WV-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 01 : Issue 4 Today's Topics: #1 HIST: Wheeling In West Virginia Bo ["Debbie Ullom" ] #3 Mrs. Louisa Smith--- Obit 1920 [Bridgette Osz ] #4 J. H. Haller-- obit [Bridgette Osz ] ______________________________X-Message: #1 Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2001 07:45:47 -0500 From: "Debbie Ullom" To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <00d501c08157$55bc1020$2538fea9@ldullom> Subject: HIST: Wheeling In West Virginia Bookmarks; Ohio Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit The following are taken from "Wheeling in West Virginia" bookmarks distributed by the First National Bank of Wheeling in the 1970's. There is no copyright notice on the bookmarks. WHEELING IN WEST VIRGINIA The name Wheeling has a grisly origin. It means in Delaware language, "the place of the head." Early traders and mappers were told by the Indians, that this commemorated the scalping and beheading of a white trader whose head was affixed to a pole at the mouth of a creek. In 1751, a map-maker for the Ohio Company called it "Wealin or Scalp Creek", and in 1775 Lewis Evans map shows Wheeling Creek and Wheeling Island. The name Wheeling became official at the Continental Congress in 1776. BOATS, BOLTS, AND BEER Boat building surged following Shreve's "Washington." Within one, three-year period, 25 steamers were launched from Wheeling yards. Many of the steamers and cargo boats were to carry another large Wheeling product, flour- processed by the many local mills. Bolts of gaily printed calico, with a "Boot" trademark became a favorite cloth in Africa, sent there by J. L. Stifel and Sons. Beginning with a capital of $10 in 1835, J. L. Stifel purchased unbleached cotton goods from Conestoga shipments. These he dyed in his log cabin. His cottage industry grew until, in 1929, it was taking the whole output of several cotton mills in the South. Later the mills produced Sanforized goods. Beer was a large item in 1888, helping to wet the coal-dusty throat of the mill worker. Over 100 horses and mules would carry to the taverns and clubs the 800,000 gallon suds output. Breweries and malt houses employed 150 men. A SPORTING LIFE While the ladies primped and flounced and opted for higher culture, the men enjoyed a more robust life. One of the earliest sports was a "deer drive." Men and lads would stake off a rectangular field. Then with their dogs they would beat the surrounding woods to bring in the game. Leaping and frightened animals would swarm in. The shoot would begin, enlivened by stray foxes, wolves, and bears. The last fox was chased down Market Street in 1866. Horse racing was an early pastime. The first track opened in 1825 at Beech Bottom, with a one-mile course. The second was opened by Samuel Spriggs in 1834. The landed gentry laid out a four-mile course. Horses, of course, led to gambling which became widespread in 1836. A famous lottery was operated in 1846 by N. L. Dorsey. Dorsey advertised legally and widely, and the profits reputedly helped build a section of the Turnpike and the "Wellsburg Academy". TOWARD THE NAIL CITY Old Top Mill was built in 1832 and eventually was to make wheeling famous as "The Nail City." By 1840 pioneer ironmasters E. W. Stephens had introduced 10 machines into the mill. Stephens was the wealthiest man in the state, worth $100,000 or a millionaire of his time. His wife wore silk and was the only lady in Wheeling City with her own carriage. A sidewheeler named for her, the Mary S. Stephens, carried troops to the Mexican War. Many iron and sheet mills sprang up and were soon hopscotching the river. During the Civil War while the Wheeling mills produced plates and cannonballs for the North, the Virginia Iron Works at Benwood - operated by Confederate sympathizers, Kelly, Holloway, and Gil - clandestinely armed the South. FUN AND FROLIC A hard-working port city has little time for daily diversions but when the rare notable arrived or a happy event occurred, the city welcomed it with as much enthusiasm and energy as it poured into its industry. And the women made sure that frivolity had its place. In 1825 the arrival of Lafayette was heralded with a welcome at the dock by the entire town. He was paraded through the town, escorted by the Independent Blues. He met the citizens in a reception line at Mr. Simm's