Henry Gassaway Davis

B&O line completed to Cumberland

Baltimore & Ohio Railroad came to Martinsburg

Jacob Blair began to study law under his uncle John Jay Jackson, Sr.

Western Virginians met in Clarksburg and Lewisburg and demanded a Constitutional Convention

Joseph Diss Debar came to the U.S.

William Edwards graduated from Williams College

John Gallaher became a state senator

Chester Hubbard married Sarah Pallister

John Jay Jackson Sr commanded a brigade in the Virginia militia

Stonewall Jackson entered West Point

Joseph Lightburn sought admission to West Point

Fairmont became county seat at creation of Marion County

The B&O Railroad arrived in Mineral County

The General Assembly chartered three academies in Pocahontas County for the preparation of students for the University of Virginia, at Green Bank, Hillsboro, and Huntersville

William Rosecrans graduated from West Point

Wayne was founded as a town

Kellian Whaley moved to Wayne County

Old Main campus construction began at Bethany College

The Blue Sulphur Springs resort property was sold to the Western Virginia Baptist Association

John Brown met in Chatham, Ontario, with supporters to plan for armed insurrection of slaves

Martin Delany aided John Brown in convening the Chatham Convention

Delta Tau Delta was founded at Bethany College

Weston College was chartered

Marshall College was established from Marshall Academy

George Imboden was admitted to the bar

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

Margery Lewis Kenna moved her family to Missouri after the shooting of her husband

General Assembly amended the act of incorporation

Presbyterians established the Woodburn Female Seminary in Morgantown

Z. D. Ramsdell relocated to Ceredo.

The second courthouse at Ripley was built

Robert Simmons had fathered nine children

Spencer was chartered

The Weston & Gauley Bridge Turnpike opened

McDowell County seat was at Perryville

Weston was chosen for the site of Virginia's third mental hospital

Construction began on Weston State Hospital

Granville Davisson Hall was elected West Virginia secretary of state

Henry Mathews was elected to the West Virginia Senate

Kellian Whaley was reelected to Congress from West Virginia

There were 250 churches in West Virginia

Capt. John M. Burns established a sawmill at Burnsville

Jefferson and Berkeley confirmed as West Virginia by U.S. Congress

Dickinson-Shrewsbury partnership dissolved by the courts after partners died

Private school for black children, in Parkersburg, was converted to a public school

J. N. Boyd began publication of Vedette in Fairmont

Three men were hanged on the "hanging tree" at Fort Boreman

Freedmen's Bureau began operation in West Virginia

Grantsville was laid out

Grant County was formed from Hardy County

Morris Harvey and brother-in-law received a land grant from West Virginia of 1,000 acres on the west side of New River

The Radical-dominated legislature enacted the Voters' Registration Law

John Joseph Kain was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Richmond

The Buckhannon home of George Latham was purchased

A new shop complex was built in Martinsburg, with roundhouse

Elizabethtown and Moundsville were consolidated under Moundsville

Free schools were established in Moundsville

The multiflora rose was introduced to the eastern U.S. as rootstock for ornamental roses

The North Bend superintendent's residence was built by Christopher Douglas

Samuel Price became a director of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad.

George Lemon died

Sumner School became West Virginia's earliest black public school

H.M. Calhoun was born

Samuel W. Starks was born in Charleston

Sumner School became a part of the segregated public school system

Ceredo was incorporated

The West Virginia Central & Pittsburg Railway was chartered under the name of the Potomac & Piedmont Coal & Railroad Company

Archibald Campbell left the Wheeling Intelligencer

William H. Davis became a teacher for Malden’s Black children

Nathan Goff Jr. was elected to the House of Delegates

William Stevenson was elected as the 3rd governor of West Virginia

W. H. H. Flick elected to represent Pendleton and Grant counties in the House of Delegates

Celebration staged in Parkersburg after ratification of the 15th Amendment

Railroad magnate Collis P. Huntington located the western terminus of Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad in present Huntington

Cheat River declared a public highway

Claymont Court mansion (Jefferson County) was advertised for sale by Bushrod Corbin Washington's grandson

Marmaduke Dent received B.A from WVU

Joseph Diss Debar produced The West Virginia Hand-Book and Immigrant's Guide

Alexander Donaghho came to Parkersburg

Fayetteville population jumped to 6,647

Thaddeus Mortimer Fowler began his map-making trips

Camp Straton United Confederate Veterans began controlling Logan County polices

German immigration increased during the Franco-Prussian War

John Hale started the first steam ferry at Charleston

John Hale was a leader in having the state capital moved to Charleston

Literary Hall was built in Romney

The West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind was established in Romney

