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.
Aug. 7, 1864: In what became known as the Battle of Moorefield, Union troops under Gen. William W. Averell attacked the headquarters of Gen. Bradley Johnson. The Confederates were routed and fled south into the town; the Union captured 500 men and 400 horses.
Aug. 7, 1877: West Virginia voters chose Charleston as the state capital over Clarksburg and Martinsburg.
Aug. 7, 1893: Parsons became the county seat of Tucker County. Parsons was named for Ward Parsons, a prominent resident and the largest landholder.
Aug. 8, 1915: Businessman Alex Schoenbaum was born in Richmond, Va. After settling in Charleston in 1943, he went into the restaurant business. His restaurants were named Shoney’s when Schoenbaum’s nickname was selected in an employee contest.
Aug. 9, 1916: A storm front from the northwest dumped nearly six inches of rain in less than five hours on the headwaters of Cabin Creek in eastern Kanawha County; 71 people died, and 900 homes were destroyed in the flood.
Aug. 9, 1927: Matthew Reese was born in Huntington. During the 1960 presidential Democratic primary, he helped organize all 55 counties and recruited thousands of campaign volunteers for John F. Kennedy. JFK’s victory forged Reese’s national political consulting career, working on more than 450 campaigns.
Aug. 9, 1954: Don Chafin died in Huntington. As sheriff of Logan County, Chafin was a bitter foe of union organizers and, with financial support from coal companies, used his many deputies to keep labor organizers out of the county. He most famously led the anti-union forces at the 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain.
Aug. 10, 1913: Sam Shaw was the beloved third-generation editor of the Moundsville Daily Echo from 1951 until his death in 1995. His letters home during World War II earned him the Ernie Pyle Award. He was also a tinkerer, long-distance runner, hiker, musician, photographer, linguist, and bird watcher.
Aug. 10, 1920: General Frank Kendall “Pete” Everest Jr. was born in Fairmont. Everest was a military aviator and a pioneer in U.S. rocket plane flying. In 1956, he flew the X-2 at Mach 3, exceeding 1,900 miles per hour and breaking the record of Chuck Yeager, his rival and close contemporary.
Aug. 11, 1844: Emanuel Willis Wilson was born at Harpers Ferry. He served as the seventh governor of West Virginia from 1885 to 1890.
Aug. 11, 1910: Funeral director Elizabeth Harden Gilmore was born in Charleston. In 1958, she was an original organizer of West Virginia’s first Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) chapter and, on her 48th birthday, began leading demonstrations that desegregated Charleston businesses.
Aug. 11, 1974: Singer Landau Eugene Murphy Jr. was born in Logan. In 2011, he won the nationally televised America’s Got Talent competition, performing standards. His win offered him a chance to perform at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.
Aug. 11, 1994: The Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge became the 500th refuge in the National Wildlife Refuge system. It is one of the largest and most diverse freshwater wetland areas in central and southern Appalachia.
Aug. 12, 1937: Author Walter Dean Myers was born in Martinsburg. In January 2012, Myers was named the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature by the Library of Congress. He died in 2014.
Aug. 12, 1997: The Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel strike ended when 79 percent of the workers approved a new contract. The 10-month walkout was the longest steel manufacturing strike on record when it concluded.
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.
