​Today in Wheeling History: May 1—Wheeling Jesuit University acquired the bronze statue "Bridges," a gift from West Virginia sculptor Bill Hopen, later installed on the east side of the Chapel of Mary and Joseph (1998).
 
The bronze statue "Bridges" entered the Wheeling Jesuit University campus collection on May 1, 1998, when the university formally acquired the work through the generosity of West Virginia sculptor Bill Hopen. The statue, later installed on the east side of the Chapel of Mary and Joseph, depicts a young mother of mixed racial background holding her newborn child. The mother’s hand gently bridges the infant’s hand, symbolizing the transmission of life, heritage, and responsibility from one generation to the next. This theme of continuity and connection aligned closely with the university’s Jesuit mission and its emphasis on community, service, and human dignity. 
 
Hopen was already a familiar artistic presence on campus, having created the bust of Alma Grace McDonough for the recreation center and the bust of Senator Robert C. Byrd displayed in the National Technology Transfer Center. His son, Gabe Hopen, who studied at Wheeling Jesuit for two years, assisted in crafting the statue and personally traveled to Wheeling to mount it on its base. During the summer of 1998, grounds supervisor Randy Smith developed the landscaping and shrubbery that gave the statue its distinctive setting. Since then, "Bridges" has remained a quiet but enduring landmark, reflecting the university’s values and the generosity of the Hopen family.
 
To learn more: Wheeling Jesuit University Chronicle, Spring 1998 (https://tinyurl.com/yshyz667), Wheeling University (https://tinyurl.com/mr23f6ks), West Virginia Encyclopedia (https://tinyurl.com/3fx5fhxb), Facebook - Gabriel Hopen (https://tinyurl.com/bdesunh4)
 
Photo caption and credit: “Bridges,” a 1998 bronze sculpture by West Virginia artist Bill Hopen, stands beside the Chapel of Mary and Joseph at Wheeling University. Depicting a young mother of mixed racial background cradling her newborn, the statue symbolizes the passing of life and heritage from one generation to the next. (Wheeling University)

​Today in Wheeling History: April 30—Richard S. Glass, MD, longtime Wheeling orthopedic surgeon and Army Reserve colonel, dies at Liza’s Place in Wheeling (2025).
 
Richard S. Glass, MD, was born October 4, 1940, in Baltimore, Maryland, the third child of Albert and Loretta Glass. His early years followed his father’s Army assignments before the family returned to Maryland, where he attended Montgomery Blair High School. He went on to the University of Maryland and then the University of Maryland School of Medicine, the educational path confirmed by all obituary and family‑verified sources. He married Donna Masincupp, and together they raised four daughters while moving frequently during his military medical training.
 
Glass entered the U.S. Army Medical Corps after medical school, completing internship and orthopedic residency while serving at posts including Ft. Hood, Ft. Sam Houston, Ft. Leonard Wood, the Presidio, and Ft. Gordon. After thirteen years of active duty, he left active service in 1976, choosing Wheeling as the family’s permanent home. He continued in the Army Reserve until 1995, retiring as a colonel, and was recalled during Operation Desert Storm to serve at Ft. Knox.
 
In Wheeling, Dr. Glass became a respected orthopedic surgeon known for hip and knee replacement work across Ohio Valley hospitals. He was active in the Twilight Club, presenting programs on the Civil War and George Armstrong Custer, and helped guide a club trip to Gettysburg. A devoted tennis player, he organized neighborhood matches and twice won the Forest Hills Invitational men’s doubles title. He is remembered for his medical skill, historical curiosity, and steady kindness.
 
To learn more: Kepner Funeral Homes (https://tinyurl.com/4mra32t6), Wheeling News-Register (https://tinyurl.com/fhudx5bf), MD.com (https://tinyurl.com/33kvdwfx)
 
Photo caption and credit: Richard S. Glass, MD (Kepner Funeral Homes)

​Today in Wheeling History: April 29—Wheeling's Jewish community establishes its first cemetery at Mt. Woods, founding West Virginia's oldest Jewish burial ground (1849).
 
On April 29, 1849, Wheeling's Jewish community purchased a section of land adjoining Mt. Woods Cemetery on Wheeling Hill, establishing the oldest Jewish cemetery in West Virginia. The purchase was prompted by the sudden death of Mayer Mannheim, an itinerant rabbi who had arrived in Wheeling in April 1849 to perform Sabbath services. Rabbi Mannheim was interred there as the first Jewish burial, and the congregation that formed in response — Congregation L'Shem Shomayim, meaning "For the Sake of Heaven" — became the first Jewish congregation in what would become West Virginia.
 
