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Archiving Wheeling Ohio County Public Library Archives

“No Colored Employees…” Surveys of Jim Crow Wheeling

Seán Duffy February 17, 2020February 17, 2020 Leave a Comment 8614 Views

Featured Image - Surveys of Jim Crow Wheeling

Note: The following article references documents from 1927-1931, when Wheeling was a “Jim Crow” city still segregated by race. Some of the terms used are offensive to modern sensibilities. The original terms have been retained for historical context and accuracy.

One of the most important collections housed in the Ohio County Public Library’s Archives is undoubtedly the Wheeling YWCA collection. The organization’s current mission statement includes “eliminating racism, empowering women and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all,” but during the reign of “Jim Crow” segregation, the YWCA was required to have a separate branch to provide activities and programs for African American girls and women. The “Blue Triangle” was located in a house on 12th Street, and its records are among the most important of those housed in the YWCA Collection.

In addition to photographs and documents related to its regular programs, the Blue Triangle collection contains numerous primary source documents with vital demographic information about Wheeling’s African American community during the “Jim Crow” period.
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Archiving Wheeling Ohio County Public Library Archives WALS Foundation

From Camp Lee to the Great War: February 25, 1919 – Charles Riggle

Archiving Wheeling February 25, 2019February 27, 2019 Leave a Comment 3866 Views

From Camp Lee to the Great War: The Letters of Lester Scott and Charles Riggle: Podcast Episode 63

“That telegram you about the Less must of been correct for he got hurt about the 20 of Oct. He surly is not living or he would write to you & Minnie…”

In his twenty-first letter home since leaving for Camp Lee, and his sixth letter home from France, dated February 25, 1919, PFC Charles “Dutch” Riggle, a WWI soldier from Wheeling, WV, tells his brother James “Abe” Riggle that they are having a good bit of rain in France. He’s read that his division will finally sail for home in May. He’s glad because he hopes the sea will be less rough in a few months. The trip will be smoother with less chance of seasickness. It took 14 days to get to France. Dutch thinks the return trip will be faster. Dutch has finally been informed about the telegram announcing the death of Lester Scott, but he still hasn’t been able to find out anything from the Army.

Elsewhere on the same day, future professional baseball hall of famer Monte Irvin, one of the best players to make the switch from the Negro Leagues to the Major Leagues after Jackie Robinson, was born.

Charles “Dutch” Riggle was drafted into the US Army in 1917 and trained at Camp Lee, Virginia, where so many Wheeling draftees and volunteers—including his sister-in-law Minnie Riggle’s brother, Lester Scott—were trained. Dutch Riggle was a Private First Class in Battery F of the 314th Field Artillery Supply Company, in France. Riggle was a farm boy with little formal education who grew up in the hills of Pennsylvania and West Virginia. He spelled many of his words phonetically. His letters have been transcribed exactly as they were written. This is his twenty-first letter home, dated 100 years ago today, February 25, 1919.

Archiving Wheeling Ohio County Public Library Archives WALS Foundation

From Camp Lee to the Great War: January 26, 1919 – Charles Riggle

Archiving Wheeling January 26, 2019February 27, 2019 Leave a Comment 1983 Views

From Camp Lee to the Great War: The Letters of Lester Scott and Charles Riggle: Podcast Episode 62

“I am getting all the wine I want over here. It is cheap here. 60 cent a quart. It wont hardly make a fellow light-headed but it is good-tasting. The whiskey is no good here. I never drink a drop of it…..”

In his twentieth letter home since leaving for Camp Lee, and his fifth letter home from France, dated January 26, 1919, PFC Charles “Dutch” Riggle, a WWI soldier from Wheeling, WV, tells his brother James “Abe” Riggle that, despite being homesick, he is well and hearty and feeling fine. They are stuck in France taking care of 107 horses and mules. Dutch wants to get back to farming by spring. He is getting all the cheap wine he wants but the French whiskey is no good. He still hasn’t heard anything about Les [the family back home received a death notice by telegram dated January 8]. He’s heard a rumor that Les died, and another rumor from Tib Meriner that Les was back at Camp Lee. He’s not sure when he’ll get to leave for home.

Charles “Dutch” Riggle was drafted into the US Army in 1917 and trained at Camp Lee, Virginia, where so many Wheeling draftees and volunteers—including his sister-in-law Minnie Riggle’s brother, Lester Scott—were trained. Dutch Riggle was a Private First Class in Battery F of the 314th Field Artillery Supply Company, in France. Riggle was a farm boy with little formal education who grew up in the hills of Pennsylvania and West Virginia. He spelled many of his words phonetically. His letters have been transcribed exactly as they were written. This is his twentieth letter home, dated 100 years ago today, January 26, 1919.