John Henry began working as a steel driver during the construction of the Big Bend (Great Bend) Tunnel

The state was reported to have 2,270 schools

Investment in manufacturing began increasing

Immigrants from Switzerland settled in the area of Holly River

George Imboden moved to Fayette County

Jacob Jackson became Wood County's prosecuting attorney

A proposed waterway between Tidewater Virginia and Rocky Mountains was proposed to Congress by Waitman T. Willey

The capital was moved from Wheeling to Charleston

Henry Clay Dickinson became president of Kanawha Valley Bank

James Kay arrived in Charleston

John Kenna was admitted to the bar

Crosscut saws replaced the ax as the preferred tool for felling trees

Marshall College added a new brick addition at the west end of the existing building

John Nuttall bought coal lands on New River

The Flick Amendment was introduced

Petersburg became the county seat of Grant County

Henry Ragland moved to Wayne County.

Alexander Reynolds began serving in Egypt

Literary Hall was built by the Literary Society in Romney

Cecil Clay of Philadelphia began timber purchases in Greenbrier Valley

William Stevenson was defeated for second term as governor

There were 178 tanneries in West Virginia

The Daily Sentinel became the Taylor County newspaper

The town of Volcano was founded

Wayne County population was at 7,852

WesBanco was founded as German Bank

Legislature voted for additional buildings at Weston State Hospital

The Potomac River flooded

The Shenandoah River flooded

William Edwin Chilton appointed to an unexpired term as Kanawha County prosecutor

Legislature established the West Virginia Department of Mines and fatality records began to be kept

Cincinnati Gas & Electric Company acquired the Ohio Fuel Supply Company

Fayetteville was incorporated under its name

The Calhoun Chronicle was first published

John P. Hale published a pamphlet on Daniel Boone's years in the Kanawha Valley

James Edward "Blind Ed" Haley was born

William "Coin" Harvey went to Colorado to work as silver prospector and miner

The Lovett family began ownership of the Lockwood House in Harpers Ferry

William Howells retired from Ohio politics

The James Produce Company was started by Charles H. James

Frances Benjamin Johnston began her studies at the Academie Juilian in Paris

State legislature elected John Kenna to the U.S. Senate

William Leigh left Maryland Institute to begin studying at the Royal Academy in Munich, Germany

The Wheeling Public Library was created

The Norfolk & Western Railway arrived in Mercer county

Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller wrote The Bride of the Tomb

The first mine safety laws in West Virginia were enacted

English immigrants settled in the Linwood-Mingo area of Randolph County

A prohibition amendment passed in the House of Delegates but was defeated in the Senate.

Ripley's population was at 614

Lewis Ruffner died

The Salvation Army opened its first West Virginia "corps" in Wheeling

Seventh-Day Adventist churches were organized in Wood and Kanawha counties

The West Virginia Central & Pittsburgh Railroad first entered Upshur County

Dr. John J. Moorman stopped doctoring the crowds at White Sulphur Springs

Waitman Barbe wrote "The Song of the Centuries," his first important poem

Arthur Boreman was elected to a circuit judgeship again

Bramwell was incorporated as a town

Sheltering Arms Hospital opened

Kanawha Gazette began regular daily publication

Danske Dandridge wrote Joy and Other Poems

Fayette County became West Virginia leading coal producing county

Salem College was founded

Devil Anse Hatfield moved his family from Tug Valley to Main Island Creek

Hamilton Hatter received a bachelor's degree from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine

Frank Hereford served as presidential elector

The town of Hurricane was incorporated

John Jacob left circuit judge to return to practicing law

Harriet Jones became assistant superintendent of the state hospital in Weston

Kanawha County became the state's second largest coal producer

The Logan Banner was founded by Henry Clay Ragland

Roger Saad became the first Lebanese immigrant to settle in Wheeling

The Martinsburg & Potomac railroad was extended to Frederick County, Virginia

The Kanawha & Ohio Railway completed a line from Charleston to Point Pleasant

The Elkhorn Tunnel through Flat Top Mountain was completed

Oakhurst Links was the home of the first regularly played golf tournament in the U.S.

The Fetterman Mill was destroyed by a flood.

Christopher Payne became first African American elected to represent West Virginia at the Republican national convention.

Graham Hamrick preserved two female corpses as Phillipi mummies

Livia Poffenbarger demanded the right to speak in support of a candidate at the state Democratic convention.

