Sept. 23, 1923: Folk artist Herman Hayes was born in Elkview, Kanawha County. His woodcarvings were displayed in Washington and New York City, and he twice won the top award in the West Virginia Juried Exhibition.
Sept. 23, 1938: The Mingo Oak was cut down after succumbing to the fumes of a burning coal refuse pile. The Mingo Oak, which stood near the Logan-Mingo County line, was more than 500 years old and may have been the largest white oak in the world.
Sept. 24, 1911: Laura Jackson Arnold died in Buckhannon. The sister of Stonewall Jackson, she was a staunch Unionist during the Civil War, opening her home to care for injured Union soldiers.
Sept. 24, 1918: George Spencer “Spanky” Roberts was born in London, Kanawha County. He entered aviation cadet training with the first class of Tuskegee Airmen and became the first Black military pilot from West Virginia.
Sept. 25, 1864: Confederate Col. George Smith Patton was killed at the Third Battle of Winchester during the Civil War. Patton, a Charleston lawyer, had organized the Kanawha Riflemen, a Virginia militia company. He was the grandfather of Gen. George S. Patton of World War II.
Sept. 25, 1866: Editor and publisher M. T. Whittico was born in Virginia. He moved to Keystone about 1900 and made the McDowell Times the preeminent Black newspaper in West Virginia, with topics ranging from race issues to life in the coalfields. He also played a key role in McDowell County Republican politics.
Sept. 26, 1781: Gen. Andrew Lewis died in Bedford County, Virginia. The Irish-born surveyor, militia officer and legislator led Virginia forces to victory over Cornstalk’s allied tribes at the 1774 Battle of Point Pleasant.
Sept. 26, 1816: David Hunter Strother was born in Martinsburg. He was an artist and an author who used the pen name “Porte Crayon.”
Sept. 26, 1863: The Great Seal of West Virginia was adopted by the legislature. The seal, which has remained unchanged, was designed by Joseph H. Diss Debar.
Sept. 26, 1880: Labor leader John Bertram Easton was born in Pennsylvania. He came to Williamstown, Wood County, to work for Fenton Glass in 1907. He was president of the Parkersburg Trades and Labor Assembly before becoming president of the West Virginia Federation of Labor in 1924.
Sept. 26, 1955: Wheeling College (now University) first opened its doors to students. It is West Virginia’s only Catholic institution of higher learning.
Sept. 27, 1914: Author Catherine Marshall was born in Johnson City, Tennessee. Her family moved to West Virginia and lived in Keyser during the late 1920s and the 1930s. Her best-loved novel, Christy (1967), was based on her mother’s girlhood in the southern mountains.
Sept. 28, 1955: Labor activist Sarah “Mother” Blizzard died at age 90. Blizzard was deeply involved in the United Mine Workers of America, from the organization’s early beginnings in the late 19th century.
Sept. 28, 1965: The first national recreation area within a U.S. national forest was established when President Lyndon B. Johnson created the Spruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area in Pendleton County.
Sept. 29, 1861: The Kanawha Valley experienced severe flooding. The Kanawha River reached 46.87 feet in Charleston, more than 16 feet above flood stage.
Sept. 29, 1927: Artist June Kilgore was born in Huntington. She was an abstract expressionist painter who spent 30 years as an art professor at Marshall University.
