The Index Welcome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 4 Joseph Pomeroy, Hancock County representative . . . . . . . . . . Page 4 Campbell Tarr, first state treasurer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 5 Granville Parker, early supporter of statehood . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 6 The story of Col. Richard Hooker Brown and Billy Wilson . . . . Page 8 William Pendleton and early education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 9 How West Virginia became a state . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 11 James Hervey, Brooke County representative . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 11 Underground Railroad in the Ohio Valley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 12 The Duval family in Wellsburg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 13 Arthur Boreman’s Inaugural address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 14 Construction of the Panhandle Railroad Bridge . . . . . . . . . . Page 15 A look at Holliday’s Cove . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 16 Joseph H. Diss Debar and the State Seal . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 17 Arthur Boreman, West Virginia’s first governor . . . . . . . . Page 17 Medical care of soldiers in the Ohio Valley . . . . . . . Page 24 Proclamation declaring statehood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 31
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June 20, 2013
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Welcome to this special celebration J
une 20, 2013 is an important milestone in the history of West Virginia, marking 150 years since we officially became a state and joined the Union during the American Civil War. There are celebrations taking place across the Mountain State this month, with many communities showcasing their contributions to our statehood, our history and our culture. Every village, town and city has its own set of stories to tell, and we encourage every West Virginian to try to learn as much about them as possible. This special commemorative publication both celebrates our state’s rich history and showcases just some of those local stories, including the development of some of West Virginia’s most recognized symbols, the individuals who represented our counties in the Con-
stitutional Conventions, some of our better-known military figures and early leaders and other tales from our region’s communities. We couldn’t have done this on our own, and therefore thank the many individuals and groups who assisted in compiling the information presented here, including the West Virginia Division of Culture and History; the West Virginia Archives; Dennis Jones of the Weirton Museum and Cultural Center; Ruby Greathouse; the Brooke County Museum; Linda McNeil; John Brenneman; the Hancock County Museum; the Brooke County Genealogical Society; John Mattox of the Underground Railroad Museum in Flushing, Ohio; Weaver Media for the design of our cover; all of our advertisers and the other Ogden Newspapers publications in West Virginia who also contributed articles and photos. We hope you enjoy. Happy birthday, West Virginia... Montani Semper Liberi.
Pomeroy provided guidance locally and during convention From staff reports
The Weirton Area Chamber of Commerce is proud to serve Weirton, West Virginia and surrounding areas for over 77 years. 3174 Pennsylvania Ave. Suite 1 Weirton, WV 26062 • (304) 748-7212 www.weirtonchamber.com Brenda L. Mull, President
The Rev. Joseph Semple Pomeroy was born in Lawrence County, Pa. in December 1821, but would later serve as the delegate from Hancock County in the First Constitutional Convention of West Virginia. The son of John and Jane (Porter) Pomeroy, he was educated at Washington College in Pennsylvania and the Western Theological Seminary, becoming licensed to preach by the Beaver presbytery in 1849. He began his ministry at Fairview, also later known as Pughtown and the cur-
rent community of New Manchester, preaching there from 1850 until 1871. He was said to be active in the proceedings of the Constitutional Convention, with minutes from the convention showing his participation in discussions including such topics as reparation to state residents for emancipated slaves, how voting on the constitution would be conducted, and proposing the publication of debates held during the convention so they would be preserved for future generations. According to some of those debates, minutes of which are avail-
able through the West Virginia Division of Culture and History, Pomeroy stated, “When this matter was up before I advocated printing these debates, not because the gentleman from Doddridge wanted to see in print any remarks he had made in this Convention; but because I believed it would be a matter of great interest not only to ourselves but to the people of the State; not only to those now on the stage of action but to those that would come after.” Among his interests was the educational See GUIDE Page 34
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June 20, 2013
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Tarr among earliest state leaders By WARREN SCOTT Campbell Tarr played many roles leading up to the creation of West Virginia as a state, beginning as a member of the body voting on whether Virginia should secede from the nation to eventually becoming the new state’s first treasurer. A Wellsburg resident, Tarr was born in Wheeling on Jan. 8, 1819, the son of William Tarr, a merchant and river trader. He would later become
a dry goods merchant himself. He represented Brooke County at the Richmond Convention held by the Virginia General Assembly on April 13, 1861 to consider the commonwealth’s secession. Several southern states already had seceded, and whether Virginia’s secession should be put to a public vote led to a heated debate among representatives on both sides of the issue, according to various sources.
According to “Prominent Men of West Virginia,” a volume edited by George W. Atkinson and Alvaro Gibbens and published in 1884, Tarr didn’t support secession, but, believing it was inevitable, he left with several others before the convention ended. Once home, Tarr recruited 150 men for a Union militia within six weeks. A local merchant, he supplied the new troops with large amounts of clothing and provisions from
his store. He secured firearms for the troops with the help of Edwin Stanton of Steubenville, who was then practicing law in Washington, D.C., and serving as advisor to the Secretary of War. Stanton himself would become Secretary of War under President Abraham Lincoln in January 1862. According to Atkinson and Gibbens, Tarr was known for giving his own money to Union soldiers in financial distress. When Virginia
seceded, a pro-Union government, known as the Restored or Reorganized Government of Virginia, was formed and recognized by Washington, D.C. as the state’s official governing body. From 1861 to 1863, Tarr served as state treasurer for that body, which met first in Alexandria and later in Wheeling, before serving as West Virginia’s first state treasurer from 1863 to 1867. Later Tarr, whose grandfather, Peter, had established a success-
ful iron foundry at Kings Creek, Weirton, invested money in the establishment of the town of Sebetha, Kan., and development elsewhere in the midwest. He was married three times — to Mary Hammond, daughter of a prominent Brooke County farmer, from 1848 until her death the following year; her sister Nancy from 1851 until her death in 1863; and Mary Beninghaus, a widow from Ohio, in 1864. Between the three, he had five children.
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June 20, 2013
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An early champion for a new state By SUMMER WALLACE-MINGER WELLSBURG — Granville Parker was an early champion of the formation of West Virginia, a lawyer, newspaper correspondent and long-time Wellsburg resident who was present in Washington when President Abraham Lincoln approved West Virginia’s bid for statehood. From Parker’s 1875 “The Formation of West Virginia and Other Incidents in the Civil War,” a collection of articles Parker wrote about the Civil War: “The (statehood) bill then went into the president’s hands for approval or veto. The opponents followed it there with unabated zeal. Many of the papers said Mr. Lincoln would veto it. He required the views of each of his cabinet, then in Washington, to be given in writing. Messrs. (Secretary of State William H.) Seward, (Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P.) Chase and (Secretary of War and Steubenville, Ohio, native Edwin M.)
