​Today in Wheeling History: February 9--Billy "Red" Jones, silent film child actor, was born in Wheeling (1913).
 
Billy "Red" Jones was born William Charles Jones on February 9, 1913, in Wheeling, West Virginia. He earned his nickname from his distinctive flaming red hair, which film historian John Holmstrom described as streaming "wildly back from a square, freckled face dominated by defiant blue eyes." Beginning his acting career at age ten, Jones appeared in thirteen silent films between 1923 and 1928, primarily in supporting juvenile roles.
 
His most notable performance came in Mary Pickford's gothic adventure film "Sparrows" (1926), where he portrayed a crippled orphan boy among an ensemble of young performers. Other significant credits included "The Final Extra" (1927) as Buddy Collins, "Three Miles Up" (1927), and "Slow as Lightning" (1923) as Jimmie March. His work in Charlie Chaplin's "The Circus" (1928) earned praise from Chaplin himself.
 
Jones' acting career was confined to the silent era, ending around age fifteen. He made one later appearance as himself in the 1938 short "Hollywood Handicap". After retiring from films, Jones remained in California, where he died on June 10, 2000, at age eighty-seven.
 
To learn more: IMDb (https://tinyurl.com/4nnfhzur), ALLMOVIE (https://tinyurl.com/2x5zzhpp), Famous Fix (https://tinyurl.com/358zdswa)
 
Photo credits: IMDb

​Today in Wheeling History: February 8--Second Lieutenant Clement D. McGlone, a Marshall County native and Wheeling Central Catholic student serving with the 290th Infantry Regiment, 75th Infantry Division, died in France from wounds received in Germany and was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart (1945).
 
Clement Daniel McGlone was born March 2, 1922, in Wheeling to John J. McGlone and Clara Catherine Heil McGlone of McMechen. He graduated from Wheeling Central Catholic High School and attended St. Joseph's Military Academy in Hays, Kansas. At the time of his enlistment, he was a student at West Virginia University. McGlone enlisted in the U.S. Army on August 1942, receiving training at Camp Wolters, Texas, and Fort Benning, Georgia, where he received his commission as second lieutenant in August 1944. After additional training at Camp Breckinridge, Kentucky, he went overseas with the Infantry in October 1944, serving as a Medical Administrative Corps officer with the 290th Infantry Regiment, 75th Infantry Division. On February 4, 1945, somewhere in Germany, Lieutenant McGlone was severely wounded in combat. He succumbed to his wounds four days later on February 8, 1945, in France, just weeks before what would have been his twenty-third birthday. He was survived by his wife, the former Rita Bishop, whom he married in 1943. McGlone was laid to rest at Epinal American Cemetery in Epinal, France, and is memorialized at Mount Calvary Cemetery in Wheeling. His father, John J. McGlone, had also served his country as a Private First Class with Company E, 15th U.S. Engineers during World War I.
 
To learn more: Archiving Wheeling (https://tinyurl.com/2ut9p5n3), Find a Grave (https://tinyurl.com/2cakj6rf) (https://tinyurl.com/37nb5nfp), Wheeling News-Register (https://tinyurl.com/2v483wr3)
 
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV; Find a Grave, Wheeling News-Register

Today in Wheeling History: February 6—Future Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston bishop Mark Edward Brennan, later known for his pastoral style and emphasis on healing and accountability in West Virginia, is born in Boston, Massachusetts (1947).  
 
Mark Edward Brennan, born February 6, 1947, in Boston, Massachusetts, is the son of Edward Charles Brennan and Regina Claire Lonsway. He attended public schools in Massachusetts and Maryland before entering St. Anthony High School in Washington, D.C., then studied history at Brown University, graduating in 1969. After a year of philosophy at Christ the King Seminary in New York, he completed theological studies at the Pontifical North American College and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Washington on May 15, 1976, Brennan spent most of his career as a parish priest, serving in suburban Maryland parishes and gaining a reputation for pastoral steadiness and attention to the poor.  
 
In 2016 he was appointed auxiliary bishop of Baltimore and consecrated on January 19, 2017. On July 23, 2019, Pope Francis named him bishop of Wheeling-Charleston; he was installed at Wheeling’s Cathedral of St. Joseph on August 22, 2019. Arriving after revelations of financial and sexual misconduct by his predecessor, Brennan emphasized humility, transparency, and restitution, including a plan to compensate victims and reduce episcopal spending. His episcopal motto, “Living the truth in love,” reflects his effort to rebuild trust among West Virginia Catholics while speaking to social issues such as immigration and care for the vulnerable.  
 
