​Today in Wheeling History: January 12--Chapline Street Row Historic District, Center Wheeling’s most intact nineteenth-century residential block, is added to the National Register of Historic Places (1984). 
 
Chapline Street Row Historic District occupies the west side of the 2300 block of Chapline Street, just uphill from Market Street in Center Wheeling, and preserves a remarkably complete run of late nineteenth-century urban townhouses. The district contains ten contributing brick buildings, including eight residences, all resting on sandstone foundations and built between 1853 and 1896. As Market Street grew increasingly commercial, Chapline Street developed a more refined residential character, attracting middle- and upper-middle-class Wheeling families who wanted to remain close to downtown while slightly removed from its bustle. The houses showcase a rich sampling of Victorian-era styles—Italianate, Second Empire, and other eclectic late Victorian details—expressed in ornate cornices, arched window openings, stone trim, and, in some cases, pressed-metal features. Documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1976, the block was recognized as Center Wheeling’s most complete nineteenth-century residential streetscape and an unusually dense concentration of intact Victorian row housing for West Virginia. In 1984, Chapline Street Row was formally listed on the National Register of Historic Places, securing recognition for its architectural coherence, craftsmanship, and its role in illustrating Wheeling’s transformation from antebellum river town to industrial city. Today, the block still looks like one unified piece of architecture, a rare surviving example of everyday city life in Wheeling during the Victorian era. 
 
To learn more: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV (https://tinyurl.com/2j4pjupn); Wikipedia (https://tinyurl.com/yka3fkmc), City of Wheeling (https://tinyurl.com/2mmdnt6b), Library of Congress (https://tinyurl.com/2tdejjzk), Shadows & Light (https://tinyurl.com/2hexb87y), SAH Archipedia (https://tinyurl.com/mtu9vvjv), National Park Service (https://tinyurl.com/yvmntaws) (https://tinyurl.com/yvmntaws)
 
Photo credits: Wikimedia Commons, Library of Congress, City of Wheeling, Oglebay Institute, ​West Virginia Department of Culture & History

​Today in Wheeling History: January 11–Brewer and civic benefactor Anton Reymann dies in Wheeling and is later buried in Greenwood Cemetery (1924). 
 
Anton Reymann, one of Wheeling’s most influential German-American businessmen, was born September 15, 1837, in Gaubickelheim, near Bingen-on-the-Rhine, Germany. He immigrated to the United States with his parents in 1853, landing in New Orleans and traveling up the Mississippi to Galena, Illinois, before the family resettled permanently in Wheeling later that year to escape illness in Galena. In Wheeling, his father George partnered with brewer Peter Paul Beck at the Franklin Brewery on Main Street and helped establish a summer garden across the creek in East Wheeling along Rock Point Road, anchoring the family in the city’s growing German community. Anton attended local schools until a smallpox outbreak closed the district, after which he apprenticed in the family-associated brewery for several years. By 1863 he had become manager, and under his leadership the operation evolved into the Reymann Brewing Company, relocating to 15th Street between Market and Main and becoming Wheeling’s largest brewery and a leading producer in the tri-state region. Celebrated as both a successful brewer and generous philanthropist, Reymann supported numerous civic and charitable causes that endeared him to Wheeling residents. He died in Wheeling on January 11, 1924, and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery overlooking the city he helped shape. 
 
To learn more: Ohio County Public Archives, Wheeling WV (https://tinyurl.com/2s3fnr9p), Find a Grave (https://tinyurl.com/yc7xdtya), The Clio (https://tinyurl.com/45hmhe7m), Ohio County WVGenWeb (https://tinyurl.com/49bpde7y), Abandoned on Line (https://tinyurl.com/y4zpmz26)
 
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Archives, Wheeling WV; Weelunk, brucemobley.com

Today in Wheeling History: January 10–Madison School, the first purpose-built public school for Wheeling Island children, opens at Maryland and North York Streets with 150 pupils (1866).
 
Madison School’s story reflects both the growth of Wheeling Island and the city’s evolving public school system. Before Island children had a building of their own, they attended the Third Ward (Clay) School and later the Second Ward School on 10th Street, which ultimately became Lincoln School for Black students. In 1862, Wheeling’s Board of Education purchased a site on the Island for $275, but the first classes there still met in the upper story of the Island Market House beginning in 1864. A dedicated two-story school was finally erected at the corner of Maryland and North York Streets at a cost of $6,483.54 and opened on January 10, 1866, enrolling about 150 pupils from the surrounding neighborhood.
 
