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.
Sept. 19, 1862: The two-day Battle of Shepherdstown opened with an artillery exchange
between Union and Confederate troops. Following the Battle of Antietam, it ended Robert E.
Lee’s Maryland Campaign and helped convince Abraham Lincoln to issue his preliminary
Emancipation Proclamation.
Sept. 19, 1892: William “Bill” Blizzard was born in Cabin Creek, Kanawha County.
Blizzard became one of West Virginia’s most influential and controversial labor leaders of the
20th century.
Sept. 20, 1910: Dorothy Johnson Vaughan was born in Kansas City but moved at a
young age to Morgantown, where she was valedictorian of Beechurst High School. Like fellow
West Virginian Katherine Johnson, Vaughan became a mathematician and computer expert for
NASA and made key contributions to the U.S. space program.
Sept. 20, 1914: Ken Hechler was born on Long Island, New York. Hechler served 18
years in the U.S. Congress and four terms as West Virginia’s secretary of state.
Sept. 21, 1895: Samuel Ivan Taylor was born in Mercer County. Taylor was the first
member of the West Virginia state police. He was part of the force that faced off against union
miners during the 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain in Logan County.
Sept. 21, 1937: The West Virginia Conservation Commission acquired 6,705 acres in
Kanawha County to create Kanawha State Forest. Redevelopment of the land, which had been
heavily mined and timbered, began the next year by the Civilian Conservation Corps.
Sept. 21, 1970: Filming began in Moundsville on the movie Fools’ Parade, based on the
novel by Davis Grubb. The filming concluded one month later when Grubb came to Moundsville
for a dinner, accompanied by his dog, making the $750 round trip from New York City in a taxi.
Sept. 22, 1856: Albert Blakeslee “A. B.” White was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He was
West Virginia’s 11th governor, serving from 1901 to 1905. He was the fourth person to serve as
governor from Wood County, his adopted home.
Sept. 22, 1894: Louis Bennett Jr. was born in Weston. Bennett was West Virginia’s only
World War I flying ace. With 12 combat kills, including three aircraft and nine balloons, Bennett
placed himself ninth on the roster of aces. This record was accomplished in just 10 days after
assignment to his combat unit.
Sept. 22, 1970: The “Brinkley Bridge” in Wayne County collapsed under the weight of
an overloaded truck. The bridge was named for newscaster David Brinkley who had filmed a
1960 news report about the poor condition of the span.
Sept. 23, 1922: Five men were struck and killed at the Glen Rogers mine in Wyoming
County when equipment fell during the construction of a deep shaft.
Sept. 23, 1923: Folk artist Herman Hayes was born in Elkview. His woodcarvings were
displayed in Washington and New York City, and he twice won the top award in the West
Virginia Juried Exhibition.
Sept. 23, 1938: The Mingo Oak was cut down after succumbing to the fumes of a
burning coal refuse pile. The Mingo Oak, which stood near the Logan-Mingo county line, was
more than 500 years old and may have been the largest white oak in the world.
Sept. 24, 1911: Laura Jackson Arnold died in Buckhannon. The sister of Stonewall
Jackson, she was a staunch Unionist during the Civil War, opening her home to care for injured
Union soldiers.
Sept. 24, 1918: George Spencer “Spanky” Roberts was born in London, Kanawha
County. He entered aviation cadet training with the first class of Tuskegee Airmen and became
the first Black military pilot from West Virginia.
Sept. 25, 1864: George Smith Patton was killed at the Battle of Winchester. Patton, a
Charleston lawyer, had organized the Kanawha Riflemen, a Virginia militia company. He was
the grandfather of Gen. George S. Patton of World War II.