Stanton, the brains of the cabinet, expressed themselves strongly in our favor; while Messrs. (Secretary of the Navy Gideon) Welles, (Postmaster General Montgomery) Blair and (U.S. Attorney General Edward) Bates, (the latter still adhering to the views expressed in his letter to Mr. (Wheeling Convention Delegate A.F.) Ritchie, in 1861) expressed themselves opposed — Mr. (Secretary of the Interior James) Harlan being absent. Numerically, therefore, the President received no aid from his Constitutional advisers, but he could justly appreciate the argu-
ments and reasons given. It may be then, to the honest, hard sense, and wisdom of Abraham Lincoln, that we are indebted for the new state; for if he had vetoed, we could not have hoped to command a two-thirds vote of Congress. “The Hon. Jacob B. Blair seems to have been most alive to the critical situation at this time, and his efforts were untiring; and his honesty and earnestness had effect, I have no doubt. I happened to be in New York on private business, at this time, and gathering from the papers the critical situation, I went to Washington the 31st of December, called on Mr. Blair that evening, who informed me that he had just come from the president, who had told him to call next morning and receive a New Year’s gift. We both slept well that night. In the morning, Mr. Blair, as he afterwards told me, called at the presidential mansion before the doors were opened, went in at a window, met the president, who had just got up — he went immediately to a drawer, took out and showed him the bill, with his signature affixed — as the New Year’s gift he had promised — manifesting the simplicity and joyousness of a child, when it feels it has done its duty, and gratified a friend. I soon after left
Summer Wallace-Minger
Following his efforts on behalf of West Virginia statehood, former Cabell County Del. Granville Parker retired to this home in Wellsburg’s 800 block of Main Street, which is still standing. Restored Government the Confederate Army’s for home.” In early 1861, Parker of Virginia in Wheeling. 8th Virginia Calvary came to Cabell County, Because of Parker’s and later became a ConVa. to represent the views on the burgeon- federate brigadier genGuyandotte Land Asso- ing war and support of eral and Cabell County ciation and Cabell Coun- the restoration govern- delegate to the First ty Petroleum Co. and ment, he was at odds Confederate Congress. Jenkins ordered was there when Vir- with Albert G. Jenkins. ginia seceded April 17, Jenkins was a Cabell Parker’s arrest, but County plantation Parker escaped and fled 1861. An ardent Unionist, owner and lawyer who to Wheeling, where he Parker supported raised a calvary compa- became Cabell County’s attempts to create a ny that became part of See EARLY Page 30 ➪
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Changing times as nation is conflicted By CRAIG HOWELL When West Virginia gained its statehood in 1863, the American Civil War was still two years from ending and many long-held social traditions were beginning to change as a result of the nation’s conflict. One such story of the changing times is that of Col. Richard Hooker Brown and William “Billy” Wilson. Brown was a member of a prominent family from the New Cumberland area who joined the Union Army during the war. Wilson was a black man who had been born a slave. Brown was the son of Jacob and Anna Brown, spending much of his life in the area of Hancock County once known as Brownsdale. According to an obituary published by the East Liverpool Evening Review in March 1910, Brown engaged in the ferry business, securing a boat and operating it in Omaha, Neb. until the start of the Civil War. He returned home, enlisting as a captain in Company I of the 12th West Virginia Regiment, eventually rising up to the rank of colonel. According to “The History of Hancock County,” Brown returned from the war with Wilson, granting him a portion of farm land north of New Cumberland. Local historian John Brenneman has taken a personal interest in the story of Col. Brown and Billy Wilson, given his proximity to Wilson’s and Brown’s farms. “It borders on my property,” Brenneman said, explaining Wilson had been given 20 acres to farm on. Brenneman explained while it is unknown if Wilson was still a slave when he and Brown first met, that See CONFLICTED Page 34
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Richard Hooker Brown
Billy Wilson
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Bethany leader had role in development By WARREN SCOTT While West Virginia was admitted as a U.S. state in 1863, its development would take a number of years, and a Bethany College official was among the many who formed and guided it through its early years. William K. Pendleton, Bethany College’s first vice president, was nominated by both the Democratic and Republican parties to represent his senatorial district at the Constitutional Convention of 1872. The dual nominations were significant because the two parties
were in dispute over the state constitution that had been established in 1863 and discriminated against residents who had supported the Confederacy, eliminating or restricting their ability to vote or hold public office and other legal rights. According to various sources, Pendleton was very active in the convention, which removed such restrictions against former Confederates, a township form of government deemed too expensive because it involved employing many public administrators; and the word
“white” from criteria for those who could vote, though local laws often prevented blacks from voting for many years afterward. In his book, “Bethany: The First 150 Years,” author Lester G. McAllister said Pendleton advocated for the right of all citizens to vote. Though amended on 50 occasions since, the constitution of 1872 established terms for state legislators and other officials, the budget process for the state legislature, structure of the court system and other elements of state government that have been
unchanged. Of particular interest to Pendleton was public education. A native of Louisa County, Va., Pendleton had graduated from the University of Virginia in 1840 and was preparing to practice law when he was recruited by Alexander Campbell, a founder of the Disciples of Christ religious movement, to teach philosophy at the college he was forming. Pendleton taught at Bethany College for many years, even as he assumed administra-
encouraged to run for the office, as it was then an elected position, and agreed to because the state capital had shifted to Wheeling and he could continue to serve Bethany College, according to McAllister. By that time, Campbell, Bethany College’s first president, had died and Pendleton, a close friend and confidant, had succeeded him. Pendleton also was
tive duties and became the school’s first vice president in 1845. His involvement with the constitutional convention led West Virginia Governor John Jacob to ask him to complete the unexpired term of the state superintendent of schools. While in that position, Pendleton spent two months in the winter of 1873 in Charleston working with state legislators to establish school law that became known as the Pendleton Act. In 1877 he was
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Built in 1842 near the Bethany College campus, the home of William K. Pendleton, now known as Christman Manor at Pendleton Heights, is a reminder of Pendleton’s tenure as the college’s second vice president. He also was involved in establishing the state’s constitution in 1872 and its school law, known as the Pendleton Act, in 1873.
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The ‘process’ in achieving statehood From staff reports According to the West Virginia Department of Culture and History the process for the formation of the new state of West Virginia began on Nov. 15, 1860, when then Virginia Governor John Letcher called the General Assembly into extra session to begin Jan. 7, 1861. The Virginia General Assembly called for a state convention to determine Virginia’s course in the crisis, 152 delegates were elected, and convened in Richmond on February 13. On May 13, 1861, delegates from 27 western Virginia coun-
ties assembled at Washington Hall in Wheeling to consider responsive action to the Ordinance of Secession. Debate ensued over which delegates should be allowed to participate. General John Jay Jackson of Wood County favored the seating of all attendees from northwestern Virginia, but John Carlile urged that the convention be “composed only of gentlemen who come clothed with the authority conferred upon them by the people of their counties when they appointed them.” Finally, a proposal by Chester D. Hubbard of Ohio Coun-
ty to create a committee on representation and permanent organization was adopted. On May 14, Carlile proposed a resolution for creation of the new state of New Virginia. The majority of the delegates supported resolutions offered by the Committee on State and Federal Resolutions, which recommended if the people of Virginia approved the Ordinance of Secession on May 23, western Virginians would elect delegates to a Second Wheeling Convention to begin June 11, 1861. The Ordinance of Secession was approved by Virginia voters on May 23, 1861.
Hervey was Brooke County representative at key moment From staff reports James Hervey represented Brooke County at West Virginia’s first Constitutional Convention held in Wheeling on Nov. 26, 1861. He was one of 425 representatives of 25 northwestern counties of Virginia who gathered to develop a constitution for the new state. According to the West Virginia Division of Culture and History, issues addressed by the group ranged from the state’s name (Kanawha, the name of one of the counties represented, was suggested but dropped.) to the then-controversial matter of slavery. The group managed to approve a constitution by unanimous vote on Feb. 18, 1862 and on April 3 of that
year, it was approved in a public election, with 18,862 residents supporting it and 514 against. Hervey’s family had settled in Wellsburg in 1772 and his father, David, founded the city’s first Presbyterian church. James grew up to become a prominent lawyer, serving three times as the county’s prosecuting attorney. Following West Virginia’s admission as a state, he served as a state Delegate from 1868 to 1871. His father-in-law, Edward Smith, had represented Brooke County in the Virginia General Assembly. Hervey and his wife, Nancy, had nine children, including Henry, who went on to practice law in Wellsburg also. Hervey died May 1, 1888.
During the month following passage of the ordinance by the delegates at the Richmond Convention, citizens of western Virginia gathered in communities and voiced their opposition to or support for the decision to leave the Union. The ordinance was ratified by the citizens of Virginia by a vote of 125,950 to 20,373. Due to the fact that many vote totals were lost, it is unclear how western Virginians voted. Some historians believed the overwhelming majori-
ty voted against secession, but a detailed study by historian Richard Curry, of the University of Pittsburgh, concluded a sizeable minority in western Virginia voted for the Ordinance of Secession. Due to the ratification of the ordinance on June 11, 1861, delegates gathered at Washington Hall in Wheeling to determine a course of action for northwestern Virginia. The Committee on Credentials ruled 88 delegates, representing 32
counties, were entitled to seats in the convention, and the Committee on Permanent Organization selected Arthur I. Boreman to serve as president of the convention. On June 13, the proceedings were moved to the Custom House. Carlile, representing the Committee on Business, presented “A Declaration of the People of Virginia,” a document that called for the reorganization of the government of VirSee DEBATE Page 29
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Many ran to freedom By MARK LAW Freedom for escaped slaves was only 50 yards away across the Ohio River. The history of the Underground Railroad and its stops in then western Virginia, including what is now the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia, may be hard to prove but nonetheless are a part of the history of the state. John Mattox, curator of the Underground Railroad Museum in Flushing, Ohio, said there were several Underground Railroad stops in the Wellsburg and Weir-
ton areas. People in the panhandle were split between pro slavery and abolitionism, with certain religious beliefs, such as the Presbyterians and Quakers being against the owning of slaves. One house in Wellsburg was known to be a stop on the Underground Railroad. The Tarr house on Pleasant Avenue was used by slaves trying to escape to freedom, said Ruby Greathouse, a member of the Brooke County Museum board. Mattox said the Tarr family was quite wealthy and were against slavery.
