Every Day Is Special: West Virginia

Showing posts with label West Virginia. Show all posts

June 20 - Welcome, West Virginia!

Posted on June 20, 2018

Right now there is a proposition on the November ballot that California be carved up into three different states.

I think that would be a terrible idea - but that makes me wonder about all the times that states were carved up into smaller states. Like, what's with North Dakota and South Dakota, North Carolina and South Carolina, and today's statehood anniversary, West Virginia, and its original state home, Virginia?

These states are separate...for different reasons!

In the Dakotas' case, they split while territories rather than as states, and it was differences in economies and populations, and it was shenanigans over moving the capital of the territory, and it was cultural splits that made the territories want statehood at different times.

In the Carolinas' case, they also split before statehood, when they were just British colonies. South Carolina formed around rice cultivation, with a whole of slaves laboring in rice fields for British colonists who quickly grew rich. North Carolina had slavery as well, but the enslaved laborers were a much smaller percentage of the population. Instead, the bulk of the population was made up of small-time tobacco farmers, former indentured servants, and discontented people who felt slighted by their richer neighbors to the north (Virginia) and the south (South Carolina).

And now for today's special state, West Virginia. It really, truly was a part of the state of Virginia. When did it break away? And why?

Because of the Civil War.

Because of the South's secession from the Union.

Because of loyalty-to-country.

West Virginia is the only state that was formed by seceding from a Confederate state. In a convention in 1861, counties in northwestern Virginia decided to break away from Virginia, and the new state was formally admitted to the Union on this date in 1863.

The state is known for a BUNCH of outdoor opportunities, especially caving...

...and fishing...

...but also hiking, biking, rock climbing, and more!

Also on this date:

National Old Time Fiddlers' Festival

Baseball executive Branch Rickey's birthday

Anniversary of Macau's transfer to the People's Republic of China

Anniversary of an innovation that led to corrugated cardboard

Anniversary of Elvis being drafted into the army

Electricity theme day

Anniversary of first cantilever bridge over Niagara Falls

Martyrs' Day in Eritrea

World Refugee Day

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

June holidays

June birthdays

Historical anniversaries in June

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

May 28 – Julia Pierpont Day

Posted on May 28, 2016

In an earlier post, I wrote about a group of formerly-enslaved people who cared enough to honor Union soldiers' ultimate sacrifice that they took it upon themselves to endure a horrible task...one of the many post-Civil War events that led to the modern-day Memorial Day in the United States.

Here is another Memorial Day precursor:

Julia Pierpont was the wife of the Governor of Restored Virginia (which became West Virginia) – and Francis Pierpont became the Provisional Governor of all of Virginia right after the Civil War. The Pierponts had supported Abraham Lincoln and the Union Army throughout the war, and now they lived in what had been “enemy territory” – in Richmond, Virginia.

And that had to be uncomfortable. So uncomfortable that some ex-Confederates burned the Pierpont's library!

Governor Pierpont followed a policy of forgiveness to all who had served in the Confederate government or military – none of that “enemy” stuff for him! And that made many Unionists upset. With people on both "sides" against them, things must have felt really awkward in that place and time!

Every year re-enactors portray
Pierpont's Decoration Day.

In the middle of all that awkwardness, in May of 1866, Julia Pierpont noticed that the graves of Union soldiers looked run down and neglected. One of Pierpont's friends was a teacher from New York who was working in Richmond teaching at a new school for African American children. Pierpont talked this teacher, Miss Woolsey, into helping her decorate the Union soldiers' graves. They gathered together the Pierpont children, Miss Woolsey's students, and as many friends as would come, and they tidied the graves and then decorated them with flowers.

This good deed was met with both applause and criticism. I think it was really brave for Pierpont to do this!

Julia Pierpont's “Decoration Day” is said to have inspired another, larger Decoration Day, held a few weeks later; this one was focused on decorating the graves of Confederate soldiers. As news of the Decoration Days spread, more and more similar events followed.

These days, of course, we call Decoration Day “Memorial Day,” and it is about honoring those who served and died in any of the U.S. armed forces, at any time (not just during the Civli War). We always celebrate Memorial Day on the last Monday of May, and Julia Pierpont Day is celebrated the Saturday before Memorial Day, by getting veterans' graves ready for Memorial Day.