"A fascinating narrative history..." West Virginia History (Journal); "Sean Duffy's book brings Wheeling's vibrant and diverse heritage to life again." -author George Fetherling

Davis Grubb said it best...

"It was, of course, the financial capital of Wheeling's old German and Anglo-Saxon families which built the great factories, but it was the hands and back, the blood and marrow of the people with the barbaric, unpronounceable names -- Serb names and Czech names-- Polish names -- Hungarian names -- who shoveled the valley full of iron and then gave it their spirit to make it steel.

...Here in the cramped, dun-colored mill homes below and above Wheeling, awaits the human resource from which she may tap the energy of fresh aspiration, new invention and put the novel resourcefulness of her past to the usages of survival. Here dwell the peoples of lasting metal whose steel is the alloy of the hundred cultures and tribes of a vanished Europe. Serb, Croat, Greek, Slovene, Czech, Slovak and Montenegrin and Pole. Their singing tongues lit and ring in myriad babble on the bus to Benwood: voices rise in ‘sprechtgesang’; ―words made music – frail as eggshell, speech as sweet as Bartok folksongs from arid Bohemian plain."

--Davis Grubb, "The Valley of the Ohio," published in Holiday magazine, July, 1960

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Work on Volume 2 to Begin Soon

Volume 1 of The Wheeling Family: A Celebration of Immigrants and Their Neighborhoods will be released on Thursday, December 10, 2008. The focus of the first volume was the immigrant groups who arrived in Wheeling between 1850 and 1950.

Due to an overwhelming response and the lack of representation of some groups, a second volume was planned long ago.

Volume 2 will begin with stories and photographs from African American families whose ancestors migrated to Wheeling from the South seeking opportunity and a better life after the Civil War. It will also include the overflow of stories from Volume 1, stories from immigrant groups not represented in Volume 1, and a final section on newer immigrant groups, including those from Asia, Eastern Europe, and other parts of the world.

If you would like to ensure that your family's story is included in Volume 2, please contact Sean Duffy at wheeling_immigrants@yahoo.com or at 304-232-0244. We will begin scheduling interviews after the New Year holiday.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)