Today in Wheeling History: July 9--The Daily Register, forerunner of today's Wheeling News-Register, opens its Wheeling offices (1863).
 
In July 1863, 31-year-old Ohio native Lewis Baker purchased the printing press of the defunct Wheeling Daily Press and launched The Daily Register, joined soon after by editor O.S. Long. Founded in the middle of the Civil War, the paper voiced staunch Democratic views, standing in sharp contrast to its Republican rival, the Daily Intelligencer. Baker supported a Union victory but repeatedly criticized the Lincoln administration's conduct of the war and opposed the Emancipation Proclamation, believing it would only harden Southern resistance.
 
Those views brought real consequences. In July 1864, after the Register accused Union Gen. David Hunter of "vandalism" for removing a bronze statue of George Washington from the Virginia Military Institute campus, Hunter ordered the paper's offices seized and its editors arrested—on July 9, 1864, exactly one year to the day after the paper's founding. Baker and Long spent roughly seven weeks jailed at the Athenaeum before their release on August 30, 1864, and resumed publishing that September, unbowed.
 
The paper became West Virginia's leading Democratic voice, spinning off tri-weekly, weekly, and German-language editions. Baker himself was elected a Democratic state senator, serving as President of the West Virginia Senate in 1871, before relocating to Minnesota in 1885. The paper was renamed the Wheeling Daily Register in 1864, the Wheeling Register in 1878, and finally merged with the Wheeling Daily News in 1935 to become the Wheeling News-Register.
 
To learn more: Ohio County Public Library - Wheeling Intelligencer (https://tinyurl.com/489a5y9z), Facebook - Archiving Wheeling's Post (https://tinyurl.com/ms32scaz), Newspapers.com - The Wheeling Daily Register Archive (https://tinyurl.com/3dbwyaak), e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia Online - Wheeling Intelligencer (https://tinyurl.com/3yzt6zeh), Library of Congress - Chronicling America - The daily register [Wheeling, W. Va.], September 8, 1863 (https://tinyurl.com/22hxfb49), Newspapers.com - Wheeling Sunday Register Archive (https://tinyurl.com/5n82zc3f), Newspapers.com - The Daily Register Archive (https://tinyurl.com/3p6ncy3y), Ohio County Public Library - The Press in Wheeling, 1886 (https://tinyurl.com/2f3sa6cx), Library of Congress - Chronicling America - Wheeling Register [Wheeling, W. Va.] 1878-1935 (https://tinyurl.com/pych9aen), Library of Congress - Chronicling America - The Daily Register [Wheeling, W. Va.] 1863-1864 (https://tinyurl.com/mr3hstjr), Ohio County Public Library - Newspapers (https://tinyurl.com/4a8r4nub), Wikipedia - Lewis Baker [politician] (https://tinyurl.com/yhut2xkf)
 
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV; Wikimedia Commons, Google Maps, The Historical Marker Database

​Today in Wheeling History: July 8—Private Joseph G. "Tootie" Bryan, a Wheeling Central Catholic graduate and 83rd Division medical corpsman from Our Lady of Lebanon parish, was killed in action near St. Lo, France (1944).
 
Private Joseph G. "Tootie" Bryan was born August 16, 1921, in Wheeling, the son of William and Mary Nassif Bryan, Syrian immigrants who lived at 2269 Market Street. The family belonged to Our Lady of Lebanon parish; Joseph had two brothers, Albert and William "Jack" Bryan. A graduate of Wheeling Central Catholic High School, Joseph enlisted in the U.S. Army on October 22, 1942, while living at the Market Street address, serving as a Private and medical corpsman with the 330th Infantry Regiment, 83rd Infantry Division.
 
The 83rd Division landed in Normandy in June 1944 and was soon committed to the brutal hedgerow fighting around St. Lo, one of the campaign's costliest engagements. Private Bryan was killed in action there on July 8, 1944, at age 22. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart, Good Conduct Medal, and Combat Medical Badge for his service and sacrifice.
 
Bryan's remains were interred near Sainte-Mère-Église before being returned to Wheeling postwar. A High Mass of Requiem was celebrated by Rev. Paul Abraham at Our Lady of Lebanon Church, and he was reburied at Mount Calvary Cemetery on July 5, 1948. Wheeling Post No. 825, Veterans of Foreign Wars, conducted military rites at the grave, while the Syrian Young Men's Club and the Service Star Legion of Wheeling took part in memorial observances. Bryan is remembered on Central Catholic's WWII memorial board.
 
