​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)

​Today in Wheeling History: December 30—Trustees of Fourth Street Methodist Church purchase the Chapline Street lot that would become the site of the new Methodist church (1848).
 
The purchase of the Chapline Street lot on December 30, 1848, marked a defining moment in the expansion of Methodism in Wheeling. Earlier that year, Fourth Street Methodist—then the city’s leading Methodist congregation—recognized the need for a new church to serve the rapidly growing South Wheeling population. After approving construction plans in March, the trustees moved forward by securing a suitable parcel of land near the industrial corridor that was drawing new families, laborers, and small business owners. The trustees—Elijah Day, John Fisher, Daniel Zane, William J. Bates, and Robert Hamilton—finalized the purchase on December 30, laying the groundwork for what would become Chapline Street Methodist Episcopal Church, the first “daughter” congregation of Fourth Street Methodist.
 
The acquisition of the lot allowed the congregation to begin preparing for construction of a 42-by-63-foot sanctuary, a modest but ambitious structure for a neighborhood still taking shape. The new church quickly became a spiritual and social anchor for South Wheeling, offering worship, education, and community support to a diverse membership. This 1848 land purchase ultimately set in motion more than a century of Methodist presence on Chapline Street, culminating in later expansions, a new Romanesque–Byzantine building in 1901–02, and the 1966 merger that formed Aldersgate United Methodist Church. The December 30 transaction stands as the quiet but essential beginning of that long legacy.
 
To learn more: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV (https://tinyurl.com/4dwczvxb) (https://tinyurl.com/5e7e2mbz) (https://tinyurl.com/yeh2b8uf) (https://tinyurl.com/2dd5xypt) (https://tinyurl.com/ysaj6b2j) (https://tinyurl.com/38837rpm) (https://tinyurl.com/muxh8sm8); YouTube (https://tinyurl.com/u36yw575) (https://tinyurl.com/54sdx2b7), Wheeling Heritage (https://tinyurl.com/4dwczvxb)
 
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV

Today in Wheeling History: December 28--Stanton M. Howard filed his patent application for an innovative skylight design that would later be granted as U.S. Patent No. 191,802 (1876).
 
Stanton M. Howard was born July 28, 1848, in Ohio, son of Elijah Bates Howard and Eliza J. Walker Howard. He served as a private in the 129th Ohio Infantry during the Civil War (1863-1865). Howard established himself as Wheeling's premier architect, designing significant buildings including the Peoples Bank Building (1876) at Main and 12th Streets, West Liberty Presbyterian Church (1873), and Kingwood Methodist Church (1879). On December 28, 1876, he filed a patent application for an innovative skylight design featuring an elliptical glass dome with improved water drainage. His sanitary water closet patent (1884) was praised by architects and engineers as "the most perfect sanitary closet yet devised." Howard also received a patent for a nail separator (1879).
 
On January 26, 1876, Howard married Marie Ellen Grindall in Baltimore. They had two sons: Dr. Stanton Wren Howard (1880-1949) and Herbert Bates Howard (1885-1886). In 1881, Howard was elected Associate of the American Institute of Architects. He served as architect for West Virginia's new State Capitol in Charleston (1884-1885), completing the building after C.C. Kemble's dismissal. Howard later relocated to Washington, D.C., where he died July 16, 1892, of heart disease. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
 
To learn more: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV (https://tinyurl.com/yn7p2tzf) (https://tinyurl.com/468hwrde); Google Patents (https://tinyurl.com/4d3w5ave) (https://tinyurl.com/8jy8dra), Wikipedia (https://tinyurl.com/3km4xw7s) (https://tinyurl.com/3duaapzh) (https://tinyurl.com/2s6yejds) (https://tinyurl.com/2c3z9xns) (https://tinyurl.com/yd5hmw45), Find a Grave (https://tinyurl.com/ywetcc4w) (https://tinyurl.com/32aru85v) (https://tinyurl.com/yfe4sw4p) (https://tinyurl.com/43ntjv6d) (https://tinyurl.com/5ctn8hbj), Wheeling Daily Register (https://tinyurl.com/a5w3tsrh) (https://tinyurl.com/mfujkesm) (https://tinyurl.com/34ymjbtf) (https://tinyurl.com/54kauwhc) (https://tinyurl.com/bdd488cb) (https://tinyurl.com/5bj34hb5) (https://tinyurl.com/4dj3f3k7) (https://tinyurl.com/2exhd7nf) (https://tinyurl.com/2ns5mtwp) (https://tinyurl.com/msx6c8yc) (https://tinyurl.com/msx6c8yc) (https://tinyurl.com/59babc4s) (https://tinyurl.com/33zdwdeh) (https://tinyurl.com/5n64j3s8) (https://tinyurl.com/33kzw22d), Wheeling Daily Intelligencer (https://tinyurl.com/mwsebrey) (https://tinyurl.com/9tbj9s9y) (https://tinyurl.com/bddjnkdr) (https://tinyurl.com/mtbude5a) (https://tinyurl.com/2pcjb9k6) (https://tinyurl.com/2pcjb9k6) (https://tinyurl.com/3438vxcw) (https://tinyurl.com/3438vxcw) (https://tinyurl.com/3waw2vcb) (https://tinyurl.com/4t98jraw), Google Books (https://tinyurl.com/3f2cjb83) (https://tinyurl.com/2s3cner8), Electronics and Books (https://tinyurl.com/a28eadd6)
 
