Search Results

• Horatio Gates

  … of West Virginia during the period of his service as an American officer in the "Revolutionary War":http://www. … , and a year later he became major general. Under his command, American troops defeated General Burgoyne at Saratoga in October 1777. …

• Ann Kathryn Flagg

  … .org/articles/1106) in 1945. She became a teacher of high school drama in Virginia and then toured with the American Negro Repertory Players. Later, she taught at Dunbar High School in Fairmont. In 1952, Flagg resigned her teaching position to become …

• Abolitionism

  From the 1830s through the "Civil War":http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/1193, abolitionists worked to emancipate all slaves within the United States. During the religious movement known as the Second Great Awakening, evangelical …

• Nat Reese

  Blues musician Nathaniel H. ‘‘Nat’’ Reese (March 4, 1924-June 8, 2012) was born in Salem, Virginia. When he was four, Reese’s family moved to Itmann, Wyoming County, where coal jobs were plentiful. In 1935, the family moved to Princeton where Reese heard …

• Religious Broadcasting

  As they developed, the mass media of radio and television provided communication for religious as well as secular messages, partly displacing the itinerant preachers who once traveled the roads and trails of West Virginia to evangelize. The tradition …

• Henry Ruffner

  Pamphleteer Henry Ruffner (January 16, 1790-December 17, 1861) was born in Luray, Virginia. He attended Lewisburg Academy (1809–12) and Washington College (1812–13), now Washington and Lee University. After licensure in 1815 with the Lexington Presbytery, …

• Hammons Family

  … from ancient British ballads through hundreds of American ballads and songs. All their music reflects a … Appalachian elements of Northern European, African-American, and possibly American Indian origin. Their storytelling is equally striking, featuring a …

• St. John’s Chapel

  St. John’s Chapel, one of the oldest Roman Catholic churches in West Virginia, is located near the eastern boundary of "Monroe County":https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/2024 on State Route 3 adjacent to the historic "Sweet Springs …

• Sampson Sanders

  Plantation owner Sampson Sanders was born in 1786 to William and Martha Green Sanders of Loudoun County, Virginia. Sampson’s parents moved the family across the frontier through North Carolina and Tennessee before settling in what is now "Cabell …

• Harpers Ferry

  Harpers Ferry, located at the confluence of the "Potomac":https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/1904 and "Shenandoah":https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/388 rivers, is the easternmost place in West Virginia and at 247 feet the …

• Arbuckle’s Fort

  … quot;Greenbrier County":http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/2168, one of many forts that helped white and African-American settlers to colonize Western Virginia. The fort stood on the property of John Keeney on a rise …

• Harpers Ferry National Historical Park

  Harpers Ferry National Historical Park commemorates important events and issues related to "John Brown":http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/668, the "Civil War":http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/1193, and "Storer College& …

• Shape-Note Singing

  … , conducted singing schools across the state for more than 40 years, while Ruth Boggs perpetuated the tradition among African-Americans as director of the New Era District Number Two Shape-Note Choir in Beckley.

• George W. Atkinson

  George Wesley Atkinson (June 29, 1845-April 4, 1925) was the tenth governor of West Virginia. He was born in Charleston. His ancestors from Cumberland County, England, and County Armagh, Ireland, had settled in Virginia by 1750 and on the Ohio River by …

• Banjo

  Scholars have suggested that West Virginia’s banjo tradition arrived with Black railroad workers, who left their mark in legend and in songs such as "_John Henry_":http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/361, "_John Hardy_":http://www. …

• Historic Preservation

  … , landmark legislation that established a national program to preserve, promote, and protect historic properties. Charleston’s historic African-American neighborhood, the Triangle District, was lost during this period to …

• Shepherd University

  … the summer of 1954, the college admitted African-American students for the first time. … the four-week summer "Contemporary American Theater Festival":https://www. … .org/articles/1574, which produces new American plays in rotating repertory. Many of …

• Berkeley County

  Berkeley County is located in the "Eastern Panhandle":http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/1991. Berkeley borders Maryland to the north and Virginia to the south, with Jefferson and Morgan counties on the east and west. Its major streams are …

• Chu Berry

  Musician Leon ‘‘Chu’’ Berry (September 13, 1910-October 30, 1941) was born in "Wheeling":http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/1168. He was one of the most highly regarded saxophonists of the Swing Era, ranking alongside Coleman Hawkins and …

• William Cooper Howells

  … again launching papers of his own, in which he supported the abolition of slavery and equality for African-Americans. Howells left Wheeling in 1834 and became active in Ohio politics. His early advocacy of the …

• Bluefield

  Bluefield, incorporated in 1889, embodied the rapid growth of the southern West Virginia ‘‘smokeless’’ coalfields. Located in a broad valley between the headwaters of the "Bluestone":http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/577 and "East" …

• State Police

  … the first director. Department headquarters relocated from the capitol building to new facilities in 1970. The first African-American trooper enlisted July 10, 1967, and resigned May 15, 1969. On May 16, 1977, the …

• Strauder v. West Virginia

  _Strauder v. West Virginia_ was the first decision of the U.S. Supreme Court to use the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution to invalidate a state law. In doing so, the 1879 decision gave meaning to the post-Civil War …

• Arthur Ingraham Boreman

  Arthur Ingraham (also spelled ‘‘Ingram’’) Boreman (July 24, 1823-April 19, 1896) was West Virginia’s first governor. He was was born in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, and moved with his family to "Middlebourne":http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/ …

• Alexander Robinson Boteler

  U.S. and Confederate Congressman Alexander Robinson Boteler (May 16, 1815-May 8, 1892) was born in "Shepherdstown":http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/2280. He was a farmer and a businessman, owning a hydraulic cement plant on the Potomac …