As the Island population grew, the original structure was eventually replaced. In 1916, a new Madison School designed by prominent Wheeling architect Frederic F. Faris rose on Zane Street between North Broadway and North York, a monumental cream-brick Classical Revival building that still commands the approach to the Island from Interstate 70. Over time, Madison served generations of Island families as a ward school within Wheeling’s public system, part of a network that included Washington, Webster, Centre, Clay, Ritchie, and Union schools across the city. The school’s long history marks more than a century and a half of neighborhood-based public education on Wheeling Island.
 
To learn more: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV (https://tinyurl.com/kabypcda) (https://tinyurl.com/5exbhdfe); Historic Wheeling (https://tinyurl.com/2zjz4aey), SAH Archipedia (https://tinyurl.com/53cuajfn), Wheeling Daily Intelligencer (https://tinyurl.com/y4us23ze)
 
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV

​Today in Wheeling History: January 9--Andrew August Schramm, prominent Wheeling business person and president of the Uneeda Brewery Company, died at Ohio Valley General Hospital (1939).
 
Andrew August Schramm was born in Hessen, Germany on November 16, 1863, the son of Wilhelm and Margaret Kolbe Schramm. At age seventeen in 1881, he immigrated alone to America, initially spending two months in Bellaire, Ohio before settling permanently in Wheeling. He found employment with Patrick Sharkey, working as a collar and harness maker, a trade he had learned through apprenticeship in Germany.
 
In 1886, Schramm formed a partnership with William T. Burkle, establishing Schramm & Burkle at 1020 Market Street (later 1043 Market Street). The firm specialized in manufacturing long and short straw collars for horses, employing an average of fifteen workers and conducting a substantial wholesale business. He married Elizabeth C. Burkle on January 17, 1885, and they had four children: Marie (who married Emil Friebertshauser), Albert (who died in infancy), Charles, Andrew, and George.
 
After retiring from the harness business in 1902, Schramm helped organize the Uneeda Brewery Company in 1901, serving as treasurer before becoming president in 1906. In 1915, he organized the Wheeling Match Company, also serving as its president. The match factory was located in the former brewery plant. Schramm was a member of St. John's Evangelical Church, the St. John's Brotherhood, and the Beethoven Singing Society. He lived at 1918 Warwood Avenue and served on the boards of the Home Fire Insurance Company and Quarter Dollar Savings Bank.
 
Schramm died on January 9, 1939, at Ohio Valley General Hospital after declining health since September 1937. He was preceded in death by his wife Elizabeth, who died on December 22, 1930. Funeral services were held at his residence on January 12, 1939, with Rev. William J. Hausmann officiating, and he was entombed in the Greenwood Cemetery Mausoleum.
 
To learn more: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV (https://tinyurl.com/bp77z6ed); Find a Grave (https://tinyurl.com/mub56afy), West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History (https://tinyurl.com/4va28pa6) Wheeling Intelligencer (https://tinyurl.com/4va28pa6) (https://tinyurl.com/cz3zxdhz)
 
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV; Find a Grave, Wheeling Intelligencer

​Today in Wheeling History: January 8–Michael Reilly, Irish-born merchant and one of Wheeling’s wealthiest nineteenth-century businessmen, dies at his Fourteenth and Byron residence (1892). 
 
Michael Reilly was born in County Cavan, Ireland, in October 1808, the eldest son of Philip Reilly. He emigrated to the United States around age twelve, joining his family in Steubenville, Ohio, where his father worked as a merchant tailor before the household relocated to Wheeling in 1821. Growing up in the young river town, Reilly learned commerce early, first clerking in local businesses and then establishing himself as a merchant in his own right, gradually accumulating substantial capital and property. By mid‑century he was recognized as one of Wheeling’s most prominent businessmen, with interests that included participation in ventures such as the Franklin Insurance Company, reflecting the city’s expanding mercantile and financial economy. 
 
Reilly was also known as a leading Catholic lay citizen, raising a large family and helping anchor Wheeling’s Irish immigrant community during a period of rapid industrialization and urban growth. In early 1892 he contracted “the grip” (influenza) and, weakened by age and “heavy build,” died at his home at the corner of Fourteenth and Byron Streets at about 6:55 a.m. on January 8, 1892. Newspapers remembered him as “a well known business man” and one of the city’s wealthiest citizens. He was buried in Mount Calvary Cemetery in Wheeling, where his grave remains a link to the city’s nineteenth‑century commercial elite. 
 
