Alderson Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

W.Va. Celebrates Fourth Of July Statewide

Major celebrations are taking place throughout the state for the Fourth of July.

West Virginia will have a variety of events throughout the state celebrating the Fourth of July during the long weekend.

Some of the activities around the state include the Snowshoe Independence Day Celebration, Fayetteville’s Fourth of July Heritage Festival, the Shepherdstown Parade, the Fourth of July Car Show in Chester, the Grande Parade in Alderson, and fireworks displays all across the state.

There will also be festivities in Ripley. The city professes to have the nation’s largest small town Independence Day celebration.

Additionally, the Charleston Sternwheel Regatta begins on June 30 and will go until the Fourth with festivities all weekend for everyone across the state and out-of-state to enjoy. WVPB will also have an informational booth at the event.

Visit the West Virginia Tourism website for more events.

Alderson’s Home and Business Decorating Contest Kicks Off With Annual Parade

Residents and business owners in the Greenbrier County town of Alderson can compete for eight different awards in the city’s annual Christmas Decorating Contest. It’s a friendly competition that’s been around for five years.

The Alderson Christmas Decorations judging committee hopes the competition will help the town feel more connected this holiday season. To enter, residents and businesses should have lights turned on and displays ready by 6 p.m. on Dec. 8.

The judges committee will then drive through the town to select winners for categories including best nativity, old-fashioned Christmas and best large and small businesses. Officials say more categories could be added at the committee’s discretion, even up to the day of judging.

Winners not only get bragging rights and recognition on Facebook but will also find a sign placed in their yards by Alderson Main Street, a non profit organization that sponsors the event.

Visitors are encouraged to get out to see the lights after dark from Dec. 3 to New Year’s Day. The Alderson’s Christmas Parade is set for Dec. 3 at 7 p.m. It’s also the day the lights on the Alderson Memorial Bridge will be turned on.

August 14, 1894: Entertainer Ada 'Bricktop' Smith Born in Alderson

On August 14, 1894, entertainer Ada Beatrice Queen Victoria Louise Virginia Smith was born at Alderson. At age five, Ada made her stage debut in Chicago, appearing in Uncle Tom’s Cabin. By age 16, she was performing on the vaudeville circuit. Soon afterward, a New York saloon keeper gave her the nickname ‘‘Bricktop’’ for her blazing red hair, unusual for an African-American.

In the 1920s, she was singing and dancing in Paris, where she became friends with composer Cole Porter. Porter supposedly wrote the song “Miss Otis Regrets She’s Unable to Lunch Today’’ for Bricktop. She opened a club in Paris called the Music Box, which was soon succeeded by another club called Bricktop’s.

During the late 1930s, she made radio broadcasts in France but returned to the United States when Nazi Germany began expanding across Europe. Her only recording, ‘‘So Long, Baby,’’ was made with Cy Coleman in 1970, and she continued to perform into her 80s. Her autobiography was published shortly before her death in 1984 at age 89.

Ada “Bricktop” Smith was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame in 2013.

April 9, 1900: Dr. Maggie Ballard Born In Monroe County

Physician Maggie Ballard was born on April 9, 1900, at Greenville in Monroe County, where her father was postmaster and owned a general store.

She attended school in Greenville and at the Alleghany Collegiate Institution in Alderson. After receiving her undergraduate degree from WVU, she became one of the first women to earn a medical degree from the University of Maryland. For the next four decades, she was a physician in Baltimore, specializing in obstetrics and gynecology, and served on the faculty of the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

After retiring in the 1960s, Dr. Maggie, as she was affectionately known, returned to Monroe County and pursued her lifelong interests in genealogy and local history. She was an avid collector, wrote books and newspaper articles, and was a founder of the Monroe County Historical Society. For years, she also set up at the Mountain State Art and Craft Fair at Cedar Lakes, selling her homemade lye soap.

Dr. Maggie Ballard died in 1976 at age 76. Her collection of historical material is now housed at the West Virginia and Regional History Center at WVU.

October 4, 1890: Lions Born in Alderson

On October 4, 1890, a traveling circus called French & Company’s Great Railroad Show arrived in the town of Alderson on the Greenbrier-Monroe county line. What started as a circus show would lead to one of the more bizarre incidents in West Virginia.

While in Alderson, the show’s lioness gave birth to three cubs. Having no space or time to raise them, the circus director ordered an employee to drown the cubs. Susan Bebout, the wife of a local blacksmith, was at the river and offered to take the cubs. She kept one, named French, and gave the other two to other women. Sadly, the other cubs died, but French thrived. By the following summer, the Alderson Lion weighed more than 150 pounds. He often escaped and wandered the streets of Alderson, harmlessly sidling up to townspeople.

The city of Alderson soon adopted an ordinance requiring all lions to be on leashes. In 1891, the Bebouts sold French to the new National Zoological Park in Washington. Three years later, the zoo traded him to the Barnum and Bailey Circus, where he spent the rest of his life.