Sources: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV; West Virginia Division of Culture and History, Find a Grave, Wheeling Daily Register, Wheeling Intelligencer, West Virginia Division of Culture and History

​Today in Wheeling History: December 27--Ensign Philip J. Saseen, a 1940 Wheeling Central Catholic graduate and Navy flier from Our Lady of Mt. Lebanon parish, was killed in action when his plane crashed into the South Pacific (1944).
 
Philip J. Saseen was born in Wheeling on May 3, 1921, to Schickery and Helen Saseen, who lived at 2132 Main Street in Wheeling's Lebanese-American community. He grew up in a large family with one sister and eight brothers, including George and Robert, who also served during World War II. Philip attended local parochial schools and graduated from Central Catholic High School with the class of 1940. Before military service, he worked in business alongside his brothers.
 
On September 12, 1942, Philip enlisted in the U.S. Navy's V-5 training course. His training took him to Bethany College, the University of Richmond, Waynesboro, Virginia, and the Universities of Georgia and Philadelphia. He received advanced flight training at Norman Field in Oklahoma before graduating from the Naval Air Training Center at Corpus Christi, Texas, in May 1944, when he was commissioned as an Ensign in the U.S. Naval Reserve.
 
At twenty-three, Ensign Saseen was serving as a fighter pilot in the Pacific when his aircraft crashed into the South Pacific on December 27, 1944. His mother received notification from the Navy Department on December 29 that her son had died "in line of duty." For his sacrifice, he was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart. An active member of Our Lady of Mt. Lebanon Maronite Catholic Church—the only Maronite parish in West Virginia—Philip was part of a community that contributed significantly to the war effort. His remains were never recovered; his name is memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines.
 
To learn more: Archiving Wheeling (https://tinyurl.com/2j52zs36), Find a Grave (https://tinyurl.com/mpbu33z4), Wheeling Intelligencer (https://tinyurl.com/nhjns6m3) (https://tinyurl.com/2y47ajr7)
 
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV; Find a Grave, Wheeling Intelligencer, Archives of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston

Today in Wheeling History: December 26--The Wheeling/Ohio County Convention and Visitors Bureau finalizes the purchase of the land that the former Wheeling Inn sits on, securing the riverfront gateway site for future redevelopment (2023). 
 
The former Wheeling Inn, at 949 Main Street beside the Wheeling Suspension Bridge, had long been one of the first impressions motorists received when exiting Interstate 70 into downtown. Once a busy hotel on the city’s riverfront, it became increasingly associated with nuisance calls and visible decline, prompting growing calls for action. After several years of negotiations, the Wheeling/Ohio County Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) acquired the property for about $1.7 million, completing the deal and taking full control of the land by late 2023. Local officials praised the purchase as a major step toward reshaping Wheeling’s primary “gateway” and improving the visual corridor along the National Road approach into the city. 
 
With ownership secured, the CVB proceeded toward demolition of the deteriorated structure, a process celebrated as the end of an era and the beginning of a new chapter for the riverfront. By early 2025, demolition was complete, revealing—for the first time in decades—an unobstructed view of the Suspension Bridge from Main Street. The CVB has proposed a “Wheeling Gateway Visitors and Heritage Center” on the site, supported in part by federal earmarks, envisioning a welcome center that interprets local history while serving as a hub for tourism and downtown activity. Community discussion continues as plans are refined, but the purchase firmly repositioned the parcel as a civic asset rather than a liability. 
 
To learn more: WTOV9 (https://tinyurl.com/y694hsha), Lede News (https://tinyurl.com/y2d3cf2n), The Intelligencer (https://tinyurl.com/7udnjstn), WTRF (https://tinyurl.com/nhcmw9c4), Wheeling CVB (https://tinyurl.com/y694hsha)
 
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV; Google Maps

​Today in Wheeling History: December 25—W.C. Brown, prominent Ohio Valley photography pioneer whose carefully indexed collection preserves views ranging from the Main Street stone arch bridge to hospitals, breweries, and cemeteries, died at age 89 (1951).
 
