Devastating fire destroys downtown Lewisburg — Aug. 3, 1897
The following events occurred on these dates in West Virginia history: For more information, see e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia at www.wvencyclopedia.org.
July 28, 1915: Frankie Yankovic is born in Davis, Tucker County. Yankovic did more to popularize polka music than any other performer.
July 29, 1873: Malcolm Malachi “Mac” Day is born. As sheriff of McDowell County, he claimed to be commanded by God to enforce Prohibition and arrested his uncle and his own son.
July 29-31, 1915: Camp Good Luck, believed to be the world’s first 4-H club camp, was held in Elkwater in southern Randolph County.
July 29, 1918: Novelist Mary Lee Settle is born in Charleston. Her literary fame was built on “The Beulah Quintet,” a series of five historical novels spanning four centuries.
July 30, 1973: The Frederick Hotel in downtown Huntington temporarily closes. Since its construction in 1905, it had been touted as the most elegant hotel between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.
July 31, 1932: Actor Theodore Crawford “Ted” Cassidy was born in Pittsburgh but grew up in Philippi. He is best known for playing Lurch on The Addams Family.
Aug. 1, 1921: Baldwin Felts detectives shot and killed Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers as they approached the McDowell County Courthouse in Welch. Hatfield, as Matewan’s police chief, had supported the United Mine Workers’ drive to organize Tug Fork miners.
Aug. 1, 1940: Judge Franklin Cleckley is born in Huntington. In 1994, he became the first Black justice to serve on the West Virginia Supreme Court. The Supreme Court once called Cleckley’s Handbook of Evidence and Criminal Procedure “the bible for West Virginia judges and lawyers.”
Aug. 2, 2009: Golfers Sam Snead and Bill Campbell are the first two inducted into the West Virginia Golf Hall of Fame.
August 3, 1897: Fire destroys much of downtown Lewisburg. The town rebuilt and became one of the state’s leading agricultural centers and a center for education and the arts over the next century.
Aug. 3, 1907: Harley Olin Staggers Sr. is born in Keyser. Staggers served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 32 years.
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