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 25, 1903: Industrialist and philanthropist Bernard Patrick McDonough Jr. was born in Texas. Starting with a Parkersburg construction business in the 1930s, McDonough built a Fortune 500 company with operations in hand tools, building materials and barge building. The Bernard McDonough Foundation remains one of the largest private foundations in West Virginia.
May 25, 1937: William H. “Teepi” Kendrick died in Morgantown. Kendrick was a pioneer in West Virginia’s 4-H program. He broadened the program to emphasize more than just agriculture, and he was primarily responsible for establishing the state 4-H camp at Jackson’s Mill.
May 26, 1895: Athlete Ira Errett “Rat” Rodgers was born in Bethany. He was WVU’s first football All-American, lettering in 1915–17 and 1919.
May 26, 1923: Playwright Maryat Lee was born in Kentucky. In 1970, she moved to Summers County and developed her Eco Theater into a national organization.
May 27, 1912: Golf legend Sam Snead was born at Ashwood, Virginia. When The Greenbrier reopened as a resort after World War II, Snead returned as the golf pro. Snead is tied with Tiger Woods for most career PGA wins: 82.
May 27, 1922: Labor leader Bill Blizzard was acquitted of treason charges following the 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain. The trial was held in the Jefferson County Courthouse, where John Brown had been convicted of treason against Virginia in 1859.
May 28, 1863: Arthur Boreman was elected as the first governor of the new state of West Virginia.
May 28, 1920: Elmer Bird–“The Banjo Man from Turkey Creek”–was born in Putnam County. He was named best old-time banjo player in the country four times in his 60s.
May 28, 1938: Basketball player Jerry West was born on Cabin Creek, Kanawha County. West led East Bank High School to the state basketball championship in 1956 and then rewrote the record books at West Virginia University and with the Los Angeles Lakers.
May 28, 1998: The Robert C. Byrd United States Courthouse in downtown Charleston was dedicated. The 440,000-square-foot building incorporated Neoclassic, Egyptian and Art Deco designs.
May 29, 1778: Dick Pointer, an enslaved man, helped defend Fort Donnally near Lewisburg from an attack by Shawnee Indians during the Revolutionary War.
May 29, 1949: Singer-songwriter and labor activist Elaine Purkey was born in West Hamlin, Lincoln County. She is best remembered for her labor anthem “One Day More.”
May 29, 1961: Alderson and Chloe of Bradshaw, McDowell County, received the first food stamps in the nation. He was an unemployed coal miner, and they were the parents of 15 children.
May 30, 1883: The Soldiers Aid Society of Wheeling dedicated the Soldiers and Sailors Monument to honor Civil War Union veterans. It now stands beside West Virginia Independence Hall in Wheeling.
May 30, 1914: Nurse Dolores Dowling was born in Ohio and graduated from Huntington’s St. Mary’s Hospital. During World War II, she was one of the first American nurses to land during the 1943 Sicily invasion at Gela.
May 30, 1940: Smoke Hole Caverns in Grant County opened for tours. The cave is beautifully decorated with stalactites hanging in rows along the ceiling; the main room is called the “Room of a Million Stalactites.”
May 30, 1881: Frederick Douglass gave a notable speech at Storer College in Harpers Ferry honoring John Brown, who was executed for his abolitionist raid on the town’s armory in 1859.
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 books for children and on the subject of writing, and much of her adult fiction is set in West Virginia.
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.
