Archiving Wheeling

A Witness to History

Margaret Brennan November 11, 2015November 24, 2015 Leave a Comment 4796 Views

Featured Image: Benwood Boy at Yalta Conference

Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill, and a Boy from Benwood

Andrew "Pepper" Kramer, Military Police, U.S. Army, 1943. — Andrew “Pepper” Kramer, Military Police, U.S. Army, 1943.

In observance of Veterans Day, November 11, 2015, we remember the amazing World War II experiences of a local man, Andrew “Pepper” Kramer, the brother of Dr. Mike Medovic’s mother. The family was from Benwood, and Andrew’s two brothers also served in Second World War, one at Omaha Beach and another with the Air Force in the South Pacific.

Sometimes we are in the right place in the right time, often through no action of our own, and we find ourselves in the middle of something much bigger than we could ever imagine. That was probably the case for Andrew, who took some very special pictures of three of the giants of modern history. Read More

Ohio County Public Library Archives

Memories in Hand

Ohio County Public Library Archives November 2, 2015May 30, 2025 Leave a Comment 4842 Views

Honoring Our Veterans

Participate in the Memories in Hand: Veterans Project

Are you a U.S. military veteran from the Wheeling/Ohio Valley area? Do you have a relative or close friend who served?

Just bring your favorite photo of your veteran.

If so, we invite you to participate in a new project of the Ohio County Public Library Archives called, “Memories in Hand,” a part of our ongoing Wheeling Memory Project. Read More

Ohio County Public Library Archives

Iron Mummies Haunt These Hills

Erin Rothenbuehler October 31, 2015October 31, 2015 Leave a Comment 19980 Views

Featured Image: Fisk's Metallic Burial Cases

Fisk Metallic Burial Cases and the Old Catholic Cemetery

It is, perhaps, one of the most popular photographs in the W.C. Brown Collection — especially this time of year, when ghouls and goblins are rumored to roam freely on the eve of All Saints Day.

“1896 — These iron coffins, resembling Egyptian mummy cases were found in the old Catholic cemetery near the old Reyman brewery. As Wheeling was an iron city, it is likely that they were made here. They were used in England and Germany during the 19th century.”
-W.C. Brown

Standing sentinel, high on a high hill, a mummified iron casket keeps watch over a fallen friend in the abandoned cemetery. Propped stiffly against empty burial vault walls, all that remains of what was once entombed inside is an empty black face that peers eerily out towards East Wheeling. Read More

Ohio County Public Library Archives

A Presidential Whistle-Stop

Seán Duffy October 23, 2015October 23, 2015 Leave a Comment 9528 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 15816 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

Local History Researcher

Stogie Town

John Bowman September 25, 2015January 5, 2017 Leave a Comment 11295 Views

Only a Stogie from Wheeling Can Be a Wheeling Stogie

A variety of cigar boxes featuring "Wheeling Stogies" labels. From the collections of Thaddeus Podratsky. — Only stogies manufactured in Wheeling were able to sport the “Wheeling Stogies” label. From the collections of Thaddeus Podratsky.

No, this headline is not meant to be a tribute to the late great Yogi Berra, though it sounds like something he might have said. In fact, this is federal law.

Indeed, by federal law, for a stogie to be called a “Wheeling Stogie” it must be made in Wheeling.

Boston, July 6, 1899, in the United States Circuit Court, Judge Colt handed down a decision holding that, “stogies bearing the name of ‘Wheeling’ or ‘Wheeling Stogies’, could not be manufactured in Boston or elsewhere other than Wheeling and sold as ‘Wheeling Stogies’.”

Archiving Wheeling Local History Researcher

Avalon on the Ohio

Kate Quinn September 18, 2015September 18, 2015 3 Comments 22224 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 16324 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 8971 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

Local History Researcher

He Didn’t Give Up the Ship

John Kniesner August 14, 2015 Leave a Comment 6798 Views

Wheeling’s Little Known Hero of Lake Erie

Perry Leaves the Lawrence by artist Dean Mosher. John Yarnall is shown with wound to his head. — Perry Leaves the Lawrence by artist Dean Mosher. John Yarnall is shown with a wound to his head.

For a small city, Wheeling can boast a veritable pantheon of legendary figures, from frontier folk like Betty Zane and Samuel McColloch, to modern notables like Eleanor Steber and Walter Reuther. But there was a man from Wheeling whose name and deeds, while deserving of similar legendary status, remain relatively obscure and unknown.

That man’s name was John Joliffe Yarnall (1786-1815), and his heroic deeds helped win the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812. Read More

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