Hotel. After a small dinner for 30, Lafayette joined his fellow Masons. That evening a lavish ball was held in the Virginia Hotel - a ball which Lafayette sat out because of his gout. It was only the persuasive Lydia Shepherd who brought him to his feet for a dance the next day at Shepherd Hall. The ball occasioned Wheeling's first public incident of juvenile delinquency. Two spirited young ladies, prohibited by their religiously-strict parents from attending, starched their ribbons in secret and sallied forth to the ball. Their rebellious act was punished by dismissal from the church. They promptly became members of a more liberal denomination. THE RAILROAD A few years before the new bridge was built, the Baltimore & Ohio line pushed through from Cumberland to Wheeling, over an arduous track crossing 113 bridges and burrowing through 11 tunnels. The first locomotive arrived by boat at wheeling dock, the track was laid to the shore, and the engine "ran itself up from boat to shore." Mid-January 1853, a banquet for a thousand guests was held at Washington hall to celebrate the arrival of the railroad. One of the many toasts proposed was a taunt at rival Pittsburgh: "Poor Pittsburgh is flung - for her steam boats no more Can whistle in scorn, as they pass Wheeling's shore... She may war on all bridges - save one for herself, But her trade on the river is laid on the shelf." The first passenger train left Wheeling January 25, 1853. The railroad was of strategic value during the Civil War and stimulated Wheeling economy as had The National Road. But Wheeling's supremacy over Pittsburgh was short lived, for the Pennsylvania Railroad had linked Pittsburgh with the East and Wheeling was never to overcome the advantage of Pittsburgh's three rivers. THE GLASS HOUSES One of the earliest needs for the settlers was glass, especially for windows, for that fragile commodity rarely survived the rough journey by river and trails. Early itinerant glassmen had a precarious existence, but by 1819 the first glass house was built, and by 1835 there were five houses and two cutting establishments, employing 193 men. Glass became the second largest manufacture in 1851, employing 348. From crude window panes, the glass houses turned to elaborate and fancy work - glass lamp shades in peacock colors, glass plates and lady's slippers in patterns of daisy and button, hobnail and swirl. Many of these items today are treasured by museums and collectors as outstanding examples of "Ohio" glass. A "VISION OF PARADISE" IN 1769 While on a hunting trip, young Ebenezer Zane of the Potomac South Branch saw, from a hill, the Creek and Ohio River, and proclaimed Wheeling a "vision of paradise". His brothers, Jonathan, Andrew, and Silas, agreed. The Zane men returned for their families to bring them to the new land. Thus began today's Wheeling. In 1770, the twenty-three year old Ebenezer built a log cabin and staked out his "Tomahawk Claim" - to 400 acres - all of today's downtown Wheeling. (The settlers would notch high up on trees a blazing Tomahawk scar to define their claim.) To his cabin, Zane brought his bride, Elizabeth McColloch, sister of the legendary Major Sam. The hardy couple survived horrible Indian skirmishes and sieges and produced 13 children. THE PAST PRESERVED All that remains of "Old Top Mill" is an iron ring on the wharf where the ore boats would tie up. But Wheeling's history is dramatized by the historical markers and plaques punctuating the busy streets. By the old buildings - churches, plants, institutions, and the magnificent homes recalling an age of elegance and romance. The past sleeps quietly in Monument Place in Elm Grove. The past stirs restlessly in Independence Hall, echoing the bitter War Between the States - jubilant new West Virginia. The past is preserved lovingly in room after room in Mansion House, Oglebay Institute. The past is alive on the river and the road. THE READERS AND WRITERS Early settlers swapped coonskins for books from Boston. By 1809 Wheeling had a library, sponsored by the public. In 1859 the Literary Association was chartered and opened public reading rooms. The present Ohio county Library, the oldest in the State, moved into its building in 1910. In 1832 Wheeling was reading the Swiss Family Robinson, and a few years later Dickens and Hawthorne were the rage. The Leatherstocking Tales found a knowledgeable