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.
Nov. 24, 2008: Former Governor Cecil Underwood died in Charleston. Underwood, West Virginia’s 25th and 32nd governor, had the distinction of being the state’s youngest and oldest chief executive.
Nov. 24, 2015: For her accomplishments in the field of mathematics and science, Katherine Johnson received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama. Johnson worked for NASA calculating trajectories for manned space flights.
Nov. 25, 1896: Athlete Clinton Cyrus Thomas was born in Greenup, Kentucky. He starred in the Negro Leagues in the days when Major League Baseball was segregated. Thomas settled in Charleston after his playing days and had a long career in West Virginia state government.
Nov. 26, 1952: A fire on the evening before Thanksgiving at Huntington State Hospital killed 14 patients, with three more later dying from their injuries, making it the deadliest fire in state history. Huntington State Hospital is known today as the Mildred Mitchell-Bateman Hospital.
Nov. 26, 1861: The Constitutional Convention of 1861-63 was convened in Wheeling. The convention provided the foundation for state government in preparation for statehood.
Nov. 26, 1953: Politician Shelley Moore Capito was born in Glen Dale, the daughter of future congressman and governor Arch Moore. In 2001, she became the second woman ever to represent West Virginia in Congress and, in 2015, the first woman from the Mountain State to serve in the U.S. Senate.
Nov. 27, 1848: African American educator William H. Davis was born. As a teacher of Black children in Malden, his most famous student was Booker T. Washington. In 1888, Davis was nominated as an independent candidate for the gubernatorial election—to date, the only Black person so honored in West Virginia history.
Nov. 27, 1933: Daniel Boardman Purinton, a faculty member and president of West Virginia University, died. He was an early and strong supporter of co-education.
Nov. 28, 1864: In a local skirmish north of Moorefield, Rosser’s Confederate cavalry and McNeill’s Rangers rebuffed a raid by Union Col. R. E. Fleming and spared the South Branch Valley from destruction. The battlefields are part of the Middle South Branch Valley rural historic district.
Nov. 29, 1921: The actress Dagmar was born Virginia Ruth Egnor in Lincoln County. Her acting career took off in 1950 when she was hired to be on NBC’s “Broadway Open House,” the network’s first late-night television show.
Nov. 29, 2001: Writer John Knowles died in Florida. Knowles, born in Fairmont, attained literary fame in 1959 with his first novel, A Separate Peace.
Nov. 30, 1796: Brooke County was established under an act of the General Assembly of Virginia. The county was formed from part of Ohio County and named in honor of Robert Brooke, governor of Virginia.
