Emanuel Willis Wilson

West Virginia had 40,000 farms in 8.6 million acres

Split between the Northern and Southern Baptists mended

Belle Boyd married again to John Swainston

Second governor of West Virginia, Daniel D.T. Farnsworh lived in Buckhannon

Johnson Newlon Camden entered the refining business at Parkersburg

Coke replaced anthracite as the leading blast furnace fuel in America

Peter G. Van Winkle term as West Virginia's first U.S. senator ended

Fairmont State Regency normal was renamed the Fairmont Branch Normal (Fairmont State University)

Trinity Church in Huntington held its first services at Cabell County Courthouse

West Virginia passed its first game laws

The survival of the White Sulphur Springs resort was ensured by the arrival of the C&O Railway

Cooper's Mill was built in Summers County

Helvetia was settled by German-speaking Swiss immigrants

George Imboden married Angi M. Dickinson

The Kanawha Valley Bank built a two-story bank at the intersection of Kanawha Blvd and Capitol St in Charleston

James Kay migrated to America

Another boundary shift occurred in Lincoln County

Stogie makers were among the first trades in Wheeling to unionize

The C&O railway had begun construction in Milton

Johnson Newlon Camden established one of the country's first oil refineries in Parkersburg.

George Peterkin was ordained as an Episcopal priest.

A Chesapeake & Ohio Railway branch was completed into Greenbrier County

An arsonist burned the Preston County courthouse destroying most of the county records from 1818-69

Spring Hill Cemetery was dedicated as the Charleston municipal cemetery

Edward W. Stifel Sr. was born

The Laurel Fork & Sand Hill Railroad was constructed in Volcano

The first West Virginia Historical Society began

The West Virginia Press Association was formed

Susan Dew married James Hoff

Stephen Elkins was elected to represent New Mexico Territory in Congress

Aretas Fleming won election to the House of Delegates

John Kenna was elected Kanawha County prosecuting attorney

Henry Mathews was elected attorney general of West Virginia

W. H. H. Flick elected prosecuting attorney for Pendleton and Grant counties

Women were first admitted as students to Bethany College on a provisional basis

Bruen agents reappeared in the Jackson County area accompanied by U.S. Deputy Marshal Nathan Cunningham

Legislature put place of state capital to vote of people

Legislature created a Fish Commission and first game and warden appointments

Caroline Dane "Danske" Bedinger married A.B. Dandridge

Samuel Dixon emigrated to Fayette County

Stephen Elkins and Henry Gassaway Davis became partners in developing land in West Virginia

A major flood on the Greenbrier River damaged early settlements

Serious flood hit Hardy County

Frank Hereford was elected by the state legislature to fill the unexpired U.S. Senate term of Allen Taylor Caperton

The Knights of Labor established a local organization at Paden City

Voters chose Charleston over Clarksburg and Martinsburg as the permanent seat of government

The Ohio Valley Pottery ceased making ironstone china

A cadet battalion was formed at Linsly School

The normal schools established a three-year term beyond elementary grades

The Jackson Democrat became the Jackson Herald

The first annual Jackson County Fair was held in Ripley

I.C. White returned to WVU to teach geology

Thomas Anshutz painted The Ironworkers' Noontime

Main building of the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum at Weston was completed

Thomas Anshutz painted Ironworkers' Noontime

Raleigh County Index established by Edwin Prince

Joseph Beury and brothers began to buy tracts of coal land

Preston County Brookside Resort was built

Jimmy D. Johnson established water-powered mill at Brush Creek Falls

William Edwin Chilton passed the bar

The International Sunday School Association was organized in West Virginia

U.S Census published the first statistical compilation on West Virginia forests

Two-thirds of West Virginia still covered by old forest

Fairmont State had more students than any normal school

Post No. 1 of Guard Army of the Republic was organized in Martinsburg

Devil Anse Hatfield led the armed party rescuing Johnse Hatfield from the brothers of Rose Anna McCoy

Hinton was incorporated

Reported only 250 people lived in Hollidays Cove

Jedediah Hotchkiss began publishing a monthly magazine, The Virginias: a Mining, Industrial and Scientific Journal Devoted to the Development of Virginia and West Virginia

Census listed 8 Irish families totaling 43 persons occupying Irish Mountain

Jews lived in most of the developed areas of the state

George Latham was appointed as supervisor of the census for West Virginia's First District

