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.
April 11, 1821: Congressman Jacob Beeson Blair was born in Parkersburg. Blair was the
first West Virginian to be told by President Abraham Lincoln of Lincoln’s support for making
West Virginia a state.
April 11, 1847: Diarist Sirene Bunten was born in French Creek, Upshur County. As a
teenager, she kept a diary about her daily activities, including emotional accounts of life on the
West Virginia home front during the Civil War.
April 11, 1909: Writer Hubert Skidmore was born at Laurel Mountain in Webster
County. In his novels, Skidmore depicted stoic endurance by mountain people in the face of
misfortune and economic exploitation by outside interests.
April 12, 1865: The 36th Virginia Infantry, known as the Logan Wildcats, disbanded.
The Confederate company was created at Logan Courthouse on June 3, 1861, and consisted of
about 85 men. The company saw its first action in the Battle of Scary Creek in Putnam County.
April 12, 1885: Photographer George James Kossuth was born. After opening his
Wheeling studio in 1909, he achieved broad fame for his photos of the city and insightful
portraits of world celebrities, including Richard Strauss, Jascha Heifetz, Leopold Stokowski,
Clarence Darrow and Richard Nixon.
April 13, 1873: Lawyer, diplomat and 1924 Democratic candidate for president John
William Davis was born in Clarksburg. Davis argued 141 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.
His last case was one of the most controversial, when he argued in 1952 to continue racial
segregation in South Carolina.
April 13, 1951: Sculptor Bill Hopen was born. The Sutton artist’s works appear in
government buildings, museums, churches, and hospitals around West Virginia, across the
nation, and abroad.
April 14, 1774: Surveyors met at the mouth of the Kanawha River to establish military
bounty claims in Kentucky. They became involved in several skirmishes with Indians in the
region. This was the start of Dunmore’s War, the name given to the conflict in the Ohio Valley in
the spring of 1774.
April 15, 1872: Peter Godwin Van Winkle died in Parkersburg. Van Winkle was a
member of the Governor’s Council of the Reorganized Government of Virginia, 1861–63, under
Gov. Francis Pierpont. On August 4, 1863, Van Winkle was elected as one of West Virginia’s
first two U.S. senators.
April 16, 1829: Jacob Beeson Jackson was born in Parkersburg. In 1881, he became
West Virginia’s sixth governor.
April 16, 1894: Leonard Riggleman was born in a Randolph County cabin. As president
of Morris Harvey College (now University of Charleston), he moved the school to Charleston in
1935 and led the college to accreditation in 1958.
April 16, 1923: Arch Moore was born in Moundsville. He was the first governor in 100
years to serve a second term, and he returned later for a third. He also was the second former
governor to serve federal prison time.
April 17, 1827: Outdoorsman William “Squirrelly Bill” Carpenter was born on the Elk
River near the mouth of Laurel Creek. Carpenter guided prominent West Virginians, including
Gov. MacCorkle, through the wonders of the Elk Valley.
April 17, 1871: West Virginians approved the Flick Amendment, which allowed former
Confederates to vote. It also applied to formerly enslaved people, but they had been enfranchised already by the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
April 17, 1972: Actress Jennifer Garner was born in Houston but grew up in Charleston,
appearing in various stage productions. Now a leading actress in film, television, and theater, she won both a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award for her role in the show Alias.