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 18, 1756: The largest French & Indian War battle fought in present West Virginia occurred about two miles northeast of U.S. 50 and County Route 15 in present Capon Bridge, Hampshire County.
April 18, 1849: State Supreme Court Justice Marmaduke Dent was born in Monongalia County. He received the first bachelor’s and master’s degrees from West Virginia University. A populist judge, he ruled against railroads and supported Carrie Williams in an 1898 case finding that Black schools were entitled to the same length school terms as other schools.
April 18, 1861: At the beginning of the Civil War, retreating U.S. troops set fire to the national armory and arsenal at Harpers Ferry to keep them out of Confederate hands. However, Virginia militia extinguished the flames and sent much of the weapon-making equipment south before destroying the site in June 1861.
April 18, 1912: The Paint Creek-Cabin Creek Strike of 1912–13 began when coal operators rejected the demands of their unionized workers for a wage increase. The strike that followed was one of the most dramatic and bloody conflicts in the early 20th century labor struggles in southern West Virginia known as the Mine Wars.
April 19, 1896: Writer Melville Davisson Post was born in Harrison County. His best-known works are the Randolph Mason series, published in three volumes, and the more successful collection, Uncle Abner: Master of Mysteries.
April 19, 1902: Author Jean Lee Latham was born in Buckhannon. She wrote a number of children’s books, including Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, which won the 1956 Newberry Award.
April 20, 1823: General Jesse Lee Reno was born in Wheeling and died in battle at South Mountain, Maryland, in 1862. He graduated from West Point in 1846 with another cadet from western Virginia, Thomas J. Jackson, later “Stonewall.” Reno was the highest-ranking officer from present West Virginia killed in the Civil War.
April 20, 1863: President Lincoln issued a proclamation that in 60 days, West Virginia would become a state. This occasion was marked 100 years later during the state’s Centennial celebration with a special ceremonial session of the West Virginia legislature on April 20, 1963, in Wheeling.
April 20, 1909: Fiddler Melvin Wine was born near Burnsville. A favorite of old-time music enthusiasts nationally, he was chosen as a National Heritage Fellow in 1991 by the National Endowment for the Arts, the highest recognition given to a folk artist in the United States.
April 20, 1939: Poet Irene McKinney was born in Belington, Barbour County. Governor Gaston Caperton appointed her state poet laureate in 1993, and she served in that capacity until her death in 2012.
April 21, 1908: Traditional musician Phoeba Cottrell Parsons was born in Calhoun County. Parsons’s traditional clawhammer banjo style, unaccompanied ballad singing, riddles and storytelling influenced countless numbers of younger musicians.
April 21, 1936: President Franklin Roosevelt established the Jefferson National Forest. The West Virginia portion of this forest includes nearly 20,000 acres in Monroe County.
April 22, 1908: Marshall “Little Sleepy” Glenn was born in Elkins. Glenn coached basketball at West Virginia University from 1934 to 1938 and football from 1937 to 1940. He was inducted into the WVU Sports Hall of Fame in 1992.
April 22, 2003: Activist Judy Bonds, a Raleigh County native, received the Goldman Environmental Prize for her fight against mountaintop removal mining. Her efforts inspired thousands and turned a local issue in West Virginia into a national cause.
April 23, 1857: Andrew S. Rowan was born in Gap Mills, Monroe County. Rowan, a military officer, was chosen as the messenger when President William McKinley wanted to send a message to Cuban General Calixto Garcia during the Spanish-American War. The 1899 pamphlet A Message to Garcia made the incident famous.
April 24, 1865: McNeill’s Rangers surrendered to Union troops at New Creek (now Keyser). The Confederate guerrilla force probably never numbered more than 100 men at any time but managed to inflict regular damage on Union operations.