Electricity generate from natural gas brought streetlights to Parkersburg

Nathan Scott became a member of the Republican National Committee

Senate president Robert Carr tried to assert the right to become governor after a disputed election

Thomas J. Reynolds was born at Point Pleasant

Callie Leach French became the first woman to obtain a pilot's license

The Monongahela River flooded

William Luke founded the Piedmont Pulp & Paper Company, later Westvaco

H. C. Ogden came to Wheeling as a reporter for the Wheeling News

H.C. Ogden came to Wheeling as a reporter for the News

Albert White served as president of the National Editorial Association

Mountain State Business College was established

William H. Davis was nominated as an independent candidate for governor

Marmaduke Dent failed bid for reelection to the Supreme Court of Appeals

William M. O. Dawson elected governor

Nathan Scott was reelected to the U.S. Senate

Commissioner assigned responsibility to regulate farm products

The Allegheny Lodge was built

Waitman Barbe wrote Great Poems Interpreted

Walter Barnes wrote English in the Country School

John Peale Bishop entered Princeton

Charles F. Millspaugh wrote The Living Flora of West Virginia

James Callahan wrote Semi-Centennial History of West Virginia

Consolidated Manufactories pottery factory established by Merchants Association of Grafton

John Harrington Cox collected his first folk song

Alston Dayton made the injunction from the Hitchman Coal & Coke v. John Mitchell case permanent

Legislature passed act that provided for the employment of extension agents

West Virginia appropriated fire protection funds

The Glenville high school received its own building

Nathan Goff served in the U.S. Senate

The building of the central section of the Greenbrier Hotel and the Old White golf course were completed

Legislature created the State Road Bureau

Annual coal production exceeded 28 million tons

Ritter Park in Huntington was fashioned from land originally intended for a city incinerator

Louis Johnson was admitted to the bar in Clarksburg

Harriet Jones helped to establish Hopemont Sanitarium

Teepi Kendrick became the state agent in charge of the corn clubs for boys and canning clubs for girls

Keyser was incorporated

Supreme Court decisions on State ex rel. Nance v. Mays, Ex parte Jones, and Hatfield v. Graham were decided during the labor rebellion and accorded vast power to the executive branch to use martial law

Weston became the southern terminus of regional electric trolley car service

The second courthouse in Madison was torn down

Redress was allowed under the original workers compensation statue

Course work was added to Marshall University to include the equivalent of freshman and sophomore years of college

Walter Martens began working as a draftsman in Danville

The title was changed from Evening Journal to Martinsburg West Virginia Evening Journal

Hu Maxwell co-authored West Virginia and Its People

Bill McKell completed his own branch railroad to connect with the Virginian Railway at Pax

John McWhorter left office as judge of West Virginia's 12th judicial circuit

John McWhorter drafted the Yost Law, providing for enforcement of state prohibition

The Mennonites building was moved to Roaring Creek

The Minter Homes Corporation was established in Huntington

A major refinery was built at St. Marys by Quaker State

United States Senate looked into Paint Creek-Cabin Creek strike

John Nugent was question by the U.S. Senate investigating committee for efforts to import strikebreakers to West Virginia

John Nugent left West Virginia for Kentucky

The Ohio Valley Trades and Labor Assembly fathered the state's first workers compensation bill

The Ohio Valley Refining Company was established at St. Marys

Livia Poffenbarger sold the State Gazette.

Legislature passed the Yost law, under which prohibition was enforced, creating the Department of Prohibition

The state's first tuberculosis sanitarium was founded at Hopemont in Preston County

The Public Service Commission was created by the legislature

Leonard Riggleman passed the uniform teachers exam

The first high school opened in Ripley

St. Francis Hospital was founded by Patrick J. Donahue

The Sacred Heart Hospital opened

The Salt Sulphur Springs resort was closed

The Star House was acquired by W. B. and Ida Skaggs

Flags were unofficially made for the semi-centennial celebration featured a new design

Stony River Reservoir was completed by West Virginia Pulp & Paper Company

P. D. Strausbaugh graduated from Wooster (Ohio) College

P. D. Strausbaugh began teaching at Wooster (Ohio) College

A streetcar line between Sistersville and Middlebourne was built

Congress passed the 16th Amendment for a federal income tax on corporation

The Indian Camp Normal School was established

Clarence W. Watson finished his term in the U.S. Senate

John S. Bonar graduated from West Liberty

"The West Virginia Hills" was published in The West Virginia Singer

Legislature changed the name to Weston State Hospital

West Virginia House of Delegates passed a state women's suffrage amendment