William Leigh began studying under Hugh Newell at Maryland Institute

William MacCorkle was elected prosecuting attorney of Kanawha County

Hu Maxwell graduated from Weston Academy

John McGraw entered the practice of law

Agnes Reeves Greer was born

Orthodox Christians from Russia, Greece and Ottoman Empire began to settle in coalfields of West Virginia

St. Mary Carpatho-Russian Orthodox church was founded in Bluefield

There were 400 sawmills in West Virginia

Nathan Scott was elected to the Wheeling City Council

The Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Wheeling was erected by the Soldiers Aid Society

West Virginia's first telephone exchange was placed in service in Wheeling

The Funkhouser barn was built in Hardy County

Charles Ward began working full time at his own business

The National Guard was activated for service in areas of labor unrest, specifically to quell a strike of coal miners at Hawks Nest

Construction began at a point on the B&O Railway

The mental hospital at Weston was completed

Wheeling had 30,737 people

Booker T. Washington married his first wife, Fannie Smith, at the African Zion Baptist Church

West Virginia contracted with Storer College in educating African-American teachers

Congress gave $5,000 to Smithsonian to conduct excavations relating to prehistoric Mound Builders

George Atkinson wrote After the Moonshiners

West Virginia's first general banking law repealed

Legislature elected Johnson N. Camden to the U.S. Senate

Nathan Goff Jr. served as secretary of navy under President Hayes

The West Virginia Board of Health was established

West Virginia Board of Health was established

George Imboden became the president of the Fayette County Commission

Jacob Beeson Jackson began service as governor

John Jacob was appointed Ohio County circuit judge

The lock and dam on the Elk River was removed

Joseph Long moved to Wheeling

William MacCorkle married Belle Goshorn

Henry Mathews returned to Lewisburg

C.F. Millspaugh received a medical degree from the New York Homeopathic Medical College

The Norfolk & Western Railway was a result of a merger between the Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio Railroad and Shenandoah Valley Railroad

Daniel Purinton became vice-president and acting president of West Virginia University.

William Rosecrans served in Congress from California

Johann Stifel died

Frederick Douglass spoke on the campus of Storer College

The current Monroe County courthouse was built in Union

Alexander Wade published A Graduating System for Country Schools

West Union was incorporated

The first West Virginia State Fair was held at Wheeling Island

Albert White moved to Parkersburg

Thomas Davis moved with his family to Huntington

B&O operated 1,700 miles of railroad

Joseph Beury and others opened Mill Creek Coal & Coke, first mine in Mercer County

Arthur Boreman organized a relief effort to assist victims of Ohio River flood

Belle Boyd divorced Swainston

W.E.R. Byrne was admitted to the bar

The Kanawha & Michigan Railway was completed on north side of Kanawha River in Charleston

Moses W. Donnally bought the Chronicle

Charleston National Bank founded as a national bank

Sydenham Herford died

William and Tom Anderson stopped running the Easton Roller Mill

William Edwards published another volume in his three-volume work on butterflies, The Butterflies of North America

Stephen Elkins was elected executive chairman of the National Republican Committee

Glenville High School moved into a house

The Hampshire Review was started by C.F. Poland

The American Ancient Order of Hibernians had groups in Rowlesburg, Clarksburg, Parkersburg, Coal Valley and Charleston

The Quinnimont iron furnace was closed

Other mills were destroyed by floods on the Jug of the Middle Island Creek

James Kay returned to West Virginia

The Lincoln County Feud began when Paris Brumfield killed Boney Lucas

The first multistate gazetteer including West Virginia, Maryland and Delaware appeared

Hu Maxwell wrote a history of Tucker County

Mennonites erected their first meetinghouse in West Virginia in Pendleton County

James Miller left as superintendent of Summers County schools

James Miller became Summer County prosecuting attorney

C. F. Millspaugh published the first section of American Medicinal Plants

New Cumberland became the permanent county seat of Hancock County

Earl Oglebay started working in a Cleveland iron ore firm

Large flood occurred on the Ohio

Democrat Emanuel Willis Wilson mounted a populist campaign that challenged monopolies and railroads

Samuel and Violet Bryant came to America from England

The Ohio River Railway was built through Sistersville

The first golf club in America was organized at Oakhurst at White Sulphur Springs

Telephone switchboards were installed at Huntington

Telephone switchboards were installed at Moundsville

The West Virginia Central & Pittsburg was extended to Tucker County

The Ohio River Railroad reached Vienna

The first West Virginia Historical Society ceased

I.C. White began working for the U.S. Geological Survey

The Ohio River Railroad was completed

The Ohio River flooded at Wheeling

Sensational articles of the Hatfield-McCoy Feud by Theron C. Crawford published in New York