William C. Brown was born October 11, 1863, in Wheeling to John H. Brown and Mary Elizabeth Marsh Brown. He spent most of his life on Wheeling Island before later residing at 8 Poplar Avenue in Brookside, Ohio. Brown became one of the city’s earliest professional photographers, operating a photographic and blueprint business that carried his name for decades and documenting the Ohio Valley during a period of rapid industrial and civic growth. Working alongside his father, he captured invaluable images of street life, transportation, architecture, and the evolving built environment of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
 
In 1950, Brown donated his irreplaceable photographic collection—94 images taken by himself and his father—to the Ohio County Public Library. The collection, carefully indexed by the dates Brown himself labeled on the prints, preserves views ranging from the Main Street stone arch bridge to hospitals, breweries, and cemeteries. Restored by fellow photographer George Kossuth, many of these images now hang in the library, serving as a cornerstone of Wheeling’s visual memory.
 
Brown married Delia K. Lippincott in 1892 and was a lifelong member of Thomson Methodist Church. A charter member of the Bridgeport Lodge of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics, he retired roughly a decade before his death. Brown died December 25, 1951, at Ohio Valley General Hospital. Reverend Irving S. Middaugh officiated his funeral at Kepner’s Chapel, and he was interred at Greenwood Cemetery.
 
To learn more: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV (https://tinyurl.com/2e4y3ymz) (https://tinyurl.com/2n4dn6fa) (https://tinyurl.com/5n6sx27a), Wheeling News Register (https://tinyurl.com/mrx7zvbv), Weelunk (https://tinyurl.com/746wysye), Find a Grave (https://tinyurl.com/5dd6n9zr)
 
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV; Find a Grave

​Today in Wheeling History: December 24--Wheeling Central Catholic graduate and Army Private First Class John Joseph Killeen perished along with 762 other American soldiers when the SS Leopoldville was torpedoed and sunk on Christmas Eve off the coast of France (1944).
 
John Joseph Killeen was born August 1, 1921, in Wheeling, West Virginia, to Joseph Eugene and Clara Schiffer Killeen. He grew up in Wheeling and graduated from Wheeling Central Catholic High School. Before entering military service, Killeen was an active member of the Wheeling community.
 
Private First Class Killeen served in the 262nd Infantry Regiment, 66th Infantry Division, U.S. Army during World War II. On Christmas Eve 1944, he was aboard the Belgian troopship SS Leopoldville, which was transporting over 2,000 American soldiers from Southampton, England, to Cherbourg, France, as reinforcements for the Battle of the Bulge. Just 5.5 miles from their destination, the ship was torpedoed by German submarine U-486. Due to poor communication, inadequate lifeboats, and crew abandonment, 763 American soldiers perished in the frigid waters of the English Channel.
 
PFC Killeen, age 23, was among those lost. Though the ship sank on Christmas Eve, his official date of death is listed as December 25, 1944. His body was never recovered from the Channel. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart for his sacrifice. Killeen is memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France. The Leopoldville disaster remained classified until 1996, with survivors ordered not to discuss the tragedy.
 
To learn more: Archiving Wheeling (https://tinyurl.com/2j52zs36), Find a Grave (https://tinyurl.com/4ak4yhz2), Mémoire & Database (https://tinyurl.com/5n64ku8t), Leopoldville Troopship Disaster (https://tinyurl.com/2rrjbe6m), Ancestry (https://tinyurl.com/mthfj853), Wikipedia (https://tinyurl.com/ytwtcb37)
 
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV; Archives of the Diocese of Wheeling Charleston, Find a Grave, Wikimedia Commons

​Today in Wheeling History: December 23—Future Ohio County sheriff and FBI special agent Thomas F. Burgoyne Sr., later a Wheeling civic leader, is born in Lancaster, Massachusetts (1940).
 
Thomas Francis Burgoyne Sr. was born December 23, 1940, in Lancaster, Massachusetts, the oldest child of Francis and Alice (Langen) Burgoyne. He graduated from Lancaster High School in 1958 and earned a bachelor’s degree in history from St. Anselm College in 1963. He began his federal career as an FBI clerk in Washington, D.C., and in 1965 completed training at the FBI Academy in Quantico, becoming a Special Agent under Director J. Edgar Hoover.
 
