July 4, 1882: The steamboats Scioto and John Lomas collided on the Ohio River as they were return-ing from holiday excursions. The Scioto sank almost instantly, and 70 people drowned.
July 4, 1928: West Virginia dedicated its first state park — Droop Mountain Battlefield. Droop Mountain was one of the most im-portant Civil War battles fought on West Virginia soil.
July 7, 1928: The Madonna of the Trail monu-ment was dedi-cated in Wheeling. It is one of 12 such statues erected along the Nation-al Road to honor America’s pioneer-ing women.
July 8, 1894: Walter Aegerter was born in Hel-vetia. An amateur photographer, Aegerter built both a studio and darkroom on his farm and photo-graphed portraits, families, celebra-tions and every-day scenes of the German Swiss set-tlement. The glass plate negatives survive today in several archived collections.
July 8, 1924: Rock ’n’ roll pioneer Johnnie Johnson was born in Fairmont. Johnson collabo-rated with Chuck Berry on songs such as “Roll Over, Beethoven.” Ber-ry’s hit “Johnny B. Goode” was sup-posedly written as a tribute to John-son.
July 8, 1961: Sutton Dam was dedicated by Gov-ernor Wally Bar-ron. The Army Corps of Engi-neers operates the dam for purposes of flood control, low-flow augmen-tation and recrea-tion.
July 9, 1989: Treasurer A. James Manchin resigned after be-ing impeached. With a stock mar-ket downturn in 1987, Manchin bore much of the blame when the state lost nearly $300 million in investments for which he was re-sponsible.
