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.
July 29, 1873: Malcolm Malachi “Mack” Day was born. As sheriff of McDowell County, he claimed that God had called him to enforce Prohibition, even arresting an uncle and his own son.
July 29, 1900: Musician Don Redman was born in Piedmont, Mineral County, and then graduated from Storer College in Harpers Ferry. He was a multi-instrumentalist whose innovative arrangements for jazz greats laid the foundation for the big band era.
July 29, 1915: Camp Good Luck, the world’s first 4-H encampment, began at Elkwater, Randolph County.
July 29, 1918: Novelist Mary Lee Settle was born in Charleston. Her experiences in West Virginia, World War II and life abroad shaped her writing, including the National Book Award-winning Blood Tie. She is best known for the Beulah Quintet, a five-novel series tracing four centuries of West Virginia history.
July 30, 1973: The Frederick Hotel in downtown Huntington closed to transient trade. After it was built in 1905, it was touted as the most elegant hotel between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.
July 31, 1932: Actor Theodore Crawford “Ted” Cassidy was born in Pittsburgh but was raised in Philippi. He was best known for his role as Lurch on The Addams Family.
Aug. 1, 1866: The earliest recorded match game of baseball in West Virginia history was played in Wheeling, with the home team losing 45-12 to a club from Washington, Pennsylvania.
Aug. 1, 1921: Baldwin-Felts detectives shot and killed Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers as they approached the McDowell County Courthouse in Welch. As Matewan’s police chief, Hatfield had assisted the United Mine Workers’ campaign to organize Tug Fork miners. The assassinations set in motion an armed miners’ march ending with the Battle of Blair Mountain.
Aug. 1, 1940: Justice Franklin Cleckley was born in Huntington. In 1994, he became the first Black justice to serve on the West Virginia Supreme Court. The Supreme Court once referred to Cleckley’s handbooks on evidence and criminal procedure as “the bible for West Virginia’s judges and attorneys.”
Aug. 2, 2009: Golfers Sam Snead and Bill Campbell became the first two inductees into the West Virginia Golf Hall of Fame.
Aug. 3, 1897: Fire destroyed much of downtown Lewisburg. The town rebuilt and evolved into a hub for one of the state’s major farming regions and a center for education and the arts.
Aug. 3, 1907: Harley Orrin Staggers Sr. was born in Keyser. Staggers served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 32 years.
Aug. 4, 1824: John Jay Jackson Jr. was born near Parkersburg. Jackson was a prominent judge who became notorious among those trying to organize labor unions in West Virginia. He blocked an effort by Mother Jones and United Mine Workers leaders to organize the miners of northern West Virginia.
Aug. 4, 1897: Musician William Jennings “Billy” Cox was born near Charleston. Cox, known as the “Dixie Songbird,” ranked as one of West Virginia’s premier country music vocalists and songwriters during the 1930s.
Aug. 4, 1930: Lewisburg set the record for the state’s hottest temperature ever: 112. Six years later, Martinsburg would tie it.
e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia is a project of the West Virginia Humanities Council. For more information contact the West Virginia Humanities Council, 1310 Kanawha Blvd. E., Charleston, WV 25301; (304) 346-8500; or visit e-WV at www.wvencyclopedia.org.
