Journaling reads: (Most of this came from, “West Virginia: The state that said no” written by Preston Williams on April 12, 2011 for the Washington Post)
In 1861, leaders from northwestern Virginia established a new Virginia state government that remained loyal to the Union. This government then carved out territory to create a new Union state. On June 20, 1863, West Virginia became the 35th state - the only permanent change in territory due to the Civil War. They were a state born for advocating for and defending the United States of America rather than the seceded states of America. Western Virginians were very committed to the Union in a state that left the Union.
After Virginia voted to secede from the Union, Western Virginia delegates, two-thirds of whom had voted against secession, gathered in Clarksburg and later Wheeling and decided to carve out their own territory and create “a new Virginia.”
“People of North Western Virginia, why should we thus permit ourselves to be tyrannized over, and made slaves of, by the haughty arrogance and wicked machinations of would-be Eastern Despots,” asked a committee of Western Virginia politicians in an open letter in the Kingwood Chronicle in May of 1861. “Are we submissionists, craven cowards, who will yield to daring ambition....The Union under the flag of our common country....causes our bosoms to glow with patriotic heat, and our hearts to swell with honest love of country.”
Jessica and Tim dressed and ready to attend the Buffalo, WV Heritage Days celebrations in 1998. Tim borrowed his Union gear from a pastor friend, Chris Dumford, from Ohio. This picture was taken in the church yard behind the Buffalo Baptist Church where Tim pastored from 1997 - 2008.
