Charleston WV – 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.
Dec. 10, 1841: Logan County preacher “Uncle Dyke” Garrett was born on Big Creek. His greatest fame was for converting and baptizing Devil Anse Hatfield in Main Island Creek in 1911.
Dec. 10, 1949: The first class of 20 cadets graduated from the West Virginia State Police Academy in Institute. The State Police purchased property for the academy on a hilltop overlooking Institute in Kanawha County for about $3,200. Construction began in 1948, and the building was completed the next year.
Dec. 11, 1905: “Pare” Lorentz, known as “FDR’s filmmaker,” was born in Clarksburg. In 1933, Lorentz created The Roosevelt Year: 1933, a pictorial review of FDR’s first year in the White House.
Dec. 12, 1931: Attorney George Daugherty, better known as the comic singer, storyteller and songwriter “The Earl of Elkview,” was born upstairs over a Mannington silent movie house.
Dec. 12, 1942: Internationally known jazz pianist and recording artist Bob Thompson was born in Jamaica, Queens, New York. He studied music at West Virginia State College (now University) and is the house pianist for the Mountain Stage radio program.
Dec. 12, 1953: Chuck Yeager set a speed record by flying two-and-a-half times the speed of sound in a Bell X-1A. Yeager, who grew up in Hamlin, had broken the sound barrier six years earlier on Oct. 14, 1947.
Dec. 13, 1861: The Battle of Allegheny Mountain, one of the bloodiest conflicts of the Civil War’s first year, took place in Pocahontas County.
Dec. 13, 1926: Wheeling radio station WWVA-AM began broadcasting. The 50-watt station operated from the basement of John Stroebel’s house for most of its first year. Stroebel was a physics teacher and wireless pioneer.
Dec. 14, 1910: The accidental death of a Chesapeake & Ohio Railway engineer near St. Albans led to the popular train song “Billy Richardson’s Last Ride.”
Dec. 14, 1857: Coal operator Justus Collins was born. He owned mines at Glen Jean and Whipple, and the octagonal Whipple company store survives today as a local landmark.
Dec. 15, 1879: Roman Catholic Bishop John Joseph Swint was born in Pickens. He was responsible for building many religious institutions in the Diocese of Wheeling (now the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston).
Dec. 15, 1953: Blacksmith Jeff Fetty was born in Spencer and later graduated from Spencer High School. In 2012, he was named one of the world’s top metal designers by the International Metal Design Annual—becoming only the sixth American to receive the honor.
Dec. 15, 1967: The Silver Bridge at Point Pleasant collapsed, killing 46 people. The Silver Bridge was opened to traffic on May 19, 1928. The accident led to the passage of legislation for a national bridge inspection and safety program.
Dec. 15, 1972: An explosion at a Weirton Steel coke plant on Browns Island killed 19 men and injured 10 others. It was the worst industrial accident in Weirton’s history.
Dec. 16, 1893: Alexander Martin died at the age of 71 in Greencastle, Indiana. Martin was the first president of the Agricultural College of West Virginia, which was renamed West Virginia University at his recommendation in 1868.
Dec. 16, 1897: The last public hanging in West Virginia occurred in Ripley. John F. Morgan had been convicted of murdering Chloe Greene and two of her three children in the Grass Lick area of Jackson County.
