Today in Wheeling History: February 15—Wheeling Fire Department ends 46 years of service inside the Center Wheeling Parking Garage (2024).
 
On February 15, 2024, the Wheeling Fire Department worked its final 24-hour shift at its longtime headquarters inside the lower level of the Center Wheeling Parking Garage at 2126 Market St. The department had operated from that location since 1978, when Chief Cliff Sligar oversaw the transition from the department's previous Central Station at 17th and Eoff streets — the building that today houses the Greater Wheeling Soup Kitchen.
 
For the bittersweet occasion, Fire Chief Jim Blazier was joined by former chiefs Larry Helms (2007–2021) and Steve Johnston (1995–2007), along with Sherry Sligar, widow of former Chief Cliff Sligar (1971–1995). The group toured the old offices, shared meals and memories, and posed for photographs at the chief's desk — a piece of furniture dating to 1978 that was retired rather than relocated. In keeping with tradition, each outgoing chief had left a dollar bill in the desk as a symbolic gesture of passing the torch; Blazier still holds the bill left during the 1970s.
 
Demolition of the parking garage began March 4, 2024. In the interim, department personnel and equipment were dispersed to the North Wheeling and Wheeling Island stations, while administrative staff moved to the former Wheeling Police headquarters in the City-County Building. The new $9 million, 24,860-square-foot Wheeling Fire Department Headquarters at 1700 Wood St. in East Wheeling officially opened September 17, 2025.
 
To learn more: Wheeling Fire Department (https://tinyurl.com/yc2p8sbr) (https://tinyurl.com/mr254p49), Wheeling Intelligencer (https://tinyurl.com/37taevfk) (https://tinyurl.com/3cswpnr5)
 
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV; Wheeling Fire Department, Wheeling Intelligencer, Google Maps

​Today in Wheeling History: February 14--David B. McLain, veteran printer and "pioneer journalist" of Wheeling, dies in the city and is later buried at Mount Wood Cemetery (1880).
 
David Bard McLain was born on February 6, 1805, in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, the son of Lazarus Brown McLain Sr. and Mary Ann Gemmill McLain. He came from a large Pennsylvania family and learned the printer's trade in his early years. Around 1840, McLain moved to Wheeling, Virginia, and became part-owner and editor of the "Evening Argus", a Democratic newspaper — at the time the only paper of that political persuasion in the region. The "Argus" office occupied an old frame building on the southeast corner of Twelfth and Main streets, where Gutman's clothing store later stood. In those early days of Wheeling journalism, all printing was done by hand, as power presses were virtually unknown in the city. McLain was described by the "Wheeling Intelligencer" as "a fearless and uncompromising Democrat," supported by prominent local figures such as Judge Thompson and James Alexander. After leaving the "Argus", he served as a Magistrate in Wheeling's First Ward, before relocating to Cincinnati, where he managed a newspaper for several years. He eventually returned to Wheeling to spend his final years with his children and his aged wife. He was also an honored member of the Franklin Lodge, I.O.O.F., whose members attended his burial, and of the North Street Methodist Episcopal Church. McLain died on February 14, 1880, at approximately age 75. His funeral was held on February 15, with services conducted by Revs. Masden and Cunningham. He is buried at Mount Wood Cemetery in Wheeling.
 
To learn more: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV (https://tinyurl.com/58kcyehc), Find a Grave (https://tinyurl.com/4sxecywc), Wheeling Daily Register (https://tinyurl.com/yc7frk2z), Wheeling Daily Intelligencer (https://tinyurl.com/y6u8v87j) (https://tinyurl.com/4f6tbcnu)
 
Photo credits: Wheeling Intelligencer, United States Census Bureau, Wheeling Register, West Virginia Regional & History Center

​Today in Wheeling History: February 13--During West Virginia's first constitutional convention in Wheeling, delegates voted to include a clause in the proposed state constitution barring both free Black people and enslaved people from entering the state for permanent residence (1862).
 
Meeting at what is now West Virginia Independence Hall from November 1861 to February 1862, convention delegates grappled with slavery's contentious role in the emerging state. Reverend Gordon Battelle of Ohio County introduced resolutions calling for banning slave importation and gradual emancipation, but the convention largely suppressed action on his proposals. Instead, delegates adopted a compromise recorded as Section 7 of Article XI, stating: "No slave shall be brought, or free person of color be permitted to come, into this State for permanent residence."
 
This exclusionary measure aimed to placate competing factions—those concerned about white working-class competition with Black labor, slave owners protecting their investments, and politicians seeking congressional approval for statehood. The clause reflected the era's pervasive racism and complicated West Virginia's path to statehood. Though delegates approved the constitution on February 18, 1862, the document's slavery provisions became obstacles to federal recognition. Congress later required the Willey Amendment providing for gradual emancipation before admitting West Virginia to the Union on June 20, 1863. West Virginia ultimately abolished slavery outright on February 3, 1865, months before the Thirteenth Amendment's ratification.
 
