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Many West Virginians who have been part of military history are aging, so
we focus, for now, on World War II. You will enjoy this section by many people who care about you and our long-proven hopes. Many say that since World War II, West Virginia has given more people, per capita, to the military, than any other state. For sure, it is a high percentage, and our people often chose longer tours of duty. The most common reason given is jobs are scarce. Also, our geography makes us independent, and the way we broke from Virginia tells of our deep–rooted commitment to democracy. So, our love of independence and democracy makes us proud to serve for freedom.  We are the only state in America born by presidential proclamation. We
seceded from Virginia in the midst of the Civil War. We do not feel north,
south or center–often not even eastern–but we sure are American. We
believe every citizen deserves a chance.Abraham Lincoln became the father of West Virginia, June 20, 1863 |
West Virginia State University has submitted many photos of Generals. Typhani Littlejohn created a collage of all those photos. Thanks again WVSU!
We served important roles in all America’s Wars. In this edition of our web site, we concentrate on World War II. Keep checking for other editions for more information on our history and other topics.
The Battle of Riverton at the Virginia border in Pendleton County took place more than a year before West Virginia became a state. The sign tells so much about how West Virginia was born out of strife. Boys this age were a very real part of the Civil War.
"The struggle of today, is not altogether for today –– it is for a vast future also." –– Abraham Lincoln, in his address to Congress delivered on December 3, 1861
Photo provided by the Pendleton County Chamber of Commerce at the request of their Historic Society.
Memories of Two Children
Snow, Radio, Pearl Harbor and The USS West Virginia*
by Marjolee Brady, Barboursville
& Photo by David Harvey
I remember a bitterly cold December day in West Virginia when I was little more than half way through my fifth year of life here on this planet. I’d left home with my dad, mom and little sister shortly after breakfast to look through the woods for a Christmas tree and was afraid we’d get back too late to hear my favorite radio program. The minute we got home, I threw my snowsuit and wool toboggan aside and grabbed the Sunday comics. Each week it had become my habit to listen to a grumpy–voiced old man on the radio read the comics while I followed along looking at the pictures.He had already started reading Dick Tracy and I was frantic. My cold hands couldn’t find the right page. I was making a mess of the paper when Dad came to help. He had just folded a page to fit in my lap when we heard the news bulletin. The invincible hatchet–faced detective’s fight against the evil Prune Face was interrupted by an announcer telling us Pearl Harbor had been attacked. We were at war. Eventually, we heard that the USS West Virginia had been sunk that day.
For the rest of my life, "Pearl Harbor" made me think of snow drying in my hair, the vivid color of comic pages, a Christmas tree waiting outside to be decorated, and something so big and different that I could not see except through my parents changed expression.
KEEP THE PORCH LIGHT ON, TENNY
Photo and story by Anne Montague
My deaf grandfather, Henry Jacobs, had not served in the armed services.. He was almost eighty at the end of World War II. His first wife and children had died of tuberculosis while he was a one–room school teacher on the Ohio River, near Point Pleasant. Heart broken, he came down the river to be a C&O Railroad carpenter, he finally remarried my Mamaw, Tennessee Lawson Jacobs. They had had two sons and three daughters.He was frail and crippled by arthritis, by the time I knew him, but he kept a large garden to feed us all during the war. On VJ Day – or the day we were told the war ended, which was earlier than it happened – it fell to me to tell Papaw that the war was over. I was six, and the events of that day set a tone in my life for going on. Almost 40 years later, I lived in Japan, to understand better my feelings and world change.
Every night after Victory Europe Day in May of 1945, Papaw would go to front door before going to bed earlier than others. He’d look out the small pains at the top of the door, look out, then say to Mamaw in his cracked voice, distorted from his deafness, "Keep the porch light on for our boys, Tenny." One son, James Hickman Jacobs, was in the military, but Papaw also worried that a neighbor boy would come home without anyone in their own home, for some reason, so the light was to welcome anyone returning. He drew me a picture once of a lighthouse, and I saw the same concern for people to find their way home.
The house is still standing, and, as you see, it now has vinyl siding.
Home that Henry Jacobs built in Huntington, in the early 1920s, where he insisted on keeping the porch light on during World War II, for "our boys."
He built the house on two lots, with a large area "out back" for a vegetable garden and a chicken house. That garden was crucial to the family during the war. It was plowed by a man with a team of horses every spring and tended entirely by Henry through his last summer, which was a year after the war.