Archiving Wheeling Ohio County Public Library Archives

Stone & Thomas: The Host of Christmas Past

Archiving Wheeling December 25, 2018December 25, 2018 4 Comments 6605 Views

The Stone & Thomas sponsored Christmas Train, Parade, and Open House of 1958.

This time of year, it is the Ghost of Christmas Past who visits Ebenezer Scrooge, accompanying him on a trip down memory lane in the Dickens classic, “A Christmas Carol.” A story we are all familiar with, the ethereal being takes the miserly businessman on a journey to earlier times, offering him glimpses of, well, Christmases past.

This Christmas, we offer you glimpses of a Wheeling Christmas sixty years past, courtesy Stone & Thomas, our Host of Christmas Past. This nostalgic look back at our past comes not through a ghostly encounter, but via a recent addition to the Ohio County Public Library Archives, a scrapbook put together by Joe A. Funk. Funk was, for many years, the director of public relations and advertising for Stone & Thomas Department Store and is credited with directing the first Stone & Thomas sponsored Christmas parade in Wheeling. This particular scrapbook documents the 1958 Stone & Thomas Santa Claus Train, Christmas Parade, and Open House held Saturday, November 22, 1958.

Itinerary for the day’s Christmas-themed events, November 22, 1958

Archiving Wheeling Ohio County Public Library Archives WALS Foundation

From Camp Lee to the Great War: December 16, 1918 – Charles Riggle

Archiving Wheeling December 16, 2018January 22, 2019 Leave a Comment 2105 Views

From Camp Lee to the Great War: The Letters of Lester Scott and Charles Riggle: Podcast Episode 61

“I think the war is over for good don’t you? For I think them Germans won’t want another war very soon the way they got beat in this one….”

In his nineteenth letter home since leaving for Camp Lee, and his fourth letter home from France, dated December 16, 1918, PFC Charles “Dutch” Riggle, a WWI soldier from Wheeling, WV, tells his brother James “Abe” Riggle that he’s been worried about his family back home about because of that “disease raging” [a reference to the 1918 influenza or “Spanish Flu” pandemic, fueled in part by troop movements during the war, that killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide]. He wants to know if they’ve heard anything about his brother-in-law Les Scott [who had actually died on October 29, but neither Dutch nor his family would learn of this until January]. He knows Les was taken to the hospital and heard once that he might have died, but Dutch hopes his friend is somehow still alive. He’d seen Les about a week before he was injured but couldn’t talk because the German shelling was too intense. He’s not sure when they’ll get to come home, but hopes maybe sometime in the winter. He can’t talk about his experiences on the front until he gets home, except to say he was in the fight for 50 straight days and nights.

Elsewhere on the same day, German forces continued to withdraw from places like Finland, Kiev, and Estonia, and a “spectacular procession” and “stunning” woman suffrage protest was held in Washinton, D.C. on the anniversary of the 1773 Boston Tea Party.

Charles “Dutch” Riggle was drafted into the US Army in 1917 and trained at Camp Lee, Virginia, where so many Wheeling draftees and volunteers—including his sister-in-law Minnie Riggle’s brother, Lester Scott—were trained. Dutch Riggle was a Private First Class in Battery F of the 314th Field Artillery Supply Company, in France. Riggle was a farm boy with little formal education who grew up in the hills of Pennsylvania and West Virginia. He spelled many of his words phonetically. His letters have been transcribed exactly as they were written. This is his nineteenth letter home, dated 100 years ago today, December 16, 1918.

Archiving Wheeling Ohio County Public Library Archives WALS Foundation

From Camp Lee to the Great War: November 25, 1918 – Charles Riggle

Archiving Wheeling November 27, 2018December 14, 2018 Leave a Comment 2608 Views

From Camp Lee to the Great War: The Letters of Lester Scott and Charles Riggle: Podcast Episode 60

“I can’t tell you about Less. He got badly hurt and they took him to the hospital. I heard once he died, but I don’t know if that was correct or not. I hope it wasn’t correct for I would like to went back to the states with him…”

