Addendum to “Sundown versus consistent GOP by county”

In my previous article “Sundown versus consistent GOP by county”, I noted my intention to discuss a number of counties in the northwest of West Virginia that were discussed barely or not at all by the late James Löwen in his Sundown Towns. Three of these, Ritchie County, Doddridge County, and Tyler County, I noted as among the most consistently partisan counties and as typical of fiercely Unionist counties in antebellum slave states (in effect, slave state counties without slaves).

Upon studying census data for the region surrounding these three counties, I noticed an almost continuous sundown area surrounding these three rock-ribbed Unionist GOP strongholds. The apparent sundown area extended as far east as heavily secessionist Webster County, which was only once won by a Republican before 2012, and also includes two counties in neighbouring Ohio.

Map of West Virginia and neighbouring areas with labelled counties showing the continuous sundown area around Ritchie, Tyler and Doddridge Counties. Dark red are likely or known sundown counties, red are highly possible sundown counties, and gold are counties that have had a population over 75,000 in at least one census.

County	State	Census
		Total black population									Number of black households
		1880	1890	1900	1910	1920	1930	1940	1950	1960	1970	1980	1990	2000	2010
Monroe	Ohio	80	102	84	90	62	37	45	21	7	2	2	3	9	19
Noble	Ohio	94	37	37	44	24	28	24	9	3	1	0	4	6	4
Wetzel	West Virginia	22	36	439	57	89	53	29	33	5	0	3	6	3	5
Pleasants	West Virginia	26	9	6	9	7	0	0	3	8	0	8	0	2	5
Tyler	West Virginia	6	2	94	115	52	35	27	20	12	1	4	0	0	1
Ritchie	West Virginia	64	36	26	26	13	7	9	5	1	0	0	2	7	8
Doddridge	West Virginia	54	131	25	8	1	20	5	2	1	0	0	0	0	2
Wirt	West Virginia	13	24	64	40	35	25	38	20	13	0	0	2	4	4
Jackson	West Virginia	103	87	115	26	12	4	1	3	6	0	5	9	8	24
Roane	West Virginia	39	29	32	18	12	14	3	23	17	0	0	0	12	9
Calhoun	West Virginia	74	81	83	80	36	12	7	10	12	0	0	0	1	2
Gilmer	West Virginia	47	50	36	17	38	21	2	24	1	1	0	5	12	28
Clay	West Virginia	0	0	18	5	147	170	201	58	66	0	0	0	1	2
Braxton	West Virginia	104	134	187	221	273	188	160	111	119	22	28	29	28	27
Lewis	West Virginia	323	261	178	239	291	122	93	62	95	19	17	8	8	13
Webster	West Virginia	2	11	12	8	0	9	1	4	1	0	0	0	0	2
Nicholas	West Virginia	58	21	19	48	68	65	24	32	6	0	4	1	2	10

Of the counties shown above, there is some discussion of Pleasants County here, but the fact that census data for surrounding counties indicates they were probably sundown is not noted. New Martinsville, the seat of Wetzel County, is also discussed here, but that Wetzel County was probably sundown throughout is never noted. It is worthwhile to note that in the 1860 census, the last before slavery was abolished, Ritchie County had no free blacks at all. The table above suggests that most of the counties in this sundown area got rid of their black populations in the 1900s, with this date being most apparent for Doddridge County, and not improbable for Wetzel, Ritchie, Roane and Jackson Counties. Some other counties — such as Calhoun and Gilmer — may have got rid of their black populations around the Depression era. (Tucker County, an isolated probable sundown county on the map, appears to have got rid of its African Americans only after Brown v. Board of Education. The same is true of Highland County, and possibly of Nicholas and Wirt).

In order to establish this as a distinct area of sundown or probably sundown counties, I have compiled census data for surrounding counties that have never had a population of 75,000 or greater in any census. (As I noted earlier, this cutoff may in fact be too large). Upshur County’s figures were already shown in the previous post, but Upshur is unlikely to have been a sundown county.

County	State	Census
		Total black population									Number of black households
		1880	1890	1900	1910	1920	1930	1940	1950	1960	1970	1980	1990	2000	2010
Greene	Pennsylvania	503	445	313	389	300	516	417	450	360	98	95	77	61	81
Marshall	West Virginia	223	236	499	575	502	882	881	323	360	36	45	41	41	50
Guernsey	Ohio	586	496	472	489	456	571	596	622	688	166	196	233	235	208
Morgan	Ohio	193	160	131	147	233	275	377	361	500	122	162	209	204	184
Washington	Ohio	1,243	1,412	1,597	1,378	1,165	1,185	1,143	865	843	205	299	291	244	265
Meigs	Ohio	1,798	1,405	969	690	631	596	507	415	339	72	109	65	68	93
Mason	West Virginia	859	759	537	349	227	692	670	755	529	58	37	32	44	45
Putnam	West Virginia	355	237	378	435	397	124	145	12	13	27	18	41	99	173
Greenbrier	West Virginia	1,981	1,993	1,829	1,779	1,726	2,329	2,430	2,014	1,879	483	516	508	487	445
Pocahontas	West Virginia	334	353	625	445	558	638	646	628	373	56	30	30	21	12
Randolph	West Virginia	112	262	519	376	431	342	391	385	260	61	51	38	41	44
Upshur	West Virginia	201	256	221	226	196	201	155	92	71	19	20	29	22	27

Whilst most of these figures do suggest a definite boundary of the sundown area, it might be noted that most of Randolph County was probably sundown and may still be, although the county seat of Elkins and unincorporated parts of its associated district have always had at least thirty black households. Six of Randolph’s nine districts had no black household in 2010. Guernsey County shows a somewhat similar pattern: almost all the black households were and are in county seat Cambridge and the surrounding township. Mason County and Point Pleasant are similar though less extreme, as thirteen of 45 black households in the county lied outside its district. (That boundaries of large sundown areas do not correspond with county lines is the rule rather than the exception). Whether the apparently sundown part of Randolph became so before 1940 as the group of counties tabled above did, or with Brown v. Board as Tucker County apparently did, it is difficult to check with census data.