But Mattox said it was against the law to harbor or assist runaway slaves. The federal Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 forced law enforcement anywhere to arrest a runaway slave or face a $1,000 fine. Persons assisting a runaway slave faced six months in prison and a $1,000 fine, Mattox said. Mattox said, as a result of the Fugitive Slave Act, stories of actual Underground Railroad sites are limited. He said there were Underground Railroad sites in Weirton. See FREEDOM Page 32
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Mark Law
John Mattox, curator of the Underground Railroad Museum in Flushing, Ohio, shows a map of Ohio that escaped slaves used after traveling north through then western Virginia. The runaway slaves used homes in the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia to hide in their trek to freedom.
June 20, 2013
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Weirton Area Museum & Cultural Center
3149 Main Street, Weirton, WV
Duval’s story intertwines with Civil War By SUMMER WALLACE-MINGER WELLSBURG — The story of the Duval family is woven through and inseparable from the history of the City of Wellsburg. Wellsburg was originally settled by Jonathan, Friend and Israel Cox of Brownsville, Pa., by tomahawk right in 1772, originally called Cox’s Fort. Charles Prather came to the area in 1788, purchasing nearly 500 acres from the Cox family. The city was incorporated in 1791 and named Charlestown in Prather’s honor. It was later changed to Wellsburg, in honor of Charles Wells, Prather’s son-in-law
who was Ohio County’s representative to the Virginia legislature, to avoid confusion in 1816. The city benefited both from river traffic and travel by road from Washington, Pa., and initial industries included several flour and paper mills and
glass factories — and the Duval family has been involved with the glass trade from the beginning, opening the very first glass factory in Wellsburg in 1813. Isaac P. Duval of Maryland, founded the Duval Glass Manufacturing Co., a flint and colored glass factory and the very first of its kind west of the Alleghenies in 1813. I.P. Duval was the nephew of former U.S. Representative and Supreme Court Associate Justice Gabriel Duval of Maryland. Glass was one of the most important early industries, according to Ruby Greathouse, Brooke County Museum Board member. There were more than 45 glass houses operating in Wellsburg
Courtesy of the Brooke County Museum
Brevet Major Gen. Isaac Harding Duval of Wellsburg was one of the city’s most famous residents, serving for almost five years during the Civil War and as a U.S. Representative for the new state of West Virginia. The Brooke County Museum and Cultural Center has Duval’s regimental flag on display.
at the height of the industry. Duval produced cobalt blue, amber, green and clear glass, and the museum has five pieces of Duval glass on display, on temporary loan from George Leonard of Worthington, Ohio, a Duval descendant. One of Duval’s sons, Isaac Harding Duval, traveled the country as a scout, worked toward establishing peace treaties with the American Indians in the west and barely escaped Cuba follow-
ing the Lopez insurrection — all before he became a celebrated major general in the Civil War and one of the city’s most famous citizens. I.H. Duval first left home at age 13 to travel by steamboat to a trading post operated by his brother in Arkansas, then spent the next 14 years in the southwest, west and Texas, frequently accompanying explorer John C. Fremont, according to the Brooke County Genealogical Society.
He spent seven months after the annexation of Texas in 1845 convincing more than 8,000 American Indians, representing 30 tribes, to attend peace talks in Fort Gibson, Texas, and Washington, D.C. Duval also fought in the Mexican War, visited New Orleans during the cholera epidemic and led a 1849 company to California after gold was discovered. He returned to Wellsburg by way of See DUVAL Page 26
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June 20, 2013
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Inaugural address of Arthur I. Boreman June 20, 1863 Fellow Citizens: To be permitted to participate in the most humble capacity in the organization of the State of West Virginia would be an honor; but, to be called by the unanimous voice of her people to accept the highest office in their gift, and to the performance of its duties, at a time of so much difficulty and danger as the present, excites in my heart the profoundest gratitude toward them for the confidence thus reposed in me. And if I
shall be permitted to live, I hope in after years to recur to the ceremonies of this day with pride and pleasure, not only for the part that I have taken in them, but as celebrating the most auspicious event in the history of this people. Yet, I trust, that, in taking upon myself the solemn obligation which I am about to do, I am not unaware of the great responsibility that it imposes on me. In time of peace, and under the most favorable circumstances, the organization of a new
State and its introduction into the family of the Union, is a matter of no ordinary moment; but, when fierce civil war rages all around us and in our very midst, one whose experience is as limited as that of him who now addresses you, may well claim, in advance, the indulgence of a generous constituency. West Virginia should long since have had a separate State existence. The East has always looked upon that portion of the State west of the mountains, as a sort of outside
appendage — a territory in a state of pupilage. The unfairness and inequality of legislation is manifest on every page of the statute book; they had an unjust majority in the Legislature by the original Constitution of the State, and have clung to it with the utmost tenacity ever since; they have collected heavy taxes from us, and have spent large sums in the construction of railroads and canals in the East, but have withheld appropriations from the West; they have refused to
make any of the modern improvements by which trade and travel could be carried on from the one section to the other, thus treating us as strangers; our people could not get to the Capital of their State by any of the usual modes of traveling, without going through the State of Maryland and the District of Columbia. The East and the West have always been two peoples. There has been little intercourse between them, either social or commercial. Our people seldom visit the East
for pleasure. The farmers do not take their stock, grain, wool and other agricultural products there to sell; the merchants do not go there to sell or buy; the manufacturers have no market there; indeed, we have had nothing to do with the Eastern people, except that our Senators and Delegates have gone to Richmond to sit in the Legislature and our Sheriffs have gone there to pay in the revenue as an annual tribute from this section of the State for the See SPEECH Page 20
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100 Wyngate Drive, Weirton, WV
304.723.7004
Railroad bridge a reflection of conflicts By CRAIG HOWELL WEIRTON — In the years leading up to the Civil War, many residents in western Virginia — now West Virginia — felt neglected by the commonwealth, with their taxes heading east but not seeing much return west of the Allegheny Mountains. The lack of investment into the infrastructure and other services also was among the issues cited when residents in the western counties began discussing the possibility of creating a state of their own following Virginia’s secession from the Union in May 1861. One such item of local importance was the construction of the Panhandle Railroad Bridge across the Ohio River between present-day Weirton and Steubenville. “That bridge was hard as anything to get built,” Weirton Museum and Cultural Center President Dennis Jones said. “The Virginia government was more sympathetic to the south.” The first rail line through Weirton — then known as Holliday’s Cove — was started on March 24, 1849 as a project of the Pittsburgh and Steubenville Railroad Co., according to Jones. The company’s mission was to con-
for the next train or those making their way to Steubenville. “People could wait until a barge or skiff could carry them to Steubenville,” Jones explained. The Holliday’s Cove Railroad Station would be built in 1864 on land donated by Samuel Hindman. According to Jones, during construction of the bridge and rail line, the Pittsburgh & Steubenville Railroad donated a cast iron chandelier with oilburning lamps to the Cove Presbyterian Church. The church had recently been completed, and the lamp was said to be seen from the rail line. A ceremony to place the last rail, officially Courtesy of the Weirton Museum and Cultural Center connecting the bridge This photograph shows the Panhandle Railroad Bridge several years after its completion, spanning the to the rail line, took Ohio River between Holliday’s Cove and Steubenville. place Sept. 26, 1865, more than two years In the meantime, after West Virginia struct the line between ginia had begun in working over the next three years to raise the Panhandle Hotel became a state. The Birmingham, Pa. — 1847. The first train, con- the necessary funds was built near the bridge now part of the South had been Side of Pittsburgh — to sisting of one passen- and obtain the needed bridge site to accomthe Ohio River oppo- ger coach and one agreements on its own. modate people waiting See RAIL Page 28 ➪ engine, began running site Steubenville. “It went from the July 1854. Edgington and river to Colliers,” Jones said of the line’s Wells sold their line to location in the North- the P&S Railroad in 1856. From there, the ern Panhandle. As a result of diffi- focus turned to the culties obtaining char- construction of the ter rights from Vir- bridge, which faced ginia, however, work continued obstacles was delayed until 1853 from the Virginia govwhen Jesse Edgington ernment. As a result, on and Nathaniel Wells secured the rights-of- March 30, 1860, the way the complete the Holliday’s Cove Railline. Efforts to obtain road Co. was incorpoServicing All Makes & Models permission from Vir- rated, with the group
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Holliday’s Cove can be traced to the 1770s By CRAIG HOWELL The area of what is now the city of Weirton has seen many changes during its history, including the rise and fall of the steel industry, the operation of an airport, a variety of community celebrations and today’s focus toward a more diversified economy. Long before any of that, though, there was Holliday’s Cove. The roots of the community can be
traced to the 1770s, when history says John Holliday built a cabin and blockhouse somewhere near the present-day location of Overbrook Towers. Holliday’s Cove would grow around the fort, with several businesses and a church built along Harmon Creek, in particular near the land now occupied by Weirton Lumber. “Back then, that was the main part of town,” See COVE Page 24
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Courtesy of the Weirton Museum and Cultural Center
This map, originally made in the early 1870s, shows the layout of Holliday’s Cove around the time of the creation of West Virginia. Hollidays Cove would eventually become part of the city of Weirton.
