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West Virginia History
We have tried to provide links to relevant and interesting historical information related to the state of West Virginia. If you have suggestions for other information, please contact the webmaster.
West Virginia Statehood
From the formation of the earliest communities, a sectionalism developed
between western and eastern Virginia. The Virginia State Constitution,
adopted in 1776, granted voting rights only to white males owning at least
25 acres of improved or 50 acres of unimproved land. This reflected the
interest of eastern Virginia, discriminating against the emerging class
of small land owners in western Virginia. -READ
MORE-
West Virginia and the Civil War
West Virginia became the 35th state of the Union on June 20, 1863. Created
in the midst of the Civil War, West Virginia provided to the Union Army
31,872 regular army troops, 133 sailors and marines, and 196 United States
Colored Troops, during that terrible conflict of 1861-1865. It is also
estimated that somewhere between 16,000 and 20,000 men served in the Confederate
Army in this war of "brother versus brother." -READ
MORE-
John Brown's Raid
In the winter of 1857-58, John Brown, who had been a leader in and a promoter
of lawlessness during the troubles in Kansas--undertaken, as he himself
confessed, for the purpose of inflaming the public mind on the subject
of slavery, that he might perfect organizations to bring about servile
insurrections in the slave States----collected a number of young men in
that territory, including several of his sons, and, with the use of funds
and arms that had been furnished for his Kansas operations, placed these
men under military instruction, by one of their number, at Springdale,
in Iowa.
-READ
MORE-
USS West Virginia
The hull of the second West Virginia (Battleship No. 48 to the Navy and
Hull 211 to the builders) was laid down on April 12, 1920 by the Newport
News Shipbuilding and Drydock Co. of Newport News, Va. The Navy reclassified
to BB-48 on July 17, 1920. At the time of launch on November 19, 1921,
the ship was nearly 65 percent complete. The ship was sponsored by Miss
Alice Wright Mann of Mercer County, daughter of millionaire coalmine operator
Isaac T. Mann, a prominent West Virginian. At noon on December 1, 1923,
the USS West Virginia was commissioned under command of Capt. Thomas J.
Senn. This was the last American Battleship to be launched prior to the
restrictions imposed by the 1922 Washington Conference on Limitation of
Naval Armament. -READ
MORE-
Hatfields and McCoys
It is the stuff of legend: the story of two noble, strong-willed families
locked in the throes of mortal combat, bound by personal honor to avenge
the smallest of grievances, finally forsaking the pursuit of justice for
the call of vengeance. -READ
MORE-
The Battle of Matewan
A young John L. Lewis had just taken office
as President of the United Mine Workers of America when, in January of
1920, he announced the campaign in Bluefield, West Virginia: The UMWA
would organize coal miners in the southern Appalachians. Lewis knew coal
operators would resist to the bitter end, but that didn't matter. The
miners wanted to organize; the UMWA had to have their memberships; even
coal operators from the midwest favored the drive which might reduce the
competitive edge the Southern Appalachian coal mines enjoyed with non-union
mines.
-READ MORE-
Buffalo Creek Disaster
Twenty-five years ago, one of the deadliest floods in U.S. history occurred
in southern West Virginia's Buffalo Creek hollow. Negligent strip mining
and heavy rain produced a raging flood. In a matter of minutes, 118 were
dead and over 4,000 people were left homeless. Seven were never found.
-READ
MORE-
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