To learn more: Archiving Wheeling - “Wheeling Central Catholic Students and Graduates Killed in Action During WWII” (https://tinyurl.com/2ut9p5n3), Find a Grave - Joseph G. “Tootie” Bryan (https://tinyurl.com/5adubj2c), Wheeling News-Register ((https://tinyurl.com/4vb8adcu) (https://tinyurl.com/2ef86bj7), Wheeling Intelligencer (https://tinyurl.com/6f93rwpu), Airborne Museum, Sainte-Mère-Église, soldier record - Joseph G. Bryan  (https://tinyurl.com/32bs5bbn)
 
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV; Archives of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, Find a Grave, eBay, Wikimedia Commons

​Today in Wheeling History: July 7—Walter T. Davis, Wheeling Stamping Company inventor, granted patent for plastic-nozzle ointment tube (1959).
 
Walter Todd Davis was born October 2, 1884, in Wheeling, Ohio County, the son of Samuel Powell Davis and Laura S. Baggs Davis. He spent his entire career at the Wheeling Stamping Company, the Water Street firm that grew out of the 1877 Nail City Lantern Company and became one of the nation's leading makers of collapsible metal tubes, lanterns, and lamp fittings. By 1950 Davis was listed as superintendent of the company's treating department, overseeing the heat-treating and preparation of metal before stamping. Over four decades he was a remarkably prolific inventor, patenting tube-making and tube-handling machinery, extrusion presses, molten-metal purification methods, and plastic-molding apparatus, most assigned to Wheeling Stamping. His best-known patent, granted July 7, 1959, introduced a collapsible tube with a soft plastic nipple in place of a rigid metal nozzle, eliminating the risk of metal fragments during ophthalmic and medicinal use. Davis also patented tools unrelated to his tube work, including a 1929 "flying machine" safety design allowing an airplane's wings to rotate into a helicopter-like configuration during an uncontrolled descent. He married Maxine Tannebaum Davis, and the couple last lived at 902 Warwood Avenue; an infant son, Leslie Eugena Davis, died in 1919–1920. Walter T. Davis died January 21, 1960, at Ohio Valley General Hospital, with funeral services held at Bodey Funeral Home in Warwood. He is buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Wheeling.
 
To learn more: Google Patents (https://tinyurl.com/pwt7rt5u), Google Patents - Patents by Walter T. Davis (https://tinyurl.com/42eahaeb), Find a Grave - Walter Todd Davis (https://tinyurl.com/bnj7mz7b), Wheeling Intelligencer - Death Notices - Entered in Rest - Walter Todd Davis (https://tinyurl.com/munmcwa6), Wheeling News-Register - Funerals Tomorrow - Walter Todd Davis (https://tinyurl.com/2ndp56vu)
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV; U.S. Patent Office, Google Maps

​Today in Wheeling History: July 5—St. John’s congregation adopts the new denominational name St. John’s Evangelical and Reformed Church following a national merger (1939).  
 
St. John’s Evangelical Protestant Church traces its beginnings to about 1835, when Wheeling’s German pioneers held worship first in a frame building on Main Street and later in the old Ohio County Courthouse on Tenth Street. Under Rev. Andreas Schwartz, the congregation formally organized and erected its first church in 1836 at Eighteenth Street and Alley F. Its cornerstone, inscribed “Erste Deutsche Lutherische Kirche in Wheeling, 1836,” remains embedded in the east wall of the present building. 
 
A merger with another German-speaking congregation around 1870 led to the name St. John’s German Evangelical Protestant Church and the construction of a larger Gothic Revival church at 17th and Market Streets, dedicated in 1872. Rapid growth followed, but the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad’s expansion forced the congregation to sell the property after a 1906 court ruling. St. John’s salvaged its stained glass, organ, bell, pews, and furnishings before the building was demolished. 
 
The congregation purchased a new site at 22nd and Chapline Streets, where architect Frederick F. Faris designed a striking German Gothic structure built of yellow brick on a massive sandstone foundation. The cornerstone was laid in 1907, and the sanctuary dedicated in 1908. A major milestone came on July 5, 1939, when St. John’s officially became St. John’s Evangelical and Reformed Church following the national merger of the Evangelical and Reformed denominations. Another merger in 1961 brought the name St. John’s United Church of Christ, and in 2006 the congregation restored its historic Evangelical Protestant identity. By 2019, the church formally adopted the name Centre Wheeling Fellowship
 
Today, Centre Wheeling Fellowship operates as a community‑focused ministry offering outreach programs such as the Free Bike Depot and Christian Life and Recovery Services, expanding its mission to serve Wheeling with mobility assistance, practical support, and compassionate guidance for those in need.
 