To learn more: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV (https://tinyurl.com/52ru4ff2); Wikipedia (https://tinyurl.com/38jw6s5n) (https://tinyurl.com/c8x5ynym), Education @ Library of Virginia (https://tinyurl.com/2m5mxhk4), Facebook (https://tinyurl.com/y49ncm5c), SAH Archipedia (https://tinyurl.com/32r7mjbk), West Virginia Encyclopedia Online (https://tinyurl.com/3uhbheta) (https://tinyurl.com/bdc44nmt) (https://tinyurl.com/4yw8vzbe) (https://tinyurl.com/3k53ncd2), West Virginia Legislature (https://tinyurl.com/3rxuakwk) (https://tinyurl.com/33xyj4bv), MIT Press Direct (https://tinyurl.com/3rey9xmx), West Virginia Public Broadcasting (https://tinyurl.com/46h7uzm7), State Court Report (https://tinyurl.com/3f48bhpj), Essential Civil War Curriculum (https://tinyurl.com/ycw679z6), Archiving Wheeling (https://tinyurl.com/azy7d2ph), Teaching American History (https://tinyurl.com/ys6rt92w), West Virginia Archives & History (https://tinyurl.com/3zejeue6) (https://tinyurl.com/yfs4h5s6), West Virginia & Regional History Center  (https://tinyurl.com/ubs2fmv7)
 
Photo credits: West Virginia History OnView, Wikimedia Commons, West Virginia Culture Center

​Today in Wheeling History: February 12—Monroe Street East Historic District, a small nineteenth-century residential and religious enclave on the slope of Wheeling Hill, is added to the National Register of Historic Places (1980).  
 
Monroe Street East Historic District occupies a compact, 1.5‑acre area near the intersection of 12th (formerly Monroe) and Byron Streets, just east of Eoff Street on the lower slope of Wheeling Hill. The district contains six contributing buildings that together preserve a rare, intact fragment of Wheeling’s nineteenth‑century hillside neighborhood fabric. Anchoring the cluster is the Church of God and Saints of Christ, housed in the former St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, whose origins date to 1837 and whose later alterations introduced Romanesque and Romano‑Tuscan elements. Nearby stand several brick and frame residences, including the Paxton‑Reed House, which reflect Greek Revival and later Victorian influences and speak to the aspirations of Wheeling’s emerging middle class. The buildings were erected and modified over decades by local craftsmen and firms such as Klieves, Kraft & Co. and architect E. W. Wells, tying the district to Wheeling’s broader story of industrial prosperity and urban growth. By the late twentieth century, disinvestment and road changes had erased many comparable streetscapes, making this small enclave especially significant. Recognizing its architectural variety, continuity of scale, and layered religious and residential history, the Monroe Street East Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 12, 1980.  
 
To learn more: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV (https://tinyurl.com/4xf7v2j3); Wikipedia (https://tinyurl.com/3s9x8xeb), National Park Service (https://tinyurl.com/wakjpx96), Waymarking (https://tinyurl.com/mv8sh78)
 
Photo credits: Wikimedia Commons, Waymarking

Today in Wheeling History: February 11--Aquilla B. Caldwell, first and fifth attorney general of West Virginia, is born at Caldwell's Run near Wheeling (1814).
 
Aquilla Bolton Caldwell was born February 11, 1814, on Caldwell's Run in rural Ohio County, just outside Wheeling, into a prominent frontier family whose roots in the area dated to 1770. His grandfather, James Caldwell, came from Maryland and settled in the region, becoming the first president of the Merchants and Mechanics Bank. Aquilla's father, Joseph Caldwell, continued the family's civic prominence, and their old stone homestead at the head of Twenty-ninth Street still stood a century later.
 
Caldwell received an exceptional education for the era, earning degrees from Harvard University (A.B.) and Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania (LL.B.). He practiced law extensively in Mississippi and throughout the South before returning to Wheeling in 1856. At the outbreak of the Civil War, the staunch Unionist took a leading role in West Virginia's statehood movement. On the fourth Thursday in May 1863, he was elected the first attorney general under Governor Boreman's administration, serving until March 3, 1865. After resuming private practice, he was appointed the state's fifth attorney general in July 1869 when Thayer Melvin resigned, serving until January 1, 1871. He also served as prosecuting attorney of Ohio County.
 
Caldwell died suddenly on June 18, 1893, at age seventy-nine at his son-in-law L. R. Moise's residence on Wheeling Island, suffering an apoplectic stroke. He was survived by Matilda Newman of Carroll Parish, Louisiana, children Mrs. L. R. Moise, Mrs. A. B. Carter, Miss Belle Caldwell, and Will B. Caldwell, as well as siblings Alexander T. Caldwell, Henry C. Caldwell, Dr. S. B. Caldwell, Mrs. Caroline M. Wilson, and Mrs. Mary Merritt.
 
To learn more: Wikipedia (https://tinyurl.com/2tpja4s5), Alchetron (https://tinyurl.com/ycxbbw3t), Wikiwand (https://tinyurl.com/24hcktw3), Find a Grave (https://tinyurl.com/4j8d93d3), Wheeling Daily Register (https://tinyurl.com/yc5hrwjw), Wheeling Daily Intelligencer (https://tinyurl.com/2ftt3wsd)
 
Photo credits: Find a Grave, Wheeling Daily Register, Wheeling Daily Intelligencer

​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