This Week in W.Va. History
Special to the News Tribune
CHARLESTON – The following events happened on these dates in West Virginia history. To read more, go to e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia at www.wvencyclopedia.org.
May 9, 1800: Abolitionist John Brown was born in Torrington, Connecticut. His 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry galvanized the nation, further alienating the North and South.
May 9, 1843: Confederate spy ‘‘Belle’’ Boyd was born in Martinsburg. On July 4, 1861, Belle shot a Yankee soldier and started her spy career.
May 9, 1863: Confederate raiders arrived at Burning Springs, Wirt County. There they set fire to 150,000 barrels of oil, oil tanks, engines for pumping, engine houses, wagons, and oil-laden boats.
Major Civil Rights Movements in All 50 States
By Andrew Lisa, Stacker News
On 2/6/21 at 10:00 AM EST
A land of contradictions from the outset, the United States was founded by slave owners who spoke passionately and eloquently about liberty, freedom and justice for all. In the beginning, all was limited to men of European ancestry who were wealthy enough to own land. The Constitution s protections did not apply to most of the people living in America for most of America s history at least not in full.
Women about 50 percent of the population were not included in the country s concept of all, likewise millions of slaves and for a long time, their offspring. The descendants of the original inhabitants of the United States were commonly excluded from the promise of America, as were many immigrants, ethnic groups, and religious minorities.
Governor Bob Wise
Governor William G. Conley
Comedian Soupy Sales was born Milton Supman on Jan. 8, 1926. He s pictured here in Lunch with Soupy in 1960.
Louise McNeill Pease was born on the family farm in Pocahontas County on Jan. 9, 1911. She was West Virginia Poet Laureate.
On Jan. 9, 2014, hazardous chemicals were discovered leaking into the Elk River, contaminating the water supply for a nine-county region.
Foo Conner photo
Judge Elizabeth Virginia Hallanan, West Virginia s first federal court judge, was born in Charleston on Jan. 10, 1925.
Minnie Buckingham Harper, the first African-American woman to serve as a member of a state legislative body in the country, was appointed to fill the unexpired term of her husband, E. Howard Harper on Jan. 10, 1928.