"They have to draw the line somewhere. Everybody else makes cutbacks, the government needs to make cutbacks," said Lane, who works for the Jefferson County Board of Education.
Sharpsburg resident Sharon Nutter held an American flag aloft that was being flown upside down, which she said symbolized a nation in distress.
"I'm opposed to big government and I believe we're on the road to socialism," Nutter said.
"Obama is spending us to death, and somewhere along the line we're going to have to pay for all of this," Nutter said. "And how do you think we're going to pay for all of it? They're going to tax me and you, that's how they're going to do it."
Barbara "Barb" Miller, organizer of the Martinsburg rally, said she was surprised by the turnout, given the fact that steady rain was falling before it began at 5 p.m.
"It far exceeded our expectations," Miller said of 300 people who lined the corners of Martinsburg's downtown square at Queen and King Streets, prompting motorists to blare their horns.
She told those who gathered that the rally has to be more than "just talk" and encouraged people to sign a petition that would be sent to the White House and elected officials, including Sens. Robert C. Byrd and Jay Rockefeller.
Miller, of Gerrardstown, W.Va., said she was told that about 150 people attended the rally outside the Jefferson County Courthouse in Charles Town, which was an off-shoot of the one she began organizing three or four weeks ago.
People at Martinsburg's rally held signs that proclaimed "it's the constitution, stupid," "born free, taxed to death," and a quote by President Herbert Hoover, "Blessed are the young for they shall inherit the national debt."
Those gathered sang along with vocal and instrumental performances of the national anthem, "God Bless America" and "God Bless the USA" and at one point began chanting "no more taxes."
The National (Taxed Enough Already) TEA Party Day rallies were among several held in communities across West Virginia, including Charleston, Huntington, Morgantown and Parkersburg.
