Caleb Roark

Caleb’s project is focusing on the American Emigrant Aid and Homestead Company's efforts to found, settle, and advertise the town of Ceredo to prove the vitality of free labor (wage labor) in the border state of Virginia. It also contains an emphasis on both the political scheming that surrounded the proponents and board members of the company and the views and hopes of the town's settlers. This focus initially developed from his high school interest in the free soilers and the desire to explicate the impacts of free soil politics in modern-day West Virginia.

Caleb was able to present at the WVU HGSA Conference in Spring 2023. He states, “The experience helped to test my research’s arguments and develop a further understanding of the material that bolstered my attempt to finish the thesis.”

From Caleb’s experience in EXCEL, he was able to develop an admiration for the original historical research process and the historical skills that he will utilize in graduate school and beyond as a historian.