The origins of the name "Wheeling" are disputed. One of the more credible explanations is that the word comes from the
Lenni-Lenape phrase
wih link or
wee lunk, which meant "place of the head" or "place of the skull." This name supposedly referred to a white settler who was scalped and decapitated. His severed head was displayed at the confluence of
Wheeling Creek and the
Ohio River. Earlier sources say that the head was that of a Native American prisoner, not a settler. Native Americans had inhabited the area for thousands of years. In the 17th century, the Iroquois from present-day New York state
conquered the upper Ohio Valley, pushing out other tribes and maintaining the area as their hunting ground.
European settlement Originally explored by the French, Wheeling still has a lead plate remnant that the explorer
Céloron de Blainville buried in 1749 at the mouth of Wheeling Creek to mark his claim. Later,
Christopher Gist and
George Washington surveyed the land, in 1751 and 1770, respectively. During the fall of 1769,
Ebenezer Zane explored the Wheeling area and established a claim to the land via "
tomahawk rights", the practice of
girdling a few trees at a prominent site and marking the bark with the initials or name of the person making the claim. He returned the following spring with his wife Elizabeth and his brothers, Jonathan and Silas; they established the first permanent European settlement in the Wheeling area, naming it Zanesburg. Other families joined the settlement, including the Shepherds (see
Monument Place), the Wetzels, and the McCollochs (see
McColloch's Leap). In 1787, the United States gave Virginia this portion of lands west of the Appalachians, and some to Pennsylvania at its western edge, to settle their claims. The
Northwest Ordinance that year established the
Northwest Territory to cover other lands north of the Ohio River and west to the
Mississippi River. Settlers began to move into new areas along the Ohio. In 1793, Ebenezer Zane divided the town into lots, and Wheeling was officially established as a town in 1795 by legislative enactment. By an act of the
Virginia General Assembly on December 27, 1797, Wheeling was named the county seat of
Ohio County. The town was incorporated on January 16, 1805. On March 11, 1836, the town of Wheeling was incorporated into the city of Wheeling.
Fort Henry Originally dubbed
Fort Fincastle in 1774, the fort was later renamed
Fort Henry in honor of Virginia's American governor,
Patrick Henry. In 1777, Native Americans of the
Shawnee,
Wyandot, and
Mingo tribes joined to attack pioneer settlements along the upper
Ohio River, which were illegal according to the Crown's
Proclamation of 1763. They hoped an alliance with the British would drive the colonial settlers out of their territory. Local men defended the fort, later joined by recruits from Fort Shepherd (in Elm Grove) and Fort Holliday. The native force burned the surrounding cabins and destroyed livestock. During the first attack of the year, Major Samuel McColloch led a small force of men from Fort Vanmetre along
Short Creek to assist the besieged Fort Henry. Separated from his men, McColloch was chased by attacking natives. Upon his horse, McColloch charged up Wheeling Hill and made what is known as
McColloch's Leap down its eastern side. In 1782, a native army along with British soldiers attempted to take Fort Henry. During this siege, Fort Henry's supply of ammunition was exhausted. The defenders decided to dispatch a man to secure more ammunition from the Zane homestead.
Betty Zane volunteered for the dangerous task. During her departing run, she was heckled by both native and British soldiers. After reaching the Zane homestead, she gathered a tablecloth and filled it with gunpowder. During her return, she was fired upon but was uninjured. As a result of her heroism, Fort Henry remained in American control. of 1861. It served as the provisional capital of the
Restored Government of Virginia from 1861 to 1863, and became the first capital of West Virginia after the state seceded from Virginia and was admitted to the Union in its own right in 1863. From the acceptance of the new state of West Virginia into the union until the Restored Government of Virginia's move to
Alexandria in August of the same year, Wheeling was the state capital of both West Virginia and Virginia. The growing German population, which included immigrants after the
1848 Revolutions, was firmly anti-slavery. The Germans of Wheeling organized the "First West Virginia Artillery" to oppose the Confederacy and played a role in the initial movement to separate from Virginia. The Germans' culture influenced the city, such as their "German Singing Societies", the first of which began in 1855.
Late 19th century Although Wheeling lost its position as state capital in 1865, it continued to grow. In the late nineteenth century, Wheeling was the new state's prime industrial center. One early nickname (until an 1885 strike) was "Nail City", reflecting the iron manufacture in several mills, which dated from the 1840s. Mills transformed pig iron into sheets that could be cut, and some mills also produced boiler plates, stoves, barrel rings, and/or ornamental ironwork. Noted businesses of the era included the
Bloch Brothers Tobacco Company (owned by state senator Jesse A. Bloch, who would in 1913 introduce legislation that became the state's Workmen's Compensation Act), and later steel concerns after development of the
Bessemer process. The city's earliest union was the United Nailers (1860, which later merged into the
Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers), followed by the cigar makers in 1862. The 1877 railroad strike at
Martinsburg, West Virginia, reached Wheeling and spread nationwide. In 1897,
Eugene Debs,
Mother Jones, and
Samuel Gompers were among the speakers at a national labor convention in Wheeling to discuss a nationwide coal strike. In 1866, Lincoln School opened in Wheeling to serve African American students. A new building for Lincoln High School opened in the early 1940s; the school closed with desegregation in 1954.
20th century to present In 1904, Wheeling became the first city in the country to refuse a proposed
Andrew Carnegie gift of a free library, because of the industrialist's labor record, especially the notorious
Homestead Strike of 1892. By contrast, cigar tycoon
Augustus Pollack (despite once rousing controversy by a plan to use convict labor) left many bequests to the labor movement, which erected a memorial statue.
Wheeling Steel Corporation was created in 1920 and grew after a 1927 strike caused
J. P. Morgan and other investors to sell National Tube Company, which had been created in 1899, six years after local owners had consolidated five plants in the area as Wheeling Steel & Iron Company. Wheeling reached a peak population of 61,659 at the 1930 census. As the city grew, prosperous Wheeling residents built fine houses, especially on
Wheeling Island, but slums also expanded. As a result of that growth, an ordinance was passed regulating personal cesspools, including a ban on pipe communications with other homes and businesses unless offensive smells were properly trapped. The
Great Depression, and later changes and restructuring in heavy industry following World War II, led to a loss of working-class jobs and population. Capitalizing on its rich architectural heritage, Wheeling has worked to revive its Main Street with the Downtown Wheeling Streetscape project. Additionally, the city has been redeveloping the historic 1400 Market Street, just one block east of Main Street. ==Geography==