April 29, 1863: Confederate General William E. “Grumble” Jones waged a battle at Fairmont that involved a force of 500 regulars, home guards and volunteers. The Confederates prevailed, burning the personal library of Francis Pierpont, governor of the Restored Government of Virginia, and exploding an iron railroad bridge across the Monongahela River.
April 29, 1924: Playwright, teacher and actress Ann Kathryn Flagg was born in Charleston. She is best remembered for her play Great Gettin’ up Mornin’, which was broadcast by CBS-TV in 1964.
April 29, 1937: Rockabilly musician and songwriter Hasil Adkins was born in Boone County. Although his debut album was released in 1961, it was not until the 1980s punk phenomenon that his music gained an international following.
April 30, 1774: Relatives of Mingo Chief Logan were murdered by settlers in present-day Hancock County. Logan’s retaliation on settlements in the Upper Ohio and Monongahela valleys led to Lord Dunmore’s War and the Battle of Point Pleasant.
April 30, 1871: Coach Fielding “Hurry-Up” Yost was born in Marion County. He was a tackle on West Virginia University’s football team in 1895 and 1896, while earning a law degree. In 1901, Yost’s first season as coach at University of Michigan, the Wolverines compiled an 11-0 record, including a 49-0 defeat of Stanford in the first Rose Bowl.
April 30, 1927: An explosion roared through the Federal No. 3 mine owned by New England Fuel and Transportation Company of Everettville, Monongalia County. The explosion, subsequent fire and gas in the mine killed 97 men.
May 1, 1788: Pendleton County was created from Rockingham, Augusta and Hardy counties. The county was named for Virginia statesman Edmund Pendleton (1721–1803).
May 1, 1930: Labor leader and child welfare activist Mother Jones celebrated her birthday in Maryland. Jones, who was 100 years old by her count, appeared before newsreel cameras to condemn the Prohibition Act “as a curse upon the nation” that violated her right to have a beer instead of water.
May 2, 1738: Charles Washington, the founder of Charles Town, was born at Hunting Creek, Virginia. He was the youngest full brother of George Washington. He began construction of his home Happy Retreat near Charles Town but did not live to see it completed.
May 2, 1900: State founder Waitman Willey died in Morgantown. He is remembered for the Willey Amendment, which provided for the gradual emancipation of enslaved people as a precondition for creating 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 2, 2002: The Tug Fork River in McDowell County crested at a record 22.1 feet. The flood killed four people and destroyed or damaged hundreds of homes and businesses. The river reached this same level again in 2025.
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 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 4, 1865: Minister Adam Clayton Powell Sr. was born a free person of color in Franklin County, Virginia. He lived and worked many of his teenage years in eastern Kanawha County andlater became pastor of Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church, one of the nation’s largest churches.
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.
