Tag: Monroe County

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.

November 21, 1810: US Senator Allen Taylor Caperton Born

Allen Taylor Caperton was born on November 21, 1810, on his family’s estate in Monroe County. During the 1840s and 1850s, he served as a Whig in the Virginia House of Delegates and Senate. 

As the Civil War approached, Caperton was personally opposed to secession.  However, in April 1861, he served as a delegate to the Virginia secession convention and voted with the majority to join the Confederacy.

From 1863 until the end of the war two years later, he represented Virginia in the Confederate Senate. He was one of only three Virginians to serve in the Confederate Senate during the Civil War.

In 1875, the West Virginia Legislature elected Caperton, now a Democrat, to be a United States senator.  In doing so, Caperton set two precedents. He became the first ex-Confederate elected to the U.S. Senate.  He also was the first and only former Confederate senator to serve in the U.S. Senate after the war.  His time in the senate, though, was brief—less than 17 months. 

He died in July 1876 at the age of 65 and was buried in his hometown of Union.

Randolph County Camp for Youth Founded: July 29, 1915

A pioneering camp for rural youth began in Randolph County on July 29, 1915. Activities included hiking, fishing, swimming, and games.

The camp was sponsored by West Virginia University’s Extension Service, which had been created just a year earlier, and was led by J. Versus Shipman, his wife, Bess, and William “Teepi” Kendrick.

The camp was part of a national rural education movement that would evolve into 4-H in 1918. The four H’s stand for head, heart, hands, and health. Although the Randolph County camp was the first of its kind, other clubs for rural boys and girls were already in existence, including one established in Monroe County in 1908.

One of the leaders of the Randolph County camp, “Teepi” Kendrick, deserves much of the credit for the growth of 4-H in West Virginia. Not only did Kendrick expand the program to include youth development, he directed the first state 4-H camp in the United States—held at Jackson’s Mill in Lewis County in 1921.

Over the years, the mission of 4-H has broadened to provide a variety of educational programs, including assistance for urban and underprivileged youth.

September 7, 1848: West Virginia's First Black Legislator Born in Monroe County

West Virginia’s first black legislator, Christopher Payne, was born in Monroe County on September 7, 1848. He was raised near Hinton, where he worked as a farmhand. Although he was born a free person of color, he was forced as a teenager to serve as a servant in the Confederate Army during the Civil War.

  

After the war, Payne attended night school in Charleston and taught school in Monroe, Mercer, and Summers counties. He became a Baptist minister and earned a doctor of divinity degree from the State University in Louisville.

In 1888, Christopher Payne became the first African-American to represent West Virginia at a Republican national convention. When he was elected to the legislature from Fayette County in 1896, he became the first black member of the West Virginia Legislature. He founded three newspapers in Fayette and Kanawha counties and served as a minister in Huntington. As a reward for his service to the Republican Party, he was named deputy collector of internal revenue.

In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Christopher Payne consul general to the Danish West Indies, where he died in 1925 at age 77.

August 22, 1862: Jenkins Begins Raiding Western Virginia

On August 22, 1862, newly appointed Confederate Brigadier General Albert Gallatin Jenkins began a raid through Western Virginia. It was in response to a string of events that began with Robert E. Lee’s impending invasion of Maryland.

Earlier that month, the Union Army had shifted some 5,000 troops from the Charleston area to help protect Washington, DC. So, the Confederates took advantage of the troop reduction.

Jenkins launched his raid from Salt Sulphur Springs in Monroe County with 550 troops. The Confederates rode first into the Tygart Valley and skirmished with U.S. forces near Huttonsville. Next, they traveled to Buckhannon, Weston, Glenville, Spencer, and Ripley.

On September 4, the raiders crossed the Ohio River in Jackson County—about 60 miles north of Jenkins’s home at Green Bottom—and became the first to raise a Confederate flag on Ohio soil. They soon returned and skirmished with Union forces at Point Pleasant before moving on to Buffalo in Putnam County. On September 8, the raiders defeated a Union force at Barboursville and then rode through Wayne, Logan, and Raleigh counties. In all, Jenkins’s raid covered 500 miles.

November 21, 1810: US Senator Allen Taylor Caperton Born

Allen Taylor Caperton was born on November 21, 1810, on his family’s estate in Monroe County. During the 1840s and 1850s, he served as a Whig in the Virginia House of Delegates and Senate. 

As the Civil War approached, Caperton was personally opposed to secession.  However, in April 1861, he served as a delegate to the Virginia secession convention and voted with the majority to join the Confederacy.

From 1863 until the end of the war two years later, he represented Virginia in the Confederate Senate. He was one of only three Virginians to serve in the Confederate Senate during the Civil War.

In 1875, the West Virginia Legislature elected Caperton, now a Democrat, to be a United States senator.  In doing so, Caperton set two precedents. He became the first ex-Confederate elected to the U.S. Senate.  He also was the first and only former Confederate senator to serve in the U.S. Senate after the war.  His time in the senate, though, was brief—less than 17 months. 

He died in July 1876 at the age of 65 and was buried in his hometown of Union.

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