Though the land was purchased in 1849, the Jewish plots were formally laid out in 1865. The section, then called the Hebrew Cemetery, occupies a very steep lower western slope of Wheeling Hill, separated from the main cemetery by the primary road. The upper hillside sections hold graves of many of Wheeling's most prominent non-Jewish citizens. Temple Shalom has owned and maintained the Jewish section separately from the City of Wheeling-managed Christian sections since its establishment.
 
Among those interred in the Jewish section are Civil War veteran Samuel Kraus, civic leader Simon Horkheimer, and merchant L.S. Good, whose dry goods store grew into a regional department store empire. As the community grew, burials expanded to a Jewish section at Greenwood Cemetery and, in 1954, to Jewish Memorial Park on Middle Wheeling Creek Road, Wheeling's active Jewish burial ground today. The entire Mt. Woods park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.
 
To learn more: Ohio County Public Library Archives (https://tinyurl.com/3pkj4jeu) (https://tinyurl.com/y8nf9xnw); Jewish Memorial Park (https://tinyurl.com/3bmpnsnh), Friends of Wheeling (https://jfinstein.wixsite.com/friends-of-wheeling/mt-wood-cemetery-restoration), Feather Cottage Media (https://tinyurl.com/3r28c62y), Wikipedia (https://tinyurl.com/29388dpf), JewishGen’s Cemetery Discovery Project (https://tinyurl.com/yc3astf9), Wheeling Intelligencer (https://tinyurl.com/h3dy8j5s), National Park Service - National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: Mt. Woods Cemetery (https://tinyurl.com/4aaw8e75), Find a Grave - Captain Samuel Kraus (https://tinyurl.com/y9xrd92u), Find a Grave - Simon Horkheimer (https://tinyurl.com/4n3hhnek), Find a Grave - L.S. Good (https://tinyurl.com/ynj4ku7t)
 
Photo credits: National Park Service, Find a Grave, Wikimedia Commons

​Today in Wheeling History: April 28 — The Campbell Guards, an African American militia company, are reported fully organized and holding weekly meetings in their armory above the Hose House on Eleventh Street (1880).
 
On April 28, 1880, the Wheeling Intelligencer reported that a newly formed company of African American militia had completed its organization and was "in a thriving condition." The unit had adopted the name Campbell Guards — possibly in honor of Archibald W. Campbell, the abolitionist editor of the Wheeling Intelligencer who had championed both West Virginia statehood and the cause of African Americans during and after the Civil War, though the source does not identify the namesake.
 
The company's officers were drawn from Wheeling's African American community: Hamilton Davis was elected captain, William Jackson served as first lieutenant, James H. Newby as second lieutenant, and Alex. Gardner as orderly sergeant. The unit held weekly meetings at their armory — the hall above the Hose House on Eleventh Street.
 
The Campbell Guards emerged during a nationally significant period for Black militia formation. Following the Civil War, African American men across the country organized volunteer militia companies as expressions of citizenship, civic pride, and community standing. By the early 1880s, nineteen states and the District of Columbia had incorporated Black companies into their state militias. In West Virginia, where the state's Black population stood at about 25,800 in 1880, such organizations held particular importance as symbols of equal standing in the new state's civic life.
 
The Campbell Guards represented Wheeling's African American community claiming its rightful place in the fabric of local civic and military life — an act of pride, solidarity, and citizenship in an era that constantly tested both.
 
To learn more: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV (https://tinyurl.com/22epzj4w), (https://tinyurl.com/54f33jeu), Readex Blog (https://tinyurl.com/yba6sadv), Encyclopedia Virginia (https://tinyurl.com/56w3k7w4), Black Perspectives (https://www.aaihs.org/african-americans-and-the-state-militia/) (https://tinyurl.com/48bj9ttu), Case Western Reserve University (https://case.edu/ech/articles/b/black-military-units), Howard University  (https://tinyurl.com/4d2m695r)
 
Photo credits: Encyclopedia Virginia, National Park Service

​Today in Wheeling History: April 26—A county convention of Union and New State men met at the Ohio County Courthouse to organize Ohio County’s official participation in the formation of West Virginia, appointing key committees and naming delegates for the upcoming Parkersburg Convention (1863).
 
