Wheeling, West Virginia

“ Wheeling is served by the Baltimore & Ohio, the Pennsylvania and the Wheeling & Lake Erie railways, by the belt line of the Wheeling Terminal Company and by interurban electric lines. Wheeling is the largest city in West Virginia, and commercially the most important place on the Ohio river between Pittsburg and Cincinnati. ”

“ Clairsville is an attractive old town. The towns remind one of the old Pennsylvania towns. The houses are built flush with the sidewalk just as one sees them in Pennsylvania. Many of the farmhouses are built of substantial [Pg 213] red brick, with white porches.
About nine miles from Wheeling, West Virginia, we come along a fine road to a most beautiful hilltop view. Prosperous farms and farmhouses are all about, the farmhouses standing high on the green, rounded tops of the hills. The National Road being under repair, we take a detour in order to reach Wheeling. ”

“ Sixty-three miles down the Ohio river, on its left bank, is Wheeling, the largest city in West Virginia. The business streets lie close to the Ohio, and the houses123 extend up the steep slope to the east, while over a high ridge comes the old National Road from the valley of Wheeling creek. Wheeling was the goal of many heavily laden wagons in the days of the pike, and because of the river and many railroads has a large trade to-day. ”

“ Wheeling (39) , largest city in West Virginia, U.S., on the Ohio River, 67 m. SW. of Pittsburg; contains some fine buildings; is a country rich in bituminous coal; has extensive manufactures; is a great railway centre, and carries on an extensive trade.
Whewell, William, professor of the "science of things in general," born at Lancaster, son of a joiner; studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, of which he became successively fellow, tutor, professor, and master ”

“ If the bonds outstanding in 1861 have been taken up, it is only by the issue of new bonds for two thirds and certificates to be paid by West Virginia alone for the other third. Liability for any payments by Virginia is denied, and accountability, if any, is averred to be only on the principle of § 9 of the Wheeling ordinance, to be stated. It is set up further that under the Constitution of West Virginia her equitable proportion can be established by her legislature alone ”

“ Colfax of Indiana, who reviewed the successive steps by which the legality of the Virginia government had been recognized by the President and by all the departments of the executive government. He argued that West Virginia had taken every step regularly and complied with every requirement of the Constitution.
Mr. Crittenden of Kentucky said the Wheeling government could be regarded as the government of the whole State of Virginia "only by a mere fiction. We know the fact to be otherwise." ”

“ New York purchases works of, 130–131. Westmoreland, County of, Pennsylvania, History of the, cited, 5, 191. Weston, William, engineer, 14, 38, 40, 87–88, 92–93. West Port, 12, 78. West Virginia Atlas, 12, 25. West Virginia Historical Magazine, cited, 4, 78. Wheeling Creek, Céloron at mouth of, 9, 42. Wheeling (West Virginia) : Cumberland Road completed to, 10, 54–57, 71–74; taverns at, 160; Baltimore and Ohio Railway reaches, 13, 134; origin of name of, 14, 16. Whilley, William, 6, 200. White, Canvass: favors Allegheny Portage Railway, 13, 196; builds Erie Canal in Mohawk Valley, 14, 132 ”

“ Wheeling (now in West Virginia) cultivated the craft, and offers opportunity. In the Shenandoah Valley, and along what was once the post road, established in 1782, reaching down into North Carolina, many relics of the furniture of the past are found. ”

“ On the 20th of June, the Twelfth took transports for home. They landed us at Baltimore. We took cars there for Wheeling, arriving there the 24th. In a few days the men were paid off and, receiving their discharges, were soon on their way to their several homes to enjoy the peace they had to fight for; and yet as long as they should live, from time to time, fight battles over again. It should be said, however, that before leaving for their homes the boys were given a grand dinner by the generous citizens of Wheeling.
(603) Col. Curtis died August 25th, 1891. ”

“ The loyal determination was rapidly followed by popular organization, an appeal for assistance was made to the government at Washington, who promised them countenance and support, and on the 13th day of May, delegates from twenty-five counties of West Virginia met at Wheeling, to devise such action as would enable them to fully and finally repudiate the treasonable revolt of East Virginia. ”

“ It was held by distinguished jurists that the government at Richmond having placed itself outside of the Constitution by the treasonable act of secession, the only legal legislative body within the State was the one in session at Wheeling, which consented to the organization of the new State, and that the terms of the Constitution contained in the clause above quoted had been met. When Virginia was reconstructed she was admitted on the understanding that West Virginia was a separate State. ”

“ It is said that the first settlers came into West Virginia in 1749, and in 1751 two settlers were sent in by the Green Brier Company to open up the lands, and the first settlement was made near Wheeling. As soon as the outposts were established, others followed in the train of these first venturesome pioneers. In 1761, Mrs. Dennis was taken captive from the James' settlement and taken to the Indian settlement near Chillicothe, Ohio. ”

“ Wheeling, seat of justice for Ohio county, Virginia, is situated on a high bank of the river Ohio, ninety-five miles below Pittsburgh. It is surrounded by bold and steep hills abounding in coal. The great national road from Baltimore strikes the river at this place. Its position possesses many advantages, and its growth of late years has been very rapid. Wheeling fort, built at an early period of the revolution, was the origin of the settlement. It is a constant resort for travellers, and promises to be a place of much importance. ”

“ A new capitol is in course of erection. There is an extensive fair ground, with a trotting course. Wheeling has an important trade by way of the river and the Baltimore and Ohio railroad and its connecting lines. ”

