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<\/a><\/p>\nOn February 2, 2021, we presented a Lunch With Books Livestream program<\/a>\u00a0for the Ohio County Public Library<\/a>, exploring the lives, times, and achievements of nine leaders of Wheeling\u2019s African American community during the era of \u201cJim Crow\u201d segregation<\/a>, including: barber Henry Boose Clemens<\/a>; police officer William Alexander Turner<\/a>; firefighter Ashby Jackson<\/a>; attorney Harry H. Jones<\/a>; medical doctors Boswell Henson Stillyard, Julia Katherine Pronty Davis<\/a>; Robert Maceo Hamlin<\/a>; and Alga Wade Hamlin<\/a>; and musician Will H. Dixon<\/a>.<\/p>\n This post, about Dr. B.H. Stillyard (1847-1916), will serve as the first supplement to our livestream video. An additional supplement will be posted soon.<\/p>\n Boswell Henson Stillyard was born January 1, 1847, in Port Tobacco, Maryland, just outside of Washington, DC. The Crisis<\/em><\/a> magazine, official publication of the NAACP, noted that Stillyard was \u201cof slave parentage.\u201d Yet, \u201cHe was an ambitious and self-taught man. He would sit up at night in a fireless room wrapped in a quilt that he might learn how to read and write.\u201d [1]<\/p>\n At the age of 29, Stillyard was admitted to Howard University<\/a>, an historically black college located in Washington, D.C., where he studied from 1876 through 1877. Between 1879 and 1881, he attended Union College<\/a> in Albany, N.Y. studying with the medical department. He transferred back to Howard University, entering the medical college there in 1881. [2] While there, he wrote a paper published in Galliard\u2019s Medical Journal<\/em> titled, \u201cHydatids from disease of the chorion.\u201d [3]<\/p>\n After graduating from Howard in 1882, Stillyard came to Wheeling, which at the time, was still the state capital of West Virginia<\/a>. Charleston, would not become the permanent capital for another three years, in 1885. Shortly before Stillyard arrived in Wheeling, the West Virginia Board of Health had just been established by an Act pushed through state legislation by Dr. James Edmund Reeves<\/a>. [4]<\/p>\n Dr. Reeves, a founding member of the American Public Health Association, came to Wheeling in 1868, becoming the city\u2019s first permanent health officer in 1869. In 1881, he drafted the West Virginia Board of Health Act and helped shepherd the bill through state legislature. It passed in 1882, and Reeves became the State Board\u2019s first Secretary. In addition to creating a state public health body, the law also vested the State Board with legal power to license medical practice. To practice medicine in Wheeling, Stillyard would have to take the newly required medical exams under the fledgling State Board headed by Reeves, a Democrat and purported Confederate sympathizer. Despite his political leanings, according to the book, Professionalizing Medicine: James Reeves and the Choices That Shaped American Health Care<\/em><\/a>, Reeves appreciated that Wheeling\u2019s black community needed its own physicians. Stillyard passed the exams and was licensed to practice medicine, June 28, 1882. The Wheeling Register<\/em> applauded Reeves licensing of Stillyard, reporting: \u201cA Democratic Board was more than willing to give the colored brother a chance.\u201d [5]<\/p>\n That fall, Reeves had another physician, a white man named Frank Dent<\/a> \u2013 who had been a doctor in Fairmont for six years when the State Board was formed \u2013 arrested for practicing medicine without a license. Unlike Stillyard, Dent had not passed the state exams. His arrest sparked almost immediate legal challenges to the Board of Health Act. Eventually, the challenges would lead to the landmark 1889 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Dent v. West Virginia<\/a>,<\/em> which held that states could set reasonable requirements for physicians to obtain a medical license in order to practice. The decision made West Virginia\u2019s system of medical licensing a model for other states. [6]<\/p>\n This was the zeitgeist in which Stillyard entered the medical profession in Wheeling.<\/p>\n After establishing his practice as a physician and surgeon, first at 1124 and later a 1111 Eoff Street, [7] Stillyard quickly gained respect in the community, often referenced in the newspapers as a \u201cprominent\u201d or \u201cwell-known colored physician of this City.