Andrew's world West Virginia history

Photo sourced from WOWK 13 news With mother's day quickly approaching, I couldn't wait to write this post. I tell people every year about how mother's day started in West Virginia (spoiler alert: father's day did too). It started in Grafton, WV by a woman named Anna Jarvis. Anna wanted a day to commemorate everything her mother (also named Anna)  had done. Her mother was a communityactivist and led groups to combat childhood disease.  In 1908, which was 3 years after her mother passed (1905), Anna held a church service at St. Andrew's Methodist Episcopal church, after getting financial assistance from a Philidelphia department store owner named John Wanamaker. That same Sunday, a mother's day service was held in Philidelphia at one of Wanamaker's stores. After this, she began her campaign of letter writing to politicians and news papers to try to make mother's day a national holiday. In 1914, president Woodrow Wilson finally signed a measure

     Photo sourced from seedsavers.org       If you've been around people that raise a garden much in your life, you've probably tried the Mortgage lifter tomato. Mortgage Lifters are a pretty unique variety of tomato. They're usually big enough that a slice of one on a sandwich will be as big around as the bread, however they are hard to slice because they're so big and juicy.      My grandpa has always raised Mortgage lifters in his garden, so I'm pretty familiar with them. I was surprised to learn, not too long ago, that this cultivar was developed in West Virginia.      Theres a couple different stories about where exactly in WV this tomato originated and who it was developed by. Some people say it was a guy named William Esther from Barboursville, WV.      Others say it was in Logan county by a guy that they called "radiator charlie" who sold the tomatoes to pay off the mortgage on his house during the great depression, hence the name &quo

     One of my great, great grandpa's tobacco barns      Everywhere you look here in WV, there's probably an old barn, some are even a century or more old. Growing up in rural WV, I had the opportunity to explore  old barns and other structures from the past like corn cribs and coal houses. I've always been interested in these old structures, especially after I got a little older and started to really appreciate the craftsmanship and I wondered how people built these huge barns with the limited tools and technology of the day. I mean it wasn't like they rented a crane to lift these heavy logs.      Years ago they held gatherings called "barn raisings". The whole community would come together to help their neighbor build their barn. That's a thing of the past, though, I doubt you could assemble the whole community to do anything nowadays, much less something that doesn't benefit them.       They had different techniques for raising a barn, b

     Carnefix ferry state park, in Nicholas county, is to memorialize a civil war battle that occurred there September 10th, 1861 (about one year prior to the battle of Charleston- which I've also posted about.)      A battle that played a pivotal role in West Virginia's statehood. The battle      Following the events of the Battle of Kessler's Cross Lanes (not to be confused with the town of Cross Lanes in Kanawha county) union forces led by Brigadier General William S. Rosecrans attacked the confederates, led by General John B. Floyd, who were positioned around the Patterson farm, which set overlooking the Gauley River. Eventually Floyd had enough and retreated, down the mountain and back across the Gauley River under the cover of night, which to me seems like an impressive retreat. The Confederates have failed to regain control of the Kanawha valley. The political effects  Just after the battle at Carnefix Ferry, there were votes held in areas controlled by Federal force

Did you know the first brick paved street in America was in Charleston, Wv? Summers street. Some people say first in the world, but im pretty sure they were doing it in other parts of the world first. I mean the ancient Romans were building stone streets. Anyway, back to Summers street...      In 1870 a Charlestonian named Mordecai Levi had an idea for the streets of his City that he thought would be better than the hard packed dirt streets that turned to mud when it rained. His idea... Bricks. I'm not real sure how he got permission but he started paving Summers street that year and he was done by 1873. You gotta remember this was a time of horse and buggy, so I'm sure brick streets were a game changer.      I found a letter sent to the Centennial Commission of west virginia that said the street was on exhibit at the Chicago fair in 1933 after being confirmed to be the first in the U.S. Edit- I forgot to mention that this project was funded by John P. Hale (a prominent Charles

Did you know west virginia was almost called Kanawha? That's one fact I always thought was kind of cool. Lawmakers considered Kanawha as a name but I guess they thought it would be confusing because Western Virginia had a county by that same name (kanawha county originated in 1788) Original map of the proposed state of kanawha       So, lets talk about how West Virginia even became a state. Now, most of us know about West Virginia day and that it had something to do with the civil war but lets dive a little deeper. It all started with th Wheeling Conventions of 1881, which was an assembly of delegates from the north western part of Virginia. Their goal was to repeal the referendum to secede from the union and join the confederacy, that was passed in April, 1861 in Richmond. Their first meeting was held  May 13th- 15th. It was led by John Carlise of Clarksburg, and he called the newly proposed plan to secede treason against the United States.      The two sides of Virgin

     Lincoln county became a county in 1867, and the Civil War was between 1861 and 1865. So, obviously, Lincoln county wasn't technically a county yet, but the area did see some Civil War action.      The Battle of the Curry Farm took place near Hamlin in present day Lincoln county on May 29th, 1864.             The battle was a short one, with one casualty on the Union side. The battle started when the Confederates, commanded by John L. Chapman attacked a detachment of the 3rd West Virginia Calvary. When fired upon, the union force charged and drove off the confederates.            According to e-wv.com, there were several other military engagements in the area, but the Battle of Curry Farm is all I could find information on. Photo sourced from theclio.com Sources Renick, Ethan . "Skirmish At The Curry Farm." Clio: Your Guide to History. March 31, 2018. Accessed April 22, 2023. Lincoln county, Wikipedia.org Sources Renick, Ethan . "Skirmish At The Curry