The following events happened on these dates in West Virginia history. To read more, go toe-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia at www.wvencyclopedia.org.
May 15, 1880: The state’s first telephone exchange was placed in service in Wheeling with about 25 subscribers.
May 15, 1886: Minnie Buckingham Harper was born in Winfield. She was the first Black woman to serve as a member of a state legislative body in the United States. She was appointed by Governor Howard Gore on January 10, 1928, to fill the unexpired term of her husband, E. Howard Harper.
May 15, 1893: Albert Sidney “Sid” Hatfield, controversial police chief of Matewan and martyred hero to union coal miners, was born near Matewan, on the Kentucky side of Tug Fork.
May 15, 1953: George Brett, the Hall of Fame third baseman for the Kansas City Royals, was born in Glen Dale in Marshall County. Along with Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Stan Musial, and Miguel Cabrera, he is one of only five players in Major League history to accumulate 3,000 hits, 300 home runs and a .300 career batting average.
May 16, 1778: About 300 Wyandot and Mingo Indians attacked Fort Randolph at Point Pleasant. Unable to take the fort, they proceeded up the Kanawha River toward other settlements.
May 16, 1815: Politician Alexander Boteler was born in Shepherdstown. He served in both the U.S. and Confederate congresses, was a key adviser to “Stonewall” Jackson, and co-founded what is now Shepherd University.
May 16, 1928: Minister Robert Graetz Jr. was born in Clarksburg. He helped organize the Montgomery bus boycott and was the only White minister in the highly segregated Alabama city to support the boycottpublicly.
May 17, 1854: A violent windstorm swept up the Ohio River and severely damaged the Wheeling Suspension Bridge.
May 17, 1862: The Battle of Pigeon Roost took place in Princeton during the Civil War. Union soldiers were noisily approaching Princeton from the southeast, unaware that the Confederates were lying in ambush. The attack left an estimated 18 federal troops killed and 38 wounded.
May 18, 1955: While pitching for the Chicago Cubs, Monongah native Sam Jones became the first Black pitcher in Major League Baseball history to toss a no-hitter.
May 18, 2012: Ice Mountain in Hampshire County was named a National Natural Landmark by the U.S. Department of the Interior at a ceremony to mark the 50th anniversary of the program.
May 19, 1920: Ten people were killed in a shootout sometimes referred to as the Matewan Massacre. Baldwin-Felts detectives came to Matewan to evict striking miners and their families, but Police Chief Sid Hatfield tried to stop the evictions as being unauthorized by law.
May 20, 1949: Nick Joe Rahall II was born in Beckley. When Rahall first entered Congress in 1977, he was its youngest member.
May 21, 1853: William M. O. Dawson was born in Bloomington, Maryland, just across the Potomac River from what is now the Eastern Panhandle. In 1905, he became West Virginia’s 12th governor.