\u201d In 1883, he was one of the leaders of an early civil rights meeting held at the Upper Market House along with Prof. James McHenry Jones<\/a> (principal of Lincoln School) and Col. Alexander Turner, father of Wheeling\u2019s first African American policeman William Alexander Turner<\/a>. [8]<\/p>\n In 1885, Dr. Stillyard was selected to run for Wheeling\u2019s (at the time) bicameral, partisan City Council representing the 2nd Ward\u2019s second branch (the forerunner of Wheeling\u2019s current form of non-partisan Manager-Mayor government with a single representative from each ward would not be installed until 1917). He was also listed a candidate for the Republication Delegate to the Convention for the Ward along with H.B. Clemens. [9] According to the Wheeling Daily Intelligencer<\/em>, city Democrats ran \u201cToo Thin A Scheme\u201d to lure votes away from Stillyard. [10]<\/p>\n \u201cSome of the Democrats in the Second Ward are endeavoring to work a very fine scheme to secure votes from the colored men living in the ward. One proposition they make to the colored voters is, to scratch off [opponents] Messrs. Hearne and Tracy, two of the Republican candidates for the Second Branch of Council, and that in that way, they will be able to make their ballot count three for Stillyard, the third nominee on the ticket; that is the only way in which Dr. Stillyard can be elected. The ones who are endeavoring to work this racket have thus far met with little or no success. The colored voters of this city are too intelligent to be caught by such utter nonsense.<\/p>\n The other propositions is, that if the voter will cast a ballot for Porter Smith for Sergeant, the Democrat will vote Stillyard for Council. All such propositions should be hooted at, for they are only intended to deceive and defeat the excellent ticket the Republicans have in the field.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Stillyard\u2019s run for City Council that year failed. He lost the race to his two Republican opponents, garnering 316 votes to Mr. Tracy\u2019s 377 and Mr. Hearne\u2019s 370. It was noted that only one Democratic candidate received more votes than Stillyard, and at that, by only a 12-vote margin. The Intelligencer<\/em> reported following the election that, \u201cthe Democrats are trying to create the impression that the Republicans of the Second Ward nominated a colored man, Dr. Stillyard, then deliberately deserted him\u2026 That it will not \u2018hold water\u2019 is easily seen by an examination of the vote cast in that ward.\u201d Though the vote fell heavily toward the Republican ticket in the Second Ward, Democrats won a majority of sixteen seats to twelve in the Council\u2019s Second Branch that year. An ugly flyer designed to thwart the Republican vote outside the largely Black Distract had been \u201cprofusely scattered over the wards south of the creek.\u201d The Intell<\/em> continued, \u201cThis sudden friendship of the Democracy for the colored man looks strange in view of one of the electioneering schemes used by members of the party.\u201d On the flyer was printed the Republican ticket along with the words, \u201cNiggers For Police\u201d printed in large red letters. \u201cThis shows to some degree how much the race prejudice had to do with the vote\u2026 The intent and desire is plain, and that the dodge had its effect is apparent on the returns.\u201d [11]<\/p>\n Dr. Stillyard was asked again to run for City Council in 1887, but he declined. [12]<\/p>\n The following year, on February 6, 1888, Stillyard appealed to Republicans to end segregation within the Party in a letter to the editor of the local Democratic newspaper, the Wheeling Register<\/em>:<\/p>\n \u201cSir:\u2014Allow me a space in your paper in which to enter my protest against what I consider to be a great wrong among our people in calling separate meetings from our white Republican friends for the purpose of forming a colored Republican club. We are Republican voters and tax payers in common with our white Republican brethren and should be so regarded and allowed to join the different clubs in the various wards wherein we live and pay tax. In my humble judgment not to be allowed to join the various clubs is un-Republican and un-American. If we are Republicans, which all must admit that we are, from the fact of our past history and our fidelity to the party, all we ask is justice for ourselves. Our votes are the same, our taxes are the same. That being the fact, then why should we have separate clubs? If we are to be represented in the formation of a State league we should be represented as Republicans and not colored Republicans. The following day, the letter was met with an anonymous response, cryptically signed \u201cJ,\u201d which reads as another attempt by Democrats of the time \u2013 this time using Stillyard\u2019s plea \u2013 to pull the black vote away from the Republican party.<\/p>\n \u201cSir:\u2014The card of Dr. Stillyard in your issue of yesterday is a very proper one. The colored vote is a very important factor in the Republican party. Without it they would not have the \u2018ghost of a show.