Seán Duffy

63 Articles

Seán Patrick Duffy is the programming coordinator at the Ohio County Public Library and the Executive Director of the Wheeling Academy of Law and Science (WALS) Foundation at the First State Capitol in Wheeling, where he manages the Reuther-Wheeling Library and Labor History Archive. He earned a BA in History and an MBA from Wheeling Jesuit University, and a JD from the American University. He is the author of three books on local history: The Wheeling Family: A Celebration of Immigrants & Their Neighborhoods (2008), Wheeling: Then & Now with Paul Rinkes (2010), and The Wheeling Family, Volume 2: More Immigrants, Migrants & Neighborhoods (2012). He also edited and co-authored Legendary Locals of Wheeling (2013) with Brent Carney and numerous local contributors. Seán was named a History Hero by the West Virginia Division of Culture and History in 2010 and is a member of the West Virginia Independence Hall Foundation Board.

Ohio County Public Library Archives

Fire & Ice

Seán Duffy December 9, 2015December 24, 2015 4 Comments 13950 Views

Wheeling’s House & Herrmann Department Store Burns to the Ground After a Winter Storm

An early depiction of the House & Herrmann Department Store.

Ninety-eight years ago today, on December 9, 1917, a natural gas explosion triggered one of the most destructive fires in Wheeling’s history. On a quiet Sunday evening, the six-story House & Herrmann department store on the southwest corner of Market and 14th Streets, an anchor in one of Wheeling’s busiest commercial hubs, caught fire. Despite bitter cold and icy conditions that hampered firefighting efforts, the blaze was intense enough to damage some of the surrounding structures. By the next morning, the retail giant, succumbing to a peculiar alliance of fire and ice, had been reduced to a smoldering, icicle-strewn ruin.

Ohio County Public Library Archives

A Presidential Whistle-Stop

Seán Duffy October 23, 2015October 23, 2015 Leave a Comment 9595 Views

Featured Image: Truman's Whistle-Stop in Wheeling

Harry S. Truman Visits Wheeling on October 23, 1952

Can you imagine more than 3,500 cheering people crammed into the intersection of 17th and Eoff Streets in East Wheeling?

Harry S. Truman's Whistle-Stop speech at 17th and Eoff on October 23, 1952 and how the same corner looks today. — UPI photo of Harry S. Truman’s Whistle-Stop speech at 17th and Eoff on October 23, 1952, and how the same corner looks today. Ohio County Public Library Archives.

That’s how many showed up 63 years ago today on the morning of October 23, 1952, when President Harry S. Truman rolled into town on his special 15-car campaign train, arriving at the Baltimore and Ohio Passenger station during a Whistle-Stop campaign, stumping for Gov. Adlai Stevenson, the Democratic nominee to replace Truman as president. Read More

Ohio County Public Library Archives West Virginia Northern Community College Alumni Association

Forever Young

Seán Duffy October 13, 2015October 20, 2015 5 Comments 15907 Views

Featured Image: JJ Young, Train Photographer

J.J. Young, Railroad Photographer

“WHOOWOOOOOOOOO…WHOWOO…WHOWOO…WHOWOO! A hoot whistle cuts through the hazy shimmering heat of a steamy Ohio River Valley mid-July morning in Wheeling, West Virginia. Hey! Listen. A Humper’s just whistled out the th’ flag. He’s gonna take water at Bridgeport. Let’s go get ’em! (a ‘Humper’ is local slang for a B&O lake coal train working ‘over the hump’ from Wheeling to Holloway, Ohio). You grab camera and film and take off running. Down 14th Street, up Eoff Street, cut thru the Yellow Cab’s back lot, up Chapline Street past the post office, over 10th Street and across Market, attacking auto and pedestrian traffic like a Kamikaze trainee.” -J.J. Young

Archiving Wheeling Local History Researcher

Avalon on the Ohio

Seán Duffy September 18, 2015September 18, 2015 3 Comments 22313 Views

Wheeling’s Short-Lived Coney Island Amusement Park

by Kate Quinn and Seán Duffy

An Archiving Wheeling Partnership with Weelunk.
For more great Wheeling stories visit www.weelunk.com.

“Avalon will always be there for all men to find if they can seek the way thither, throughout all the ages past the ages. If they cannot find the way to Avalon, it is a sign, perhaps, that they are not ready.”― Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon

No buildings are visible in this early 20th century view of the Sisters Islands from Martins Ferry.

What if I told you that you could see camels, ride a roller coaster, visit a German beer garden, fly to the North Pole in an airship, roller skate, dance, travel to Damascus, and take in Vaudeville shows all in the middle of the Ohio River near Warwood? Would you believe me? Well, during a long ago summer, you could do all of those things and more, on a magical little island dubbed “Coney.”