To learn more: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV (https://tinyurl.com/3zreyrjt), Ohio County WVGenWeb (https://tinyurl.com/2zwbmj4p), Find a Grave (https://tinyurl.com/24mmu837), Bizapedia (https://tinyurl.com/3xwujusj)
 
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV; Find a Grave, Google Maps

​Today in Wheeling History: January 7--Abigail Hing Wen, Wheeling-born author, lawyer, and film producer, publishes her debut novel “Loveboat, Taipei” with Simon & Schuster (2020). 
 
Abigail Geraldine Lim Hing (professionally Abigail Hing Wen) was born in 1977 in Wheeling, West Virginia, to ethnic Chinese immigrant parents with roots in China, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Her family later moved to Solon, Ohio, where she grew up as a second-generation immigrant navigating multiple cultures and expectations. At Solon High School she graduated as valedictorian and was selected as one of 120 U.S. Presidential Scholars, which included a visit to the White House and a meeting with President Bill Clinton. She went on to earn a B.A. from Harvard University, studying film, ethnic studies, and government, followed by a J.D. from Columbia Law School and an M.F.A. in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. 
 
Her debut young adult novel, “Loveboat, Taipei,” inspired by a Taiwanese cultural immersion program she attended, became a New York Times bestseller and launched a popular trilogy that includes “Loveboat Reunion” and “Loveboat Forever.” She served as executive producer on the Paramount+ film adaptation “Love in Taipei,” extending her work into screen storytelling. Alongside her creative career, Hing Wen has worked as an artificial intelligence and finance professional in Silicon Valley, embodying a blend of tech, law, and the arts. Her books center Asian American youth, family pressures, identity, and belonging, and she frequently speaks on representation, creativity, and the power of writing. 
 
To learn more: Abigail Hing Wen Official Website (https://tinyurl.com/2daar734), Wikipedia (https://tinyurl.com/27xu2zvx) (https://tinyurl.com/yrbeu9kp)
 
Photo credits: Wikimedia Commons

Today in Wheeling History: January 6—WWVA announces the cancellation of the WWVA Jamboree, West Virginia's legendary country music radio show that had aired continuously since 1933, as the station streamlines its focus on its talk radio format (2007).
 
The WWVA Jamboree first aired on January 7, 1933, becoming one of America's pioneering live-audience country music radio programs, second only to Nashville's Grand Ole Opry in longevity. Broadcasting from Wheeling on 50,000-watt clear-channel station WWVA at 1170 AM, the show reached audiences across the eastern United States and into Canada. The program launched from WWVA's Hawley Building studios before moving to the Capitol Theatre stage on April 1, 1933, where over 3,000 patrons packed the venue for its first live performance.
 
Over seven decades, the Jamboree featured country music legends including Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Doc and Chickie Williams, Grandpa Jones, and Brad Paisley, who began his career there as a twelve-year-old in 1984. The show broadcast from various Wheeling theaters throughout its history, returning to the Capitol Theatre (renamed Capitol Music Hall) in 1969, where it remained until 2005.
 
WWVA's corporate ownership canceled the program in early 2007 as part of restructuring efforts. However, the Jamboree was revived in 2009 by crosstown station WKKX-AM after WWVA's then-sister property Live Nation spun off the program to a nonprofit organization, renaming it the Wheeling Jamboree.
 
To learn more: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV (https://tinyurl.com/5c8c5mwz); West Virginia Encyclopedia (https://tinyurl.com/2tvwkzft), Wikipedia (https://tinyurl.com/4maaw93c) (https://tinyurl.com/2jx2aerk) (https://tinyurl.com/42uwsaxh), Wheeling Jamboree (https://tinyurl.com/4s2mku7n), LuquiSearch (https://tinyurl.com/ef3ks7xf), West Virginia Public Broadcasting (https://tinyurl.com/4zhwcuvt)
 
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV; Wikimedia Commons, West Virginia Public Broadcasting

​Today in Wheeling History: January 5—Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, legendary labor organizer who addressed a mass protest at Wheeling’s Victoria Theatre in support of striking West Virginia miners during the Paint Creek–Cabin Creek strike (1913).
 
On January 5, 1913, Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, already famous as the “Miner’s Angel” and a fearless national labor organizer, came to Wheeling to rally support for coal miners striking along Paint Creek and Cabin Creek in southern West Virginia. In response to the strike, coal operators had hired heavily armed Baldwin-Felts guards, who terrorized miners and their families and evicted them from company housing, while Governor William Glasscock’s declaration of martial law further intensified repression and violence. Outraged by these conditions, the Ohio Valley Trades and Labor Assembly organized a mass protest and fundraiser at Wheeling’s Victoria Theatre. More than 1,000 people filled the house to hear Mother Jones denounce the mine guards, the coal companies, and the use of troops against workers, and to demand a federal investigation of West Virginia’s coalfields. Her Wheeling appearance formed part of a larger campaign during the West Virginia Mine Wars, in which she crisscrossed the state giving fiery speeches, encouraging solidarity across unions, and publicizing brutality in the coalfields to a national audience. Only weeks later, she would be arrested and court-martialed for her role in the strike, further cementing her reputation as one of the era’s most uncompromising labor leaders.
 
