US House of Representatives Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

April 23, 1861: Unionists Elect Kellian Whaley to US House of Representatives

On April 23, 1861, Union loyalists from Virginia’s 11^th District elected Kellian Whaley to the U.S. House of Representatives, replacing former Congressman Albert Gallatin Jenkins, who’d stepped down to support the Confederacy.

The vote came just six days after Virginia had voted to secede from the Union at the start of the Civil War.

Whaley, a native of upstate New York, had moved to near the present site of Ceredo in Wayne County in 1842. A lumber dealer by trade, Whaley was one of five pro-Union congressmen who represented Virginia in the 37^th Congress.

Under the direction of the pro-Union Reorganized Government of Virginia—led by Governor Francis Pierpont from the capital in Wheeling—Whaley organized Union military recruitment in his part of the state. As a Union officer, he fought, was captured, and made a daring escape during the Confederate raid on Guyandotte in Cabell County in November 1861.

Kellian Whaley was reelected to Congress in 1863 and 1865. At the end of his third term, he was appointed collector of customs in Texas. He died in Point Pleasant in 1876 at age 55.

November 18, 2009: Senator Robert C. Byrd Longest Serving Member of Congress

On November 18, 2009, Senator Robert C. Byrd became the nation’s longest-serving member of Congress. He was first elected to public office in 1946. After serving two terms in the West Virginia House of Delegates and one in the state senate, he was elected to three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1958, voters sent him to the U.S. Senate, where he would remain from 1959 until his death in 2010 at age 92.

In his early years, Byrd primarily was a conservative. He notably led a filibuster against the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Over time, he became more liberal and eventually became one of President George W. Bush’s staunchest critics.

He served as the Senate’s Democratic leader for 12 years. And in 1989, he became chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee. In this role, Byrd famously brought billions of federal dollars to West Virginia, including an FBI center in Clarksburg, IRS offices in Parkersburg, and a Fish and Wildlife Training Center in Shepherdstown.

For Byrd’s career of service, Governor Bob Wise and the legislature named him West Virginian of the 20^th Century.