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.
May 2, 1900: State founder Waitman Willey died in Morgantown. He is remembered for
the Willey Amendment, which provided for the gradual emancipation of slaves as a precondition
for the creation of West Virginia.
May 2, 1925: Flying saucer investigator Gray Barker was born in Riffle, Braxton County.
Barker became interested in unidentified flying objects in the 1950s after investigating sightings
of the Flatwoods Monster.
May 3, 1843: U.S. Postmaster General William Lyne Wilson was born in Smithfield,
Jefferson County. Wilson joined President Cleveland’s cabinet as postmaster general in 1895.
The following year, he introduced Rural Free Delivery in Jefferson County, an experiment which
was quickly instituted nationwide.
May 3, 1917: Fire destroyed the West Virginia Preparatory School in Keyser. The school
was rebuilt, and it evolved into the institution now known as WVU Potomac State College.
May 3, 1948: The plane of test pilot Howard “Tick” Lilly, a Raleigh County native,
crashed on takeoff in California. Lilly was the first of many government test pilots to die in the
line of duty. Six weeks earlier, he had become only the fourth person to break the sound barrier.
May 4, 1896: The Children’s Home Society of West Virginia was formed by a group of
Charleston ministers. Their goal was to place orphaned and neglected children with caring
families rather than crowd them into county poorhouses.
May 5, 1923: A fire started by welders working on a new swimming pool destroyed most
of Luna Park, an amusement park in Charleston. Although Luna’s owners announced they would rebuild, the park never reopened.
May 5, 1923: Golfer Bill Campbell was born in Huntington. He won more than 30
championships over a seven-decade career and is considered one of the best amateur players in history.
May 6, 1812: Activist and physician Martin Robison Delany was born in Charles Town.
In February 1865, he was commissioned as a major in the U.S. Colored Troops. He was the only Black Civil War officer to be given a field command.
May 6, 1968: A continuous miner machine at the Gauley Coal & Coke Saxsewell No. 8
mine at Hominy Falls, Nicholas County, cut into an adjacent mine, which was filled with water.
The resulting flood drowned four miners and trapped 21 others.
May 6, 1968: Newspaper publisher and Bluefield native John S. Knight received the
Pulitzer Prize for his long record of service and his series of columns opposing the Vietnam War.
May 7, 1824: Logan County was created by the Virginia General Assembly from parts of
Giles, Tazewell, Cabell and Kanawha counties. The county seat was first known as Lawnsville,
then Aracoma, and finally Logan.
May 7, 1857: William A. MacCorkle was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, on his
father’s plantation. He served as West Virginia’s ninth governor.
May 7, 1928: The Keith-Albee Theatre opened in Huntington. The opening program
featured a comedy called “Good Morning, Judge,” a newsreel and five stage acts. But the theater itself, with its elaborate interior, clearly was the star of the evening.
May 7, 1983: The New River Gorge National Park and Preserve began operations when
the first visitor center opened near Fayetteville.
May 8, 1864: Clarence Wayland Watson was born in Fairmont. Watson was a prominent
coal baron and served in the U.S. Senate from 1911 to 1913.
May 8, 1998: Former U.S. Senator Jennings Randolph died at the age of 96. He was first
elected to the House of Representatives in 1932 and served a total of 40 years in Congress.