To learn more: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV (https://tinyurl.com/4z26tdhw), We Never Forget (https://tinyurl.com/2btjs2uk), National Park Service (https://tinyurl.com/jkrpm4vf), Wikipedia (https://tinyurl.com/3drwahas)
 
Source: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV; Wikimedia Commons, National Park Service, Google Maps

​Today in Wheeling History: January 4—Bessie Bown Ricker, a Wheeling‑born vaudeville elocutionist, nationally acclaimed child‑voice monologist, World War I entertainer who performed for American troops in France, and longtime St. Louis stage favorite, is born (1872).
 
Bessie Digby Bown Ricker was born on January 4, 1872, in Wheeling, West Virginia, to William James Hughes Bown and Mary Lee Digby. Though her family soon relocated and she was raised primarily in Kirkwood, Missouri, her origins in Wheeling place her among the city’s earliest nationally known stage performers. Her father worked for a coffee and spice company, suggesting a solidly middle-class household that could support Bessie’s artistic education. She studied at the Columbia School of Oratory in Chicago, a leading institution for speech and dramatic training, where she honed the elocution skills that would define her career.
 
Ricker became a popular vaudeville performer and elocutionist, specializing in monologues and readings in which she portrayed child characters with uncanny accuracy in voice and manner. She was frequently described as one of the best-known entertainers in St. Louis, building a regional following at a time when vaudeville was America’s dominant popular stage form. Ricker also collaborated with composer and songwriter Carrie Jacobs-Bond, known for “I Love You Truly,” integrating sentimental and domestic themes into her programs. During World War I she traveled to France to entertain American troops, carrying her child-voice sketches and story readings overseas as part of the broader war-time entertainment effort. She died on June 30, 1953, in the St. Louis area at age eighty-one, closing a career that began with a Wheeling birth and reached audiences on both sides of the Atlantic.
 
To learn more: Wikipedia (https://tinyurl.com/54mumhyb) (https://tinyurl.com/y9sjrjx6), Ancestry (https://tinyurl.com/2z37rz82)
 
Photo credits: Wikimedia Commons, Digital Public Library of America

​Today in Wheeling History: December 31--Sophia Caldwell McCrystal, Wheeling-born actress, artist, and vaudeville performer, died in Riverside, California (1976).
 
Sophia Caldwell McCrystal was born August 9, 1890, on Wheeling Island, the daughter of Frank G. and Lillian (Lilly) C. Caldwell, members of a prominent Marshall County pioneer family. She attended Mount de Chantal Visitation Academy, Wheeling's prestigious all-girls Catholic school founded in 1848, where she developed her passion for the performing arts. Sophia studied violin under internationally renowned maestro Leandro Campanari, a virtuoso for whom Puccini composed music, training both in Wheeling and San Francisco. Rather than choosing a conventional life, she pursued the risky world of show business. On August 3, 1914, Sophia married fellow performer William "Billy" McCrystal of New York City at a Sunday ceremony, with the couple settling in New Jersey before relocating to California. Together they performed in vaudeville, legitimate theater, and silent films across the nation. Sophia's theatrical credits included roles in "Henry VIII," "The Silver King" (performing as Virginia Richmond), "Showboat," and the 1915 western "The Cactus Trail," filmed by Brinker Croft Film Company near Wellsburg, West Virginia—one of the state's earliest motion picture productions. Beyond acting, Sophia became an accomplished artist known for clown paintings and western landscapes in watercolors and oils. She and Billy had three children: William, a radio/TV executive and jazz expert; George, who operated a pool cleaning business in Palm Springs; and Mary Elizabeth, who worked for the OSS and married diplomat Larry Winter Roeder, later U.S. Consul General to Israel and Canada. Sophia died December 31, 1976, in Riverside, California, at age eighty-six.
 
To learn more: Ohio County WVGenWeb (https://tinyurl.com/ymustvhc), Facebook (https://tinyurl.com/mvudx273), Ancestry (https://tinyurl.com/4a9rz96u)
 
Photo caption and credit: Sophia Caldwell McCrystal (Ohio County WVGenWeb)