Date: Wed, 03 Apr 2002 18:36:45 -0500 To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net> From: Candy Madigan <candymadigan at mindspring.com> Subject: [WSFA] Re: West Virginia Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net> At 05:10 PM 04/03/2002 -0500, you wrote: >On Wed, 03 Apr 2002 11:08:52 -0500 "Michael Walsh" ><MJW at mail.press.jhu.edu> writes: > > U.S. Constitution, Article IV, Section 3: > > "New states may be admitted by the Congress into this union; but no > > new states shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any > > other state; nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more > > states, or parts of states, without the consent of the legislatures of >the > > states concerned as well as of the Congress." > > > > So . . . West Virginia? Ok, it was wartime and the legislature of > > Virginia really wasn't in a position to object . . . > > > > mjw > >In a nutshell. The counties west of the Alleghany ridge had their >markets to the west, and had long felt separate from the rest of VA, >including the attitudes toward slavery. After VA passed the ordinance of >secession in 1861, unionists met at Wheeling and formed the state of >'Kanawha'. Congress admitted the state as West Virginia on June 20, >1863. And I grew up on the shores of the Kanawha River in Kanawha County WV. BTW- Kanawha is pronounced Kuhnaw where the vowels are sounded Kuh as in uh and naw as in haw. >So we might have had a state named Kanawha. Other state names which did >not make it include Westmoreland (part of PA), and Franklin (which ended >up as Kentucky, I think). But Rhode Island and Providence Plantations >merits a lame' whoopie cushion. > >Ron Kean Candy