\u2019 Then why, in the name of sense, should they ask the colored brother to go to the expense and trouble of organizing separate clubs? Why not receive him into full communion? The fact is the white. Republicans wish to use the colored man, as they have done these many years, to pull the chestnuts out of the fire, and give him none of the meat. It is a surprising fact that the colored man does not see the true policy of the Republican party. It is false to them in all things, even the claim that they gave their freedom is false, as all intelligent men know. As late as 1862, after the war was half fought, Mr. Lincoln issued a proclamation to the Confederates offering to secure them in all their rights, including slavery, if they would lay down their arms and return to the Union, and from the election in 1860 up to the time when the emancipation proclamation was issued they asserted time after time that the war was not waged for the abolition of slavery, but for the Union. As it was the men who abolished slavery were the brave men in the army, composed of Democrats and Republicans alike. It is time the colored men should know that they do not owe their freedom to Republican politicians. History proves the foregoing selfish purpose, and there is no reason to believe the policy of the party will be changed in the future. When the colored man asserts his freedom by voting to suit himself, and not in herd like sheep, then, and not till then, will the Republican politicians give him a share of the honors and emoluments. J.\u201d [14]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n On September 15, 1886, Dr. Stillyard married 21-year-old Jennie Meade. Originally from Fairmont, WV, Meade was the daughter of a hotel porter and housekeeper and had attended Storer College<\/a>, an historically black college in Harpers Ferry, WV, which operated from 1867 to 1956. [15]. Just one month after Stillyard\u2019s letter to the editor ran in the Register<\/em>, the couple moved to Topeka, Kansas in March of 1888, living for three and a half years in what the Topeka State Journal<\/em> called, \u201cHell\u2019s Half Acre.\u201d [16] The Intelligencer<\/em> noted that \u201cHis departure is a real loss to the colored circles of this city.\u201d [17] In addition to the state of West Virginia, Dr. Stillyard also earned licensure in Kansas and Illinois. [18]<\/p>\n When Jennie Stillyard\u2019s health began to fail in 1891, the couple moved back to Wheeling. [19] After years of declining health, she died at the tragically young age of 27 on February 1,1893 of phthsis, a type of pulmonary tuberculosis or a similarly progressive systemic disease. [20]<\/p>\n The orator at Jennie\u2019s funeral at Simpson A. M. E. church was Professor James McHenry Jones<\/a>, [21] one of the fellow organizers of the 1883 Civil Rights meeting at the Market House. Professor Jones was the principal of Wheeling\u2019s segregated Lincoln school<\/a> from 1882 to 1898 and later president of West Virginia Colored Institute<\/a> (now West Virginia State University<\/a>) from 1898 to 1909. He also enjoys favorable repute as the author of the 1896 novel Hearts of Gold<\/em><\/a>\u00a0in which problems facing African-Americans, such as lynching and convict labor, are explored, along with the rise of black education, press, and fraternal organizations. [22].<\/p>\n Following her funeral, Jennie\u2019s remains were taken to her family\u2019s home and interred in Fairmont. A year later, widower Stillyard and widow Ada J. Luker, were \u201cquietly\u201d married in the same church on March 4, 1894. [23] Ada Stillyard lived to be 98 years old, passing away March 6, 1960 in Charlotte, NC. [24] Her remains were brought back to Wheeling, and she was originally buried at Peninsula but was reinterred along with her husband at Greenwood Cemetery in 1964. [25]<\/p>\n Dr. Stillyard\u2019s professional career as a physician in Wheeling was marked with some interesting surprises over the years. In 1892, for example, Stillyard was one of a group of Wheeling doctors \u2013 including other recognizable names such as doctors Hupp, Frissell, and Fulton \u2013 to witness the hanging of murderer William Joseph Maier in the old jail yard on Eoff Street. The Intelligencer<\/em> opined \u201cThere will be more people at the Maier hanging than there is any need of. It would be better to shut out everybody who has no business there.