Ohio County Public Library Archives

When Hollywood Came to Moundsville

Seán Duffy September 3, 2015September 4, 2015 8 Comments 16478 Views

“Kid Kirk” and the Making of Fools’ Parade

Jeff Kirk, Kurt Russell's stand in for Fools' Parade. — Jeff Kirk, Kurt Russell’s stand in for Fools’ Parade.“

In the opening scenes of the 1971 motion picture Fools’ Parade (based on the Davis Grubb novel of the same name), as the stars of the film leave Moundsville prison and climb into a car with the credits still rolling, a young man dressed in overalls can be seen peering at the coming attractions in front of the Strand Theatre. He turns around and looks at the car as it stops at a stop sign.

That young man is 18-year-old Jeff Kirk of Martins Ferry, Ohio. His family once owned and operated Kirk’s Art Studio on Market Street in Wheeling. How did young Jeff end up appearing, even briefly, in a major Hollywood motion picture? It was all about a vintage car.

Archiving Wheeling

Glass Elephants, Revolvers, and Bulldogs

Seán Duffy August 30, 2015August 31, 2015 3 Comments 9024 Views

The Whimsical World of North Wheeling Glass

A historically important glass manufacturing center, around the turn of the 20th century, Wheeling and the surrounding Ohio Valley was teeming with active firms like Central Glass Works in East Wheeling, Northwood Glass in South Wheeling, Crystal Glass Company in Bridgeport, Imperial Glass in Bellaire, Fostoria in Moundsville, and Riverside Glass Works in Wellsburg, just to name a few.

But perhaps the most unusual glass manufacturer of the period was the lesser-known North Wheeling Glass Company. Read More

Ohio County Public Library Archives

A Timeless Curiosity

Seán Duffy July 13, 2015October 16, 2019 14 Comments 19534 Views

Wheeling’s Distinctive Table Rock

Glennova Development 1902 Glennova (named after Glenn's Run) was a real estate development in present-day Warwood, promoted by W. E. Stone, J.A. Miller, W.H. Frank, M.J. McFadden, L.E. Sands and H.C. Ogden (a who's who of Wheeling business!) in 1902. This appeared in the Aug. 1, 1902 Wheeling Intelligencer. — Glennova (named for Glenn’s Run) was a real estate development in present-day Warwood, promoted by W. E. Stone and H.C. Ogden, among others. This appeared in the Aug. 1, 1902 Wheeling Intelligencer.

If you’ve ever driven Cherry Hill Road to Tablerock Lane near Glenn’s Run, you’ve driven fairly closely by it*, probably without even realizing it. Personally, I’ve lived in Wheeling for nearly half a century, and I’ve driven that route hundreds of times, but had never actually seen it until just the other day.

Yet in the old days, when Wheeling’s hills were bereft of trees, the Table Rock was, no doubt, quite a stand-out feature on the rolling hills above Glennova (now part of Warwood).

Archiving Wheeling

On the Shoulders of a Bronze Giant

Seán Duffy June 27, 2015September 3, 2015 Leave a Comment 3358 Views

Putting Francis Pierpont on a Pedestal

This gallery of photographs documents the installation and dedication of a nine foot tall bronze statue of Gov. Francis Pierpont, “the Father of West Virginia,” at the northwest corner of 16th and Market Streets in front of the “birthplace of West Virginia,” aka West Virginia Independence Hall, in Wheeling, on June 19 and 20, 2015.

For more information on Gov. Pierpont, click here, here, and here. Read More

Archives of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston Ohio County Public Library Archives

Founding Physician and Civil War Surgeon

Seán Duffy June 9, 2015June 19, 2015 2 Comments 7721 Views

Featured Image: Dr. John Frissell Collection

The Dr. John Frissell Collection

Courtesy of the Archives of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, artifacts from the fascinating Dr. John Frissell Collection of Civil War era medical implements are now on display for the first time anywhere at the Ohio County Public Library. The collection was acquired from a local antiques dealer, who purchased the estate of a descendant of Dr. John Frissell, circa 2009.

The Frissell House on 14th Street (built in 1835), one of the oldest structures in Wheeling. (Landmarks of Old Wheeling by Milton) — The Frissell House, built in 1835, one of the oldest structures in Wheeling. (Landmarks of Old Wheeling by Milton)

For nearly a century, members of the Frissell family occupied a humble brick home on Monroe Street (now 14th), now one of the oldest extant structures in downtown Wheeling. Within the walls—both a residence and office—a small clinic was opened, and as late as the 1970s, medical instruments and supplies could still be found in the basement. ^[1] Instruments, such as those found in the 70s, are now part of the Diocese’s Frissell Collection. Read More

Archives of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston Ohio County Public Library Archives

No Survivors: 101 Years Ago Today in Benwood

Seán Duffy April 28, 2015April 28, 2025 22 Comments 54810 Views

The Benwood Mine Disaster of April 28, 1924

One hundred one years ago today, on the rainy morning of Monday, April 28, 1924, an explosion at the coal mine operated by the Wheeling Steel & Iron Corporation in Benwood took the lives of 119 men, most of them recent immigrants. There were no survivors. It remains the third worst mining disaster in the history of West Virginia, a state plagued by numerous coal mining accidents. Read More