To learn more: Wikipedia – Mark E. Brennan (https://tinyurl.com/2x9nfe4x), Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston – Bishop’s Biography (https://tinyurl.com/4k3da9fy), Catholic Standard – On beginning his ministry in West Virginia (https://tinyurl.com/2jxrsby7), The Record / Catholic News Service – Installation in Wheeling (https://tinyurl.com/bdd3bvnd), Lede News (Wheeling) profile (https://tinyurl.com/4sbkvzxa), Weelunk (https://tinyurl.com/2t78kw44)
 
Photo credits: Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, Wikimedia Commons, Weelunk

​Today in Wheeling History: February 5—Corporal William Adrian Stahl, a Wheeling Central Catholic student and member of the U.S. Army's elite MARS Task Force, died of combat wounds at a hospital in Ledo, India (1945).
 
William Adrian Stahl was born on March 4, 1925, in Wheeling to Joseph Adolph Stahl and Helen Margaret Vogler Stahl. He attended St. Alphonsus parochial school and Wheeling Central Catholic High School, where he was remembered as one of twenty-two students or graduates killed in World War II. Before entering military service, William worked as an employee of the News Publishing Company.
 
Inducted into the U.S. Army on August 5, 1943, at age eighteen, Corporal Stahl received training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Camp Gruber, Oklahoma; and Camp Carson, Colorado. He was deployed overseas in November 1944 and assigned to the MARS Task Force, a specialized long-range penetration unit operating in the challenging China-Burma-India Theater. The nineteen-year-old soldier died from wounds received in action on February 5, 1945, at a hospital in Ledo, India. His body was temporarily interred at Kalaikunda, India.
 
In June 1948, Corporal Stahl's remains were returned to Wheeling. Following funeral services at Altmeyer Funeral Home and a High Mass of Requiem at St. Alphonsus Church on June 10, he was laid to rest at Mount Calvary Cemetery. He was survived by his mother, Helen; sister Mary Margaret; brothers Joseph Jr., Sgt. Charles E., J., and Arthur T.; and paternal grandmother Mary Stahl.
 
To learn more: Archiving Wheeling (https://tinyurl.com/2j52zs36), Find a Grave (https://tinyurl.com/ydwdteya), CBI Theater - MARS Task (https://tinyurl.com/2hc3erv9), Wheeling Intelligencer (https://tinyurl.com/yx5m7ve3) (https://tinyurl.com/dbf6a6t8)
 
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV; Archives of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, Find a Grave, Wheeling Intelligencer, Google Maps

​Today in Wheeling History: February 3--Dr. William S. Fulton, future founder of the Wheeling Clinic and Hall of Fame physician, is born in St. Clairsville, Ohio (1873).  

Dr. William Stuart Fulton (1873–1938) reshaped medical care in Wheeling through vision, risk, and relentless work. Born February 3, 1873, in St. Clairsville, Ohio, to Walker and Ellen Fulton, he completed medical school at Ohio State University in 1899 before establishing his practice in Wheeling, where he would work for more than four decades. His greatest legacy is the Wheeling Clinic. In the early 1920s he personally purchased a 60-by-60-foot lot at Sixteenth and Eoff Streets and financed construction of the original “Old Building,” which opened July 1, 1924, at a cost of $180,412—funded entirely through his own loans and capital. Fulton recruited young specialists, encouraged research, and built a regional medical center unusual for a city Wheeling’s size. Clinic surgeons, including Fulton, traveled widely to perform major operations in surrounding communities after full days in Wheeling. He also served on the staffs of Wheeling Hospital, Ohio Valley General Hospital, and as a consulting physician to Reynolds Memorial Hospital, while holding leadership roles on the West Virginia Board of Health, the West Virginia Medical Association (president in 1937), and as a governor of the American College of Surgeons. Fulton married Martha McElhenny Clarke of a prominent Wheeling legal family; they had three children. He died in Wheeling on May 30, 1938, and is interred in Greenwood Cemetery.

Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV (https://tinyurl.com/39ae8yff); Find a Grave (https://tinyurl.com/mrxftdwd)
 
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV; Find a Grave, Google Maps

Today in Wheeling History: February 2—Morgan Otto Heiskell, future National Geographic photographer and father of publishing magnate Andrew Heiskell, is born in Wheeling (1881).  
 