audience, the men reliving their early frontier days. The world's first detective story, Murders in the Rue Morgue, received scant attention, but Emerson's Essays were passed from hand to hand and eagerly discussed. Wheeling had its own writers. Rebecca Harding Davis, mother of Richard Harding Davis, wrote "Life in the Iron Mills" which was printed in the Atlantic Monthly in 1857 and is considered "as grim a piece of realism as may be found in American literature." WORKING- ALL THE LIVELONG DAY With the dawn of large-scale industry in the country, long hours and hard work became the way of life in industrial cities. Men would work in the heat and noise of the iron mills for 12-hour shifts, seven days a week, year round, for $2 a day in 1880. Girls worked in cotton factories for $2.50 a week. Store clerks worked 12 to 16 hours daily with 10-minute breaks for meals. The sons of wealthy mill owners were educated at Harvard then put into the mills at the lowest scale to work their way up. Even into the 1930's, men worked a 12-hour day with one day off every three weeks. As the mills grew in Wheeling, so, too, grew the need for workers. The Irish potato famine in 1846 and revolutions in Europe brought in many laborers. Later the mills were to recruit Europeans and they flocked into Ritchie Town, South Wheeling, to stay with their compatriots in overcrowded boarding houses. In Europe the millworkers had earned 25 cents a day; in Wheeling they could earn 15 cents an hour in 1892. And there was the hope of becoming a roller, with the princely wage of $11 a day. WHEELING - A CAPITAL CITY Wheeling remained the capital of the State until 1870 when, by previous election, the capital was designated as Charleston. In 1875 the capital returned to Wheeling, by legislative mandate, and remained her for ten years before returning to Charleston. Early in Wheeling's history it began to assume the responsibilities of a city. Justice was often a thrashing at a whipping post. The first execution was in 1836, the year the town was incorporated as a city. Two men were hung for the murder of a peddler. In 1834 a city water works was built and distribution of water by carts was discontinued. A bucket-brigade fire department was housed in Market House in 1820, and in 1830 city council passed an ordinance "whenever there is a fire all the bells in the city shall ring out." During the 1880's, Wheeling really modernized. It got its first brick paving, its first electric light plant with, at first, 20 customers. A few years later wheeling was to be one of four cities in the United States with electric streetcars subsequently to reach Elm Grove. WAR IN WHEELING While the battle did not come to Wheeling, there was much bitterness and anger. Wheeling sent two companies to the fighting. One fought for the Union, Carlin's Battery, whose guns were captured by V.M.I. cadets at New Market, Va.; the other, the "Shriver Greys," served under the Stonewall brigade in the South, losing all their officers. The customs House served as an arsenal. Wheeling Island became a military camp with enough sheds to house two to three thousand men. Governor Boreman threatened to draft men if enough would not volunteer to fill West Virginia's quota. Enlistees were promised $100 a year. In all, West Virginia furnished 36,500 men for the Union and 7,000 for the Confederacy. Under fiery editor Archibald Campbell, The Wheeling Intelligencer was the only paper in the State (then Virginia) to support Lincoln. When Fort Sumter was fired upon, Campbell ordered the Stars & Stripes affixed to the paper's masthead for the duration of the war. Campbell was a stormy petrel all his life and late in the century, when threatened with dismissal by the B.O.P. for not acceding to a "unit rule" vote, Campbell raged, "I wear my sovereignty under my hat." RAMPAGING RIVES AND OTHER CATASTROPHES Floods, pestilence, and explosions wreaked a furious toll of Wheeling lives and property. An earthquake, the largest and most destructive in the U.S., left Wheeling with only a slight rattling of crockery. At first the river toyed with the town. In 1811 it filched the pumpkins from the field and sent them bobbing downstream for an early Halloween. Then, in 1832 the waters surged in, covering the Island with ten feet of swirling anger. Daniel Zane and his family fled from the second story of their