 Chenoweth and his brother Eli constructed 20 bridges during the 1840s and '50s, most of them covered, on four western Virginia turnpikes, notably on the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike system in what is now West Virginia.Chenoweth was born, lived and died in Randolph County, Virginia (later West Virginia).In his youth, Chenoweth built churches, houses, sideboards, poster beds, buggies, wagons, a model of a reverse-cutting sawmill, and even made dominoes.