B&O hauled 31% of nation's Tidewater-bound soft coal

Bluefield incorporated as a town

Bank of Bramwell opened

Matthew Clair graduated from Morgan College in Baltimore

Downtown streets of Clarksburg lit up by electricity

Cribs and booms located to direct logs into Coal River's main channel

Elkins was founded

Jack Glasscock managed Indianapolis Hoosiers baseball team for part of the year

The membership of Post No.1 of General Army of the Republic peaked at 3,161

The first major outbreak of the gypsy moth occurred

The Weekly Advertiser became a daily publication as the Advertiser

Harold Houston graduated from Charleston High School

Kenova founded by L. T. Peck

The West Virginia Bureau of Labor was created by state legislature

Daniel Lucas began serving as a justice of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals

William MacCorkle left prosecuting attorney's office

I.T. Mann had an apprenticeship at Greenbrier Valley Bank

Alexander Martin left DePauw University

Hu Maxwell wrote Idyls of the Golden Shore

The first oil was discovered in Monongalia County

Navigable slack water was extended to the Morgantown area

Anticlinal theory of oil and gas location was developed by I. C. White of WVU

The anticlinal theory of oil and gas location was first tested in Mannington

Pennzoil was founded

An iron truss bridge was built over the New River

West Virginia apple production was at 4.5 million bushels

William Nelson Page was president of Gauley Mountain Coal

Charles Ritter moved to West Virginia

Sheltering Arms Hospital saw its first patient

All telephone exchanges in northern West Virginia were interconnected

The legislature renamed the militia the West Virginia National Guard

William Luke opened a pulp mill and incorporated the West Virginia Paper Company

Albert White was appointed as internal revenue agent

Major timbering began in Wyoming County

Carrie Edwards married Abraham L. Williams

State Board of Agriculture set up by legislature

Legislature created a state banking department

There were 49 state banks and 22 national banks in West Virginia

Collection of Ambrose Bierce's Civil War stories, Tales of Soldiers and Civilians (also known as In the Midst of Life) was published

Fannie Cobb Carter earned teaching degree from Storer College in Harpers Ferry

WVU Mountaineers played first football game against University of Pittsburgh

First bridge built across the Kanawha River, in Charleston

Clarksburg investors acquired the Telegram

First principal of present Concord University Capt. James Harvey French died

James Dye graduated from Starling Medical College in Cincinnati

William Dawson became chairman of Republican state committee

Alexander L. Wade's education graduating system was made compulsory statewide

Stephen Elkins was appointed secretary of war by President Harrison

George Peterkin built the Church of the Good Shepherd in Parkersburg

Town of Ansted was incorporated, named for David T. Ansted

The Central City brewery was built by American Brewing Company

Fostoria Glass Company relocated to Moundsville

Construction on Graceland began in Elkins

John P. Hale wrote History of the Great Kanawha Valley

Hamilton Hatter became a member of the college board of trustees

George Imboden was elected the first mayor of Ansted

The "Australian" or standardized printed ballot was adopted in West Virginia

Paris Brumfield was murdered by his son Charley in the wake of the Lincoln County Feud

The "government lock" was built on Little Kanawha River near Burning Springs

The federal government built a fifth lock and dam near burning springs

The Moundsville Daily Echo was established as a weekly newspaper

C. F. Millspaugh arrived at WVU

The Mount Carbon Prehistoric Site was investigated by Col. P. W. Norris for the Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of American Ethnology

John T. McGraw purchased the land at Marlinton.

Pruntytown was originally established as the Industrial School for Boys

Pruntytown was originally established as the Industrial School for Boys.

Postmaster General John Wanamaker conducted a limited experiment with rural free delivery in the Eastern Panhandle

Labor organization lobbied for the law regulating scrip

The Seneca Glass Company opened in Fostoria, Ohio

James David Shaw became editor of the Moundsville Daily Echo

Telephone switchboards were installed at Clarksburg

The Martinsburg Mining, Manufacturing and Improvement Company developed a subdivision for workers

McDowell County seat located to Welch

The Norfolk & Western Railway Company extended its line into McDowell County

The Historical Society asked the West Virginia legislature for funding

Harriet Lyon became the first woman to receive a degree from WVU

The Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway was completed to Martin's Ferry Ohio