house, escaping on a horse-propelled ferry boat. It was said the horses landed the family safely at the 12th Street wharf, then fell dead of exhaustion. Later that year the river was to bring a gentleman from New Orleans with the dread disease cholera. A few months earlier New York counted 2251 dead; New Orleans, 6000 dead. It was the country's first large cholera epidemic, and it spread to the Indians of the Plains, drastically reducing their numbers. ______________________________X-Message: #2 Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2001 12:29:14 -0500 From: Bridgette Osz To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <3A6727EA.DC024F06@eohio.net> Subject: Sarah Felton Moore and Iva Bessie Moore Strum -Obit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Philippi Republican February 7, 1924 Page 4 Deaths Mrs. Sarah Felton Moore and Iva Bessie Moore Strum Although we realize that death must pay and and everyone of our home an unwelcome visit at sometime, we seldom see it take its tolls twice within one week in the same family, However, this sad occurrence took place at Felton Station when Mrs. John E. Moore answered the summons from on High January 15, and her eldest living daughter, Mrs. Earl Strum, likewise answered another summons January 19. This mother daughter were greatly attached to each other and during life would not be separated for more than a few days at a time. Mrs. Strum had the privilege of living near her mother and was ever ready and did help her mother various ways with pieces of work and especially so in sickness. When the husband of Mrs. Moore and the father of Mrs. Strum was stricken seriously ill in 1920 and died after much suffering, both Mr. and Mrs. Strum remained at the old home for several weeks administering aid to the sick and relieving the family in many ways. Friends and relatives are still marveling at the fact that these two woman were never separated in life but a short time, neither were they in death. Mrs. Sarah Felton Moore, wife of John E. Moore, and daughter of Daniel Felton and Lucinda (England) Felton, was born June 17, 1864, died January 15, 1924. Age 59 years 6 months 28 days. The husband died in 1923 and the father several years ago. The deceased was united in marriage to John E, Moore, March 22, 1887. to this union were born six children namely, Carrie, Elsie,(deceased), Mrs. Earl Strum, who followed her mother in death, Dowden, Doyle and Mrs. I.E. Strum, are left to mourn their loss. The deceased is also survived by two brothers, one sister and four grand children besides a host of other friends and relatives. Mrs. Moore became a Christian at an early age and was always a kind and affectionate neighbor. Mr. and Mrs. Sturm had been staying at the old home when Mrs. Moore became ill and at this time she was unable to work, but the family found it better to have them both together. When Mrs. Moore did not seem to recover and gradually grew weaker, the family began to fear that Mrs. Strum could not stand the shock of her mothers death, yet a few days before Mrs. Moore's death, Mrs. Strum expressed a desire to move in her own home. Although the family was very much afraid the change would not be best for the sick, she insisted and they obeyed. The houses were not far apart and the daughter was carried back to look on her mother in death. Mrs. Moore suffered more than nine weeks of a general breakdown and after she was ill for a while typhoid seemed to hold away over her. Mrs. Strum had been ailing for months of what we might term a complication of diseases as so many were holding away in her body that we could not tell which was the most powerful. Iva Bessie Moore Strum was born February 2, 1892, died January 19, 1924. She became a Christian in 1910 and joined the U. B. Church at Arden. She was united in marriage to Earl Strum July 31, 1918. The husband, two brothers and one sister are left to mourn their loss besides a host of other relatives and friends. Mrs. Moore's remains were laid to rest in England cemetery January 17 and Mrs. Strum's January 20. To the bereaved ones, we extend our sympathy but point them to look upward always, from whence cometh all our strength. A niece and cousin. ______________________________X-Message: #3 Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2001 12:37:43 -0500 From: Bridgette Osz