Seán Duffy

64 Articles

Seán Patrick Duffy is the programming coordinator at the Ohio County Public Library and the Executive Director of the Wheeling Academy of Law and Science (WALS) Foundation at the First State Capitol in Wheeling, where he manages the Reuther-Wheeling Library and Labor History Archive. He earned a BA in History and an MBA from Wheeling Jesuit University, and a JD from the American University. He is the author of three books on local history: The Wheeling Family: A Celebration of Immigrants & Their Neighborhoods (2008), Wheeling: Then & Now with Paul Rinkes (2010), and The Wheeling Family, Volume 2: More Immigrants, Migrants & Neighborhoods (2012). He also edited and co-authored Legendary Locals of Wheeling (2013) with Brent Carney and numerous local contributors. Seán was named a History Hero by the West Virginia Division of Culture and History in 2010 and is a member of the West Virginia Independence Hall Foundation Board.

Local History Researcher Ohio County Public Library Archives

Finding Cedar Rocks

Seán Duffy September 17, 2016September 20, 2016 14 Comments 10858 Views

The Golf Course “Out the Crick”

by George S. Jones II and Seán Duffy

“A golf course is the epitome of all that is purely transitory in the universe; a space not to dwell in, but to get over as quickly as possible.” -Jean Giraudoux

Some of the "rough" at Cedar Rocks these days seems rather daunting. — The “rough” at Cedar Rocks these days seems rather daunting.

One of the best things about doing local history research and exploring local archival collections is learning about the wonders of old Wheeling that are now lost to time. And some of the most interesting stories about “Lost Wheeling” are often the unlikely ones—the ones that stretch the imagination, like the amusement park on the Lower Sisters Island, the beer garden at Wheeling Park, the town’s old German singing societies, and the Mozart Incline.

Another one of those wonders was a short-lived, championship caliber golf course located “out the crick” on Big Wheeling Creek Road—a place called Cedar Rocks Country Club—where one of the greatest golfers of all time won a tournament 78 years ago today, on September 17, 1938.

And if you’re like me, you’ve probably driven right through this long gone golf course hundreds of times without even realizing it. Read More

Archives of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston Archiving Wheeling

Boss Tweed’s Mysterious Wheeling Visit

Seán Duffy September 6, 2016 2 Comments 6981 Views

The “Boss” Comes to Wheeling

Boss Tweed circa 1869, Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-90688

The notorious William Magear “Boss” Tweed visited Wheeling 143 years ago today on September 6, 1873, but the reason for his visit was then, and remains today, a mystery.

Who’s the Boss?

Tweed was a Democratic politician and the “Boss” (circa 1858-1871) of New York City’s infamous Tammany Hall, one of the most overtly corrupt political machines in the nation’s history. Tweed used a system of cronyism to make sure members of his inner circle, the “Tweed Ring,” were appointed to positions of power in city government; he essentially controlled city elections by awarding jobs to mostly Irish immigrant constituents in return for votes, as well as through outright fraud; and he used inflated building contracts, bribery, and kickbacks to embezzle tens of millions (hundreds of millions in today’s money) of taxpayer dollars. Political cartoonist Thomas Nast launched a relentless crusade against Tweed, principally in the pages of Harper’s Weekly.

One of many caricatures of Tweed by Thomas Nast that appeared in Harper's Weekly. — One of many caricatures of Tweed by Thomas Nast that appeared in Harper’s Weekly.

According to legend, the power of Nast’s satirical depictions of Tweed caused the latter to despair, “I don’t care a straw for your newspaper articles, my constituents don’t know how to read, but they can’t help seeing them damned pictures.”

His corruption fully exposed, and his support badly eroded, Tweed was arrested in 1871. The jury at his first trial deadlocked in January 1873, but Tweed would be tried again in November of that same year, and this time, he was convicted.

It was during the period between trials, in September of 1873, that Tweed, for some still unknown reason, visited Wheeling. Read More

Archiving Wheeling

To the Defenders of the Union

Seán Duffy August 5, 2016August 25, 2016 2 Comments 5175 Views

Featured Image: Soldiers' & Sailors' Monument of Wheeling

The Case for Moving Wheeling’s Soldiers’ & Sailors’ Monument

“So may the future days
Come nobly to our State:
When, prosperous and great,
Her citizens shall praise
Those who gave life and all to consecrate
Their land to liberty;
And bade their watchword be
These words in granite here,
To freemen ever dear,
Montani Semper Liberi.”
-From Soldiers’ Monument Poem by William Leighton

In case you haven’t heard, a campaign has been launched to move the Soldiers’ & Sailors’ Monument from Wheeling Park to the empty lot beside West Virginia Independence Hall. Read More

Archives of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston Oglebay Institute Ohio County Public Library Archives

Old Grave Yard Square

Seán Duffy August 2, 2016August 4, 2016 12 Comments 13526 Views

Featured Image: Hempfield Yard Lot, Wheeling, W. Va.

A Brief History of the Hempfield Yard Lot

If we’ve learned anything from watching movies, surely we’ve learned that no good can come from unearthing duly interred bodies from sacred ground and moving them (or not) for the sake of development. You don’t build things over an old graveyard. You. Just. Do. Not.

But the fact is, the ground on which the Ohio County Public Library now stands was deeded to the town of Wheeling from Noah and Mary Zane in 1816 for use as “a burying ground.” And, as a burying ground, it was most certainly used.

