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On This Day
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September


September 1
On September 1, 1907, labor leader Walter Reuther was born in Wheeling.
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On September 1, 1777, Native Americans attacked a militia force at Fort Henry.

On September 1, 1671, explorers Thomas Batts and Robert Fallam embarked on an expedition that would result in the discovery of the New River.

September 2
On September 2, 1867, the West Virginia Agricultural College, later named West Virginia University, began its first term.
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September 3
On September 3, 1966, President Lyndon Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson spoke at the dedication of the Summersville Reservoir.
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On September 3, 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt visited Charleston and South Charleston.

September 4
On September 4, 1921, the Battle of Blair Mountain, the culmination of the largest armed insurrection in the United States since the Civil War, ended.
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September 5
On September 5, 1716, a party led by Virginia Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood, exploring lands in western Virginia, reached the crest of the Appalachian Mountains.
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September 6
On September 6, 1894, one of the biggest gas wells ever drilled was completed on Moses Spencer's farm on Indian Creek, Tyler County.
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On September 6, 1902, President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt spoke in Wheeling.

September 7
On September 7, 1989, Senate President Larry Tucker resigned from office.
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September 8
On September 8, 1798, frontiersman Daniel Boone ran his last survey in the Kanawha Valley.
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September 9
On September 9, 1803, Meriwether Lewis departed from Wheeling on the first leg of the Corps of Discovery's expedition to explore western lands purchased from France.
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September 10
The Battle of Carnifex Ferry was fought on September 10, 1861.
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September 11
On September 11, 1924, the Terra Alta-Kingwood Road, now part of State Route 7, was officially opened.
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September 12
On September 12, 1782, Elizabeth Zane made a daring run to procure gunpowder for the defenders of Fort Henry, who were besieged by a Native American force.
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September 13
On September 13, 1974, Kanawha County schools were closed in the wake of violence in the county's textbook controversy.
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September 14
On September 14, 1862, Union General Jesse Lee Reno, the highest ranking Federal officer from present-day West Virginia in the Civil War, was killed in action at the Battle of South Mountain.
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September 15
On September 15, 1937, Monisgnor Thomas Acquinas Quirk died in Lewis County.
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September 16
On September 16, 1795, President George Washington wrote Secretary of War Timothy Pickering proposing that the federal government establish an armory and arsenal at Harpers Ferry.
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September 17
On September 17, 1972, presidential candidate George McGovern campaigned in Huntington.
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September 18
Alderson Academy opened on September 18, 1901.
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September 19
On September 19, 1907, a meeting called by Governor William Dawson to discuss immigration to West Virginia was quickly adjourned amidst speculation that its termination was due to the presence of UMWA president John Mitchell.
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September 20
On September 20, 1882, West Virginia University president William Lyne Wilson was nominated as the Democratic candidate for the United States House of Representatives from the Second District.
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September 21
On September 21, 1898, prominent educator J. McHenry Jones, whose novel Hearts of Gold was the first published by an African-American in West Virginia, was installed as principal of the West Virginia State Colored Institute.
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September 22
On September 22, 1911, jail sentences for a gang of counterfeiters from Mercer County were announced in a federal court sitting in Huntington.
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September 23
On September 23, 1938, the Mingo Oak, estimated to date before the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas, was cut down.
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September 24
On September 24, 1952, Republican presidential candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower and vice presidential candidate Richard M. Nixon met in Wheeling to determine whether Nixon would remain on the ticket.
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September 25
On September 25, 1992, representatives of Snowshoe and Silver Creek resorts announced a preliminary agreement to merge operations.
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On September 25, 1952, Dwight D. Eisenhower made a campaign stop in Keyser.

September 26
On September 26, 1928, truck driver Ray Tenney of Buckhannon was killed when his gasoline truck broke through the floor of a covered bridge in Upshur County.
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On September 26, 1936, a train wreck occurred in Hemphill, McDowell County.

September 27
On September 27, 1777, Captain William Foreman and a company of Hampshire County militia were ambushed by Native Americans in the "Narrows," south of Wheeling.
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September 28
On September 28, 1948, the Freedom Train stopped in Bluefield.
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September 29
On September 29, 1910, author Rebecca Harding Davis died.
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September 30
On September 30, 1957, a group of students at Matoaka High School walked out in protest over school integration.
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On This Day in West Virginia History

West Virginia Archives and History