Tag: Chief Cornstalk

November 15, 2010: Aracoma Hotel in Logan Badly Damaged by Fire

On November 15, 2010, the Aracoma Hotel in Logan was badly damaged by fire, leading to its demolition several months later.

Named for the Indian princess Aracoma, the daughter of Chief Cornstalk, the landmark hotel experienced many brushes with history. Built in 1917 for $50,000 by Syrian immigrant Harvey Ghiz, the hotel was the largest downtown building erected after Logan’s great fire of 1912. During construction, workers unearthed roughly a square-block field of bones and relics that had once been an Indian burial site.

The original four-story building fronted on Coal Street with an elaborate arched facade. It contained 94 rooms, most with private shower baths. It also boasted electric elevators and fine woodwork.

In 1921, during the West Virginia Mine Wars, local women set up an emergency food station in the Aracoma’s lobby to supply meals and supplies to the troops, police, and other antiunion forces quartered in Logan. Over the years, the hotel hosted such notables as evangelist Billy Sunday and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. And in 1960, John F. Kennedy used the Aracoma as his headquarters while campaigning for president in the region.

October 10, 1774: The Battle of Point Pleasant is Fought

On October 10, 1774, perhaps the most important battle ever fought in present-day West Virginia occurred at Point Pleasant. It was preceded by a long spring and summer of deadly violence between settlers and Indians. In response to these hostilities, Virginia Governor Lord Dunmore dispatched two armies to attack Shawnee villages in Ohio. Dunmore personally led the northern army, while the southern column was under Colonel Andrew Lewis.

Shawnee Chief Cornstalk closely scouted both forces. He decided to attack Lewis’s troops at Point Pleasant before they could unite with Dunmore’s army. During the battle, both sides numbered about 1,000, and the struggle was intense. Much of the fighting involved brutal hand-to-hand combat. Late in the day, Cornstalk misread a flanking movement by the Virginians as a sign of reinforcements. He surrendered the battlefield and retreated across the Ohio River.

The resulting treaty, which was signed five months before the Revolutionary War began, brought relative peace to the region. Although the truce proved temporary, it kept American soldiers from fighting a two-front war and allowed them to focus on the British for the first two years of the conflict.

August 13, 1763: George Washington Outlines Plans for Pontiac's Rebellion Defense

On August 13, 1763, George Washington outlined his plans to defend western Virginia against Pontiac’s Rebellion. His key strategy was to station 500 Virginia militiamen on the western frontier.

Pontiac’s Rebellion was an uprising against settlers, occurring at the end of the French and Indian War. Many western tribes had aligned themselves with France during the war. Pontiac, an Ottawa leader, realized that with the English victory, settlers would pour into the West and take more lands from Indians. He helped forge a military alliance among the Ottawa, Delaware, Kickapoo, Miami, Potawatomi, Seneca, Shawnee, and Wyandotte Indians.

In Western Virginia, the deadliest attacks of Pontiac’s Rebellion occurred in the Greenbrier region, where Shawnee chief Cornstalk’s warriors killed dozens of white settlers.

Pontiac’s Rebellion was stopped at Detroit—one of the last standing British forts. Pontiac was forced to negotiate a peace in 1766. Although Britain’s King George tried to ease tensions by banning white settlement west of the Allegheny Mountains, many pioneers ignored the warnings. By the 1770s, Pontiac’s prophecy had come true, as settlers moved into western Virginia in record numbers.

November 15, 2010: Aracoma Hotel in Logan Badly Damaged by Fire

On November 15, 2010, the Aracoma Hotel in Logan was badly damaged by fire, leading to its demolition several months later.

Named for the Indian princess Aracoma, the daughter of Chief Cornstalk, the landmark hotel experienced many brushes with history. Built in 1917 for $50,000 by Syrian immigrant Harvey Ghiz, the hotel was the largest downtown building erected after Logan’s great fire of 1912. During construction, workers unearthed roughly a square-block field of bones and relics that had once been an Indian burial site.

The original four-story building fronted on Coal Street with an elaborate arched facade. It contained 94 rooms, most with private shower baths. It also boasted electric elevators and fine woodwork.

In 1921, during the West Virginia Mine Wars, local women set up an emergency food station in the Aracoma’s lobby to supply meals and supplies to the troops, police, and other antiunion forces quartered in Logan. Over the years, the hotel hosted such notables as evangelist Billy Sunday and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. And in 1960, John F. Kennedy used the Aracoma as his headquarters while campaigning for president in the region.

November 15, 2010: Aracoma Hotel in Logan Badly Damaged by Fire

On November 15, 2010, the Aracoma Hotel in Logan was badly damaged by fire, leading to its demolition several months later.

Named for the Indian princess Aracoma, the daughter of Chief Cornstalk, the landmark hotel experienced many brushes with history. Built in 1917 for $50,000 by Syrian immigrant Harvey Ghiz, the hotel was the largest downtown building erected after Logan’s great fire of 1912. During construction, workers unearthed roughly a square-block field of bones and relics that had once been an Indian burial site.

The original four-story building fronted on Coal Street with an elaborate arched facade. It contained 94 rooms, most with private shower baths. It also boasted electric elevators and fine woodwork.

In 1921, during the West Virginia Mine Wars, local women set up an emergency food station in the Aracoma’s lobby to supply meals and supplies to the troops, police, and other antiunion forces quartered in Logan. Over the years, the hotel hosted such notables as evangelist Billy Sunday and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. And in 1960, John F. Kennedy used the Aracoma as his headquarters while campaigning for president in the region.

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