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All Aboard the Freedom Train

Seán Duffy July 4, 2016September 16, 2018 4 Comments 9222 Views

The Freedom Train Brings the Spirit of 1776 to Wheeling

“Here comes the Freedom Train
You better hurry down
Just like a Paul Revere
It’s comin’ into your hometown
Inside the freedom train
You’ll find a precious freight
Those words of liberty
The documents that made us great…”
–from The Freedom Train (1948) by Irving Berlin

Freedom Train postcard, OCPL Archives.

On September 14, 1948, a glossy white, seven-car train with bold, red, white and blue striping and a golden eagle on its Alco PA-1 diesel-electric locomotive, pulled into Wheeling’s Pennsylvania Railroad depot at the Wharf, just above what is now Heritage Port, for a twelve hour visit. On board the were “127 of the nation’s most priceless historical documents,” including Thomas Jefferson’s rough draft of the Declaration of Independence with corrections, Washington’s copy of the original printed draft of the Constitution, a manuscript copy of the Gettysburg Address held by Abraham Lincoln, and Francis Scott Key’s handwritten copy of The Star Spangled Banner, among many others.

Oglebay Institute Ohio County Public Library Archives

Music in the Air: Wheeling’s 1906 Saengerfest Revisited

Seán Duffy May 25, 2016June 2, 2016 5 Comments 8344 Views

Saengerfest Wheeling 1906 Featured Image 600

Germantown

Evidence of German Wheeling can still be found when you look up.

The Wheeling of one hundred ten years ago was a robust German town, with a German language newspaper, mandatory German language classes in many schools, and German language services in many churches.

It was also home to numerous German choral singing societies, including the Arion, Harmonie, Maennerchor, Beethoven, Germania, Liedertafel, Mozart, Concordia, Liederkranz, and Teutonia. The Turner (or Turnverein) Society emphasized gymnastics and operated Turner’s Hall. The singers were mostly male, accompanied, when needed, by female singers from the women’s auxiliaries. The societies often had their own musicians.
Read More

Ohio County Public Library Archives Private Collector

More Baseball & Soda Pop

Seán Duffy April 11, 2016 9 Comments 16851 Views

Featured Image: Wheeling Soda Pop and Bottlers

Spring Time in Wheeling, Continued…

Nothing says spring quite so clearly as an April day at the old ballpark, with the sun shining warmly on your face and tiny, cool bubbles bursting on the tip of your nose as you raise an ice cold bottle of sweet soda pop to your lips for a refreshing drink. Well, that’s our theory anyway, as we celebrate spring with a new exhibit of baseball artifacts combined with Thad Podratsky’s amazing collection of early Wheeling pop bottles — on display now at the Ohio County Public Library. As a complement to this display, we present a two-part post on the history of baseball and pop bottling in old Wheeling.
▶ Read Part 1: “A Social Game of Ball”

Part 2: The Pop-Post

An assortment of Painted Pops. Thad Podratsky Collection.

“I do Sierra Mist commercials not because they pay me a lot of money or because it only takes a couple of days. I do it because I have a respect for all sodas and I like to communicate that. Some people say soda, some people say pop. Where I’m from in Indiana they called it breakfast.”
-Comedian Jim Gaffigan

“Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter, sermons and soda water the day after.”
-Lord Byron

Ohio County Public Library Archives

Baseball & Soda Pop

Seán Duffy April 4, 2016April 8, 2016 2 Comments 8774 Views

Featured Image: Wheeling Baseball and Soda Pop, Part 1

Springtime in Wheeling

Part 1: “A Social Game of Ball”

“Ray, people will come Ray … They’ll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past … And they’ll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They’ll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they’ll watch the game and it’ll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they’ll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh… people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.” -Terence Mann [James Earl Jones] in Field of Dreams

“Wheeling’s a swell town to play [baseball] in. The fans here like a good game an’ don’t care who wins. The kids are bad, though!”
–from The Short Stop (1909) by Zane Grey, writer and baseball player

The Wheeling Nailers playing Kalamazoo on Wheeling Island, May 19, 1887. Brown Collection, OCPL Archives.

During the Civil War, Wheeling served as the birthplace of the new state of West Virginia. In the years immediately after the war ended, Wheeling would serve as the birthplace, in the new state, of a new game called “base ball.”

Archives of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston Ohio County Public Library Archives

Fifty-Five Feet and Rising

Seán Duffy March 19, 2016March 19, 2016 4 Comments 11291 Views

The 1936 Flood, 80 Years Later

Heavy snow and rain in March 1936 triggered the worst flood in Wheeling’s history. The river crested at a record 55.2 feet, 80 years ago today on March 19th, and floodwater inundated the Island, much of South and Centre Wheeling and even the downtown streets as afar east as Chapline. The Suspension Bridge and Steel Bridge were closed, and the Market Auditorium was converted to a refuge shelter and makeshift hospital. Utilities were shut down, supplies cut off, and disease threatened. More than 20,000 people were driven from their homes and 16 people lost their lives.

Ohio County Public Library Archives

The Birth of a Friendly City

Seán Duffy March 11, 2016March 11, 2016 1 Comment 4558 Views

Featured Image: City of Wheeling 180th Birthday

180 Years of Cityhood

On this day 180 years ago — March 11, 1836 — the town of Wheeling, Virginia was made the city of Wheeling, Virginia by an Act of Incorporation passed by the state’s legislative body, the General Virginia Assembly and signed into law by Governor Littleton Waller Tazewell.