In his eighteenth letter home since leaving for Camp Lee, and his third letter home from France, dated November 25, 1918, PFC Charles “Dutch” Riggle, a WWI soldier from Wheeling, WV, tells his brother James “Abe” Riggle he’s sorry he hasn’t written. He didn’t have much time to write while he was on the front, but now that the war is over, he has all kinds of time. He can’t wait to see the “good old states” again. Dutch had some narrow escapes on the front but came out without a scratch. A good many men from the 314th got hurt, but only four were killed. He has no news about Les. He was badly hurt and taken to the hospital. Dutch heard Les might have died. He hopes that isn’t true. He would like to go back to the states together. Les drove the rolling kitchen for Battery A. Dutch would like to be home for Thanksgiving and hunt rabbit. He and Tib Meriner had been hunting hogs. He’d like to get some good apples for winter. He doesn’t think there will be another war any time soon. They drove the “Dutch” 48 miles in 50 days.

Charles Riggle sent this letter a full two weeks after the armistice ending the Great War was signed in Paris. Elsewhere on that same day, Major General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck of Germany, known affectionately as “The Lion of Africa,” finally surrendered his forces in German East Africa. He had employed a guerrilla, bush-fighting style with his African Askari troops (he spoke fluent Swahili) to harass and confuse British forces, allowing him to exit from the war as the only undefeated military commander on either side. He later led a conservative opposition to Hitler and would have died in poverty but for a small pension organized by his former British and South African enemies.

Charles “Dutch” Riggle was drafted into the US Army in 1917 and trained at Camp Lee, Virginia, where so many Wheeling draftees and volunteers—including his sister-in-law Minnie Riggle’s brother, Lester Scott—were trained. Dutch Riggle was a Private First Class in Battery F of the 314th Field Artillery Supply Company, in France. Riggle was a farm boy with little formal education who grew up in the hills of Pennsylvania and West Virginia. He spelled many of his words phonetically. His letters have been transcribed exactly as they were written. This is his eighteenth letter home, dated 100 years ago today, November 25, 1918.

Archiving Wheeling Ohio County Public Library Archives WALS Foundation

From Camp Lee to the Great War: October 29, 1918 – Regarding Lester Scott

Archiving Wheeling October 29, 2018January 9, 2019 Leave a Comment 10772 Views

From Camp Lee to the Great War: The Letters of Lester Scott and Charles Riggle: Podcast Episode 57

“Just as we were walking down that long line it suddenly crept over me and I realized that I would never again be in the United States…”

The “Great War” had raged in Europe for three years before the United States joined the conflict on the side of the Allies in April 1917.

Like most young American men of the era, those from Wheeling harbored romantic notions of war, it having been more than 50 years since the American Civil War ended. Thousands of Wheeling men eagerly registered for the draft in 1917.

Most of Wheeling’s WWI soldiers served in the U.S. Army’s 80th Division, known as the Blue Ridge in honor of the mountains. Most of these were trained at Camp Lee Virginia near Petersburg under the command of Colonel Robert S. Welsh. A large number from the Wheeling area, like Lester Scott and Charles Riggle, served in the 314th Field Artillery. They started shipping in large numbers to the trenches of France by summer 1918. A few months after that, local casualties were listed in the Wheeling newspapers almost daily. Read More

Archiving Wheeling Ohio County Public Library Archives

Distance Lends Enchantment: Wheeling’s WWI Memorials

Seán Duffy October 18, 2018 4 Comments 5757 Views

Featured Image: Wheeling’s Soldier’s Memorial

This article is part of a series about Wheeling during the First World War. The series will lead up to a centennial observation of Armistice Day (now known as Veteran’s Day) to be held on November 11, 2018 at 2 pm at the Doughboy monument at Wheeling Park. If you are a descendant of a WWI veteran or nurse, please contact us at lunchwithbooks@yahoo.com.

The War to Ends Wars

The “Great War” had raged in Europe for three years before the United States joined the conflict on the side of the Allies in April 1917. What H.G. Wells optimistically dubbed, “the war that will end war” is now known as the First World War because, of course, instead of ending wars, it led to a second, far for destructive international conflict just two decades after the November 11, 1918 Armistice.

That was enough time for a whole new generation of farm and factory boys to follow their fathers and grandfathers onto the blood-soaked battlefields of France and Germany. In most important ways, the Second World War was merely the continuation of the first. It follows that memory of the first is often overshadowed by what happened twenty years later.

It has now been nearly a century since that celebrated Armistice. In this series of posts, we will present an overview of Wheeling’s involvement in the First World War. And on November 11, 2018 at 2 pm at the Spirit of the American Doughboy Statue at Wheeling Park, the City of Wheeling will remember those who served on the centennial of that Armistice. Read More

Archiving Wheeling Ohio County Public Library Archives Uncategorized

Wheeling: the Wickedest City in the South?

