8/23 W – left early to drive to NJ for Helen’s 60th HS reunion. Crossed the Ohio River and took the first exit into Wheeling WV. Our first stop within the Wheeling NHA was the 1849 Suspension Bridge that was built for the National Road (US-40). At the time, it was the world’s longest clear-span suspension bridge.
It is undergoing a multi-million-dollar rehabilitation that will put it back in operation.
Ohio River, I-70 Bridge on the right
According to Wikipedia, “The siege is commonly known as “The Last Battle of the Revolutionary War,” despite subsequent skirmishes between Patriots and Loyalists involving the loss of life taking place in New Jersey later in 1782. However, these were unorganized outbreaks of fighting between patrons with opposing sentiments rather than engagements between sovereign powers and their allies.”
WV would become a state in 1863 during the Civil War. Before the war it was part of Virginia, the largest slaveholding state in the country. VA exported over a half-million slaves South and West. Wheeling was part of that network and slaves were sent by way of the National Road and then Railroads to be “sold down the river.”
This was the location of the Slave Market, just one block from the Suspension Bridge and the Ohio River.
Heritage Port Park and the Wheeling Wharf
Veterans Memorial and Suspension Bridge
Two individuals who championed the value of labor – first Augustus Pollack, business owner who was “a believer in the dignity of…toilers.”
Second, Walter Reuther who was President of the UAW 1946-1970
The walk of railroads, two of over twelve railroads that serviced Wheeling in the mid to late 1800s –
Old Custom House 1856, WV Independence Hall
Francis H. Pierpont, Governor of the Restored State of Virginia 1861-1863. Governor of Virginia 1863-1868.
1861 Cannon made by workers of La Belle Nail Factory. Fired after Civil War and after All U.S. Wars through Vietnam 1959-1975. Statement on cannon reads “We Pray to God That This Cannon Is Never Fired Again.”
Built for Linsly Institute in 1859, this building became the First State Capitol in 1863. Arthur I. Boreman served as the first governor of WV (1863-1869).
World War I statue in Wheeling Park on US-40 – The National Road
Madonna of the Trail Monument – a 1928-1929 Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) project that constructed one monument in each of the 12 states traversed by the transcontinental National Road (US-40); MD, PA, WV, OH, IN, IL, MO, KS, CO, NM, AZ, and CA. [The original National Road extended from Cumberland MD to Vandalia IL and was called The Cumberland Road.] It was built from 1811 to 1839. The first Madonna of the Trail Monument was dedicated in Springfield OH on July 4, 1928.
Shepherd Hall 1798, now owned by the Shriners. Moses Shepherd received the federal contract to build The National Road through the panhandle of Virginia (WV).
In 1817 he built the Elm Grove Stone Arch Bridge over Wheeling Creek, which happened to be on his property. US-40 still runs over this bridge!!!
8/24 Th – Helen’s 60-year Oakcrest HS Reunion in NJ, Carol and Helen
8/25 F – Ocean City NJ Boardwalk, Shriver’s saltwater taffy, and cards
8/26 Sa – BBQ and pool party in Mays Landing
8/27 Su – drove to three sites in DE that, in 2022, became part of the Brown vs. Board of Education National Historical Park (in KS) because they were included in the school segregation case that went before the Supreme Court. Our first stop was Howard HS “of Technology” in Wilmington DE. It was rebuilt in 1927 by P.S. du Pont and was touted as “a new magnificent school for colored pupils.” The school was named for General Oliver Otis Howard, who headed the Freedmen’s Bureau after the Civil War. Howard University in Washington DC is also named for him.
In 1951, parents of black students in Claymont DE (suburb of Wilmington) sued the state of DE to have their children attend the nearby Claymont HS, rather than being bused 10 miles to Howard. They challenged the inferior conditions – a deficient curriculum, pupil-teacher ratio, teacher training, extra-curricular activities program, and physical plant at Howard. Claymont HS is now a Community Center.
“The Story”
Also related to the Brown v. Board of Education NHP is the Hockessin Colored School #107C, a non-urban school, 20-min away. It is now the Hockessin Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Social Equity. It was a one-room, one and a half story brick building with an entrance hallway, a coatroom, and a room for the stove that heated the building.
Industrialist and philanthropist Pierre S. du Pont got so exasperated with Delaware’s General Assembly refusing to upgrade the schools and rejecting all pleas for better facilities for black students, that he took matters into his own hands and, starting in 1920, invested more than $6 million to build new schools around the state.
du Pont’s project included almost 90 schools in African American communities, including an all-brick replacement for the wood-frame School 107C.
This is Sonny, he attended the Hockessin School and now is involved in its preservation.
The one-room school didn’t have an auditorium or infirmary like the school up the hill, School 29, which the white kids attended. The supplies were pretty lean and the books were the ones discarded by School 29.
History –
1950 – Shirley Bulah walks 2-miles to and from HCS #107C. A school bus transporting white children passes her every day. Parents Fred and Sarah Bulah write Delaware Governor Carvel asking the state to provide their daughter with transportation to school. They are rejected.
1952 – Attorney Louis L. Redding files Bulah vs. Gebhart in the Delaware Court.
April 1952 – Delaware Chancellor Collins J. Seitz issues the declaration that the disparity between white and African-American students is in violation of the U.S. Constitution. He declared that separate African American schools offered inferior educational opportunities when compared to white schools and ordered the immediate admission of African American students to the white schools.
September 1952 – “Colored” students are admitted into Hockessin School #29, located 1 mile away from HCS #107C. The Hockessin Schools are desegregated.
October 1952 – Bulah v. Gebhart was the only case in which the lower court ruled in favor of the plaintiff, effectively causing Delaware to set the precedent for the Supreme Court’s final ruling in Brown v. Board of Education.
1954 – Bulah v. Gebhart is combined with 4 other cases to become the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court case.
US Supreme Court overturns Plessy v. Ferguson by stating, separate but equal, is in fact, not equal at all. School segregation in the U.S. is declared unconstitutional.
Visited with Helen’s brother Alex and his sons Eric and Brett on our way back to Ohio. Had an enjoyable lunch at Wesley’s Restaurant just down the road.
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