June 20, 2013
Page 17
100 Wyngate Drive, Weirton, WV
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Debar created the state seal The first governor From staff reports Joseph H. Diss Debar (1817-1906), formerly of Parkersburg, is best known for creating the State Seal of West Virginia following the creation of the new state during the Civil War. Diss Debar lived on what is now 12th Street in the Julia-Ann Square Historic District in Parkersburg. His first wife, Clara Levassor, is burried at Riverview Cemetery on Juliana Street. Born in Alsace, France, in 1817, Diss Debar spoke several languages and was a talented artist, with many sketches of early West Virginia history bearing his name. He met his wife, Clara, when both were young in France. Her family moved to Parkersburg, on the banks of the Ohio River in what was then Virginia. In 1824, Diss Debar followed them to Parkersburg. During his steamship voyage across the Atlantic, he met and became friends with Charles Dickens. After traveling to Parkersburg, the two reunited and were married in 1847 in Marietta, he at the age of 30 and she at 17 years. She died April 29, 1849, after giving birth to a son. Following his wife’s death, Diss Debar went to Doddridge County, where he had bought a
tract of land. He brought a Swiss colony to the region and settled them near Leopold, a little town which he called Santa Clara for his wife. It was in Cove district near Weston, almost on the Lewis County line. This was an early settlement of its kind, and the chief industry of the community was cheese-making. Diss Debar’s second marriage was to Amelia Cain of Doddridge County, where the marriage is recorded as Aug. 3, 1859, and they had five children. During this time Joseph Diss Debar was prominent in matters of state, especially after the creation of West Virginia as a separate state. In 1863, the West Virginia Legislature appointed Diss Debar to make drawings in compliance with their suggestions for a state seal
and coat-of-arms. The design was made and was adopted in September 1863. The seal is two-anda-half inches in diameter and bears the motto “Montani Semper Liberi” which means “Mountaineers Always Free” in Latin. The picture Diss Debar put on the seal depicts symbolic representation of the state, its people and its industries. The two men standing on either side of the rock marking the state’s foundation on June 20, 1863, indicate the people and their occupations. The plowhandles and the axe indicate the cultivation taking place where original forests were cleared. The wheat and cornstalk represent grain. Mineral wealth is shown by the miner, his pick, and the lumps of coal at his feet. The crossed rifles in the foreground tell of
77 9 1 E C N I S
liberty that is ours, maintained by force of arms. The reverse side, which is (not seen or used as often, is encircled by a wreath of laurel and oak. Emblematical objects typical of West Virginia’s landscape, productions, resources and natives are grouped inside. In 1864, following the establishment of West Virginia as a state, Gov. Arthur I. Boreman appointed him commissioner of immigration. He did surveying and acted as agent for a land company. He prepared, compiled and published the first “Handbook of West Virginia.” He was a member of the House of Delegates from Doddridge County in 1864. In later years, Diss Debar left West Virginia and went to Pennsylvania. He died in Pittsbugh in 1906 and is buried in Philadelphia.
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Arthur Ingram Boreman Arthur Ingram Boreman (July 24, 1823April 19, 1896) was the first governor of West Virginia, elected to the office in 1863, 1864 and 1866. Boreman was born in Waynesburg, Pa., the son of a town merchant. At the age of 4, he and his family moved to Middlebourne in Tyler County, part of what later became West Virginia. In 1845, Boreman was admitted to the bar and established a law practice at Parkersburg the following year. He represented Wood County as a Whig delegate in the Virginia General Assembly from 1855-1861, then served as a circuit judge under the Reorganized Government of Virginia. A member of the Constitutional Union party, Boreman was elected West Virginia’s first governor in 1863. See BOREMAN Page 28 ➪
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Speech Continued from Page 14 inequality and unfairness with which we have always been treated by them. Our markets, our trade and our travel are North and West of Virginia, through natural channels, or those constructed through the enterprise of our own people, or such means as they could procure. The mountains intervene between us, the rivers rise in the mountains and run towards the Northwest; and, as if to make the separation more complete, Eastern Virginia adopted the fatal doctrine of secession, while the West spurned and rejected it as false and dangerous in the extreme. Thus nature, our commerce, travel, habits, associations, and interests, all — all say that West Virginia should be severed from the East. And now, to-day after many long and weary years of insult and injustice, culminating on the part of the East, in an attempt to destroy the Government, we have the
proud satisfaction of proclaiming to those around us that we are a separate State in the Union. Our State is the child of the rebellion; yet our peace, prosperity and happiness, and, not only ours, but that of the whole country, depends on the speedy suppression of this attempt to overthrow the Government of our fathers; and it is my duty, as soon as these ceremonies are closed, to proceed at once to aid the Federal authorities in their efforts to stay its destructive hand. I do not intend to insult your loyalty or intelligence by discussing before you to-day the dogma of secession. Its bitter fruits are to be seen all around us. It is like the poisonous Upas tree that blights and withers everything that comes within its influence. We have seen and felt enough of it to know that it is fraught with evil, and that continually. The politicians of many of the Southern
States, having an inordinate desire for place and power, and it becoming apparent that the great North-West was improving and increasing in population so rapidly that the controlling influence of the Government was soon surely to be with the free States, and that the South must surrender power which they had so long exerted to a majority of the people according to the principles of our Government, they became desperate, and determined if they could no longer control, they would destroy the Government. By fraud and falsehood, and by incendiary speeches, they influenced the public mind in the South and induced them to believe that they were suffering great injury from the General Government; that the rights of the South were not only disregarded, but trampled under foot; that Mr. Lincoln was a sectional President, and that his election was the
crowning act of insult and injustice; that if they submitted to it they were reduced to a state of degradation worse than slavery itself; and, fearing that the people still had some reverence and respect for the constitution, they insidiously taught the faithless doctrine that peaceable secession was in consonance with the Constitution, and absolved them from all their obligations to support the Government. All this and much more of a like character they taught until they succeeded in prevailing on the authorities in many of
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the States to embrace their doctrine and attempt to carry it into execution, and thus they inaugurated a war of rebellion, and have prosecuted it for over two years with a zeal and energy worthy of a better cause. It has assumed fearful proportions, and it demands all the energies of the Government authorities and of the loyal people to defeat its ruinous purposes. Under these circumstances what course should the loyal people of West Virginia pursue? But before I state what we should do, I will state that it seems
to me that the position of our people in the beginning of the troubles, and their condition since, have not been understood by our friends around us. In the commencement of these difficulties we were part of a Southern State, whose convention passed an ordinance of secession, and this fact inclined many to sympathize with the South without reflecting whether it was right or wrong. We were situated between the South and the North, and in case of a collision it must necessarily result See TALK Page 22
Courtesy of the Hancock County Museum
Civil War vets Hancock County resident Isaac Cullen, believed to be standing in the center of the back row, along with five of his six sons all served in the Union Army during the Civil War. The sons were Isaac Newton, Israel Harvey, John Marshall, Marion Matthew and Samuel Hanson. The sixth son, Ashton, was too young to serve. All members of the family survived the war, with service recorded in the 1st Regiment, Co. I and the 12th Regiment, Co. I.
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Talk Continued from Page 20 that ours would be contested territory; that if we adhered to the Union the South would deal with us much more severely than if we were a part of a Northern State, or of one that had not attempted to secede; and that we would be, what we have since been so truthfully called by many, the great “breakwater” between the North and those in rebellion in the South. All these matters were weighed and considered by us, but we determined, with a full
belief of what would occur, and what has since occurred, that the Government was too good to be lost, and that the rights and immunities which we knew we were enjoying were too precious to be surrendered on the uncertainty of the results of experiments in the future. We thus took our position with our eyes open; knowing what civil war had been, and what it could only be again if once commenced; and we have not been deceived.
