The weather report in the upper left corner on the front page of the Wheeling News-Register was a little concerning, but certainly not dire. Not yet.
“HOURS OF RAIN
This city has had a five hour rain starting at eleven o’clock last night with a pourdown [sic] for several hours. Streets were given a much needed washing.”
The Collection of Brother Cy Williams of Doc Williams & the Border Riders
By Sean Duffy, with Salli J. Barach
Note: Thanks to his niece Salli J. Barach, the Ohio County Public Library recently acquired a collection of artifacts once belonging to Cy Williams, fiddle player for the band, “Doc Williams & the Border Riders.” The artifacts are currently on display in the main exhibit area at the Library. Read Salli’s statement.
“Cy had a unique, smooth sound on the fiddle and, as brothers, we had a close harmony . . . As I look back, I was truly blessed to have him as part of my show.” – Doc Williams
Cy Williams with his sweet-voiced fiddle, Ca 1939. Photo by George Kossuth.
Milo Smik (1918-2006) was born July 31, 1918 to Slovak immigrant parents, Andrew and Susie Smik, in Cowansville, PA, north of Pittsburgh. Young Milo learned to play the fiddle from his coal miner father, who also played the Mandolin back in Prague. Read More
Pvt. James M. Jacobs & The Aliceville WWII POW Camp
German POWs on American Soil
During the course of the Second World war, more than 400,000 German POWs were interned in 511 prisoner of war camps in the U.S. The largest, Camp Aliceville in Alabama, housed more than 6,100 POWs and employed more than 1,000 American military and civilian personnel. Aliceville is the primary setting for our story, thanks to a remarkable archival collection recently shared with the Ohio County Public Library. Read More
In recent years, Wheeling has joined the national celebration of Juneteenth, with the 2022 version featuring events at the Ohio County Public Library, YWCA, Market Plaza, and Heritage Port. See details.
Juneteenth is a celebration of the liberation of Texas slaves in execution of President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, which applied only to slaves held in states in rebellion—that is, Confederate states. On June 19, 1865, roughly 2,000 Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas and announced that “the more than 250,000 enslaved black people in the state, were free by executive decree. This day came to be known as ‘Juneteenth,’ by the newly freed people in Texas.” Source.
Juneteenth was made a federal holiday on June 19, 2021. Wheeling had already begun marking the day a few years prior.
But historically, the African American population in the Wheeling area had celebrated “Emancipation Day,” despite the fact that no slaves were freed in West Virginia (which had joined the Union in 1863), by Lincoln’s executive order. The date chosen (probably in hopes of fairer weather) was actually that of the so-called preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, announced on September 22, 1862. The official order would come on January 1, 1863. Read More
During the First World War, convoys of U.S. Army trucks, or “liberty truck” trains, rumbled over century-old stagecoach tracks down the National Road, a primary channel for shipping supplies for the war effort. And a storied old stagecoach watering hole once known as the “Four Mile House” and later “Stamm Inn,” located in the Pleasant Valley area of the Old Pike in Wheeling became, toward the end of the war, a little oasis of comfort and cheer– a sweet reminder of home — for those truck driving soldiers. Read More
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.
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.
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?”
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!!”
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!!
“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.
Civil War expert and legendary battlefield guide Ed Bearss made his third visit to Wheeling on Saturday August 6 for a fundraiser in support of moving the Soldiers and Sailors Monument from Wheeling Park back downtown to stand beside West Virginia Independence Hall. A battle wounded WWII US Marine veteran, Mr. Bearss took a moment to visit the monument on a tour of Wheeling sites. He later attended a fundraiser dinner, then spoke at the Hall. The events were organized and hosted by the West Virginia Independence Hall Foundation with financial support from Wheeling Heritage. Those interested in making a donation may contact Wheeling Heritage at 304-232-3087.
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…”
–fromThe 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.
An Archiving Wheeling Partnership with Weelunk. For more great Wheeling stories visitwww.weelunk.com.
Most history lovers are familiar with Ken Burns’ epic documentaries, including The Dustbowl and Baseball. His abilities to make still photos and two-dimensional objects come alive are world renowned. Now, even Luddites can achieve similar, engaging effects with archival materials using a much shorter medium called digital storytelling.
Started as a grassroots movement to help people who might otherwise go unheard tell and share their stories, digital storytelling has become a vehicle for change around the world. To create a digital story, the storyteller needs a computer, iPad, or Smartphone, free digital storytelling software, a microphone, and digital images. The aim is to write a script that can be told in about three to five minutes. Once created, the digital story can be shared on the Internet, especially through social media, which broadens the audience reach exponentially.
Through a partnership with the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, my Honors students at California University of Pennsylvania have spent the last three years creating digital stories with archival materials from historical societies throughout western Pennsylvania. This year, we are working in my home state of West Virginia. Read More