- Toboggan was used for cap in West Virginia, taken from the word for snow sled.
- Today, the USS West Virginia’s bell is housed at Marshall University
| Rick Bohnke, who has owned a trophy company in Huntington for decades, took these very rare photos at the end of World War II. From childhood, he had loved photography. He enlisted in the spring of 1945.After only two weeks of basic training, he was put on a ship, though he’d joined the Army to avoid the water. Because he had unusually good and needed typing skills, he was advanced. On Sept. 2nd, the day of the Japanese surrender, the transport ship docked two ships south of the USS Missouri, and his captain sent Bonke aboard with his own Argus C3. |
 Click on a picture to see the larger image. |
| We are told that a West Virginia woman typed the agreement that day, but we have not yet located her. Bohnke, himself, is shy to show these photos, with the worry that he will be seen as bragging. |
"Woody" Williams, Our State’s Only Living Medal of Honor Recipient
One of the most famous statues in American History is of the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima. H. "Woody" Williams, originally from Fairmont , and now from Ona, received a Congressional Medal of Honor for help to win this very important battle in February, 1945.
Now almost 50,000 signatures have been received on a petition to name a US Naval ship for West Virginia’s only living Medal of Honor recipient, Hershel "Woody" Williams.
Read more on http://www.shadowwolf.org/woody.html
TO SIGN THIS PETITION CLICK HERE
Memo from Woody to Answer Our Questions
–––––Original Message–––––
Yes the West Virginia Battleship was sunk at Pearl, raised and put back in service. She was the only one. She finally was scrapped for metal.
We now have a Submarine, USS West Virginia SSBN 736 and her crew is Blue for one Gold for the other..
Yes, Quiet Dell, my home town, is still there. It is in Marion County. There is also a Quiet Dell in Harrison County, near Clarksburg. That is why I also make sure folks know I am from the one in Marion County near Fairmont.
~Woody
–––––Our Answer to Woody–––––
So the town is Quiet Dell? Amazingly simple. We should write a song about it. Is one Quiet Dell quieter than the other? Wonder who’s in the service now from Quiet Dell?
You’ll enjoy these statements by Woody in December, 2005:
- A three mile long parade in Fairmont welcomed me and others home, October. ’45.
- The city and people presented him with a $600 automobile.
- Not seeing the enemy as clearly today does not mean that we don’t care about our people in the military.
Feedback from Rev. D.D. Meighen
November 2007
Hello!
I enjoyed visiting your website and wanted to offer this story.
I was very honored to serve as campus minister at West Virginia University from 1979–1986. I was housed in what was known as the Bennett house, an ecumenical campus ministry center of four faith traditions.
I got to know the history of Tom Bennett from Morgantown, WV. He was killed while serving in the Vietnam Way. His unique story has been featured on the History Channel, PBS, and published in many journals. He was a conscientitious objector. As such he served in the military and became only the second person in American history to be award the Congressional Medal of Honor as a CO.
Links to his life and story are listed below. A book, Peaceful Patriot, details his life. A bridge into Morgantown, a dorm at WVU is named for him, and the house still bears his name on Wiley St.
I encourage all West Virginians to get to know his life, particularly with our state motto, "Mountaineers are always free."
Rev. D.D. Meighen
I enjoyed visiting your website and wanted to offer this story.
I was very honored to serve as campus minister at West Virginia University from 1979–1986. I was housed in what was known as the Bennett house, an ecumenical campus ministry center of four faith traditions.
I got to know the history of Tom Bennett from Morgantown, WV. He was killed while serving in the Vietnam Way. His unique story has been featured on the History Channel, PBS, and published in many journals. He was a conscientitious objector. As such he served in the military and became only the second person in American history to be award the Congressional Medal of Honor as a CO.
Links to his life and story are listed below. A book, Peaceful Patriot, details his life. A bridge into Morgantown, a dorm at WVU is named for him, and the house still bears his name on Wiley St.
I encourage all West Virginians to get to know his life, particularly with our state motto, "Mountaineers are always free."
Rev. D.D. Meighen
Links:
From the Vietnam Magazine
www.historynet.com/magazines/vietnam/3026546.html
From his uncle with pictures and stories
www.mishalov.com/Bennett_Thomas.html