“ A good example of noble effort in behalf of the Negro was given, and the spirit with which workers should address themselves to the task was furnished by the founders and graduates of Storer College, but they were not supported by public sentiment among the whites of that section. Glancing at the map of West Virginia, one can readily see that the Eastern Panhandle is geographically a part of Maryland and Virginia, states which have not as yet been converted to the wisdom of making appropriations to Negro education equally as large as those providing for the education of the whites. ”

“ Well, take my advice and don't sell to the first man that asks you, even if he comes from the South Midland. I've just heard that they've been tapping those undeveloped coal fields at Wyanoke, and I shouldn't be surprised if they turned out, after all, to be the richest in West Virginia. ”

“ The third period in the early education of Negroes in West Virginia was reached when these pioneer teachers had wrought well enough to enable the Negroes to help themselves. Because of the rapid development of this industrial State and the consequent influx of Negroes from other commonwealths, however, the number of Negro teachers produced on the ground proved inadequate to the demand for instructors among the increasing and expanding Negro population of West Virginia. There went out to the other States the call for help, which was answered largely by workers from Virginia, Maryland, and Ohio. ”

“ It was not till I had leisure for more minute observation that I felt aware of the influence of slavery upon the owners of slaves; when I did, I confess I could not but think that the citizens of the United States had contrived, by their political alchymy, to extract all that was most noxious both in democracy and in slavery, and had poured the strange mixture through every vein of the moral organization of their country.
Wheeling is the state of Virginia, and appears to be a flourishing town. ”

“ Union, in Monroe County, was not unlike the other large settlements of this section having considerable Negro population. There was at times even as early as 1855 a healthy sentiment in favor of the improvement of the few slaves there, and this was not lost after the Civil War had ended. So general was the interest in behalf of the Negroes that this proved to be a most favorable community. Union was one of the first towns in that section to establish a public school for Negroes. At first there was some difficulty in having well prepared Negro teachers in the county itself ”

“ IV. The traveller crossing the continent in a Pullman car is convinced that West Virginia is one continuous mountain. He has no desire to do other than to hurry past with all the rapidity of which the iron horse is capable. He can have no idea that in its central portion is a stretch of rolling blue-grass country, as fertile and as valuable as the stock-farm lands of Kentucky; with a civilization, too, distinctly its own, and not to be met with in any other country of the world. ”

“ The general shape is that of an oval, 210 miles long from southwest to northeast and 125 miles wide, but two narrow tongues extend northward between Pennsylvania and Ohio and northeastward between Virginia and Maryland, each of them being known as ‘panhandles.’ The area of the State is 24,780 square miles, making it thirty-seventh in size among the States.
Topography. The surface of West Virginia is, as a whole, uneven, and in the east mountainous. The main range of the Alleghanies crosses the northeastern section, and farther south forms the State boundary toward Virginia. ”

“ A commodious building of brick and sandstone, unchristened as to style of architecture, has been erected for the home of the law-makers; and henceforth the city which started around the little log fort built in 1786 by George Glendermon to afford protection against Indians will be the seat of government for the great unfenced State of West Virginia. Its business enterprise and thrift, its excellent geographical and commercial position, its healthiness notwithstanding its bad drainage, or rather no drainage, have induced a growth almost phenomenal. ”

“ The West Virginia Colored Orphans' Home near Huntington is not under state control, but has received appropriations from the legislature. In 1908 a law was enacted for establishing the West Virginia Children's Home to be under the control of the Humane Society.
Education.—Each magisterial district constitutes a school district and there are also a few independent school districts. For each school district there is a board of education consisting of a president and two commissioners, each elected for a term of four years, one commissioner every two years. ”

“ In addition to mining areas producing more soft coal than any other state, plus our varied manufactures, we have fertile valleys and slopes from which ... an increasing harvest is reaped. The State’s diversity of activity should, in the fullness of time, make West Virginia the most progressive, the most socially balanced, and therefore the most truly civilized State in the Union. ”

“ The soils are all formed from local disintegration of the rocks. In the northeast they are sandy and of little fertility, but many of the mountains are covered to their summits with a fertile clayey soil, and the Ohio Valley in the west has a soil formed chiefly from limestone, which gives it great fertility. West Virginia is one of the most typical sections of the Appalachian floral region. ”

“ We catch sight for a moment, through a cloud crevasse, of Ceredo, the last town in West Virginia—a small saw-milling community stuck upon the edge of the clay cliff, with the broad level bottom stretching out behind like a prairie. A giant railway bridge here spans the Ohio—a weird, impressive thing, as we sweep under it in the swirling current, and crane our necks to see the great stone piers lose themselves in the cloud. ”

“ In determining the relative obligations of the National Government and of the government of West Virginia, concerning the debt, it is of the first importance to remember that the new State was not primarily organized and admitted to the Union for the benefit of her own people, but in far larger degree for the benefit of the people of the whole Union. The organic law would not have been strained, legal fictions would not have been invented, contradictory theories would not have been indulged, if a great national interest had not demanded the creation of West Virginia. ”

“ How such harrowing experiences try the very soul of the over-worked, half-paid, care-worn man of God, who must spend all his time and strength away from home in some obscure field! They test the material that enters into his composition. To put the Cross and sinful souls before one’s own family requires great faith—faith in the Redeemer, faith in his church, and faith in the winning, victorious power of the gospel; and this is what every itinerant in West Virginia had to have. ”

“ Nowhere in the history of our country can be found more heroic or thrilling incidents than in the story of those brave men and women who founded the settlement of Wheeling in the Colony of Virginia. The recital of what Elizabeth Zane did is in itself as heroic a story as can be imagined. The wondrous bravery displayed by Major McCulloch and his gallant comrades, the sufferings of the colonists and their sacrifice of blood and life, stir the blood of old as well as young readers.
The Capture of the Laughing Mary. A Story of Three New York Boys in 1776. By James Otis. ”