Our State has been invaded by traitors in arms against the best government that a kind and beneficent God ever inspired man to make; they have applied the torch to public and private property; they have murdered our friends; they have robbed and plundered our people; our country is laid waste, and, to-day, gaunt hunger stares many families of helpless women and children in the face. This picture is not overdrawn. It is a
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simple statement of facts. Yet, notwithstanding all this, the Union men of West Virginia have not looked to the right or the left, but through all these difficulties and dangers they have stood by the Government. And I now repeat the question which I asked awhile ago: Under these circumstances what course should the loyal people of West Virginia now pursue? Shall we coincide with those who carp and cavil at everything that is done by the administration at Washington to put down this rebellion? Shall we object to the suspension of the habeas corpus and thereby attempt to prevent some traitor from receiving his just deserts? Shall we object that slavery is destroyed as the result of the acts of those in rebellion, if the Union is thereby saved? But there are those who say that we should stop the war and make peace. If we stop the war on our part will that make peace, unless we submit to be ruled by the rebels, or to a separation of the Union? If we could not consent to give up our Government in the beginning and thus save ourselves the war, but determined to fight it out to the bitter end, shall we now submit to the humiliation and disgrace of permitting the success of the rebellion and the loss of our Govern-
ment? In behalf of the loyal people of West Virginia I respond to all these interrogatories with an emphatic no no - never! We want no compromise: we want no peace, except upon the terms that those in rebellion will lay down their arms and submit to the regularly constituted authorities of the Government of the United States. Then, and not till then, will the people of West Virginia agree to peace. We have done much and suffered much already, but we will do more, and suffer on for years, if need be, rather than consent to a dissolution of the Union, which would be nothing less than a surrender of the last hope of human liberty on the face of the earth. Fellow-citizens, I now come to what is more particularly the purpose of this address: and that is, to state to you those rules of action by which I shall be governed during my term of office: I shall co-operate with the Federal authorities in all those measures deemed necessary for the suppression of the rebellion. While the war continues I must necessarily be engaged in attending to military matters, and to the defence of the State, and it may not, therefore, be expected that I shall give much time at present to the internal civil policy of the State;
but even amidst surrounding difficulties and dangers they shall not be entirely forgotten. I shall do whatever may be in my power during my term of office to advance the agricultural, mining, manufacturing and commercial interests of the State. And it shall be my especial pride and pleasure to assist in the establishment of a system of education throughout the State that may give to every child among us, whether rich or poor, an education that may fit them for respectable positions in society. And to you gentlemen of the Senate and House of Delegates, I shall look for aid and assistance and for the exercise of a liberal policy in these times of trial; and I feel assured from your known intelligence and patriotism, that I shall receive your cordial co-operation and support in the discharge of the duties of my office. Fellow-Citizens, we are about to part with him, who has for two years exercised the office of Governor of Virginia in our midst. And I here express how highly are appreciated, not only by myself, but by the whole loyal population of the State, his purity and fidelity, and the ability with which he has discharged the See POWER Page 32
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June 20, 2013
Page 23
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Page 24
June 20, 2013
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Hospital cared for both sides during war By SHELLEY HANSON WHEELING — During the Civil War, wounded Union and Confederate soldiers lay side by side at Wheeling Hospital’s former North Wheeling facility. Owned by the Diocese of WheelingCharleston, Wheeling Hospital was founded in 1850 by Bishop Richard V. Whelan and Dr. Simon Hullihen. The original hospital was located in a house
at 110 15th St. in East Wheeling and still stands today. It was staffed by four nuns of the Sisters of St. Joseph order. The 15th Street house served as the hospital from 1853-56. When the space became too small, the sisters, nurses and doctors moved to the Sweeney mansion in North Wheeling. The mansion and its additions have since been demolished. It was located near the former
Sacred Heart Church, where the current Hope 6 housing development is located. During the Civil War, the hospital cared for both Union and Confederate soldiers as patients at the North Wheeling location. Wheeling Hospital spokesman Gregg Warren said the hospital’s geographic location also allowed for the care of both Union and Confederate prisoners during the Civil War. “The wounded and
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sick arrived by horsedrawn ambulances, railroad cars and naval boats. Wheeling Hospital became a U.S. Army Hospital, known as a ‘Post Hospital,’ and eight of the sisters who had been caring for civilians became commissioned by the Union as military nurses,” Warren said. “Historians report the story of Civil War medicine is upsetting, but it is made brighter only by the sacrifices and compassion of doctors and nurses. Perhaps nowhere could someone find more sacrifice and compassion than at Wheeling Hospital. The one thing that
set it apart was its nurses — the Sisters of St. Joseph. The sisters even gave up their own beds for the soldiers,” Warren added. Warren said Sister Ignatius Farley took note of such a scene of compassion and wrote the following: “As I opened the door of our temporary dormitory, I stood fascinated by the picture before me. In the dim light afforded by the small, perpetual flame of the sanctuary lamp which flickered in the temporary chapel just beyond the glass panels of the folding doors, I beheld my sisters — all seven of them — lying on the
floor fast asleep. Each weary head rested on a pillow made of a coffee sack stuffed with leaves gathered from the hospital grounds.” Warren noted Sister Farley, along with Mother Mary de Chantal Keating, was presented a Bronze Medal for their service from the Union’s Grand Army of the Republic. A portrait of Sister Farley caring for a soldier, titled “Angel of Mercy,” hangs in the hospital lobby today. “In 1865 the war ended and the sisters continued on as civilian nurses at Wheeling Hospital,” Warren noted.
Cove Continued from Page 16 Weirton Museum and Cultural Center President Dennis Jones said, describing Holliday’s Cove around the time West Virginia became a state. Jones noted that area was the home of the Disciples of Christ Church, a train station and Hindman’s grist mill, which also would become a focus of area social life. “People would gather at the grist mill to hear the latest gossip,” Jones said. According to a presentation at the museum in September by area historian David Javersak, in the 1800s, Holliday’s Cove had about 250 residents, with an economy primarily based on agriculture and sheep. Much of the Weirton Heights area was farmland, according to Jones, and farmers would walk or use horses for transportation
through the community. “Livestock would be herded down to get on the trains for market,” Jones explained. Following the Civil War, as a result of changes in agriculture, Holliday’s Cove began a transition from large farms of wheat and sheep to growing fruit orchards. According to Javersak’s September presentation, Holliday’s Cove once included 70,000 apple trees, 12,000 pear trees, 8,500 cherry trees and 6,000 plum trees. The area also was known to produce thousands of pounds of maple sugar each year. The focus of the community, meanwhile, also would begin to shift toward present-day downtown Weirton in the late 1800s and early 1900s following a major flood of Harmon Creek in 1912, as well as the development of a street car line and the construction of the future
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100 Wyngate Drive, Weirton, WV
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Duval Continued from Page 13 Cuba to become a businessman, but he had few years of peace, according to the genealogical society. In 1861, he volunteered for the Union Army at the age of 37. Because of his service in the Mexican War, he was mustered in as a captain, said Greathouse. Duval’s service included being wounded twice, once badly in September 1864 at the Battle of Opequon, and having 11 different horses shot out from under him.