To learn more: Ohio County Public Library – St. John’s Evangelical Protestant Church (https://tinyurl.com/wsmpvk76), SAH Archipedia – St. John’s United Church of Christ (https://tinyurl.com/fx8f4eew), Ohio County Public Library – Brief History of St. John’s United Church of Christ [1986] (https://tinyurl.com/ct2tzm2c), Centre Wheeling Fellowship (https://tinyurl.com/ycy7yc9b), Facebook - Centre Wheeling Fellowship (https://tinyurl.com/ayhkeutn)
 
Photo caption and credit: St. John's United Church of Christ, View From Chapline Street, Wheeling, WV, 2002 (Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV)

​Today in Wheeling History: July 3--Stockholders approve consolidation of Whitaker-Glessner Co., Wheeling Steel and Iron, and La Belle Iron Works into Wheeling Steel Corporation (1920).
 
Wheeling Steel Corporation was created at a pivotal moment in Wheeling’s industrial rise. On July 3, 1920, stockholders of Whitaker‑Glessner, Wheeling Steel & Iron, and La Belle Iron Works approved a merger that unified mills, blast furnaces, tin plate operations, and finishing plants stretching from Wheeling and Benwood to Martins Ferry and Portsmouth. The new corporation became one of America’s major steel producers, employing more than 17,000 workers at its peak and manufacturing black plate, tin plate, cut nails, steel pipe, sheet steel, cans, pails, stoves, and countless industrial products. Wheeling Steel also shaped national culture through its WWVA radio program "It’s Wheeling Steel," broadcast from 1936 to 1944 and featuring employee talent from across its plants. 
 
In 1968, Wheeling Steel merged with Pittsburgh Steel to form Wheeling‑Pittsburgh Steel, continuing operations through decades of industry contraction, foreign competition, and technological change. The company entered bankruptcy multiple times between the 1980s and early 2000s, eventually being acquired by Esmark in 2007 and then by Russia’s OAO Severstal in 2008. In 2011, RG Steel purchased the former Wheeling‑Pitt assets, but the company collapsed the following year. Today, most former Wheeling Steel sites have been demolished, repurposed, or redeveloped, though the Beech Bottom and Yorkville facilities continue limited operations under new ownership. The legacy of the 1920 consolidation remains central to Wheeling’s identity, labor history, and industrial heritage.
 
To learn more: Ohio County Public Library – Wheeling Steel Corporation Collection (https://tinyurl.com/yc4c27t8), Ohio County Public Library – Whitaker-Glessner Co. history (https://tinyurl.com/mr28p9tz), e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia – “Wheeling Steel” (https://tinyurl.com/4svm4aj3), Weelunk (https://tinyurl.com/4xs9u9st), Company History – Wheeling-Pittsburgh Corporation (https://tinyurl.com/3p3mhw7f), Wikipedia - Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel (https://tinyurl.com/bddffhnz), Flickr - Ohio County Public Library - Wheeling Steel  (https://tinyurl.com/5heuckej)
 
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV; Wikimedia Commons, Weelunk​, e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia Online

​Today in Wheeling History: July 4—Tens of thousands celebrated the nation's bicentennial in Wheeling with boat parades, canoe and flatboat races, firefighters' "water battles," kite flying, and daredevil dives from the Suspension Bridge, followed that night by the bridge's dedication as a National Historic Landmark (1976).
 
On July 4, 1976, Wheeling held an all-day bicentennial celebration along the Ohio River that the Wheeling News-Register said drew the largest Sunday crowds of any Ohio Valley community that weekend. Festivities began at 4 p.m. with a boat parade, followed by canoe and flatboat races, water skiing, swimming races between the Ohio Valley Yacht Club and the Wharf Parking Garage, and kite flying near the Suspension Bridge. Area firefighters staged a "water battle" on Water Street, spraying hoses at a keg suspended between two trucks; the Bridgeport team was declared the winner. WWVA Radio sponsored a country-western performance by Kenny Biggs and handed out free watermelon slices to the crowd. Two divers drew roars from onlookers by performing a swan dive and a back dive from the Suspension Bridge, surfacing to cheers, boat horns, and sirens. That evening, U.S. Rep. Robert Mollohan, whose congressional district included Wheeling, took part in ceremonies dedicating the Wheeling Suspension Bridge as a National Historic Landmark, one of the day's marquee events. The celebration closed with a fireworks display over the Ohio River, capping what the newspaper called a star-spangled bicentennial weekend for the entire Ohio Valley.
 
