Gilmer Free Press

Flashback: What Happened on June 21, ....

•  1861 Reorganized Government of Virginia Governor Pierpont requested President Lincoln to send troops to protect western Virginia.

•  1866 The Little Kanawha and Burning Spring Petroleum Company was incorporated in West Virginia by the following: Rev. Daniel H. A. McLean of Beaver, PA; Rev. James Prestley, Rev. Robert Gracey, Isaac Jones, William Floyd, James McCandless, Samuel Richardson, George Woods, William Frew, and Robert Robb, all of Pittsburgh, PA. The company’s purpose was to mine oil in Wirt County and Calhoun County with its main offices in Pittsburgh, PA.

•  1866 The Standing Stone and West Fork Petroleum Company was incorporated in West Virginia by the following: Rev. Daniel H. A. McLean, Joseph C. Wilson of Beaver, PA; John Brown, Jr., of Allegheny County, PA; William Floyd, James S. Negley, William Frew, Theodore E. Tack, Rev. James Prestley of Pittsburgh, PA; Robert A. Patterson of Mercer, PA; and Wilson King of Erie County, PA. The company’s purpose was to mine oil and cut lumber in Wirt County and Calhoun County.

•  1925 The Parchment Valley Farm Women’s Club was organized in Jackson County. It later became the Parchment Valley Extension Homemakers Club.

•  1938 A monument to city founder General Alfred Beckley was dedicated on the courthouse lawn in Beckley (Raleigh County).