Oct. 29, 1861: Confederate commander Robert E. Lee ended his ill-fated western Virginia campaign. His three months in the region were marked by rain, mud, inexperienced officers, diseases among the troops and rampant criticism of his leadership.
Oct. 29-30, 2012: A rare October blizzard struck West Virginia as an aftermath to Hurricane Sandy accompanied by strong mid- and upper-level troughs in the jet stream. While the East Coast was getting flooded with rain, snow totals here were reaching up to three feet in Raleigh, Fayette, Nicholas, Webster, Upshur, Randolph, Pocahontas, Tucker, and Preston counties. Some areas received nearly four feet.
Oct. 30, 1825: Randolph McCoy was born in Logan County. In 1878, McCoy’s accusation against a cousin of Anderson “Devil Anse” Hatfield for stealing a hog set off a deadly series of events in the Hatfield-McCoy Feud.
Oct. 30, 1930: The first Mountain State Forest Festival in Elkins began on this day. It has been held ever since except for an eight-year gap in the 1940s.
Oct. 31, 1877: Herman Guy Kump was born in Capon Springs, Hampshire County. He was the 19th governor of West Virginia, serving from 1933 to 1937.
Oct. 31, 1940: Gale Catlett, West Virginia University basketball player and coach, was born in Hedgesville. Catlett coached WVU to 13 20-win seasons before he retired in 2002. His 439 victories make him the winningest men’s basketball coach in WVU basketball history.
Oct. 31, 1946: Labor leader Cecil Edward Roberts Jr. was born on Cabin Creek, Kanawha County. A sixth-generation coal miner and a fiery orator, Roberts has served as president of the United Mine Workers of America since 1995. He plans to retire in October.
Oct. 31, 1951: Football coach Nick Saban was born in Fairmont. As a quarterback, he led Monongah High School to a 1968 state championship. He went on to coach Louisiana State University and the University of Alabama to seven national championships (six with Alabama), the most of any coach in college football history.
Oct. 31, 1990: A nearly 20-month bitter lockout at Ravenswood Aluminum began when union contract negotiations broke down and supervisors turned away workers reporting for the midnight shift.
Nov. 1, 1688: Morgan Morgan was born in Wales. Traditionally, Morgan was considered the first White settler of West Virginia, but others were likely here first. He settled in the Bunker Hill area in 1731, building a log house that still remains.
Nov. 1, 1848: Israel Charles White was born in Monongalia County. White was West Virginia’s first state geologist, appointed in 1897 and serving until his death in 1927, working without pay for all but two of those years.
Nov. 1, 1961: The first non-commercial radio station in West Virginia, WMUL-FM at Marshall University, began broadcasting.
Nov. 2, 1859: John Brown was convicted of murder, treason and insurrection in the Jefferson County Courthouse at Charles Town. Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry galvanized the nation, further alienating North and South and drastically reducing any possible middle ground for compromise to avert the Civil War. Nov. 2, 1952: Tri-State Airport in Wayne County was dedicated, with the first official landing made at 11 a.m. by Piedmont Airlines.
Nov. 2, 1996: Baseball player Toni Stone died. Born in Bluefield, she joined the Negro American League in 1953, becoming the first woman to play pro baseball in a previously all-male major league.
Nov. 3, 1947: Kanawha Airport (now Yeager International Airport) was dedicated. World War I ace Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker was among the dignitaries present.
Nov. 4-5, 1985: Heavy rains led to devastating floods in parts of West Virginia. Forty-seven people were killed, and several towns were severely damaged.