\u201d [26] With sentiment growing against public executions, only those having a ticket of admission were permitted to witness. The tickets were primarily administered to court officials, physicians, members of the jury, newspaper representatives, and police officers. \u201cThe morbid interest on the part of the public in the approaching event is curious,\u201d the Intelligencer<\/em> wrote, \u201cYesterday all day small knots of people gathered about, trying to catch a glimpse through the cracks in the high board fence. It is probable that large crowds will gather about the place today, but it may said that nobody but those in the enclosure will see anything of the execution.\u201d Thirty-five deputies were sworn in two days before the hanging to help guard area surrounding the jail yard. [27]<\/p>\n The hanging occurred the morning, of November 18, 1892. It did not go as planned. As the Intelligencer<\/em> related:<\/p>\n \u201cAn unfortunate thing happened here. As Maier fell the rope stretched somewhat, and the button or cleat on which the other end of the rope was fastened slipped a little, so that Maier\u2019s heels hit the ground with considerable force, leaving him leaning over somewhat\u2026 Sherriff Steenrod [who had pulled the rope that opened the double trap doors on the gallows] and Deputy Zane [who adjusted and tightened the noose rope and placed a black cap over Maier\u2019s head] immediately rushed to the scaffold and pulled the rope up, then fastened it, leaving Maier\u2019s feet about twenty-four inches from the ground. There was no movement whatever in Maier\u2019s body except a slight twitch about a minute after the drop. The fall undoubtedly broke his neck, as no signs of life were observed.\u201d [28]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The \u201cunfortunate\u201d slip of the rope added fuel to the Intelligencer<\/em>\u2019s already adamant disdain of the hanging. \u201cIf the doors had been thrown wide open the jail yard would not have held all the people who would have rushed in to see to-day\u2019s hanging. Yet the spectacle of a human being going off at a rope\u2019s end is one which anybody should be glad not to see.\u201d [29] One witness of the execution was said to have fainted and been unconscious for some time before recovering while a number of others were reported to have also been \u201cconsiderably affected.\u201d<\/p>\n Almost immediately following Maier\u2019s death, workers began to dissemble any evidence that the execution had occurred. \u201cScarcely was the hanging done and the body removed until a force of carpenters employed by the Giesey Brothers began the work of tearing down the scaffold. It will be taken apart and stored away for possible future use, but if history repeats itself, it will be nearly or quite a generation until a gibbet again figures in Ohio county\u2019s history.\u201d [30] It would be, as far as we can tell from newspaper reports, the last execution by hanging in Wheeling.<\/p>\n In an even more gruesome incident, Dr. Stillyard was struck in the head with a hatchet by a delirious woman, on Halloween night, October 31, 1893. Shorty after 5 pm, a Miss Virginia Robinson, of Bridgeport, Ohio, was heard as she left Stillyard\u2019s office at 36 1\/2 11th Street crying, \u201cOh, he has poisoned me.\u201d The outburst attracted the attention of the firemen from the Hope Engine Fire House across the street.<\/p>\n \u201cShe tottered the sidewalk, when she threw up her hands, swayed in an uncertain way for a second and fell prone to the ground. She had just fallen when the doctor himself followed the woman out of the building. He looked as though he had emerged from a slaughter house; his face and clothes were covered and spattered with blood.<\/p>\n \u201cThe spectators of this seeming tragedy were for a moment startled by the appearance of the woman, and were more than ever mystified by the gory appearance of Dr. Stillyard. Several ran over to the scene, when an explanation was had from the doctor. The woman, who proved to be Maggie Robinson, a well known character, living in Bridgeport, had entered the office a few minutes before and asked for some medicine to relieve a headache of which she complained she was suffering. Dr. Stillyard was preparing a mixture for this purpose, when the woman suddenly drew a hatchet from under her dress and deliberately struck the physician across the head. Happily the blow was a glancing one, otherwise he would probably have been killed.\u201d [31]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n According to the Wheeling Register<\/em>, \u201cthe only thing which in all probability saved the doctor\u2019s life was the fact the hatchet flew off the handle after the first blow.\u201d [32] Dr. Stillyard suffered a cut on the right side of his head, approximately two to three inches long, which bled profusely. The firemen from the Engine House ran to his aid and called the police. Robinson was said to have passed out, suffering from \u201ca fit with which she is often afflicted\u201d following the attack. She was just rousing to consciousness when the police arrived to take her into custody and issue a warrant for charges of murderous assault.