Words to Celebrate West Virginia!

Today is West Virginia Day -- 153 years
By Mary Catherine Brooks WYOMING COUNTY BUREAU CHIEF 12 hrs ago
Today is West Virginia Day -- 153 years
Photos courtesy of the West Virginia Legislature photographersArchitect Cass Gilbert designed the current Capitol building, in the Italian Renaissance style, at a cost of nearly $10 million.

“The exterior of the classical-styled building is buff Indiana limestone,” according to the West Virginia Division of Culture and History.

“More than 700 train carloads of limestone and 4,640 tons of steel were used in its construction. The magnificent 293-foot gold dome, which tops the structure, is 5 feet higher than the dome of the U.S. Capitol. The entire dome is gilded in 23 ½ karat gold leaf applied to the copper and lead roof in tiny 3 3/8 inch squares.”

“More than 700 train carloads of limestone and 4,640 tons of steel were used in its construction. The magnificent 293-foot gold dome, which tops the structure, is 5 feet higher than the dome of the U.S. Capitol. The entire dome is gilded in 23 ½ karat gold leaf applied to the copper and lead roof in tiny 3 3/8 inch squares.”

“More than 700 train carloads of limestone and 4,640 tons of steel were used in its construction. The magnificent 293-foot gold dome, which tops the structure, is 5 feet higher than the dome of the U.S. Capitol. The entire dome is gilded in 23 ½ karat gold leaf applied to the copper and lead roof in tiny 3 3/8 inch squares.”

“More than 700 train carloads of limestone and 4,640 tons of steel were used in its construction. The magnificent 293-foot gold dome, which tops the structure, is 5 feet higher than the dome of the U.S. Capitol. The entire dome is gilded in 23 ½ karat gold leaf applied to the copper and lead roof in tiny 3 3/8 inch squares.”

Unofficial celebrations were held across the state for the next 64 years to mark the occasion.

Unofficial celebrations were held across the state for the next 64 years to mark the occasion.

In 1927, the West Virginia Legislature made June 20 an official state holiday.

Boreman termed the new state, which was created during the Civil War (1861-1865), “the child of the rebellion.”

Naturally divided by the Allegheny Mountains, there were many differences between the people of western Virginia and those in eastern Virginia.

The eastern portion boasted large plantations on gentle-sloping terrain that produced cash crops such as tobacco.

The eastern portion boasted large plantations on gentle-sloping terrain that produced cash crops such as tobacco.

In the years leading up to the Civil War, slavery became an increasing source of contention between the two areas of Virginia.

When Virginia seceded from the Union in 1861 on a convention vote of 88 to 55, those in the western part of the state opposed the decision and worked to create their own government, basically seceding from Virginia.

“West Virginia should long since have had a separate state existence,” Boreman said in his inaugural address on June 20, 1863.

“The East has always looked upon that portion of the state west of the mountains, as a sort of outside appendage — a territory in a state of pupilage. “The unfairness and inequality of legislation is manifest on every page of the statute book; they had an unjust majority...

...looked upon that portion of the state west of the mountains, as a sort of outside appendage — a territory in a state of pupilage. “The unfairness and inequality of legislation is manifest on every page of the statute book; they had an unjust majority in the Legislature by the original Constitution of the State, and have clung...

...that portion of the state west of the mountains, as a sort of outside appendage — a territory in a state of pupilage. “The unfairness and inequality of legislation is manifest on every page of the statute book; they had an unjust majority in the Legislature by the original Constitution of the State, and have clung to it...

...mountains, as a sort of outside appendage — a territory in a state of pupilage. “The unfairness and inequality of legislation is manifest on every page of the statute book; they had an unjust majority in the Legislature by the original Constitution of the State, and have clung to it with the utmost tenacity ever since; they have...

“The mountains intervene between us, the rivers rise in the mountains and run towards the Northwest; and, as if to make the separation more complete, Eastern Virginia adopted the fatal doctrine of secession, while the West spurned and rejected it as false and dangerous in the extreme.

“Thus nature, our commerce, travel, habits, associations, and interests, all – all say that West Virginia should be severed from the East.

When the legislature refused, lawmakers authorized Boreman to acquire the Linsly Institute building in Wheeling, where the new state’s first gathering was conducted, to serve as a temporary capitol.