THIS WEEK IN WV HISTORY: May 31–June 6

Presented by the WV Humanities Council,

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 31, 1841: Roman Catholic Bishop John Joseph Kain was born near Martinsburg. As bishop of the Diocese of Wheeling, he worked to meet the needs of newly arrived immigrants who came to labor in West Virginia’s mines and factories.

May 31, 1946: Writer Meredith Sue Willis was born in Clarksburg and raised in Shinnston. Willis has authored many children’s books and works on the subject of writing. Much of her adult fiction is set in West Virginia.

June 1, 1880: An 86-round bare-knuckle prize fight for championship of the world was held in the Brooke County town of Colliers, between defending champion Joe Goss and challenger Paddy Ryan. Boxing was illegal in every state, and matches were often held in railroad villages to avoid big-city police.

June 1, 1935: Musician Hazel Dickens was born in Mercer County, the eighth of 11 children. She was a pioneering old-time and bluegrass musician, known for preserving the traditional vocal styles of West Virginia. 

June 1, 1858: The Artists’ Excursion left Baltimore on its way to Wheeling. A Baltimore & Ohio executive planned the rail trip to promote tourism. About 50 passengers were on board, including artist and writer David Hunter Strother, who described the experience in an article for Harpers magazine.

June 2, 1951: Cornelius Charlton died of wounds he received in battle during the Korean War. Charlton, a Raleigh County native, was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously.

June 3, 1856: Harriet B. Jones was born in Pennsylvania. After attending Wheeling Female College and graduating from the Women’s Medical College of Baltimore, she opened a private practice in Wheeling, becoming the first woman licensed to practice medicine in West Virginia.

June 3, 1861: The first land battle of the Civil War between organized troops took place in Philippi. About 3,000 federal troops drove about 800 Confederates from the town.

June 3, 1861: A company of Confederate soldiers known as the Logan Wildcats was created at the Logan County Courthouse. The company, consisting of about 85 men, first saw action weeks later at the Battle of Scary Creek.

June 3, 1880: Benjamin Rosenbloom, to date the only Jewish member of Congress from West Virginia, was born in Pennsylvania. As a Republican representing Wheeling from 1921 to 1925, he was an outspoken opponent of Prohibition.

June 3, 1936: The first Strawberry Festival was held in Buckhannon. More than 6,000 spectators attended the festivities, which also included a parade of 30 princesses down Main Street.

June 4, 1971: A former Boone County coal miner hijacked a plane from Charleston and demanded to be flown to Israel. At Dulles Airport near Washington, he allowed the passengers and flight attendant to dismount but held the pilots and flight engineer at gunpoint for hours before they disarmed him. It is West Virginia’s only documented hijacking.

June 4, 1975: Clark Kessinger died in St. Albans, Kanawha County. Kessinger was among the most prolific and influential fiddlers of the 20th century.

June 5, 1859: A great frost killed crops in Preston County. The fields were replanted with hardy buckwheat, which became a staple crop, celebrated in the annual Buckwheat Festival in Kingwood.

June 5, 1915:  Four young people were killed at Rock Springs in Hancock County when the Old Mill ride caught fire.

June 6, 1919: Historian Otis Rice was born in Hugheston, Kanawha County. Rice was named West Virginia’s first Historian Laureate in 2003.

June 6, 1954: Award-winning children’s author Cynthia Rylant was born in Hopewell, Virginia, but spent much of her youth in Raleigh County and earned degrees from Morris Harvey College (now University of Charleston) and Marshall University. Her first book, When I Was Young in the Mountains (1982), is about growing up in southern West Virginia.

June 6, 1979: One of the oddest events in state history occurred when an old Douglas DC-6 cargo plane carrying 12 tons of marijuana plummeted over a hillside at Kanawha (now Yeager) Airport in Charleston. Hundreds of bales of marijuana spewed from the plane before it caught fire. Onlookers looted much of the marijuana before law enforcement officials could dispose of it. 

June 6, 1989: During the Pittston strike, about 60 miners embarked on a four-day march from Logan County to Charleston, following the reverse path of the 1921 Armed March.

e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia is a project of the West Virginia Humanities Council.  For more information contact the West Virginia Humanities Council, 1310 Kanawha Blvd. E., Charleston, WV 25301; (304) 346-8500; or visit e-WV at www.wvencyclopedia.org.