<\/p>\n In an interview with an Intelligencer<\/em> reporter the day following the attack, November 1, 1893, Dr. Stillyard gave the following account:<\/p>\n \u201cI was sitting in my office smoking, behind the curtains that are drawn across the front part. The door at the front was open. A woman, dressed plainly, came in and asked me for a dose of medicine for a headache. I went over to a stand to prepare the medicine; the woman followed me and stood not a foot away while I was preparing the dose, and while in this position I gave directions for using it. I then bent over to wrap the stuff up. Then it was that she drew a hatchet from under her dress and struck me a terrible blow on the right side of the head. Up to this time she had not said a word. The hatchet only struck me a glancing blow, and slipped out of the woman\u2019s hand. After she had hit she commenced to holler and yell, and said, \u2018he has poisoned me\u2019\u2026 Then she ran out to the sidewalk and fell in a fit\u2026 She was an utter stranger; I don\u2019t remember having seen her before, and know of no reason for her murder attempt except that she is afflicted with fits. She undoubtedly had one when this this happened.\u201d [33]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n When examined that same day by Justice R. H. Gillepsy, Robinson claimed she was carrying the axe out of fear that on her way she would run into a man named Blackberry Dixon, who had \u201cannoyed\u201d her several times. When asked why she hit the doctor she could give no reason, and said the only thing she remembered was that she struck him, and thought he had poisoned her. Robinson was arraigned, January 4, 1894, in criminal court on charges of felonious assault with the Intelligencer<\/em> noting that \u201cit appeared that she did not understand the situation.\u201d [34] On January 11, she was sentenced to eight months in jail and a $100 fine. [35]<\/p>\n Beyond his practice as a physician, Dr. Stillyard remained active in local and national politics and civic engagement throughout his life. He was a committed Mason, earning the highest degrees of the Order. He first joined the Masons while in Albany [36], and after moving to Wheeling, became a founder of the West Virginia Black Scottish Rites Order, receiving the 33rd degree, [37] the Grand Master of the Colored Masons for the State of West Virginia [38], and often represented the black organizations at the national level as a delegate or secretary.<\/p>\n He was frequently a committee member of local Emancipation celebrations<\/a> and in 1915 was one of twelve West Virginia delegates, along with Mrs. William Turner, wife of Wheeling\u2019s first black policeman<\/a> to be appointed by the governor to the Exhibition and Celebration<\/a> commemorating the 50th anniversary of the \u201cEmancipation of the Negro\u201d held in Chicago, Illinois from August 22 through September 16. [39]<\/p>\n In 1912, Dr. Stillyard was elected to a state office as one of West Virginia\u2019s Committeemen at Large, one of three African American delegates to be chosen from around the state to represent West Virginia at the Republican National Convention that year. [40]<\/p>\n The following year in 1913, Dr. Stillyard again made an attempt to run for Wheeling City Council. This time he was successful, being elected to the Second Branch representing Wheeling\u2019s 2nd Ward. [41] His election made news nationally in the black media. The 1913 Negro Year Book<\/em>, for example, noted that Stillyard was one of only seven African American men elected to municipal councils that year. [42] The Cleveland Gazette<\/em>, a weekly African-American newspaper, noted, \u201c\u2026our oldest and leading physician at Wheeling, W. Va., has been elected a member of that city\u2019s Council. The first of the race there to be so honored.\u201d [43]<\/p>\n Note:<\/strong> Until the author made this discovery while doing research on other subjects, the consensus had been that Clyde Thomas<\/a> was the first African American to be elected to Wheeling\u2019s City Council, which occurred in 1971. Technically, Mr. Thomas was the first African American member of the non-partisan City-Manager Government set up by the 1917 City Charter, while B.H. Stillyard was the first African American member of Wheeling\u2019s Bicameral Council, which ran from 1863 through 1917. This means that Mr. Thomas was the first African American council representative of the \u201cmodern era,\u201d much as Jackie Robinson was the first black baseball player to play Major League Baseball in the modern era, while Moses Fleetwood Walker<\/a> of Mt. Pleasant Ohio played with whites in the major leagues many years before baseball was segregated. In addition to being the first African American member of the non-partisan City-Manager Government form of council, Mr. Thomas was the city\u2019s first African American Vice-Mayor, and notably, no African Americans have been elected to council in the half-century since 1971.