On April 26, 1863, the Ohio County Courthouse in Wheeling hosted a major political convention of Union and “New State” supporters at a pivotal moment in West Virginia’s creation. Only six days earlier, President Abraham Lincoln had issued his proclamation admitting West Virginia into the Union as the 35th state, effective June 20. The convention was called to ensure that Ohio County would send a unified slate of unconditional Union men to the upcoming Parkersburg Convention, where candidates for the first state government would be nominated.
 
Samuel Irwin was elected chair, and Robert S. Irwin served as secretary. Delegates from every district except West Liberty were present, and Prof. A. F. Ross was soon admitted to represent that district. A debate followed over how to select delegates for Parkersburg. After discussion led by Dr. Logan, E. M. Norton, and A. B. Caldwell, a compromise was adopted, appointing a committee of one from each precinct: D. Frazier, Prof. Ross, James M’Culloch, E. M. Norton, A. B. Caldwell, A. H. Britt, A. G. Robinson, and H. W. Fisher.
 
A second committee—Ross, Caldwell, Robinson, Norton, and William North—drafted resolutions praising Lincoln’s proclamation, condemning Eastern Virginia’s “tyrannical oppressors,” and affirming loyalty to the Federal Union. The convention then appointed a large slate of delegates, including A. W. Campbell, J. L. Stifel, Daniel Lamb, Henry K. List, and many others, instructing them to support only unconditional Unionists. Additional county and district conventions were scheduled for May.
 
To learn more: West Virginia Sesquicentennial Timeline – April 26, 1863 (https://tinyurl.com/44jme8jp) (https://tinyurl.com/mszrv5vu), Wheeling Intelligencer (https://tinyurl.com/43hmvhrv)
 
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV; Find a Grave, West Virginia Encyclopedia, Wikimedia Commons   

Today in Wheeling History: April 25—George Rentsch, Wheeling businessman and co-owner of the Geo. M. Snook Dry Goods Co., was granted U.S. Patent No. 496,230 for an improved cloak rack (1893).
 
George Rentsch was born on January 29, 1856, on Wheeling Island, when Wheeling was still part of Virginia. The son of J. Daniel Rentsch, a carpenter, he attended Wheeling public schools until age eleven, then worked as an errand boy for several city businesses, including Fisher & Seaman and A. D. Seaman. He later spent five years with C. T. Brues before joining the mercantile firm of George E. Stifel & Company as a bookkeeper in 1878.
 
In 1884, Rentsch became a co-founder of George M. Snook & Company, a retail dry goods firm at 1110–1114 Main Street in Wheeling. On April 25, 1893, he was granted U.S. Patent No. 496,230 for an improved cloak rack featuring a folding fender device designed to support a dust cloth over displayed garments without soiling or pressing them out of shape. The device could be folded compactly within the rack frame when not in use. His patent witnesses included his brother Louis Rentsch and Albert L. Wilkie, both fellow members of the Snook firm.
 
Rentsch and his wife, Lydia Anna Ritter, a Wheeling native, had six children and were members of the Central Methodist Church. He resided for many years at 228 Carmel Road in the Pleasant Valley neighborhood of Wheeling, a home designed by the prominent Wheeling architectural firm of Giesey & Faris. He died on October 31, 1953, at the Rest Haven Nursing Home in Martins Ferry at age 97 and was buried in Peninsula Cemetery in Wheeling.
 
To learn more: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV (https://tinyurl.com/mwhxfy9w); Find a Grave (https://tinyurl.com/ackwhanv), WVGenWeb – Ohio County (https://tinyurl.com/2wukweb3), Google Patents (https://tinyurl.com/yhkdfve5), Wheeling News-Register (https://tinyurl.com/4mtdfswz) (https://tinyurl.com/3tbkcr2p), Wikipedia (https://tinyurl.com/2kfsew8j)
 
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV; Find a Grave, West Virginia History OnView, Wheeling News-Register

Today in Wheeling History: April 24—George Dulty of Wheeling and Jacob Ebert of Cadiz, Ohio, receive one of the earliest American patents for a soda fountain (1833).
 