He was a colonel in the Ninth West Virginia Infantry and the First West Virginia Veterans Regiment. By 1864, having served in more than 30 conflicts throughout the war, he had worked his way up to brigadier general, and, by the time the war ended, had been given command of the First and Second Infantry Divisions of the 8th Army Corps, according to “Industrial Wellsburg,” by Ralph S. Kerr, printed in 1899. He was assigned
command of the New Hancock Veterans Corps in the closing days of the war and ordered to travel down the Shenandoah Valley to Richmond to prevent Gen. Robert E. Lee’s escape. He captured Gen. Thomas “Tex” Rosser’s Fifth Virginia Cavalry, which he paroled and sent to Richmond, a Confederate supply train and the Lexington Virginia Military Institute’s Confederate flag. During this time, Duval narrowly escaped an assassina-
tion attempt May 17, 1865 at Staunton, Va. The unknown assassin shot at Duval, and, instead of hitting him, the bullet passed between his arm and chest, striking the couch he was sitting on in the home of a Union loyalist. He left volunteer service in January 1866 and was promoted to brevet major general in February 1866. For several months after Lee’s surrender, Duval was commander over a subdivision headquartered at
Wheeling. Following the war, Duval served as a U.S. Representative, a state legislator, state adjutant general, U.S. assessor and Internal Revenue collector. He twice declined nomination to run for West Virginia’s governor, according to “Industrial Wellsburg.” In Lincoln County in southwestern West Virginia, formed after the Civil War, the community of Duval is named in his honor. When Duval died in
July 1902, his funeral was attended by members of the Grand Army of the Republic, Sons of Veterans, West Virginia National Guard’s Co. C, all of whom marched in the funeral cortege, and the entire Brooke County Bar Association, with the town being shut down and most townspeople attending the funeral. People attended the funeral from as far as Pittsburgh, Washington, Pa., Steubenville, See WAR Page 34
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Rail Continued from Page 17 Boreman contributed to the government of the new state, supporting legislation which instituted the West Virginia Code, Board of Public Works and the public school system. During the Civil War, he organized state militia units to combat Confederate guerrillas in the southern part of the state. In 1865, Boreman encouraged legislation which prohibited former Confederates from voting or holding public office, guaranteeing Republican control of the state for five years. In 1869, Boreman resigned as governor to join the United States Senate six days prior to the end of his term. After one six-year term in the Senate, he returned to Parkersburg to practice law. In 1888, Boreman was again elected as a circuit judge, serving until his death in 1896.
Continued from Page 15 described as a six-span steel bridge, 1,900 feet long and supported on concrete piers. The tracks ran 90 feet above the river. While the location of the bridge remains the same today, much of it has had to be repaired or replaced over the years. Jones noted, however, the concrete piers still display its original completion date. The full line to Pittsburgh would
be completed a few weeks later. In 1867, the Pittsburgh & Steubenville Railroad Co. defaulted on its bonds and was sold under court order. It would reorganize as The Panhandle Railway Co. As the rail lines expanded from the area, the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railroad Company would later form and replace the previous companies.
Wheeling-Nisshin Penn & Main Streets • PO Box 635 Follansbee, WV 26037 Courtesy of the Weirton Museum and Cultural Center
This sketch, which appears in the book “History of the Panhandle of West Virginia,” by J.H. Newton, G.G. Nichols and A.G. Sprankle, depicts the Panhandle Railroad Bridge crossing from Holliday’s Cove to Steubenville. Below:This stock certificate was among those sold by the Holliday’s Cove Railroad Co. beginning in 1860.
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Debate Continued from Page 11 ginia on the grounds that due to Virginia’s decision to secede from the United States, all state government offices had been vacated. On the following day, Carlile reported an ordinance for this purpose, and debate began. On June 19, members of the convention voted unanimously in favor of the ordinance reorganizing the government of Virginia. On June 20, the delegates selected officials to fill the offices of the Restored Government of Virginia. On June 25, 1861, the convention adjourned until August 6. While the Second Wheeling Convention was in adjournment, Governor Francis Pierpont called into extra session the General Assembly of the Reorganized Government of Virginia to convene in Wheeling on July 1. The legislative bodies consisted of persons elected to office May 23 who remained loyal to the Union. Approximately eight senators and 32 delegates participated in the proceedings. On July 9, the legislators elected a number of state officials. Most of the actions taken by the Legislature related to financial and military affairs of the Reorganized Government of Virginia. Late in the session, House Bill No. 21, giving the legisla-
ture’s blessing to the creation of a new state under certain specific terms and conditions, was introduced and debated. The House eventually voted against the bill, while the Senate chose to table the proposed legislation. The extra session concluded July 26. On August 6, delegates of the Second Wheeling Convention reassembled. Delegates passed a number of resolutions, including an ordinance that nullified the proceedings of the Richmond Convention and declared all actions of the convention “illegal, inoperative, null, void, and without force or effect.” The convention formed a Committee on a Division of the State and, after a week of deliberations, this group formulated and presented to the convention a dismemberment ordinance. On August 20, a committee proposed the new state, which was to be named Kanawha, would consist of 39 counties. Seven other counties (Berkeley, Greenbrier, Hampshire, Hardy, Jefferson, Morgan and Pocahontas) were to be added if the majority of voters in those counties approved. The convention adopted the committee’s recommendations. Voters in the counties of the proposed state were to
have their say on October 24. On October 24, 1861, voters from the 39 counties of the proposed state of Kanawha (plus the voters of Hampshire and Hardy) went to the polls to determine the fate of the new state. Turnout was 34 percent, the vote was 18,408 in favor of the new state, 781 opposed. On November 26, 1861, delegates met in Wheeling to create a Constitution for the new state. Some of the issues they addressed include the name of the new state, boundaries, and slavery. Although the voters had approved the creation of “Kanawha,” many delegates were opposed to the name because there was already a county and two rivers that had that name. Eventually West Virginia was chosen. On December 13, the convention determined West Virginia would include the 39 original counties and five additional. Also, seven more counties would be added if their voters approved. The new constitution was approved in a unanimous vote of the delegates on Feb. 18, 1862. It was then submitted to the voters of West Virginia, who, on April 3, overwhelming approved the constitution, 18,862 to 514. According to Article
IV, Section III, of the United States Constitution, New states may be admitted by the Congress into the union; but no new states shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state, without the consent of the the legislatures of the states concerned as well as of the Congress. West Virginia statehood leaders had to obtain permission from Virginia to satisfy this constitutional restriction. The creation of
the Reorganized Government of Virginia allowed them to seek consent from this proUnion body instead of the Confederate Virginia government in Richmond. On May 6, 1862, the General Assembly of the Reorganized Government of Virginia was convened by Governor Francis Pierpont. One week later, the General Assembly passed an act granting permission for creation of the new state. The Reorganized Gov-
ernment of Virginia continued to function as the Union government of Virginia until 1868. On May 29, 1862, Sen. Waitman T. Willey presented a formal petition to the United States Senate for the admission of West Virginia to the Union. After much debate, a compromise agreement resulted in the Willey Amendment, which provided for gradual emancipation. On July 14, 1862, both See VOTE Page 32 ➪
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100 Wyngate Drive, Weirton, WV
304.723.7004
Early Continued from Page 6 delegate to the Wheeling Convention of November 1861, later making his permanent home in Wellsburg. Initially, Lincoln hoped to make the Restored Government of Virginia a template for Reconstruction — eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina also remained loyal to the Union cause, and Lincoln encouraged loyal restoration governments in all the Confederate states. “It was then confidently expected that the Union forces would
soon crush out the rebellion in Virginia, and the Reorganized Government would be acquiesed in and accepted by their recent persecutors, throughout the state, with themselves at the head,” Parker wrote in “Formation.” However, the Union couldn’t secure a swift victory and the country found itself in a lengthy war on its own soil. In a letter to Convention Delegate A.F. Ritchie of Marion County, U.S. Attorney General Edward Bates wrote:
“The formation of a new state out of western Virginia is an original, independent act of revolution. I do not deny the power of revolution (I do not call it right, for it is never prescribed, it exists in force only, and has and can have no law but the will of the revolutionists). Any attempt to carry it out involves a plain breach of both the Constitutions — of Virginia and of the nation.” The letter was read on the convention floor and published widely in newspapers. Parker wrote a
response to Bates’ letter in August 1861, published both in the Intelligencer and the New York Post: “The reorganization of the government has proceeded on the ground that all previous officers, adhering to the socalled Confederate States, have violated their oaths both to the federal and state governments, committed treason against both and forfeited their powers, which they held only in trust for and which immediately reverted to the people, and their seats became vacant ... The loyal portion alone can take advantage of the forfeiture and re-organize the government; and, to these alone, does the legitimate government belong.” Many western Virginians had long alleged their taxes were used to the benefit of the eastern part of the state and there was little investment in the infrastructure of the western portion. Believing that eastern Virginia would bankrupt itself and its infrastructure be destroyed by the war, many wished to cut ties with a part of the state they felt had always been a financial drain on the west and would only become moreso after the war. These benefits were weighed against the Northern contingent — the “Wheeling Intelligencer clique” — that
hoped to see West Virginia enter the Union as a free state and Lincoln’s aspirations to bring an intact Virginia back into the Union. “But what shall we lose by postponing the measure until the whole state shall be brought to acknowledge the Reorganized Government?” Parker wrote of the west’s fears of retribution following reunification. “Why, as soon as that is done, all the hostile secession elements of the east — rendered more hostile by defeat — will again meet us in the General Assembly, ready to cooperate with the traitors that live amongst us, and together form a controlling majority. ... They will tax us to replenish a treasury their own folly and madness have emptied; to rebuild public structures their own traitorous hands have demolished; and to pay debts their parricidal war has created.” Congress demanded West Virginia enter the Union either as a free state or agree to gradually emancipate slaves, which angered southwestern delegates who believed slavery was a state rights issue. “The radical and irreconcilable differences, which has for a long time existed between the people east and west of the Alleghenies, in their geographical position, commercial necessities, social habits and relations, as
well as national affinities is generally known and admitted,” Parker wrote in The Intelligencer in September 1861. “This dividing line in their moral and social condition has become as fixed and permanent as the Alleghenies themselves in the physical features of the state. And for a long time past upon issues moral, religious and political — whilst the east has always gravitated toward the ‘peculiar institution’ (slavery) now represented by the so-called Southern Confederacy; the west has as uniformly gravitated toward the free states now represented by an unshaken adherence to the federal Union.” While drafting the proposed West Virginian Constitution, Parker advocated for a free state. The question of slavery was the subject of editorials, pamphlets and debate on the convention floor. Parker wrote and printed a pamphlet encouraging gradual emancipation, distributed throughout loyal Union counties, and circulars he distributed in Cabell County. The pamphlet and portions of the circular were published widely throughout the state, including in The Intelligencer, which also published a letter from Parker reiteritating his points. “But gentlemen say See STATE Page 33 ➪
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A Proclamation Admitting West Virginia Into the Union April 20, 1863 “By the President of the United States of America a Proclamation: Whereas by the act of Congress approved the 31st day of December last the State of West Virginia was declared to be one of the United States of America, and was admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States in all respects whatever, upon the condition that certain changes should be duly made in the proposed constitution for that State; and Whereas proof of a compliance with that condition, as required by the second section of the act aforesaid has been submitted to me: Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do hereby, in pursuance of the act of Congress aforesaid, declare and proclaim that the said act shall take effect and be in force from and after sixty days from the date hereof. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, this 20th day of April, A.D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By the President; WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.
