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.
March 21, 1914: The first West Virginia boys’ high school basketball tournament began
in Buckhannon. The event was sponsored by West Virginia Wesleyan College, which at the time
had the state’s largest and finest gymnasium.
March 21, 2018: Sculptor Frank Gaylord died. Born 1925 in Clarksburg, his best-known
work is “The Column,” a platoon of 19 larger-than-life, stainless steel soldiers comprising the
central element of the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington.
March 22, 1922: Physician Mildred Mitchell-Bateman was born in Georgia. She became
the first Black woman in West Virginia to hold a high-level state administrative position when,
in 1962, Governor Wally Barron appointed her director of the Department of Mental Health.
March 23, 2003: Private Jessica Lynch of Palestine, Wirt County, was serving as a
supply clerk with the Army’s 507th Maintenance Company when she was captured by Iraqi
forces after her group was ambushed.
March 24, 1890: Confederate General William Lowther “Mudwall” Jackson died in
Louisville. Jackson, who was born in Clarksburg, joined the Confederate Army as a private.
After helping to organize an infantry unit, he was promoted to colonel. He served on the staff of
his cousin, Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, and was jokingly nicknamed ‘‘Mudwall.’’
March 25, 1878: Attorney General Armistead Abraham “Cousin Abe” Lilly was born at
Jumping Branch, Summers County. Lilly appealed the Virginia Debt Suit to the U.S. Supreme
Court; when settled, it was estimated that Lilly had saved the state a large sum of money.
March 26, 1851: Upshur County was created from parts of Randolph, Lewis and
Barbour counties, with Buckhannon as the county seat.
March 26, 1863: The state’s first constitution was overwhelmingly ratified by the voters,
by a majority of 28,321 to 572. The constitution was drafted during the state’s first
Constitutional Convention at the federal custom house in Wheeling.
March 26, 1920: Aviator Rose Agnes Rolls Cousins was born. She was the first Black
woman to become a solo pilot in the Civilian Pilot Training Program at West Virginia State
College (now University) and rejected from joining the Tuskegee Airmen because she was a
woman.
March 27, 1826: Laura Jackson Arnold, the younger sister of “Stonewall” Jackson, was
born in Clarksburg. During the Civil War, she was a staunch Unionist and opened her home to
care for sick and injured troops.
March 27, 1917: Statesman Cyrus Roberts Vance was born in Clarksburg. In 1977,
President Carter tapped Vance as his secretary of state. Vance was instrumental in negotiating
the Camp David Accord and the Panama Canal Treaty.