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 17, 1861: The Battle of Scary Creek took place in Putnam County. It was one of the earliest battles of the war and one of the first Confederate victories.
July 17, 1914: Singer Eleanor Steber was born in Wheeling. She made her debut with the Metropolitan Opera in 1940.
July 17, 1921: Marcenia “Toni” Stone was born in Bluefield. She would become the first woman to play professional baseball for a previously all-male team. In 1953, she joined the Indianapolis Clowns of the old Negro American League, replacing the team’s second baseman, Hank Aaron, who had just joined the National League’s Milwaukee Braves.
July 17, 1922: The Cliftonville Mine Battle took place east of Wellsburg, Brooke County. The gun battle between striking miners and sheriff’s forces left at least nine people dead.
July 18, 1776: Methodist bishop Francis Asbury first set foot in present West Virginia outside of Berkeley Springs. He worked extensively in what is now the Eastern Panhandle, preaching and lecturing almost every day, before continuing farther into western Virginia.
July 18, 1893: Spencer State Hospital opened. With its connected brick buildings, a quarter-mile in length, the hospital was sometimes referred to as the longest continuous brick building in America. It remained in operation until June 1989.
July 19, 1850: Pope Pius IX established the Diocese of Wheeling, naming Richard V. Whelan as its first bishop.
July 19, 1863: A Confederate raid led by Gen. John Morgan came to an end on Buffington Island, near Ravenswood. The Confederates were overtaken by federal troops, local militia and three U.S. Navy gunboats.
July 19, 1877: Federal troops arrived in Martinsburg, where the Railroad Strike of 1877 had begun days earlier. The troops ended the violence in Martinsburg, but the deadly strike continued across the country into September. It was the first work stoppage in U.S. history to spread nationally.
July 19, 1946: Author Stephen Coonts was born in Morgantown. After graduating from West Virginia University and serving in the navy during the Vietnam War, Coonts became a best-selling action and adventure novelist with the 1986 publication of Flight of the Intruder.
July 19, 1952: Novelist Jayne Anne Phillips was born in Buckhannon. After graduating from West Virginia University, her short stories and novels began receiving wide recognition. In 2024, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her 2023 novel Night Watch, about a mother and daughter in West Virginia after the Civil War.
July 20, 2010: Carte Goodwin became the nation’s youngest sitting senator. Goodwin was appointed to fill Robert C. Byrd’s seat in the U.S. Senate following Byrd’s death.
July 21, 1924: Don Knotts was born in Morgantown. The comedy legend will be forever remembered for portraying Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show.
July 22, 1859: Athlete “Jack” Glasscock was born in Wheeling. Glasscock, who played bare-handed, was one of baseball’s premier shortstops of the 19th century.
July 22, 1937: Musician Tommy Thompson was born in St. Albans, Kanawha County. Through his group, the Red Clay Ramblers, and a career that spanned four decades, Thompson played a major role in spreading the popularity of old-time music.
July 23, 1863: Financier and industrialist Isaac Thomas Mann was born in Greenbrier County. As president of the Bank of Bramwell and the Pocahontas Fuel Company for three decades, “Ike” Mann held vast holdings in coal, timber and especially financial institutions.
July 23, 1919: Novelist Davis Grubb was born in Moundsville. His renown came with his first novel, The Night of the Hunter (1953), a gripping suspense story adapted into a classic film in 1955 and for TV in 1991.
