– written by guest contributor, Margaret Brennan
Sometimes things in life are just a matter of serendipity. That happened recently when a friend called who was going to tour the Stifel-Kossuth property at 807 Main Street. He asked if I would like to come along.
The Ohio County Public Library launched the Wheeling Memory Project as a contribution to the ongoing community effort to record oral histories from Wheeling’s residents. The project will focus on stories of life in Wheeling’s diverse neighborhoods. Read More
Our recent German Days post led to two interesting developments that help illustrate why we launched Archiving Wheeling in the first place. Read More
Why are there so many real photo postcards (RPPC’s) postmarked 1906 or 1907?
The credit is due to George Eastman of Kodak fame, who acquired the rights to produce photo paper with a pre-printed postcard back and in 1903 developed an inexpensive folding camera that produced postcard sized negatives. A few years later, in 1907, he introduced the “real photo postcard” service allowing amateur photographers to turn any photograph into a postcard, inexpensively. The RPPC’s popularity exploded and people everywhere used them to chronicle events and small town scenes that might otherwise have been lost to history, having been largely ignored by professional photographers. RPPC’s depicting various Wheeling subjects frequently appear on eBay and other online auction sites.
Two examples — one from 1906 and one from 1908 — provide some interesting information about “German Wheeling.”
“Looking forward to the succession of ages, and even of years, it is beyond the foresight of human intellect to say what innumerable happy results would flow from the erection of a bridge over the Ohio at Wheeling on a permanent and useful plan, both to the Government of the Union, and to the People of this vast, enterprising, and happy republic.” – Charles Mercer, U.S. Congressman from Virginia, Committee on Roads and Canals, January 19, 1837.
When people think about Wheeling and its history, most will visualize the familiar towers of our beloved Suspension Bridge.
Spanning the Ohio River since 1849, the old bridge is iconic – its familiar shape gracing logos and trademarks developed by local businesses and institutions, including the logo of the Ohio County Public Library. It has become the favored symbol of our town, and arguably its most recognizable structure.
But had designer Charles Ellet Jr.’s earliest concept been used, the bridge would look radically different – far more Gothic in design. Read More
My father, William N. Hogan Sr., was a cadet and then an instructor in the Air Service, which was part of the Signal Corps in the U.S. Army during the First World War. What follows is what I recall him telling me about his experiences when I was young.
When his group arrived at the place of flying instruction, there were not enough planes to take them all up at one time. While he waited his turn to be wrung out to determine if he really wanted to fly, one of the planes came straight down and crashed in front of them.
As mentioned in a previous post, the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.), the largest of Civil War veterans’ groups, was very active in Wheeling during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Grateful for an end to the bloody, exhausting war, most Americans were more than willing to reward these veterans with generous pensions. Unfortunately, as is often the case where money is involved, some took advantage, exaggerating or even falsifying pension claims. Read More
Now known as Memorial Day, the first “Decoration Day” was held on May 30, 1868. Created by proclamation of General John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.), it was originally intended to be a day to honor the memory of those who died in the Civil War. Congress made “Memorial Day” an official, national holiday in 1971.
Wheeling played host to reunions of Civil War veterans of the G.A.R. numerous times in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The J. W. Holliday Post, No. 12, of Wheeling was usually front and center during these activities. Read More
– article by Jon-Erik Gilot, Director of Archives at the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston
Since coming to the Diocese in 2012, I’ve been fascinated by the many hundreds of photographs comprising the Eddie Martin Collection. Recently highlighted in the Winter 2014 issue of Goldenseal magazine, Martin’s photos appear to at long last be reaching a wider audience.
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