Ansted was settled along zigzagging U. S. 60 which has been a major traffic route for hundreds of years - first for the buffalo, then for the Indians and later for the white settlers. In the 1940s a new sections of U. S. 60 bypassed the original part of Ansted.
As retired school teachers and trustees of the Fayette County Historical Society, Ivan and Grace Steele are probably as qualified as anyone to attest to the significance of this little community of about 1,800.
They live on Sycamore Street a short distance from the Tyree Tavern, the oldest house in Ansted which is now privately owned and not open for public view. But the Steeles can tell the stories behind the tavern and how it played a part in the beginning of their hometown.
"The Tyree Tavern dates back to the 1700s," Steele said. "It's an oddity. There are three sets of stairs. It seems to me there are 14 rooms in the building. It was a famous stagecoach stop. It was also the headquarters of the Chicago Gray Dragoons during the Civil War.
"There's a beautiful love story connected that," he added. "A beautiful young lady was supposed to live down a ways. I always thought I could pick out the place. It was down at Hawks Nest. One of the Chicago Gray Dragoons fell in love with her.
"General Lee was stationed on Sewell Mountain," he said. "This lady would go up on Sewell Mountain and tell General Lee what was going on down here with the Union troops. She kept him informed."
The Tyree Tavern was also where Ansted's first post office was established in 1827 when the town was called Mt. Cove. It was also known as the Halfway House because it was located halfway between Charleston and Lewisburg.
Mrs. Steele offered another story about a wedding which took place at the Tyree Tavern.
"After the Civil War, Col. George W. Imboden (commander of the 18th Virginia Cavalry Regiment) married Mary Frances Tyree [she's kin!] in the Tyree Tavern," Mrs. Steele said. "She only lived 15 years after the wedding."
Following his first wife's death, the colonel married Angie Dickenson in 1889.
"When she was just a babe in her mother's arms (Angie Dickenson Imboden) attended the wedding of the first Mrs. Imboden," Mrs. Steele said. "Angie Imboden named the family home Contentment because she and her family spent many happy hours there."
Although the town was named for English geologist David Ansted, who once owned the land the town now occupies, it was Imboden who was given credit for laying out the town. Imboden, a wealthy lawyer, also got credit for nudging the business community.
Contentment still stands along U. S. 60, one mile east of Hawks Nest State Park. Contentment was built about 1830 on the James River and Kanawha Turnpike in the west end of what is now Ansted. Imboden, who was also Ansted's first mayor, acquired the house in 1872.
The pre-Civil War house is now cared for by the Fayette County Historical Society. Also located there is a museum and a Fayette County restored one-room schoolhouse.
The three-unit complex is open to the public June through September seven days a week. Monday through Saturday hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tours are conducted on Sundays from 1:30 - 5 p.m.
Robert Beckelheimer, president of the Fayette County Historical Society, estimates that 1,000 people have toured Contentment this year.
On a hill overlooking Ansted is Westlake Cemetery. Buried there are generations of Ansted families and Julie Neale Jackson, the mother of General Stonewall Jackson.
The Steeles said the town has seven churches. One of these, Lovers Leap Baptist, is known because of the many legends surrounding it.
There are many variations to the story but the ending is the same. It seems two lovers who were not allowed to marry because their families disapproved jumped from the cliff near Hawks Nest to meet their death together in the gorge below.
Some say it was a white man and a white girl. Others believe it was an Indian brave and a girl from a different tribe. As a third version goes, a white man was in love with an Indian girl.
Ansted was once a thriving coal town but now consists of mostly retired people, according to the Steeles who celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in June.
Now only a handful of residents get their wages from nearby coal companies and several others are employed by the county school board, Steele said.
Ansted is no longer a trading center for miners, but the town's historical importance remains intact.
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