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Freedom Runaway slaves would rely upon coded stories or songs about places where they could hide for a couple days. People would hang quilts outside with coded messages as to whether it was safe or not to stop, Greathouse said. “They couldn’t stay for more than two days,” Mattox said. Homeowners put themselves in legal jeopardy for harboring a runaway slave. “It was a clandestine operation,” Mattox said. The runway slaves would avoid populated areas, Mattox said. They also would wear disguises
Power to hide themselves and sometimes hid in compartments on wagons to avoid detection, he said. Freedom for the slaves was available by crossing the Ohio River into Ohio. In those days, there was no locks and dams and the river would run shallow at times. Mattox said most of the runaway slaves would escape during the winter, usually around the holidays when they would have a jump on their attempt at freedom. The runaway slaves would hope to walk across the frozen Ohio River.
“Even though it was cold, they would no anything for freedom,” he said. The escaped slaves also would use the river to escape detection from bloodhound dogs that were used to track them down, Mattox said. Mattox said the slave would head north, cross the river and then zigzag north and south towards freedom. Wheeling at the time was the fourth largest city in Virginia and was a regional hub for selling slaves. Auctions were held weekly. Slave owners were a minority in the area that
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became West Virginia. Because of the slave auctions in Wheeling, many runaway slaves avoided direct travel through the city, opting for less populated areas in the Northern Panhandle. Some of the slaves did rely on help of the Wheeling A.M.E. Church. The owner of the Wheeling House Hotel also was believed to have provided sanctuary for the escaped slaves. “We are finding out now that there were stops everywhere,” Mattox said, although confirming those sites are hard to prove because of their secrecy.
arduous and responsible duties of his office. We regret that he is to leave us, but we have the satisfaction of knowing that he is going to a new and important field where his ability and patriotism are still to be devoted to the good of his country. If I shall only be able to discharge the duties of my office with as much satisfaction to the people and honor to myself as my predecessor, I shall expect the approbation of a generous public. I shall, no doubt, often do wrong, this is the lot of man; and while I shall always do that which honesty of purpose and my opinion of the good of the country dictates, I shall expect you to exercise that indulgence which is due to a public officer under the surrounding circumstances.
Vote Continued from Page 29 the amendement and the West Virginia statehood bill passed by a vote of 23-17. Debate in the House of Representatives was also contentious, but on Dec. 10, 1862, the House passed the statehood bill by a vote of 96-55. When President Abraham Lincoln received the statehood bill on Dec. 22, 1862, he asked the six members of his cabinet for written opinions on the constitutionality and expediency of admitting West Virginia to the Union, they divided evenly. Despite reservations, on Dec. 31, 1862, Lincoln signed the bill. In his opinion, he wrote: “Doubtless those in remaining Vir-
ginia would return to the Union, so to speak, less reluctantly without the division of the old state than with it; but I think we could not save as much in this quarter by rejecting the new state, as we should lose by it in West Virginia. We can scarcely dispense with the aid of West Virginia in this struggle; much less can we afford to have her against us, in Congress and in the field. Her brave and good men regard her admission into the Union as a matter of life and death. They have been true to the Union under very severe trials. We have so acted as to justify their hopes; and we can not fully retain their confi-
dence, and co-operation, if we seem to break faith with them.” West Virginia was required to submit the revised constitution containing the Willey Amendment to the Constitutional Convention for approval. The delegates reconvened on Feb. 12, 1863. On February 17, the delegates unanimously approved the amendment. The voters of the new state ratified the revised constitution on March 26 by a vote of 28,321 to 572. Upon receiving the results, President Lincoln issued a proclamation on April 20, 1863, declaring that in 60 days, West Virginia would become the 35th state in the Union.
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State Continued from Page 30 ignore — that is, be entirely silent upon the subject,” Parker said on the convention floor. “I ask them how Congress, whose approval we must have, and the outside world, whose emigration and capital we must also have, will interpret this silence? I answer, they will say the people of West Virginia are unanimously pro-slavery. They can, and will, give no other, for it is the only natural and legitimate interpretation at this time.” However, a proposed gradual empancipation amendment was defeated at the Constitutional convention, and Parker was stunned when several of those emancipation proponents counted on to vote in favor of the amendment instead voted against it. Parker and the emancipation contingent requested a formal poll on gradual empancipation be taken alongside the constitutional vote, but it was denied. At least partially in response to Parker’s efforts, when the loyal Union counties voted on the proposed West Virginia constitution April 3, 1862, at least 20 counties also opened informal polls on gradual emancipation, with emancipation receiving approval. The April 25, 1862, Wellsburg Herald wrote: “The vote seems to have taken everybody by surprise, those friendly to gradual emancipation as well as those opposed to it. It has, in the eyes of the public outside of Western Virginia, completely overshadowed the vote on the adoption of the Constitution itself, though this latter was a thing regularly voted upon. ... The attention of the loyal United States, and doubtless of the disloyal, has been turned by this vote upon Western Virginia, and it is felt to be a blow at slavery, and, through it, at rebellion,
from the right quarter that cripples the rebellion more than the defeat of an army, and, at the same time, indicates its suppression with a certainty as to the manner that is understood to be inevitable.” Despite some delegates believing the informal poll would convince Congress West Virginia would eventually become a free state, Parker wrote the defeat of both the amendment and the formal emancipation poll were nearly insurmountable stumbling blocks to the creation of the new state. He also predicted attempts to revisit the issue through the legislature would take months and cost thousands of dollars. He proposed the legislature consent to a gradual emancipation amendment, followed by a ratification vote. In a letter to The Intelligencer May 3, 1862, he wrote: “The mathematical certainty is wanting, and the natural inference to be drawn from the facts would be, either that the people did not want it (gradual emancipation), or else they did not have the power and spirit to obtain it against the scheming and management of their fogy leaders. Else why has the question been before the people, the convention and our own legislature, and all the progress the people have made toward the mathematical certainty is the informal vote?” Despite his doubts, Parker embarked on a letter-writing campaign beseeching Congress to admit West Virginia to the Union, using the informal poll as an example of the new state’s slavery views. This letter were widely published and championed by Intelligencer Editor A.W. Campbell. The statehood issue waited in committee while both the Union and Confederacy battled over the Alleghenies and its railroads — territory considered by the Union to be a buffer for Ohio and Pennsylvania and an important transportation hub by both. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was considered so important that, in Born in New England, Granville Parker was attending to business interests in Cabell County, Va., when Virginia seceded from the Union and was subsequently caught up in the West Virginia statehood movement. He eventually retired to Wellsburg, and he and his family are buried in one of the oldest parts of the Brooke County Cemetery. Contributed
proposing the boundaries of the new state, the Eastern Panhandle was created. Parker wrote: “The friends (northwestern delegates) succeeded in limiting the boundary to the summit of the Alleghenies, until they struck the influence of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which, for the purpose of getting its entire line out of Old Virginia, created what is known as the ‘Eastern Panhandle.’” In June 1862, Congress’ Territorial Committee proposed West Virginia be admitted, if it would accept gradual emancipation and include several more counties, including Alleghany County, an area claimed by both Virginia and Pennsylvania. In addition, a second, peace-time vote by the Virginia legislature on the formation of the new state was required — something Parker was convinced would lead to reunification. Despite wide press coverage the statehood measure was dead, Parker and other statehood proponents travelled to Washington to plead West Virginia’s case, spending nearly three weeks in June and July 1862 meeting with Congress members, campaigning for the state’s admission and against the addition of counties. At a time when Union forces were reeling from defeats at Antietam and Manassas in December 1862, Lincoln needed a victory — even if it was a moral one — when the statehood bill reached his desk for approval or veto. Lincoln approved it, and, in February 1863, the West Virginia legislature voted in favor of gradual empancipation, followed by ratification through vote. West Virginia entered the Union June 20, 1863. Cabell County residents requested Parker be a delegate to the first West Virginia legislature, but having seen the formation of the new state and passage of the gradual empancipation amendment, Parker retired from politics. Parker and his wife, Elizabeth or Eliza A. True, were born in Massachusetts — or in Maine, according to an 1880 Census — and had two daughters — Emma or Emily T., who later moved to New York City following the death of her parents, and Eliza G. “Lizzie” Parker, who died after an extended illness in 1870 in Wellsburg. Both daughters were poets, and Parker had a selection of Lizzie’s poems published as “Miscellaneous Selections From the Writings of the Late Lizzie Parker of Wellsburg, W.Va.,” in 1873. Granville Parker died a few months after his 72nd birthday in his Wellsburg home, and he and his family are buried in the Brooke County Cemetery in Wellsburg.