To learn more: Archiving Wheeling - A History of Wheeling’s 4th of July Celebrations (https://tinyurl.com/57rpp9bc), Wheeling News-Register (https://tinyurl.com/4mt8szz5) (https://tinyurl.com/mpdefwv2)
 
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV; Wheeling News-Register, Wheeling Intelligencer

​Today in Wheeling History: July 2—Hempfield Railroad's stone viaduct and tunnel at Tunnel Green, engineered by Suspension Bridge designer Charles Ellet Jr., opened for limited excursion service on roughly 16 miles of track (1856).
 
The Hempfield Railroad, chartered May 15, 1850, was engineered to link Wheeling with Greensburg, Pennsylvania, a distance of 76 miles. Its most dramatic feature in Wheeling was the stone viaduct and tunnel cut through Steenrod's Peninsula at what became known as Tunnel Green, spanning Wheeling Creek. The viaduct was designed by Charles Ellet Jr., the engineer who had already given Wheeling its landmark Suspension Bridge over the Ohio River. Construction of the five-span stone bridge began in the early 1850s; the Wheeling Intelligencer described the masonry work in progress on October 4, 1853, crediting superintendents Otterson and McCarty. By the summer of 1856, enough of the line was complete that limited excursion service, covering roughly sixteen miles, ran to Triadelphia and West Alexander, including special Fourth of July trains advertised for the holiday. Full completion of the Hempfield line, extending to Washington, Pennsylvania and a distance of 32 miles, came in 1857. The Hempfield operated independently until the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad purchased the line on May 1, 1871. B&O trains used the viaduct and its tunnel, rebuilt in 1904 with a second track, until the route was abandoned in 1973. Today the tunnel and viaduct, long rumored to be haunted by graves disturbed during construction, carry the Wheeling Heritage Trail as one of Wheeling's oldest surviving rail structures.
 
To learn more: Ohio County Public Library – B&O Railroad Bridge (Hempfield Viaduct) History (https://tinyurl.com/3aj7xd6t), HistoricBridges.org – Hempfield Viaduct (https://tinyurl.com/bddk6ekv), Industrial History blog – Trail/B&O/Hempfield Railroad 1857 Viaduct and Tunnel Green (https://tinyurl.com/yf3aeamj), Flickr - Ohio County Public Library - Peninsula Tunnel (https://tinyurl.com/5fdxhu5u), Facebook - Archiving Wheeling - Hempfield Railroad Viaduct (https://tinyurl.com/43nv2mfv)
 
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV; Google Maps  

​Today in Wheeling History: June 30—Mabel Cratty, future national General Secretary of the YWCA who earlier taught at the Wheeling Female Seminary, is born in Bellaire, Ohio (1868).
 
Mary Isabell “Mabel” Cratty (1868–1928) was born June 30, 1868, in Belmont County, Ohio, to Charles Campbell Cratty and Mary Clark Thoburn Cratty. Raised in a Methodist family with strong missionary ties, she attended Bellaire public schools, studied at Lake Erie Seminary, and graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1890. Soon afterward, she accepted a teaching position at the Wheeling Female Seminary in Wheeling, West Virginia, where her disciplined instruction and belief in rigorous education for young women left a lasting impression. Her Wheeling years helped shape the values that later guided her national leadership.
 
In 1904, Cratty joined the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) national staff, and in 1906 she became General Secretary of the National Board—a position she held for twenty‑two years. From New York City, she oversaw major organizational expansion, strengthened international ties, and advanced programs addressing labor conditions, peace advocacy, and women’s civic participation. Her leadership earned her an honorary Doctor of Laws from Ohio Wesleyan in 1922.
 
Cratty died of pneumonia on February 27, 1928, in New York at age 59. Her funeral, held at the YWCA National Board Building at 600 Lexington Avenue, drew about 400 representatives from across the country, including Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller Jr., Carrie Chapman Catt, and officers of the National Board. After the service, her body was taken by train to Bellaire, Ohio, for burial in Greenwood Cemetery in Pultney Township.
 
