This week in West Virginia history
Jun. 6—CHARLESTON — The following events happened on these dates in West Virginia history. To read more, go to e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia at wvencyclopedia.org.
June 6, 1919: Historian Otis Rice was born in Hugheston, Kanawha County. Rice was named West Virginia's first Historian Laureate in 2003.
June 6, 1989: During the Pittston strike, about 60 miners embarked on a four-day march from Logan County to Charleston, retracing the path of the 1921 Armed March on Logan.
June 7, 1899: Congresswoman Elizabeth Kee was born in Radford, Virginia. She became West Virginia's first female member of Congress in 1951.
June 7, 1926: An explosion at a sand mining operation in Morgan County killed six men. Their deaths were the inspiration for the ballad "The Miner's Doom."
June 8, 1893: Entrepreneur Donald F. Duncan was born. Duncan was the founder of the Duncan Yo-Yo Company and the Duncan Parking Meter Corporation.
June 9, 1927: Karl Dewey Myers was named the state's first poet laureate by Governor Howard Mason Gore. Myers held the post for 10 years.
June 9, 1957: T.D. Jakes was born in South Charleston. As a boy, he preached to imaginary congregations and carried a Bible to school, which earned him the nickname "Bible Boy." He is the senior pastor at the Potter's House, a nondenominational church in Dallas, Texas.
June 10, 1775: The Berkeley County Riflemen were organized by Capt. Hugh Stephenson of Shepherdstown, in response to a call for Revolutionary War soldiers by Gen. George Washington.
June 10, 1921: Labor leader Daniel Vincent Maroney was born on Cabin Creek, Kanawha County. Maroney served as the international president of the Amalgamated Transit Union from 1973 to 1981.
June 11, 1866: Architect Elmer Forrest Jacobs was born in Preston County. His work is seen particularly in downtown Morgantown, in residential South Park, and on the West Virginia University campus. Most of his Morgantown buildings are now on the National Register of Historic Places.
June 11, 1782: Frontiersman William Crawford was tortured and burned at the stake. Crawford had been captured by the Delaware, who mistakenly blamed him for the treacherous murder of about 100 Moravian Christian Indians.
June 12, 2006: Robert C. Byrd became the longest-serving United States senator in history. He served in the Senate from his election in 1958 until his death in 2010. This record was broken on June 7, 2013, by Congressman John Dingell, a Democrat from Michigan.
e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia is a project of the West Virginia Humanities Council. For more information, contact the West Virginia Humanities Council, 1310 Kanawha Blvd. E., Charleston, WV 25301; (304) 346-8500; or visit e-WV at wvencyclopedia.org.