Seán Duffy October 9, 2018August 15, 2019 3 Comments 8069 Views

Featured Image: Carrie Nation Arrested in Wheeling, October 7, 1901

Carrie Nation Visits the Friendly City

Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, October 5, 1901: "Carrie Nation Comes Tomorrow" — Newspaper clipping from the Ohio County Public Library’s online newspaper archive, http://ohiocountywv.advantage-preservation.com

As we are so often reminded, Wheeling was once a wide open city, chock-full of businesses eager to supply the robust demand for the vices most popular with working men: primarily beer, tobacco, gambling, and prostitutes. At the dawn of the 20th century, hundreds of saloons lined Main and Market Streets, all of whose bars were lined with brass spittoons.

Carrie Nation, courtesy Library of Congress.

Into this den of iniquity descended the famous (or infamous) temperance and anti-tobacco activist from Kansas, Carrie Amelia Nation, who visited Wheeling in early October, 1901.

A physically imposing woman whose first husband ‘died of the drink,’ inspiring a lifelong crusade, the “Kansas Joint Smasher,” was best known for smashing saloons and “grog shops” with a hatchet.

Union Bar, a typical Wheeling saloon of the early 1900s. From the Joseph Hoffmann Collection of the Ohio County Public Library Archives

Carrie Nation spoke on October 6 at the state fairgrounds on Wheeling Island after promising to “regulate the wickedest city in the south.”

Carrie Nation at the State Fairgrounds in Wheeling, courtesy Kansas Historical Society. https://www.kshs.org/

The railroads took advantage of the national celebrity of the “Apostle of the hatchet,” advertising her visit and offering special “Carrie Nation Excursions” to bring “immense crowds” to Wheeling from Pittsburgh and Washington, PA, via the B & O, and from Cleveland and Canton, OH, via the Wheeling and Lake Erie. For its part, the trolley car line from Moundsville lowered its roundtrip rate to 25 cents.

An Unmerciful Roasting

Carrie Nation in 1910 holding her famed hatchet.

En route to her hotel after a second lecture at the First Christian Church (where she accused the city’s wealthy brewers and saloon men of “making their money at the expense of the home”), Mrs. Nation made a stop to carry out her promised “active campaign.” Contractually bound to avoid smashing, she nevertheless refused to pass a saloon without at least a word or two.

Accordingly, she pushed her way into The Senate saloon on the corner of 16th and Market, and was followed by as many of the 300 hundred mostly women followers (members of the “Home Defender Club”) who could squeeze into the saloon’s two entrances. Once inside, she admonished the bartenders to “mend their ways” lest they be damned to hell. Police officer O’Leary, who had been tasked with keeping an eye on Mrs. Nation, followed her into The Senate where he confronted her, accusing her of disturbing the peace and ordering her to return to her hotel. She refused and was arrested, charged with “inciting a riot” and violating a city ordinance that prohibited “loud cries on the Sabbath Day.”

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[The Senate Saloon stood, ca. 1903~1914, on 16th and Market where WVNCC’s Barnes and Noble/Starbucks store is now. Harry L. Wheat was the proprietor. It’s the building with the Pabst sign in the above 1907 flood image from the William O’Leary Real Photo Postcard Collection of the Ohio County Public Library Archives.]

At the police station, Mrs. Nation “roasted Chief Ritz and Lieut. O’Leary unmercifully,” then fell asleep on a sofa. Meanwhile, Mayor Sweeney was immediately called and, in a highly unusual move, a trial was promptly convened at midnight.

Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, October 8, 1901: "Carrie Nation Gets A 30 Day Jail Sentence" — Newspaper clipping from the Ohio County Public Library’s online newspaper archive, http://ohiocountywv.advantage-preservation.com