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Upon his election, Dr. Stillyard was placed on the City\u2019s Cemeteries and Scales Committee as well as the Wheeling Health Committee. [44] The NAACP\u2019s The Crisis<\/em> magazine, reported that \u201cDuring his term as councilman the elimination of the Wheeling Turf Exchange (which allowed the placing of bets in gambling houses) was accomplished and although he was offered bribes to cast his vote for its retention he refused them and cast his vote against its survival. He was at all times devoted to the principles of justice, liberty and equality.\u201d [45]<\/p>\n After his term ended in 1915, Dr. Stillyard\u2019s reputation took an unfortunate and irreparable blow. Dr. Stillyard was one of three black physicians indicted on criminal operation charges within a six month period between December 1915 and May 1916. [46] The other two charged were Dr. E. S. Kennedy [47] and Dr. Newman who had occupied Dr. Kennedy\u2019s offices. [48] All were charged with performing \u201cillegal operations\u201d on young girls. The Intelligencer<\/em> reported on May 2, 1916:<\/p>\n \u201cThe latest with which prosecutor has had to deal with is that of Dr. B. H. Stillyard, colored, in which the doctor is charged with performing an operation upon Miss Gertrude Kemple, beautiful eighteen-year-old white girl, who died at the North Wheeling hospital Sunday evening\u2026 Both Miss Kemple and Mr. Lowell (father of the girl\u2019s unborn child) are of prominent families. It is understood that Lowell, in a statement to the police, admitted intimacy with the girl, and said he had often proposed marriage. Being of a proud disposition and somewhat humiliated at her condition, it is understood she desired another course out of the difficulty.\u201d [49]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n A Coroner\u2019s inquiry performed on May 5th ruled the cause of the girl\u2019s death to be from blood poisoning \u201ccaused by an inflammation of the organs caused by dirty instruments having been used in the performance of a criminal operation.\u201d A Dr. W. C. Etzler had given testimony at police headquarters on the night following Miss Kemple\u2019s death. Dr. Etzler, the testimony showed, had been called to attend to the young girl on Friday, April 14 and Monday, April 17. He stated that he found her suffering from the effects of a criminal operation and that after considerable hesitancy, Kemple had said that it was Dr. Stillyard who had performed the operation. The testimony of Bert Lowell was also read, alleging that Lowell had stayed in an adjoining room at Stillyard\u2019s office while the operation was performed. [50]<\/p>\n Kemple died April 30, 1916, thirteen days after the operation was said to have been administered. Her death certificate states she officially died of \u201cseptic peritonitis following criminal abortion.\u201d [51].<\/p>\n Upon his death, The Crisis<\/em> reported, \u201cIn his death Wheeling has lost one of her best citizens, the church a pillar of support, and the race a strong helper.\u201d [59] The Cleveland Gazette<\/em> called him \u201ca True Reformer.\u201d [60] And the Intelligencer<\/em>, while in the same article reporting on the case that brought down his reputation, praised his civic contributions, calling him, \u201ca man of more than usual brilliancy. Being of that class of colored people interested in civic welfare, he did much to have better ordinances passed while he was in council. His voice was oft-times raised in debate when a question of city improvement was involved\u2026 His place among the colored population of the city will be hard to fill.\u201d [61]<\/p>\n Dr. Stillyard\u2019s funeral was held next door to his first office on Eoff Street, on July 19th, 1916 at Simpson M.E. Church, where he had been a member and President of its Board of Trustees dating back to 1893. He was buried at Peninsula cemetery with the Masonic Lodge, where he had been a fervent and active lifetime member, in charge of the funeral. [62]<\/p>\n One week later on July 26th, 1916, the Intelligencer<\/em> reported that his widow, Ada Stillyard, had been elected Supreme Grand Matron of the ladies organization affiliated with the colored Ancient Free and Accepted Masons societies at the national convention held in Pittsburgh. [63] She would follow in her deceased husband\u2019s political and civic footsteps, continuing to be active in the ladies Masons, volunteering with the Wheeling YWCA\u2019s segregated Blue Triangle branch [64], running for State office in 1924 [65], and serving as Clerk for the Receiving Board in Wheeling\u2019s Clay District Precinct No. 3 in 1938 [66].