Historical merit of Princeton house recognized

By GREG JORDAN

Bluefield Daily Telegraph

PRINCETON — An historic Princeton structure that saw the flames of war and
hosted two future presidents will soon be the first marked location on the
West Virginia Civil War Trails program.

Officials will unveil a Civil War Trail historical marker Thursday, April 3,
at 2 p.m. at the Dr. Robert B. McNutt House, the current home of the
Princeton-Mercer County Chamber of Commerce. Located at 1522 N. Walker
Street, the structure was built in 1840 and purchased seven years later by
Dr. Robert E. McNutt for $200.

But in 1862 the home’s rather ordinary history took dramatic turns when the
American Civil War arrived in Princeton. A Union campaign to cut an
important Confederate supply line brought opposing forces together in Mercer
County. One man who had two great-grandfathers serving the South at that
time described how the clash took shape.

“The mission was to get to Dublin, Va. and destroy the railroad bridge
there. The Tennessee-Virginian Railroad was the lifeblood to the Confederate
forces that were in Tennessee and Georgia,” said Ken Hylton of Princeton, a
member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans’ Flat Top Copperheads.

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