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.
Jan. 4, 1897: Classes began at Montgomery Preparatory School, a state institution
established to prepare students for West Virginia University. The school evolved into the West
Virginia University Institute of Technology.
Jan. 5, 1810: The Virginia General Assembly recognized 20 acres of land owned by
farmer and trader Thomas Buffington at the confluence of the Guyandotte and Ohio rivers as the
new village of Guyandotte.
Jan. 6, 1828: Ward Hill Lamon was born in Jefferson County. Lamon was friend, law
partner and unofficial bodyguard to President Abraham Lincoln. President Lincoln was
assassinated when Lamon was away in Richmond on business.
Jan. 6, 1931: An underground gas explosion killed eight men at the Glen Rogers coal
mine in Wyoming County—eight years after another explosion had killed 27 at the same mine.
Jan. 7, 1955: The Cedar Lakes Conference Center officially opened, though it was not
named until 1957. The name was chosen for its two lakes and an abundance of native cedar trees.
Jan. 8, 1866: William Gustavus Conley was born near Kingwood in Preston County.
Conley was West Virginia’s 18th governor, serving from 1929 to 1933.
Jan. 8, 1919: The West Virginia legislature ratified the U.S. constitution’s 18th
Amendment in the Senate, 26-0, and in the House, 81-3. West Virginia was the 21st state to
ratify the amendment. National prohibition went into effect under the Volstead Act on January
16, 1920.
Jan. 8, 1926: Comedian Soupy Sales was born Milton Supman. Raised in Huntington and
graduating from Marshall College (now University), he achieved fame as a wacky television
personality.
Jan. 9, 1911: Louise McNeill was born on the family farm in Pocahontas County. She
was appointed poet laureate by Governor Jay Rockefeller in 1979, holding that title until her
death in 1993.
Jan. 9, 2014: Hazardous chemicals were discovered leaking into the Elk River,
contaminating the water supply for a nine-county region.
Jan. 10, 1925: Judge Elizabeth Virginia Hallanan was born in Charleston. She was West
Virginia’s first female federal court judge.
Jan. 10, 1928: Gov. Howard Gore appointed Minnie Buckingham Harper of McDowell
County to fill the unexpired term of her husband, E. Howard Harper. She was the first Black
woman to serve in a state legislative body in the United States.
Jan. 10, 1940: The Pond Creek No. 1 mine at Bartley in McDowell County exploded.
The blast killed 91 miners, with another 47 escaping. Rescue teams worked five days to retrieve
the bodies but found no additional miners alive.