Born in Wheeling, Ohio County, on February 2, 1881, Morgan Otto Heiskell was the son of hardware executive William Paxton Heiskell and Cathrine “Kate” Burt, a family rooted in the city’s commercial life through the Ott-Heiskell hardware concern. Growing up in this milieu of merchants and civic boosters likely exposed him early to both business discipline and a wider curiosity about the world, even as Wheeling was transforming from a river and industrial town into a regional cultural center. Though specific records of his Wheeling schooling are scarce, his later cosmopolitan life suggests a solid early education and family means that enabled travel and artistic training. 
 
Heiskell married Ann Moore Hubbard—herself from Wheeling—in a union that linked two prominent local families before the couple relocated abroad. They became part of an expatriate, bohemian circle in Italy and France, where Morgan developed as an artist and photographer. His images, some of which appeared in "National Geographic", reflected a roaming eye that eventually took him to places as distant as Moroni in the Comoros Islands. Morgan and Ann had two children, Diana, born in Paris, and Andrew, born in Naples—Andrew later becoming the influential chairman and CEO of Time Inc.  
 
In his later years, Morgan lived in Moroni before settling in Lugano, Switzerland, where he died on April 19, 1967. His exact burial place remains unknown, but his life traced a remarkable arc from Wheeling’s hillsides to a global photographic career.  
 
To learn more: Find a Grave https://tinyurl.com/2vetshmk) (https://tinyurl.com/4eujh343) (https://tinyurl.com/27a74j5y), Wikipedia (https://tinyurl.com/y8cb4uks), FamilySearch (https://tinyurl.com/hmk5br26), Friends of Wheeling (https://jfinstein.wixsite.com/friends-of-wheeling/1-echo-point)
 
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library, Wheeling WV

​Today in Wheeling History: February 1--First families moved into the new Hil-Dar community in Elm Grove, marking the beginning of a neighborhood that would serve Wheeling residents for over six decades (1963).
 
The Hil-Dar housing community opened in February 1963 as part of Wheeling's Urban Renewal initiative, providing much-needed housing for families displaced from the Center Wheeling area being transformed into a light industrial center. The $1.4 million project initially consisted of 100 units, with 50 units accepted in January 1963 and the remaining 50 completed by March. The first two families to move in were Mrs. Jeanette Fuller with her nine children and Mrs. Robert Javey with her five children, relocating from 2651 Market Street. Russell Mozena served as executive director of the Wheeling Housing Authority during the opening. Located in Elm Grove, Hil-Dar features townhouse-style apartments with washer-dryer hookups and includes the Exley Community Center for community gatherings and recreation. The complex currently houses approximately 100 families across 94 units ranging from one to five bedrooms, including two units on Bishop Street added in 2007. In 2024, thanks to $40,000 from the James B. Chambers Memorial Foundation and $25,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funding from Ohio County Commissioners, the community received a completely renovated playground featuring new swings, slides, and modern equipment installed by Cunningham Recreation specialists.
 
To learn more: Wheeling News-Register (https://tinyurl.com/55y4cpt5) (https://tinyurl.com/55y4cpt5), Wheeling Housing Authority (https://tinyurl.com/ms5pydhn), LEDE News (https://tinyurl.com/y3uf55t9)
 
Photo credits: Wheeling News-Register, Wheeling Housing Authority, West Virginia & Regional History Center

​Today in Wheeling History: January 31—The Wheeling Sunday Register reported that the work of repairing City Hospital was about finished, with painters completing their work on the building at the head of Twentieth Street before its formal opening on February 9 (1892).
 
City Hospital began on January 1, 1890, following an initiative by Wheeling women's groups led by women of St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, including "The Hospital Ten" of the King's Daughters and members of the Women's Union Benevolent Society. The incorporators—William A. Wilson, William E. Stifel, Morris Horkheimer, R. Rush Swope, and Henry M. Russell—established the City Hospital Association with $100,000 in capital stock.
 
The hospital occupied the former Wheeling Female Seminary, located at the head of Twentieth Street at one of the city's highest points. After extensive renovations, City Hospital opened to patients on February 9, 1892, with a capacity of 100 beds. Ward rates were $5 weekly (approximately $135 today), while private rooms cost $10 and upward weekly. The facility featured an operating room superior to anything in Pittsburgh or Cincinnati, equipped with over 200 instruments.
 
The City Hospital Training School for Nurses, West Virginia's first nursing school, opened simultaneously in 1892. From 1890 to 1911, the hospital was operated exclusively by women. In 1911, the original 60-bed building was declared unsafe and razed. A new 154-bed facility designed by architect Edward F. Stevens opened as Ohio Valley General Hospital on January 14, 1914. The institution evolved into Ohio Valley Medical Center in 1973. After Alecto Corporation's acquisition, the hospital closed in September 2019. The City of Wheeling took possession in 2021, and the complex was completely demolished in 2024, with WVU Medicine planning a regional cancer center on the site.
 
