Wheeling Bridge Company Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

November 12, 1844: Wheeling Businessman Henry Schmulbach Born

Henry Schmulbach was born in Germany on November 12, 1844. When he was a child, he and his family immigrated to Wheeling. By the time he was a young adult, Schmulbach had become one of the city’s most successful businessmen, selling retail groceries and wholesale liquor.

In 1881, he purchased Wheeling’s Nail City Brewery. The next year, he changed its name to Schmulbach Brewing and increased the plant’s annual output to 200,000 barrels of beer. Schmulbach was one of many German immigrants who turned Wheeling into an important brewing center in the late 1800s.

He was a bit of a business Renaissance man. He served as president of the Wheeling Bridge Company and the German Bank, which is now WesBanco. He also built a popular amusement park in South Wheeling to boost the number of customers for his streetcar company. His inclined railway could carry as many as 1,200 passengers an hour up a steep hill to Mozart Park. And in 1904, he started construction on the state’s first high-rise office building.

Henry Schmulbach died in Wheeling in 1915 at the age of 70.

Wheeling Suspension Bridge Protected: August 31, 1852

On August 31, 1852, a new federal law gave the Wheeling Suspension Bridge special protection as a mail-carrying route. While it may sound humdrum, the law was actually pivotal in ensuring the bridge’s survival.

The Wheeling Suspension Bridge had opened to great fanfare in 1849.With a 1,010-foot main span, it was the longest bridge of its type in the world.

But, while Wheeling celebrated its new landmark, western Pennsylvanians were quietly plotting its destruction.

A group of industrialists from Pittsburgh—a chief rival of Wheeling at the time—filed a proceeding with the U.S. Supreme Court to declare the bridge a public nuisance because it blocked large steamboats from passing—namely ones heading to and from Pittsburgh on the Ohio River.

The Supreme Court sided with the Pennsylvanians—meaning that the bridge would have to come down. The bridge’s owners, though, turned to Congress, which declared the span part of a mail-carrying route, allowing it to survive and forcing steamers to lower their smokestacks when passing through Wheeling.

As a result, the Wheeling Suspension Bridge still stands today and remains one of West Virginia’s great historic landmarks.

Nov. 12 1844 Wheeling Businessman Henry Schmulbach Born

When Henry Schmulbach was a child, he and his family immigrated to Wheeling from Germany. By the time he was a young adult, Schmulbach had become one of the city’s most successful businessmen, selling retail groceries and wholesale liquor. Schmulbach was one of many German immigrants who turned Wheeling into an important brewing center in the late 1800s.