High Masses of Requiem

Seán Duffy May 25, 2020February 18, 2021 5 Comments 5365 Views

Wheeling Central Catholic Students and Graduates Killed in Action During WWII

The Archives of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston houses a poignant memorial board created to honor twenty-two young men who were killed in action while serving their country in the Second World War. Ranging in age from 19 to 26, these men all had one additional thing in common: they had graduated from or were still attending Wheeling Central Catholic High School when they died.

Central Catholic's Memorial Board for Alumni serving in WWII. - Archives of The Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston — Central Catholic’s Memorial Board for Alumni killed in WWII. – Archives of The Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston

This evocative artifact was brought to my attention a few years ago by diocesan archivist Jon-Erik Gilot, who suggested we dig a little deeper, developing biographies for the soldiers depicted. As a 1984 graduate of Wheeling Central myself, I was intrigued. Only about four decades had passed between my own graduation and the years during which most of these men were killed. Had they survived, most would have only been in their early sixties by 1984. I was struck by how close in time we actually were, though I was fortunate enough to grow up during an era of comparative peace, when young men were not drafted or called upon to risk their lives to stop an alliance of fascist regimes bent on world domination and genocide. Yet, since then, 36 additional years have passed, thousands more young Americans have died in various conflicts around the globe, and our connection to that greatest generation has faded annually as the remaining World War II veterans die at an alarming rate.

So, for Memorial Day 2020, we honor the young men of Wheeling Central (and all of their fallen comrades from Wheeling, from across the United States, and from our WWII allies) who gave all so that we might enjoy the same freedoms they enjoyed for such a tragically brief time.

We ask you to assist us with this project. If you are a relative or friend and, if you can identify our one unidentified soldier; if you can correct any biographical information you know to be in error; or if you can provide additional information about or photographs of these soldiers or sailors, please contact us. We will continue to update this post as more information is received. Read More

Archiving Wheeling Local History Researcher WALS Foundation

Walter P. Reuther Remembered 50 Years After His Death

Archiving Wheeling May 9, 2020May 25, 2022 2 Comments 5545 Views

By Jeffrey W. Mason

In a quote that looks like it could have been lifted from the speech of any number of Democratic candidates running to unseat President Donald J. Trump in 2020, Reuther in 1967 argued that, “Profit sharing in the form of stock distributions to workers would help to democratize the ownership of America’s vast corporate wealth which is today appallingly undemocratic and unhealthy.”

One of the most notable labor leaders, human rights advocates (and participant in Civil Rights-era protests including the March on Selma in 1965), peace activists (and opponent of the Vietnam War), and anti-nuclear spokesmen of the 20th century was silenced when Walter Philip Reuther, the charismatic and forceful president of the United Auto Workers, along with his wife and a number of friends and colleagues, perished in a tragic plane crash near Pellston, Michigan, 260 miles northwest of Detroit around 9:30 p.m. on May 9, 1970 as the party was enroute to the union’s recreation and educational center at Black Lake, just 25 miles from where the accident happened. Read More

West Virginia Archives and History

The Case of Taylor Strauder

WV Archives & History April 20, 2020April 20, 2020 Leave a Comment 5890 Views

[NOTE: This story was originally published in West Virginia History. Volume 44, Number 3, pp. 193-211. 1983. Re-published courtesy West Virginia Archives and History.]

By Stephen Cresswell

The Case of Taylor Strauder

The Decision in Strauder v. West Virginia, which the United States Supreme Court handed down in March of 1880, was the Court’s first statement upholding black jury rights. Lawyers still cite the case in courts today, and historians of black civil rights discuss the decision in their writings. But completely forgotten is the history of the plaintiff in the case, Taylor Strauder – a former slave, a carpenter by trade, and a citizen of Wheeling, West Virginia. Reconstructing the narrative of a case like Strauder’s depends upon unindexed newspapers of the period, and official documents that are scattered throughout the eastern United States. Since so few full accounts exist of the experience of black criminal defendants in the Gilded Age, the pertinent questions are: Did Strauder receive effective counsel? Did his contact with the American legal system change him in any way? Was Strauder interested in his own case, and knowledgeable, or was he a mere puppet of ambitious attorneys? Read More

Archiving Wheeling Ohio County Public Library Archives

A Crash of Coincidences

Archiving Wheeling March 31, 2020April 1, 2020 2 Comments 5938 Views

-Written by Seán P. Duffy with research by Erin Rothenbuehler

Notre Dame and Wheeling Linked by Tragedy

Eighty-nine years ago today, on March 31, 1931, a Transcontinental & Western Air Fokker F-10 commercial wood-frame airplane crashed in a remote cow pasture near Bazaar, Kansas. All eight people on board, including six passengers and two pilots, were killed.

The tragedy included a series of coincidences that forever united the fates of two very different men.

One was legendary Notre Dame football coach, Knute Rockne, who was killed on his way to Hollywood to participate in the production of the film The Spirit of Notre Dame.

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And the other was the humble son of a “truck gardener” from Wheeling, West Virginia.

Archiving Wheeling Ohio County Public Library Archives WALS Foundation

Breaking the “Grippe” – Wheeling During the 1918 Spanish Influenza Pandemic

Archiving Wheeling March 20, 2020March 25, 2020 11 Comments 17203 Views

-Written and researched by Seán P. Duffy and Erin Rothenbuehler

Schools were closed. So were restaurants, amusement parks, theatres, movie houses, and even the public library. Hotels sat empty. Meetings, parties, and society events were canceled. Sporting events postponed. People were told to stay in their homes. Even church services were canceled.

Sound familiar?

We’ve been here before, more than a century ago, when the “Spanish Influenza,” aka the “Spanish Flu,” aka the “Grippe,” struck Wheeling and the rest of the planet in the fall of 1918. Read More

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.
Read More

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.