<\/p>\n Boswell Henson Stillyard truly was, as the Wheeling Intelligencer<\/em> noted, \u201ca man of more than usual brilliancy.\u201d By all accounts an excellent physician and the first African American to be elected to city council, Dr. Stillyard deserves to be remembered well by his home city and state. His entry into the Wheeling Hall of Fame<\/a> should have been self-evidently assured. Instead, more than a century after his death he is a forgotten man, an \u201cunperson.\u201d Research has revealed no further mention of him, ever again, as if he had never existed. Yet, he was a reputable physician and upstanding pillar of the church. The accusation that he used \u201cdirty instruments\u201d to perform an \u201cillegal abortion\u201d just doesn\u2019t add up. We know that Stillyard himself denied any involvement, that Ms. Kemple only accused him after \u201cconsiderable hesitancy,\u201d and that he never got his day in court as the stress of the accusation essentially killed him. We also find it suspicious that in a city with only six black doctors, three were accused of similar crimes within a six-month window. By 1919, only three black doctors were left in Wheeling, and only one of those was one of the doctors accused of crimes earlier. Were people, in a segregated city dealing with what we now know as systemic racism, pressured into accusing a black doctor (or doctors) to save a white one? We can speculate but it is likely we will never know the truth. The author and the readers must draw their own conclusions. But at least now, thanks to a surprisingly robust yet undoubtedly incomplete archival record, we may consider the accomplishments of this forgotten man in the brightest light that history will allow.<\/p>\n If you happen to be a descendant of Dr. Stillyard or know people who have information and photos and are willing to share, please contact us. Our goal is to create and keep as a complete a record as we can of the accomplishments of Dr. Stillyard and other key personalities from Wheeling\u2019s past. And, largely because of the lingering effects of segregation, the history of Wheeling\u2019s black community has been neglected.<\/p>\n [1] \u201cMen of the Month: A Useful Physician,<\/a>\u201d The Crisis<\/em>, March 1917, pg. 229.<\/p>\n [2] A Historical, Biographical and Statistical Souvenir<\/em>, Howard University Medical Department, 1900, pg 263<\/a>.<\/p>\n [3] The Medical Fortnightly<\/em>, Vol. XVI, No. 2, July 15, 1899, p. 427<\/a>. \u00a0Terms:\u00a0A hydatid is cyst containing watery fluid, formed by and containing tapeworm larva. The chorion is the outermost membrane surrounding an embryo.<\/p>\n [4] Professionalizing Medicine: James Reeves and the Choices That Shaped American Health Care<\/em><\/a>, John M. Harris Jr., 2019.<\/p>\n [5] Wheeling Register<\/em>, July 15, 1882, Page 2<\/a>.<\/p>\n [6] Professionalizing Medicine<\/em>, 2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n [7] Callin\u2019s Wheeling Directory<\/em>, years 1884-1916.<\/p>\n [8] Wheeling Register<\/em>. November 13, 1883, p. 4<\/a>.<\/p>\n [9] Wheeling Daily Intelligencer<\/em>, January 12th, 1885, p. 4<\/a>.<\/p>\n [10] Wheeling Daily Intelligencer<\/em>, January 20, 1885, p. 4<\/a>.<\/p>\n [11] Wheeling Daily Intelligencer<\/em>, January 24, 1885, p. 4<\/a>.<\/p>\n [12] Wheeling Daily Intelligencer<\/em>, January 11, 1887, p. 4<\/a>.<\/p>\n [13] Wheeling Register<\/em>, February 06, 1888, p. 6<\/a>.<\/p>\n [14] Wheeling Register<\/em>, February 07, 1888, p. 4<\/a>.<\/p>\n [15] Colored Register of Marriages<\/a>, West Virginia Vital Records Search, wvculture.org\/vrr; see also: 1880 United States Federal Census, Fairmont, Marion County, West Virginia, Enumeration District 086, p. 34; \u201cA Christian Woman Gone.\u201d Cleveland Gazette<\/em>, February 11, 1893, p. 1.<\/p>\n [16] \u201cA Black Crime.\u201d The Topeka State Journal, Oct. 21, 1889, p. 1<\/a>. Online newspaper clipping.<\/p>\n [17] Wheeling Daily Intelligencer<\/em>, March 26, 1888, p. 4<\/a>.<\/p>\n [18] Polk\u2019s Medical Register and Directory of the United States and Canada<\/em>, 1890, p. 1706<\/a>;\u00a0Annual Report of Illinois State Board of Health<\/em>, Volume 20, Illinois State Board of Health, 1898<\/a>; See also Note 2, supra.<\/p>\n [19] \u201cA Christian Woman Gone.\u201d Cleveland Gazette<\/em>, February 11, 1893, p. 1.