On Tuesday, June 7, 2016, Brooks F. McCabe Jr. will present “History of Charleston, WV, as Lived by Four Families” in the Archives and History Library of the Culture Center in Charleston. The program will begin at 6:00 p.m. and is free and open to the public.
McCabe will present Charleston’s story though a history of four families—Smith, Dickinson, Hale, and James—who helped to transform Charleston from an isolated settlement into a city. Benjamin Harrison Smith, son-in-law of early salt manufacturer Isaac Noyes, would establish a family of entrepreneurs that are still active in Charleston today. Joined with them is the Dickinson family, major players in the economic development of Charleston since the earliest days of the salt industry. Dr. John P. Hale, grandson of Mary Ingles, whose experience in the Great Kanawha Valley of the mid-1700s is known through both historical and fictional accounts, would be a major player through Charleston’s formative years in the last half of the nineteenth century. Rev. Francis James arrived shortly after the Civil War and his son, C. H. James, would ultimately become one of the key business leaders in the Kanawha Valley. C. H. James & Sons’ effort to create a business of lasting value illustrates the difficulties of minority businesses in challenging economic times.
These four families did much to create the Charleston of today. Through their sweat and toil, Charleston developed and for a time was a major player on the national scene. The growth, maturity and relative decline of Charleston over this 250-year history is a testament to the people who made it happen. The four families provide an interesting and useful look at how cities evolve. The natural environment remains the backdrop in which these entrepreneurs molded what would become a significant small city in Central Appalachia. As McCabe will show, they were not part of an isolated colonial economy. Rather, they were active participants in a regional economy which at times played on the national stage.
Brooks McCabe holds both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from the University of Vermont, and received a doctorate in education administration from West Virginia University. He has been in the real estate brokerage and development business for more than thirty years and at present is the managing member and broker of West Virginia Commercial, LLC. From 1998 to 2014, he served in the West Virginia Senate, and he was chair of the Economic Development Committee for eight of those years. While in the Senate, McCabe played a leadership role in legislation relating to workers compensation, medical malpractice and insurance, and comprehensive community and regional planning. In 2014, he was appointed to the Public Service Commission of West Virginia by Governor Earl Ray Tomblin.
McCabe has received several professional honors and has served on numerous boards. He currently is a member of the West Virginia Roundtable, the Nature Conservancy WV Board of Trustees, and the visiting committee for WVU’s library and history department. He is the author of several articles on history topics, including “Charles Ward and the ‘James Rumsey’ Regional Innovation in the Steam Technology on the Western Rivers” (West Virginia History, 1978), “Ward Engineering Works” (The West Virginia Encyclopedia, 2006) and “Benjamin Harrison Smith, Land Titles and the West Virginia Constitution” (West Virginia History, A Journal of Regional Studies, 2012).
Participants may park behind the Culture Center after 5:00 p.m. on June 7 and enter the building at the back loading dock area. There also is limited handicapped parking available in the new bus turnaround.
