This is the 617th article in a series recalling Huntington people and places.
Fred W. Samworth came to Huntington in the 1920s to become president of the local streetcar line, the Ohio Valley Electric Railway Co. Convinced that buses, not streetcars, were the future of local transit, he began replacing the companyÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s streetcars with buses. In 1937, Huntington became the first city in West Virginia to offer local transporting solely by bus. That same year saw the company change its name to the Ohio Valley Bus Co.
When Fred Samworth died in 1939, his son Leonard Samworth became the companyÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s treasurer. Five years later, he took over as its president.
By 1950, the company operated a fleet of 80 buses and more than a dozen routes, not just in Huntington but in Kentucky and Ohio as well. It employed 145 drivers and 90 other workers, from dispatchers to mechanics. But as more and more local families acquired cars. the bus companyÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s ridership dramatically declined, forcing it into the red.
On Oct. 1, 1971, the companyÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s unionized drivers and mechanics went on strike, demanding better wages and benefits before signing a new contract. The strike lasted for nine months and ended only when a new public agency, the Tri-State Transit Authority (TTA) took over from the privately owned bus company.
A civic leader, Samworth served on the Marshall University Board of Advisors for 15 years, was a founder of Huntington Galleries (todayÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s Huntington Museum of Art) and president of the Huntington Symphony Association. He died in 1990 at age 74.