A transcript of this rather odd and impromptu “special session of the police court” was included verbatim in the Intelligencer on October 8. O’Leary testified that members of Nation’s entourage were “shouting and hooting and acting in a disorderly manner.” He further alleged that Mrs. Nation was “making loud remarks on tobacco chewing and designated the saloons as hell holes.” Another witness testified that he heard Mrs. Nation say to O’Leary that “he ought to take that chew of tobacco out of his mouth and wash it out with lye.” Representing herself, Mrs. Nation complained that she hadn’t been permitted to call her own witnesses for the defense. The Senate bartenders accused Mrs. Nation of threatening to “close down this hell joint” and “whooping and hollering like someone that was drunk” (the irony of this remark caused laughter in the courtroom). A “wordy war” then ensued among Mayor Sweeney, Solicitor Coniff, and Mrs. Nation. The latter testified that she rarely passed a saloon without rebuking the men inside. She felt it was her Christian duty to warn them that “hell is being prepared for them; that they are anarchists; [and] that there is no law that will protect them…” Mrs. Nation said “she had counseled the women of Wheeling to smash the saloons, and save their husbands and sons from ruin.” Coniff countered that she should stay out of the saloons where she could do no good and only bring violence to herself and her women followers. Mayor Sweeney accused her of desecrating the Sabbath by lecturing for an admission fee, which he called “a purely mercenary transaction.” He added that Wheeling felt “insulted and imposed upon” by her actions. Mrs. Nation was fined $20 and sentenced to thirty days in jail. Refusing to pay bond, she spent the night in the county jail, vowing an appeal.

As the Intelligencer reported a couple of days later, the spectacle of the police, mayor, and city solicitor severely lecturing an “old woman” (Nation was 54 at the time) at midnight did not sit well with a lot of Wheeling citizens who had read the account. She was released from jail after 18 hours. On her way back to her hotel she reportedly opened the doors of a number of saloons on Market Street, shouting, “Come out of there you men! Don’t you know you are going straight to Hell?”

But Was Wheeling the Wickedest?

Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, October 8, 1901: "Saliva Besmeared and Rum-Soaked Community" — Newspaper clipping from the Ohio County Public Library’s online newspaper archive, http://ohiocountywv.advantage-preservation.com

While she was being interviewed later in her room at the McLure, the reporter asked, “Is Wheeling as bad as you have been told it was?”

“Yes,” she replied. “Wheeling is rum soaked. I never saw so much spit on the streets as here in your town, showing so much tobacco used. Ladies cannot walk along the streets on account of the spit…Shame! Shame!! Shame!!”

Meet Carrie Nation in Wheeling This Friday!

Want to see notorious bootlegger “Big Bill Lias” and hatchet-wielding temperance advocate “Carrie the ‘Apostle of the Hatchet’ Nation” do battle in the flesh?

Big Bill (Dave Clutter) vs. Carrie (Judi Hendrickson)

Join us at the Francis Pier-Pint Historic Brew-Off: Prohibition Edition this Friday, August 16, 2019 at 5:30 at River City. History and hops will take center stage at the Francis Pier-Pint Historic Brew-Off: Prohibition Edition. The event, which takes guests back to prohibition-era Wheeling, is part beer tasting, part trivia, part interactive history. Big Bill Lias vs Carrie The Kansas Joint Smasher Nation, LIVE! Get a ticket or call 304-232-0244!!

Ohio County Public Library Archives Uncategorized WALS Foundation

From Camp Lee to the Great War: September 8, 1918 – Lester Scott

Archiving Wheeling September 8, 2018 Leave a Comment 2819 Views

From Camp Lee to the Great War: The Letters of Lester Scott and Charles Riggle: Podcast Episode 58

“Minnie I often think to myself that it certainly must be a lonesome old place around their now since all of the boys have left. But I feel that there is a day coming and not far away when we will all be together again…”

In his fortieth letter home to his sister Minnie Riggle, US Army Wagoner (mule team driver) Lester Scott, a World War I soldier from Wheeling, West Virginia, says it’s a rainy day but all are in good spirits and happy. He talks with Charles [Riggle] and Tib [Meriner] every day. Tib has been promoted to sergeant. Les would like to hear from their father and is planning to write to him. He’s surprised that Tom [Riggle] didn’t pass the [draft] exam. he thinks Wheeling must be a lonesome place since all the boys are in France. But he feels they will all be together again soon.

Elsewhere on the same day, fighting along the front increased in violence and intensity as the German army made a stand. The New York Times declared, on a full page of photographs: “Win-the-War Spirit Runs High in Labor’s Greatest New York Parade.” And Derek Barton, a British chemist who would win the Nobel Prize in 1969, was born.

Lester Scott was drafted in 1917 and trained at Camp Lee, where so many Wheeling soldiers were trained. And, like so many of his Ohio Valley comrades, he served in the 314th Field Artillery Supply Company, Battery “A,” 80th (Blue Ridge) Division in France. This is his fortieth letter home, dated 100 years ago today, September 8, 1918.