Burgoyne’s early assignments took him to Miami, where he served on the Fugitive Squad, followed by transfers to Pittsburgh and ultimately Wheeling in the late 1960s. In Wheeling he met and married his wife, Kathy, and the couple settled in the Dimmeydale neighborhood. He later headed the Federal Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force in the Wheeling FBI Office, securing numerous convictions during a period of expanding regional drug‑enforcement efforts.
 
After retiring from the FBI in 1996 with 33 years of service, Burgoyne taught criminal justice at Wheeling Jesuit University. In 2000, he was elected Ohio County Sheriff, serving two terms through 2008. As sheriff, he founded S.W.E.A.T. (Support Wheeling’s Effort at Teens), a program focused on mentoring youth through community service.
 
Burgoyne also coached youth sports, served on local boards, and remained active at Wheeling Central Catholic High School, where his children graduated. He and Kathy received the Bishop’s Cross in 2015, and in 2021 he was honored with the Youth Services System Good Samaritan Award. He died January 26, 2023, and was interred at Mount Calvary Cemetery in Wheeling.
 
To learn more: Lede News (https://tinyurl.com/2rkjdw7h), The Intelligencer (https://tinyurl.com/3hh8t8w2) (https://tinyurl.com/ym8hrfbj) (https://tinyurl.com/32x25ztk), WTRF-TV (https://tinyurl.com/yywpsadm)
 
 Photo credits: Thomas F. Burgoyne Sr. (Legacy)

​Today in Wheeling History: December 21—The Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse at 1125 Chapline Street is officially designated the “Frederick P. Stamp, Jr. Federal Building and United States Courthouse” (2021). 
 
Senior U.S. District Judge Frederick Pfarr Stamp Jr., a lifelong resident of Wheeling, was honored nationally when Congress passed H.R. 4660, signed into law on December 21, 2021, as Public Law 117-75, officially naming the federal building and courthouse at 1125 Chapline Street for him. Born in Wheeling on July 24, 1934, Stamp graduated from Washington and Lee University with a B.A. in 1956, pursued legal studies at the University of Virginia, and earned his LL.B. from the University of Richmond’s T.C. Williams School of Law in 1959. After active duty service as a U.S. Army private in 1959–1960, he continued in the Army Reserve, rising to first lieutenant through 1967. Returning home, he practiced law in Wheeling for three decades with Schrader, Byrd, Byrum, and Companion and its predecessor firms, building a reputation for integrity and civic involvement. In 1990, President George H. W. Bush appointed him to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia; he served as chief judge from 1994 to 2001 and assumed senior status in 2006, yet continued carrying a full caseload. The naming of the Wheeling courthouse in his honor reflects both his federal judicial service and his deep, sustained commitment to his hometown community. 
 
To learn more: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV (https://tinyurl.com/y6pnztbz); GovInfo (https://tinyurl.com/ycyr4hdx), GOVTRACK.US (https://tinyurl.com/2h82cjwh), Federal Juidicial Center (https://tinyurl.com/ykf2kytd), Wikipedia (https://tinyurl.com/bdd2etj6), General Services Administration (https://tinyurl.com/3eh5d4np)
 
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV; General Services Administration

Today in Wheeling History: December 20—The African American Pythian Building at 1025–27 Chapline Street is formally dedicated and opened, becoming a central hub for Wheeling’s Black community (1928).
 
The African American Pythian Building at 1025–27 Chapline Street was formally dedicated on December 20, 1928, marking a transformative moment in Wheeling’s Black history. Constructed by the Wheeling Pythian Association, a fraternal group committed to civic advancement, the four-story structure embodied dignity and modernity in a segregated city. Designed and built under the leadership of Samuel Plato of Louisville, one of the nation’s most prominent African American contractors, the building featured a theatre and auditorium, lodge rooms, offices, and storefronts. Its dedication was celebrated as a triumph of Black enterprise and resilience. The Pythian Theatre—later renamed the Fedo Theatre—served audiences into the mid-1950s, while ground-floor tenants included the Pythian/Fraternity Barbershop, Friendship Billiard Parlor, and the restaurant that reopened in 1938 as The Palm Garden. Oral histories emphasize the building’s role as a cultural and social magnet, a place where Wheeling’s African American community gathered for entertainment, business, and civic life despite systemic barriers. The Pythian Building’s endurance into the mid-twentieth century underscores its importance as both a physical and symbolic cornerstone of Black achievement in Wheeling. Today, its legacy is preserved through archival research, photographs, and community storytelling, ensuring its place in the city’s collective memory.
 
To learn more: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV (https://tinyurl.com/yhazsud7) (https://tinyurl.com/3s48srcb); YouTube (https://tinyurl.com/4pxtac6t), Weelunk (https://tinyurl.com/3uzhw74r)
 
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV