I grew up in Monroe County Ohio ....did some of my driver’s training in Wheeling, family & friends went to the hospitals there, and would always go see the lights at Olgebay!!
Born in Wheeling (Ohio County) lived in the Foulton area, father moved us to moved to Warwood...then my father moved us again...to Holliday's Cove in Brooke County...Hate THAT mill town (Weirton) as a part of my growing up have not been back except to sell my father's house when he died...Weirton is dying...mill has been sold several times now...not much left...
Samuel McColloch was my 4 x great uncle and I grew up in West Liberty. Two facts that are not at all well known are that Sam’s sister (also Elizabeth) Betsy (not Betty) Zane was Zane Gray’s great great grandmother and he based his first three novels on her husband and Betty’s brother, Ebenezer Zane’s diary. The distinction between Betty and Betsy Zane has confused many. I have spent a lot of time in several West Virginia Counties in a field where understanding history is important to my work. You guys get it right!
I lived in Ohio County as a boy. The nail factory and the textile industry was booming. I think it was called Blonox it was producing tank skins for the Vietnam war. The streets of Wheeling was always packed like the big cities, until the Steubenville Mall took all the big names. I fished the creek and river with 10 or 12 of us meeting up to do so even skipping school to fish or go swimming and jumping off the barges that were docked. I went to the Army at 18 after graduation at wheeling high. I returned in 1979 and went to Mining school, but mines were only taking skilled or red hats. Ohio and Pennsylvania had a lot of layoffs at the time. I eventually got hired at wheeling Pittsburg steel and was employed 5 years but the year long strike broke me. The economy was really bad for employment bumper stickers even said last one leaving Wheeling turn out the lights. Thanks for sharing oh I was a south wheeling rat as we were called.
I can tell you flat-out, that, being from Martins Ferry, right across from Wheeling, where I am now, couldn't hold a candle to home. And this is all home.
I've only been to the Northern Panhandle Twice. The first time was to Wheeling, and then to Chester. Several years ago I attended the state lions club convention at Oglebay Park in Wheeling.