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War Continued from Page 9
Campbell’s son-in-law twice, having married Campbell’s daughter Lavinia in 1840 and later, after she died, to another daughter, Clarinda. Pendleton had assumed many of the president’s duties when Campbell, who was 29 years older than he and ill, was no longer able to perform them. He also had seen the college through difficult times during the Civil War. Prior to the war, many of the young men who attended Bethany were from the south. As they went to war, the college’s enrollment dropped from about 120 to 23 in the
war’s first year and rising gradually to about 100 near the war’s end, according to McAllister. In his book, “Bethany Years,” former Bethany College professor W.K. Woolery said revenue was so low that professors received half their pay and Pendleton waived his own salary for a time. Gary Kappel, a history professor at Bethany for 30 years, said, “By and large Bethany College was pro-Union.” But he noted the division the war brought to many families didn’t miss Bethany as Campbell’s
oldest son, Alexander Jr., who had married a woman from Mississippi, was a Confederate officer, while Campbell’s nephew, Archibald, used his position as editor of the Wheeling Daily Intelligencer to voice his proUnion sentiments. In addition to helping the college to weather difficult financial times, Pendleton played a key role in the development of Old Main, the college’s commencement hall, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. Kappel said Pendleton had his home renovated to resemble Old
Main’s collegiate Gothic architecture. Upon Pendleton’s retirement in 1887, the house was purchased by the college and it has been home to many Bethany College presidents. Now known as Christman Manor at Pendleton Heights, it’s home to current Bethany College President Scott D. Miller. Pendleton continued to serve the college beyond his retirement, serving on the board of trustees until his death in 1899, when he was the last individual to have been part of the school from the beginning.
Continued from Page 26 New Cumberland, Moundsville, Parkersburg, and Finely, Ohio, according to newspaper accounts. His home in the 1200 block of Pleasant Avenue still stands and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Photos of Duval and his family and papers related to his military service are on display at the Brooke County Museum, on loan from Leonard. The museum also has one-half of Duval’s regimental flag on display as part of its permanent Civil War collection, said
Greathouse. It wasn’t uncommon during the era to tear the flags in pieces and distribute them as keepsakes, she added. The other half of the flag, and the sword Duval carried during the Civil War is in possession of one of his descendents living in New England. To see the Civil War exhibit and the Duval collection, visit the Brooke County Museum and Cultural Center from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays at 704 Charles St. Admission is free; donations are appreciated.
Conflicted Continued from Page 8 encounter would eventually bring him to Hancock County, where he would live out the rest of his days. “He saved Col. Richard Hooker Brown’s life,” Brenneman said. “That’s how they became friends.”
According to Brenneman, Wilson was young when he arrived in the area — probably in his late teens — but usually just focused on taking care of his farm. “Nobody in the community had a bad thing to say
about him,” Brenneman said, explaining Wilson was a full member of the Methodist-Protestant Church, attending Nessly Chapel. Brenneman also noted Wilson always sat in the
back pugh of the church, but it was by his own choice. Wilson died either Dec. 10 or Dec. 11, 1933 at his home. He was buried at Nessly Chapel Cemetery; the only black individual to be buried there at the time.
Brown, too, is buried at Nessly Chapel Cemetery. In his life after the war, Brown would serve as a county commissioner, one term as the county sheriff and spent several years on the local school board.
Guide Continued from Page 4 system in the new state, even serving for several years as a member of one of the school boards in Hancock County. During interviews with prospective teachers, Pomeroy was said to ask two questions: To spell the word “Abakadzra,” and to explain to his satisfaction which side was right in the Civil War. It has been said he was presented with the gold pen used to make
the final draft of the First Constitution of West Virginia in tribute to his personality and in honor of his profession. Pomeroy would return to Hancock County in 1886 where he was active in his ministry until his death, even preaching on the day he died, according to some accounts. Pomeroy died in 1906 and is buried in Flats Cemetery in New Manchester.
WHEELING EVENTS HAPPY 150th BIRTHDAY WEST VIRGINIA Come and join in the celebration of West Virginia’s 150th birthday • Noon - Lunch with Books presents “Secession in Favor of the Constitution.” Presented by David Zimring. • 7 p.m. - People’s University at the Ohio County Public Library: “The Wheeling Conventions,” presented by David Javersak. • The West Virginia Legislature begin interim meetings in Wheeling • 5 p.m. - West Virginia statehood speeches at West Virginia Independence Hall. • 5:30 p.m.- 8 p.m. - Statehood Block Party. Legislative Concert and Reception at River City Aleworks in downtown Wheeling • 7-9 p.m. - Waterfront Wednesdays concert at Heritage Port. • Interim meetings continue • 10 a.m. Gov. Pierpont maquette presented • Noon - “150 Years: The West Virginia Sesquicentennial Celebration.” Commemorative ceremonies and reenactments. • 2 p.m. - Wildcat Regiment Band concert, courtroom at West Virginia Independence Hall
• 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. - West Virginia Day Concert, Part 1, Heritage Port • 7:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. - West Virginia Day Concert, Part 2, Heritage Port • 10 p.m. - Fireworks • Interims conclude • 6 p.m. - “Beers and Beards” event, River City Aleworks. • 7 p.m. Blue and Grey Choir concert, West Virginia Independence Hall • 9:30 p.m. - Riverfront movie night at Heritage Port featuring “Lincoln.” • 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. - Wheeling Arts Fest in downtown Wheeling at West Virginia Independence Hall, West Virginia Northern Community College and the Ohio County Public Library. • Civil War Ball at the McLure Hotel in downtown Wheeling.
WEIRTON EVENTS HAPPY 150th BIRTHDAY WEST VIRGINIA Come and join in the celebration of West Virginia’s 150th birthday Top of West Virginia honors West Virginia’s 150th Birthday at The Weirton Event Center •Children of Never Alone will release 150 balloons •Jake Curtis will perform The National Anthem •Johnny Staats & The Delivery Boys will perform contemporary bluegrass combined with country and blues. •Children of Never Alone will lead the crowd in singing Happy Birthday •Followed by the cutting of the “State-sized Birthday Cake” created by Gus’s Goodies •Winners of the Two I-Pads will be announced Gates open at 6 p.m. - Bring your own chairs or blankets. Food & Soda will be available for purchase. Free Parking is available in The Steel Works Community federal Credit Union lot & The Millsop Community Center.