To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <3A6729E7.28309B67@eohio.net> Subject: Mrs. Louisa Smith--- Obit 1920 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Thursday April 22, 1920 Barbour Democrat Page 3 Mrs. Louisa Smith She and her twin brother, L. E. Gall, were born September 13, 1834 on the old Gall farm near Elk City and died March 28, 1920 at her daughters, Mrs. Annie Hudkins. There she had spent the last few months of her life, at the age of 85 years 6 months and 10 days. SHe was converted when a girl and joined the church and ever lived a Christian life. She has resided with her youngest son, Perry, since her husband's death, 20 years ago, at the old home on Brushy Fork, where the family resided the past 42y. She laid to rest beside her husband and daughter at Mt. Tabor church. She was married to Erasmus S. Smith Dec 31, 1857, who was born in Page County, VA, son of Michael and Susannah (nee Stepp) Smith, who was the son of Adam J. Smith, of Lancaster Co., PA. She was the youngest daughter of 12 children born to John and Margaret (nee Arbogast) Gall who emigrated from Highland County about 1830, after selling his ???yard at Galltown, now Vanderpool, VA. Geo. Gall his grandfather left Germany, near Bavaria with his two boys, (his wife being dead) one of which was buried on the ocean. Landing in PA in time of the Revolutionary War, he enlisted in the Continental army for 3 years, and was honorably discharged. Later he and his son George, 17 years old, enlisted under Gen. Washington and were at the Battle of Yorktown, when Cornwallis surrendered. Geo. Gall Sr., was given 100 British soldiers whom he took to Winchester, VA, and held them as prisoners of war till peace was made. He and his son George settled in Rockbrige County where his son married Miss Susanna Nichols. After her death he married Miss Catherine Rhoades, and by two wives he reared 20 children who lived to be married and reared families. In 1809 all the family moved to Highland County, Ohio, except John, who later moved to Barbour. Mrs. Smith was the mother of 11 children, three dying in infancy; Birdie Bell at sixteen, and seven left to mourn her departure; F. Marion, of Albemarle County, Va, Mrs. Jennie Hudkins of Weston, WV, Mrs. ??? Reed, of Indianapolis, IN, S. Lee, of Pruntytown, Mrs. Maggie Crites, Mrs. Annie Hudkins and Perry D., of Elk and two sisters Mrs. Susan Shank now 91y and Mrs. Jane Keyes 88y. All of her brothers and sisters lived to a good old age-- raging from 77 to 92, except David who died of brain fever when a young man. Her father and grand father both lived past 80. F. Marion Smith Jr. April 13, 1920 ______________________________X-Message: #4 Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2001 15:38:38 -0500 From: Bridgette Osz To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <3A67544D.750A2138@eohio.net> Subject: J. H. Haller-- obit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Philippi Republican Thursdau January 9, 1930 Page 1 We bow our heads in silence as the Death Angel to claim J. H. Haller, of Nestorville, WV. One of our noble church men, a loving husband and father and one of Barbour County's noble citizens has departed in his death. He was born in Barbour County and lived his life in the county. He was born November 10, 1855 and departed this life January 4, 1930, at the age of 74 years, one month and 24 days. He leaves to mourn his departure his wife, two sons and two daughters. Two children have preceded him to the Great Beyond. Two of his children are at the home single, one son lives near Nestorville. One daughter, Mrs. Stella M. Humphreys, at Rosemont. There are nine grand children. Brother Haller was converted at the age of 19 years and joined the United Brethren Church. Throughout life he was faithful in the church and to the Lord. All will miss him but none more than the church he loved so much. Funeral services were held Monday, January 6th, undertaker Mr. Nestor, of Nestorville in charge. Services were as follows; Singing led by A. C. Wilson; scripture lesson read at home by pastor; prayer by Rev W. H. Albert; scripture lesson at church read by Rev. Smalley; sermon by pastor, Rev. Scott; committal at grave, by pastor; prayer and benediction, by Rev. Gordon Nestor. We will miss you, Brother Haller, for you are gone, but we will greet you in heaven some bright morning His Pastor