On April 24, 1833, George Dulty of Wheeling, Virginia—now West Virginia—and Jacob Ebert of Cadiz, Ohio, were issued one of the earliest American patents for a soda fountain, also described as a soda water apparatus. The patent placed Wheeling at the very beginning of a technology that would reshape American social life for the next century. Unfortunately, multiple fires at the U.S. Patent Office during the 1800s destroyed the original documentation, leaving no surviving record of what the specific machine looked like or how it operated. What the patent established, however, was that two Ohio Valley inventors were among the first in the nation recognized for advancing the technology of carbonated beverage dispensing.
 
The soda fountain concept had European origins, rooted in attempts to replicate naturally occurring mineral springs believed to have curative properties. By the early 1800s, scientists and entrepreneurs were competing to commercialize carbonated water dispensing. Dulty and Ebert's 1833 patent placed them among the pioneers of that effort in the United States, alongside contemporaries like John Matthews of New York and John Lippincott of Philadelphia, who also began manufacturing soda fountains in 1832.
 
Soda fountains soon became fixtures in American pharmacies, and by the 1890s an estimated 50,000 operated nationwide. Wheeling's own connection to the industry extended beyond Dulty's patent. The Wheeling Pottery Company later manufactured the iconic 1896 Coca-Cola porcelain syrup urn, distributed to soda fountain operators across the country and now preserved in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History. Locally, entrepreneurs like Mrs. Mary Ziegenfelder were serving homemade ice cream from a Twelfth Street parlor by the 1870s, and Kloss Ice Cream became a fixture at Wheeling soda counters in the early twentieth century.
 
To learn more: Weelunk  (https://tinyurl.com/mr3hmw9h), Smithsonian Institution (https://tinyurl.com/3rp3k6wk), WCSA.WORLD (https://tinyurl.com/jswacrj8), Worldkings.org  (https://tinyurl.com/32apjr5z), Facebook - Appalachian Americans  (https://tinyurl.com/44vhsx9m), Smithsonian Magazine (https://tinyurl.com/3793r76z), Serious Eats (https://tinyurl.com/3s5benp4), The Martin Guide to Coca-Cola Memorabilia (https://tinyurl.com/3jvxv3w3), The New York Times (https://tinyurl.com/4pj4ufua), Only in West Virginia (https://tinyurl.com/2s45jcbs), Wikipedia (https://tinyurl.com/29tms774)
 
To learn more: Wikimedia Commons  

Today in Wheeling History: April 23—Joseph Speidel Sr., pioneering wholesale grocer, president of the Joseph Speidel Grocery Company, builder of Wheeling’s cast‑iron‑front wholesale district, and influential civic leader serving on multiple bank, insurance, and transportation boards, dies at his home in Wheeling and is later buried at Greenwood Cemetery (1918).
 
Joseph Speidel Sr., one of Wheeling’s most influential nineteenth‑century merchants, was born October 1, 1843, in Wellsburg, Brooke County, before moving with his family to Wheeling in 1850. His father, Benedict Speidel, operated a grocery business, and young Joseph entered the trade early, beginning work as a clerk at age twelve. After completing commercial training at Duff’s Business College in Pittsburgh, he returned to Wheeling and advanced rapidly in the grocery field. In 1863 he co‑founded Speidel & Inderrieden, a wholesale grocery firm that grew into the largest operation of its kind in West Virginia. The company expanded steadily, culminating in the construction of a substantial cast‑iron‑front warehouse complex on Main Street in 1884, a defining structure in Wheeling’s bustling wholesale district. When the business incorporated as the Joseph Speidel Grocery Company in 1892, he became its longtime president, overseeing a workforce of roughly one hundred employees and serving customers across West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. Beyond his own company, Speidel held directorships in banks, insurance firms, and transportation enterprises, reflecting his broad civic and economic influence. He lived for many years at 1308 Chapline Street with his wife, Lydia Hart Wheat, a member of a prominent Wheeling family. Speidel died in Wheeling on April 23, 1918, and was buried at Greenwood Cemetery, a resting place for many of the city’s leading citizens.
 
