Lost Voices
WEST VIRGINIA TIMELINE
1606 -- April: First Charter of Virginia issued by King of England.
1716 -- Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood leads expedition of the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe into western Virginia.
1774 -- October 10: Treaty of Camp Charlotte, Shawnee would recognize the Ohio River as the new boundary.
1803 -- National Road (Cumberland Road) was commissioned. It’s terminal point would be Wheeling.
1818 -- National Road completed. People began pouring into western Virginia.
1826 -- Alexander Campbell founded the Disciples of Christ. He established Buffalo Academy in Bethany, which later became Bethany College.
1840 -- The first bridge across the Ohio River built at Wheeling.
1848 -- Baltimore and Ohio Railroad completed through to Wheeling.
1851 -- New Virginia Constitution adopted giving the people in western Virginia the voting and representation rights as the people in eastern Virginia
1861 -- April 17: The Secession Convention in Richmond
May 13-15: The First Wheeling Convention for Statehood
June 11-25: The Second Wheeling Convention for Statehood (First Session)
August 6-21: The Second Wheeling Convention for Statehood (Second Session)
November 26-February 18, 1862: Constitutional Convention
1862 -- April 3: Constitution approved for the new state of West Virginia
December 31: President Abraham Lincoln passes West Virginia Statehood Bill on the eve of the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation
1863 -- June 20: West Virginia becomes the 35th state in the United States of America
1872 -- State adopts a new Constitution
1872-1897 -- Period of the "Bourbon Democracy" where the Democrats rule.
1897-1933 -- Period of the "Republican Ascendancy", the Progressive Era in WV
1902 -- First big mine strike in West Virginia.
1912 -- Paint Creek and Cabin Creek Strikes.
1920 -- May 19: Matewan Massacre, a huge mine strike resulting in many, many deaths.
1933 -- The New Deal starts a Democratic resurgence in West Virginia.
1965 -- Appalachian Regional Commission formed to work on highways.
1972 -- Arnold Miller, a West Virginian, named president of the United Mine Workers.