Charleston, WV – The following events happened on these dates in West Virginia history. To read more, go to e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia at www.wvencyclopedia.org.
June 3, 1856: Harriet B. Jones was born in Pennsylvania. After attending Wheeling Female College and graduating from the Women’s Medical College of Baltimore, she opened a private practice in Wheeling, becoming the first woman licensed to practice medicine in West Virginia.
June 3, 1861: The first land battle of the Civil War took place in Philippi. About 3,000 federal troops drove about 800 Confederates from the town.
June 3, 1861: A company of Confederate soldiers known as the Logan Wildcats was created at the Logan Courthouse. The company, consisting of about 85 men, first saw action at the Battle of Scary Creek.
June 3, 1936: The first Strawberry Festival was held in Buckhannon. More than 6,000 spectators attended the festivities, which also included a parade of 30 princesses down Main Street.
June 4, 1975: Clark Kessinger died in St. Albans, Kanawha County. Kessinger was among the most prolific and influential fiddlers of the 20th century, and one of West Virginia’s most important traditional musicians.
June 5, 1859: A great frost killed crops in the Preston County fields. The fields were replanted with hardy buckwheat, which was successful and became a staple crop, celebrated in the annual Buckwheat Festival in Kingwood.
June 6, 1919: Historian Otis Rice was born in Hugheston, Kanawha County. Rice was named West Virginia’s first Historian Laureate in 2003.
June 6, 1989: During the Pittston strike, about 60 miners embarked on a four-day march from Logan County to Charleston, retracing the path of the 1921 Armed March on Logan.
June 7, 1899: Congresswoman Elizabeth Kee was born in Radford, Virginia. She became West Virginia’s first female member of Congress in 1951.
June 7, 1926: An explosion at a sand mining operation in Morgan County killed six men. Their deaths were the inspiration for the ballad ‘‘The Miner’s Doom.’’
June 8, 1893: Entrepreneur Donald F. Duncan was born. Duncan was the founder of the Duncan Yo-Yo Company and the Duncan Parking Meter Corporation.
June 9, 1927: Karl Dewey Myers was named the state’s first poet laureate by Governor Howard Mason Gore. Myers held the post for 10 years.
June 9, 1957: T.D. Jakes was born in South Charleston. As a boy, he preached to imaginary congregations and carried a Bible to school, which earned him the nickname ‘‘Bible Boy.’’ He is the senior pastor at the Potter’s House, a nondenominational church in Dallas, Texas.
e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia is a project of the West Virginia Humanities Council. For more information contact the West Virginia Humanities Council, 1310 Kanawha Blvd. E., Charleston, WV 25301; (304) 346-8500; or visit e-WV at www.wvencyclopedia.org.