To learn more: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV (https://tinyurl.com/2wajceap) (https://tinyurl.com/4u8x6498) (https://tinyurl.com/y9d8ctk6), WVGenWeb - Ohio County (https://tinyurl.com/3ht8dc5j), Library of Congress (https://tinyurl.com/2czrem3d), Find a Grave (https://tinyurl.com/4v2fvj57), Friends of Wheeling (https://jfinstein.wixsite.com/friends-of-wheeling/greenwood-2006?lightbox=image_1tyo), Ancestry (https://tinyurl.com/a8pcd3zh),
 
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV, WVGenWeb - Ohio County, Library of Congress, Find a Grave, Google Maps

​Today in Wheeling History: April 23—Joseph A. "Joe" Miller, former Major League Baseball player and Wheeling's "Grand Old Man of Baseball," died at Wheeling Hospital (1928).
 
Joseph A. Miller was born on February 17, 1861, in Baltimore, Maryland. Known as "Joe," he became a significant figure in baseball history with connections to Wheeling, West Virginia. Miller's professional baseball career began in Wheeling around 1880 when he starred as a third baseman with the Old Standard team of Wheeling. He was known for his versatility on the field and his exceptional throwing ability. Miller played professionally for two seasons in Major League Baseball—first with the Toledo Blue Stockings in 1884 and then with the Louisville Colonels in 1885. His professional career continued with teams in Savannah, Georgia; Lacrosse, Wisconsin; Omaha, Nebraska; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Bozeman, Montana. Throughout his career spanning approximately 20 years, Miller maintained a .214 batting average in his major league games. After retiring from baseball, Miller worked for the city of Wheeling in the water works department until health issues forced his retirement three years before his death. He was a devout member of St. Joseph's Cathedral parish. Miller resided at 122 Virginia Street on Wheeling Island with his two sisters, Theresa and Anna. He died on April 23, 1928, at age 67 following complications from a leg amputation and was buried at Mount Calvary Cemetery in Wheeling.
 
To learn more: Wikipedia (https://tinyurl.com/3x4yja5w), Baseball Reference (https://tinyurl.com/4xytveek), Find a Grave (https://tinyurl.com/3x7ty2fv), Wheeling Intelligencer (https://tinyurl.com/3w3d5p93), Wheeling Register (https://tinyurl.com/48s5zx6r)
 
Photo credits: Find a Grave, Wheeling Intelligencer, Wheeling Register

​Today in Wheeling History: April 22 — Dr. Lydia Cromwell Hearne, pioneering physician, civic reformer, president of the Wheeling Woman’s Club, director of the West Virginia Historical Society, and the first woman to carry West Virginia’s electoral vote to Washington, dies in Wheeling and is entombed at Greenwood Cemetery (1961).
 
Lydia Herts Cromwell Hearne was a pioneering physician and one of Wheeling’s most influential civic leaders. Born in Bedford, Pennsylvania, in 1874 to William F. and Eliza Bowles Cromwell, she graduated with high honors from Bedford High School in 1893 and studied medicine under Dr. Amos A. Taylor before entering Hahnemann Medical College in Chicago. She earned her M.D. in 1896 and served as assistant physician at Pennoyer Sanitarium in Wisconsin, later becoming resident physician at Galen Hall Sanatorium in Atlantic City. She also served as secretary of the Atlantic City Homeopathic Medical Club.
 
After marrying Julian G. Hearne on June 6, 1900, she settled in Wheeling at “Hearnlee,” the Hearne family home in Woodsdale, and shifted her focus to civic leadership. Hearne served on the boards of the Anti‑Tuberculosis League, Associated Charities, Salvation Army, and advised on Wheeling’s water filtration system. She led the Children’s Home of Woodsdale, the Wheeling YWCA, and twice served as president of the Wheeling Woman’s Club. She was appointed director of the West Virginia Historical Society and became a prominent Republican leader. In 1924, she became the first woman to carry West Virginia’s electoral vote to Washington.
 
Her son, Col. Julian G. Hearne (1904–1995), became a distinguished attorney, World War II officer, and composer of the state song “West Virginia, My Home Sweet Home.” He also helped draft legislation establishing Wheeling’s Council‑Manager government.
 
Lydia Hearne died in 1961 and is entombed at Greenwood Cemetery.
 
To learn more: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV (https://tinyurl.com/y3djskvp) (https://tinyurl.com/32vczsdd); Wikipedia (https://tinyurl.com/y4fye8dm), Find a Grave (https://tinyurl.com/3k4mvbe6) (https://tinyurl.com/mrzdhpvh), Smithsonian Institution (https://tinyurl.com/5h8hkn4w)
 
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV; Find a Grave, Wikimedia Commons, Google Maps