<\/p>\n [20] Record of Deaths in the City of Wheeling, 1893<\/a>. West Virginia Vital Records Search, wvculture.org\/vrr.<\/p>\n [21] \u201cA Christian Woman Gone.\u201d Cleveland Gazette<\/em>, February 11, 1893, p. 1.<\/p>\n [22] Legendary Locals of Wheeling<\/em><\/a>, edited by Sean Duffy and Brent Carney, 2013, p. 25.<\/p>\n [23] Wheeling Register<\/em>, March 05, 1894, Page 6<\/a>.<\/p>\n [24] Wheeling Intelligencer<\/em>, March 7th, 1960, p. 10<\/a>.<\/p>\n [25] \u201cDr Baswell Henson Stillyard (1847-1916)<\/a>\u201d Find a Grave.com.<\/p>\n [26] Wheeling Daily Intelligencer<\/em>, November 18, 1892, p. 4<\/a>.<\/p>\n [27] Wheeling Daily Intelligencer<\/em>, November 18, 1892, p. 5<\/a>.<\/p>\n [28] Wheeling Daily Intelligencer<\/em>, November 19, 1892, p. 5<\/a>.<\/p>\n [29] Ibid.<\/p>\n [30] Wheeling Daily Intelligencer<\/em>, November 18, 1892, p. 4<\/a>.<\/p>\n [31] Wheeling Daily Intelligencer<\/em>, November 01, 1893, p. 5<\/a>.<\/p>\n [32] Wheeling Register<\/em>. November 1, 1893, p. 6<\/a>.<\/p>\n [33] Wheeling Daily Intelligencer<\/em>, November 02, 1893, p. 8<\/a>.<\/p>\n [34] Wheeling Daily Intelligencer<\/em>, January 5, 1894, p. 8<\/a>.<\/p>\n [35] Wheeling Daily Intelligencer<\/em>, January 12, 1894, p. 2<\/a>.<\/p>\n [36] Cleveland Gazette,<\/em>September 30, 1916, p. 1.<\/p>\n [37] Cleveland Gazette,<\/em>February 20, 1886, p. 1.<\/p>\n [38] Spirit Of Jefferson\u00a0<\/em>(Charlestown, WV), January 13, 1885, p. 3<\/p>\n [39] History And Report of the Exhibition and Celebration to commemorate the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Emancipation of The Negro<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em>Fraternal Press, Chicago, IL, 1915, p. 55.<\/p>\n [40] Wheeling Intelligencer<\/em>, June 4, 1912, p. 3<\/a>.<\/p>\n [41] Wheeling Intelligencer<\/em>, May 23, 1913, p. 1<\/a>.<\/p>\n [42] Negro Year Book: An Annual Encyclopedia of the Negro<\/em>. Negro Year Book Publishing Company, 1914, pp.27-28<\/a>.<\/p>\n [43] Cleveland Gazette<\/em>, June 14, 1913, p. 3.<\/p>\n [44] Wheeling Intelligencer<\/em>, May 28, 1913, p.8<\/a>.<\/p>\n [45] \u201cMen of the Month: A Useful Physician,<\/a>\u201d The Crisis<\/em>, March 1917, pg. 229.<\/p>\n [46] \u201cThree Shocking Cases Within A Year.\u201d Wheeling Intelligencer<\/em>, May 2, 1916, p.8<\/a>.<\/p>\n [47] Wheeling Intelligencer<\/em>, May 2, 1916, p.14<\/a>; See also\u00a0Wheeling Intelligencer<\/em>, May 3, 1916, p. 5<\/a>; \u201cIn Shocking Statement, Negress Names Dr. E. S. Kennedy as Accessory.\u201d\u00a0Wheeling Intelligencer<\/em>, March 11, 1916, p. 6<\/a>.<\/p>\n [48] \u201cMurder Trial Begins Today.\u201d\u00a0Wheeling Intelligencer<\/em>, December 13, 1915, p. 6<\/a>; See also: \u201cSecure Jury to Try Newman On Charge of Killing Girl.\u201d
\nA Self-Taught Man<\/h2>\n
\n<\/a>
\nA Community in Need of Physicians<\/h2>\n
\n<\/a>
\n\u201cA Very Fine Scheme\u201d<\/h2>\n
\n<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\nRespectfully yours,
\nB. H. Stillyard, M. D.,
\nA voter and tax-payer in the Second ward.\u201d [13]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nA Departure and Return<\/h2>\n
\n<\/a>
\nWheeling\u2019s Last Hanging<\/h2>\n
\n<\/a>
\nA Glancing Blow<\/h2>\n
\n
\nA Devoted Mason and More\u2026<\/h2>\n
\n
\n\u201cFirst of the Race\u201d<\/h2>\n
\n
\n<\/a>
\n
\nScandal and Fall<\/h2>\n
\n<\/a><\/a>Dr. Stillyard was arrested shortly after midnight on the night of Kemple\u2019s death. He maintained that he was \u201cinnocent of any offense, and it is understood he claims he doesn\u2019t remember the girl ever having visited his office.\u201d [52] Under great duress, Dr. Stillyard fell ill, collapsing in custody shortly after being charged, and was admitted to Ohio Valley General Hospital before the case could be brought before the criminal court docket on May 3rd. [53] While at OVGH he was under the care of another African American physician, Dr. J. Katherine Pronty. [54] Dr. Stillwell was released to his home and confined to his room under a certificate by the county physician showing that the doctor was in bad shape physically and unfit to stand trial mentally. [55] He died July 17, 1916 before ever going to trial. His death overruled the indictment.[56] Though Stillyard\u2019s death certificate calls the official cause of death nephritis, [57] the Intelligencer<\/em> claimed the stress of the arrest was the actual cause of death, explaining, \u201cstruggling under the load he was forced to bear, never recovered from the blow that had been struck to his character.\u201d [58]<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nEPILOGUE<\/h2>\n
\n
\nWe Need Your Help<\/h2>\n
\n
\nEnd Notes<\/h2>\n
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