(Editors note: This is a reprint of a column I have posted in previous years on West Virginia’s birthday.)
Today marks the birthday of the State of West Virginia and the story of statehood has been told many times. But had the debate at the state’s First Constitutional Convention in Wheeling on Dec. 3, 1861 gone differently, we would not be known today as “West Virginia.”
On that day, the delegates to the convention engaged in a long debate that ranged from humorous to acrimonious on the subject of what the new state should be named. Delegates to an earlier convention had adopted the name “Kanawha,” and on this day, delegates began by entertaining a motion to change it.
Delegate Harman Sinsel, a carpenter from Taylor County, rose in support of including “Virginia” in the new name. He told the gathering, “I admit that Virginians have done wrong—that many of them in this rebellion have disgraced themselves; but that has not weaned me from the name… it is a name I almost revere.”
But Wheeling lawyer Daniel Lamb held no such affection for the mother state. He wanted to part with Virginia in substance and identification. He told the gathering, “I have no hesitation in proclaiming to this convention and my constituents that there is nothing in the conduct of the State of Virginia to the people of western Virginia that entitles her or the name to our attachment.”
Wood County’s Peter Van Winkle wanted to keep “Kanawha,” if for no other reason than he liked the sound of it. “I think it is one of the most euphonious words with which I am acquainted,” the attorney told his fellow delegates. “Almost every letter in it has a soft and musical sound.”
But if the sound of the state’s new name was so important, R.W. Lauck from Wetzel County had his own idea. The name “Virginia” had lost its charm for him, and his constituents opposed the name “Kanawha,” so why not call the new state “Columbia” which he said would be a “beautiful name.”
Delegate James Brown tried to bring the delegation back to “Kanawha.” Brown had parochial interests. He was, after all, representing Kanawha County. It was common, he argued, to name a state after a prominent river within its boundaries such as Tennessee, Nebraska and Kansas had done.
By this time it was nearly one o’clock with no agreement and many of the delegates still wished to speak, so they adjourned for two hours. At three, the debate resumed.
Now it was Waitman Willey’s turn. The Monongalia County lawyer drew laughter from the convention as he derided his fellow delegates in Richmond as the “fleshpots of Egypt” and proclaimed, “Give me a new state and call it whatever name will be acceptable to the people and I am satisfied.”
The debate continued until finally the delegates resolved to vote and by a count of 30 to 14 the name “Kanawha” was removed. But the moment “Kanawha” was stricken, the delegates began to shout motions for their favorite choices.
Van Winkle, who had originally wanted “Kanawha,” moved to adopt “Allegheny.” Another called out “Columbia” and then another proposed “New Virginia.”
Eventually, Delegate Lamb from Wheeling rose again, “We cannot untie a knotty proposition,” he said. “It may be better to cut it.” Lamb proposed, and the body agreed, that each delegate should write down his favorite name. And this action was something they could all agree upon.
Nine voted for “Kanawha.” There were two votes each for “Western Virginia” and “Allegheny.” One delegate voted for “Augusta.” But 30 delegates picked a different name, the name we call ourselves today.
West Virginia.