To learn more: Prabook (https://tinyurl.com/2rkc6nbu), Wikipedia - Mabel Cratty (https://tinyurl.com/mwam9r8d), Find a Grave - Mabel Cratty (https://tinyurl.com/5n775fam), New York Times - FUNERAL OF MABEL CRATTY.; 400 Representatives of Y.W.C.A. at Services for General Secretary (https://tinyurl.com/4h9ewn3c), Ohio County Public Library - Wheeling Female Seminary | Wheeling Female College (https://tinyurl.com/2d7ppk6p), Flickr - Ohio County Public Library - Wheeling Female Seminary | Wheeling Female College (https://tinyurl.com/yc3vu284)
 
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV; Wikimedia Commons, Find a Grave, YWCA

​Today in Wheeling History: June 28—U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd, whose federal appropriations funded major Wheeling projects including the Intermodal Transportation Center, dies at age 92 (2010).
 
Robert Carlyle Byrd (born Cornelius Calvin Sale Jr.) was born November 20, 1917, in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. Orphaned by the 1918 flu pandemic, he was raised in the coal towns of southern West Virginia by his aunt and uncle, Titus and Vlurma Byrd. After graduating as valedictorian of Mark Twain High School in Stotesbury in 1934, he worked a series of modest jobs before entering politics, winning election to the West Virginia House of Delegates in 1946 and the state Senate in 1950. Byrd served in the U.S. House from 1953 to 1959 and then in the U.S. Senate from 1959 until his death, becoming the longest‑serving member of Congress.
 
Through his seniority on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Byrd directed substantial federal investment to West Virginia, including several major projects in Wheeling. Three city institutions bear his name: the Robert C. Byrd Intermodal Transportation Center, the Robert C. Byrd National Technology Transfer Center at Wheeling University, and the Robert C. Byrd Addition to the Lodge at Oglebay Park. These facilities reflect Byrd’s influence on Wheeling’s transportation, educational, technological, and tourism infrastructure. Byrd died June 28, 2010, in Fairfax County, Virginia, and is buried at Columbia Gardens Cemetery in Arlington.
 
To learn more: Wheeling Heritage – Intermodal Center (https://tinyurl.com/2fchxpjn), Weelunk – “Intermodal Center May Finally Blossom Thanks To Nearby Development” (https://tinyurl.com/4tz4jtvj), e‑WV – “Robert C. Byrd” (https://tinyurl.com/3xsejc2p), Find a Grave – “Robert Carlyle Byrd” (https://tinyurl.com/3euuz9p4), Wikipedia – “Robert Byrd” (https://tinyurl.com/4rkuvbwd), Wikipedia – “List of places named after Robert Byrd” (https://tinyurl.com/mtxh7y68)
 
Photo credits: Wikimedia Commons, Wheeling Heritage, Pinterest

Today in Wheeling History: June 27--Silent film actress and singer Gladys Valerie (Gladys Valerie Hays), born in Wheeling (1890).  
 
Gladys Valerie was born Gladys Valerie Hays on June 27, 1890, in Wheeling, Ohio County, West Virginia, to Rudolph A. Hays and Edith Ida Koon Hays. Her family later relocated to New York City, where she was raised and educated, positioning her close to the emerging American theatrical and motion picture industries.  On June 30, 1914, she married teacher Mark Barth in Manhattan, a union that coincided with the beginning of her screen career in the silent era.  
 
Valerie’s film work included leading and featured roles in productions such as "The Heart of a Girl" (1918), "Marie, Ltd." (1919), "Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch" (1919), and "The Mind the Paint Girl" (1919), where she was praised for her expressive presence.   Contemporary coverage noted her operatic background and highlighted a 1919 benefit concert for blind soldiers, as well as her being voted the "Best Girl" of Company D, 105th Artillery, A.E.F., by soldiers overseas.   In the early 1930s she wrote, produced, and performed multiple roles in radio sketches for WINS in New York, later working in advertising by the 1950 census.  
 
She died on September 30, 1972, in New York and was buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Hawthorne, Westchester County, New York, but her story begins in Wheeling, where she was born before rising to national prominence on stage and screen. 
 
To learn more: Wikipedia - Gladys Valerie (https://tinyurl.com/476zfzne), Find a Grave - Gladys Valerie Hays Barth (https://tinyurl.com/4ec4n2uv), Everything Explained (https://tinyurl.com/4m6wnx8d), IMdb - Gladys Valerie [1890-1972] (https://tinyurl.com/s9mhxvtd)
 
Photo credits: Wikimedia Commons