Whitby has been described as a typical Coal Camp within the Winding Gulf Coal Region of Raleigh County West Virginia. The town of Whitby appears to have orginally been named Stahl. Click here to see Postal Application for Whitby. Later, as the Post Office was re-established, the name of Whitby endured. On July 27, 1935, Lillybrook Coal deeded 41.72 acres and 33 dwellings to Sterling Smokeless Coal Corporation. This was predicated on land leased to Lilly Brook Coal by the Beaver Coal Company on January 1,1933. Click here or in the table below to see a street map of Whitby. Another name for Whitby has been Bowyer. This is no doubt due to Bowyer creek and of course land leased by the Beaver Coal Corporation (which never dealt in Coal, they are only a property company) to the Bowyer Smokeless Coal Company on March 10,1917. Click here to see a map of Bowyer. Whitby then became the town name by ~ the end of 1918. Click here to see a map of the land tracts that make up Whitby. Believe it or not, Yet ANOTHER town name of Sterling was proposed; but by 1927, Whitby was the accepted name. Mr. Forman the Post Master at that time, confirmed that the town would be called Whitby. I will be transcribing the deed history that this map represents and have it posted ASAP. Additionally, there is a newer set of pages here which have a very detailed mining history of Whitby

Whitbys town names are a source of some confusion. The most obvious example was the town of Battleship or Ralco which was called West Whitby in 1951. (Click here or in the map table below to see a map of West Whitby). Most of the people I have spoken with still refer to this area as Battleship and as a child I remember seeing billboards about an amusement park in Battleship. There was a replica of a battleship there which the kids called an attraction.

In my opinion, every coal town that I have seen or played in has its important places or institutions. These are usually the Church, the Company store, the Post Office, the Mine and Tipple and of course schools. There is an excellent source of what typical coal camps were like here. What I cant understand is why the state appears to not care in the very least as to the preservation of some of these towns. I will say that at the start of this project I had been told that there was no such place as Whitby in West Virginia...

Below are links to what I have been able to find out about the Church,Post Office,grade school,Tipple and Supers House. I promise to anybody that comes here that I will give credit to any contribution you feel is important and vital. My goal is very simple, I want to recreate the town of Whitby on the web and in the course tell you a bit about its people and history. I have created a seperate table (at the bottom) for maps. Links for personal recollections and many others are coming. Thanks for your patience.