To learn more: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV (https://tinyurl.com/yvunsexa), Wikipedia (https://tinyurl.com/4pfbmkta), Weelunk (https://tinyurl.com/bdh28vu8), Wheeling News-Register (https://tinyurl.com/yeyavnjc), The West Virginia Encyclopedia (https://tinyurl.com/abyfan9x), Wheeling Register (https://tinyurl.com/7ufyam4x)
 
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV; Wikimedia Commons, Weelunk, Google Maps, Ohio Valley Medical Center

Today in Wheeling History: January 30--Rev. Arthur D. McSwiggan, pastor of Corpus Christi Parish in Warwood, was buried from Corpus Christi Church and laid to rest with fellow priests at Mount Calvary Cemetery in Wheeling (1934). 
 
Rev. Arthur Devine McSwiggan was born March 3, 1878, in Tyrcur, Omagh District, County Tyrone, Ireland, the son of Patrick McSwiggan and Isabella Devine. Trained for the priesthood in Ireland, he emigrated to the United States as part of the broader wave of Irish clergy serving growing Catholic communities in industrial towns. During the First World War era he was assigned to the Weirton area of Hancock County, where he became a formative spiritual and civic presence. There he directed the building of a church, rectory, and school “on the old county road” and, through his own efforts and funds, secured and developed Saint Paul Cemetery, giving local Catholics a dedicated burial ground that continues in use. Later, Bishop John Swint appointed him pastor of Corpus Christi Parish in Warwood, then a rapidly developing northern suburb of Wheeling. From 1928 until his death in 1934, McSwiggan guided the parish through years of growth and Depression-era hardship. He died January 27, 1934, in a Baltimore hospital and was buried January 30 from Corpus Christi, with interment among fellow priests at Mount Calvary Cemetery in Wheeling; a cenotaph honors him at Saint Paul Cemetery in Weirton. 
 
To learn more: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV (https://tinyurl.com/3hteww3d); Find a Grave (https://tinyurl.com/58duspba)
 
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV; Find a Grave, The Clio

​Today in Wheeling History: January 29--Charles C. Webb filed a patent application for an innovative bottle cap design (1936).
 
Charles Carrick Webb was born February 7, 1906, in Sparta, Tennessee, to William Hosea Webb and Sarah Etta Wright Webb. He earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Milwaukee University and relocated to Wheeling around 1933. Webb became assistant superintendent of the Wheeling Stamping Company, where he made significant contributions to industrial manufacturing. On January 29, 1936, he filed Patent No. 2,171,015 for an innovative plastic bottle cap design that revolutionized container closures. His invention addressed the problem of caps splitting when screwed tightly by incorporating flexible button-like projections instead of traditional threads, allowing the cap to assume an elliptical shape under pressure. This design made manufacturing more economical while preventing breakage. Webb was actively involved in Wheeling's cultural and educational life. On September 30, 1939, he married Miriam Bayha Doepken, daughter of Albert and Ethel Doepken of North Wheeling, in a home ceremony officiated by Dr. James Mease Potter. Webb taught at the YMCA night school, instructing courses in slide rule and dramatic presentations. He was also active in civic organizations and attended community cultural events, including Wheeling Symphony concerts. He passed away August 29, 1996, in Wilmington, Delaware, at age 90.
 
To learn more: Google Patents (https://tinyurl.com/c43mfcka), Wheeling News-Register (https://tinyurl.com/sn42zau8) (https://tinyurl.com/mtwre747) (https://tinyurl.com/3yk8n9sd) (https://tinyurl.com/yv3jn6fm), Wheeling Intelligencer (https://tinyurl.com/5es5u3xx) (https://tinyurl.com/n3sh2n8d) (https://tinyurl.com/45pn4kv7) (https://tinyurl.com/5y8ebbz9) (https://tinyurl.com/2r89xtza) (https://tinyurl.com/4ytj2mfn) (https://tinyurl.com/mtmbj6t2), Kepner Funeral Home (https://tinyurl.com/2mj9pn5n), Family Search (https://tinyurl.com/2m3bzwyu) (https://tinyurl.com/2m3bzwyu)
 
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV; Wheeling Intelligencer, Wheeling News-Register, FamilySearch, U.S. Patent Office, Google Maps