Wheeling

Images of America: West Virginia

by William A. Carney Jr., Brent Carney

When most people think of Wheeling they remember Independence Hall and the birth of West Virginia, but Wheeling's history goes back even further to the frontier legends of Lewis Wetzel and Maj. Samuel McColloch. Images of Wheeling includes photographs of both Wetzel's cave and Major McColloch's smoke house, as well as a multitude of historic photographs depicting the way life used to be in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.Famous visitors such as Babe Ruth, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Charles Lindbergh, President John F. Kennedy, actress Sarah Bernhardt, and Buffalo Bill are featured. Within these pages memorable snapshots document some famous moments in the history of the 20th century, such as when President Eisenhower decided to keep Senator Nixon on the ticket at the Ohio County Public Airport and Sen. Joseph McCarthy's famous speech about Communists in the State Department at Wheeling's McLure Hotel. However, the real stars of this book are Wheeling's own buildings, industries, and people, from machine workers on the job to millionaires at play. A chapter devoted to the African-American experience in Wheeling includes Center Market's slave auction block as well as an image of the great jazz saxophonist Leon "Chu" Berry. This collection highlights some of the horrific natural disasters that occurred at the turn of the century as well as Wheeling's Victorian architectural treasures, which were erected during the same era.

Genres: Nonfiction

199 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 3, 2003

Reviews

[Tina Marking · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great, although too brief, pictorial history of Wheeling.

[Paul Lunger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Out of the "Images of America" series, the book of Wheeling, WV by WIlliam A Carney, Jr gives we the reader a look at the Nail City as well as touching on the various things that made this city what it is both then & now. While the author readily admits that the other book in the Postcards of America series will focus on the businesses of the city, this book reveals to this reader a few of the lesser-known things about a city that I grew up about a half an hour north of. From the African American experience to the arts & the connection to the river itself, Carney does a decent job with things as this series tends to do. If there's a minor criticism, I would have with regards to the sports chapter with this book written in 2003 there is no mention of the city's hockey team in the Nailers, nor is there a mention of the indoor football team that would eventually replace the Ironmen. Overall, though this book is still a good overview of the city, and this entry is a decent one for this series of books.

[Jay E. Pultz · Rating 3 out of 5]

memories of my hometown… but

A lot not included
One of the problems with the Kindle edition of these books is that the caption for a pix is on the preceding page of the pix itself. Makes the perusing process unwieldy. Wouldn’t take much to fix this.