Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1882-09-10
sixty YEARS OF wHEeLlNG's HISTORY.
BY COL. FRANK A. BURR
starting Life with the Nation.

stsrting Life with the Nation.
The quiet mental and moral forces that
governed this country for the first twenty
five wears of its existence had not yet been
pushed aside by the progressive spirit OF
the new nation, when the man OF whom l
will write was born. He began life in that
era when the conflict was beginning be-
tween the conservative, thoughtful power
that made us our great bill OF rights and
still greater constitution, and those VINO
held that the mighty resources OF TINS cruue
country demanded more physical ana less
moral force. Two years before our second
war with Great Britain, Daniel Lamp nrSt
saw the light of day at Connelsyille' PENN
sylyania. His ancestors came from the east
ern shore of Maryland years before eN'
changing q home with the oyster and terra
min MOSQUITOES and malaria for the rude
life, but pure air CT the mountains. They
were all Quakers, and he is the only one OF
all his family that has left the road the
Friends take for heaven. He IS an Episco'
palian. Partisan feeling'ran high in lSlOthe
year in which he was born. Jefferson was
pursuing his hesitating policy against the
aceressions of Great Britain, hoping to turn
over 10 his successor, as he did, the respon-
sibility OF declaring war against the AFRO
CANT mother country.
The circle of years from 1910 to 1923, wit
messed might changes in this government
Before he was able to form word the war
with Great Britain was fought and won
While yet lisping child the political reVo,
luton began and was successful, that placed
in power the representatives OF the physical
and material idea that started the land on the
road 10 its great present and greater future.
Calhoun championed the successful cause,
and in 1915 the new life began. Emigra.
ton poured in and the country grew
strong with remarkable rapIdity. Daniel
Lambs boyhood days came and
went amid some of the most important
political changes in our history.
His early life in the mountains OF Penn
sylyania wasin nowisc different from that OF
Others who began life amidst the rough
civilization OF those primitive times IN a
new section of the country. His
father was a saddler and worked up
what little leather he could get into fresh
stock, and cobbled for the teamsters who in
those dsys hauled merchandise over the
National road from the East 10 the West.
Daniel was never a strong boy. Nature had
not intended him for working man. He
did not therefore follow his fathers bent
or business, but rather turned 70 books and
while yet in the noun tains oil the Keystone
State laid the foundation OF fair educs-
ton. His father was quiet, industrious,
careful man, and while working hard at his
trade in Connellsville he attracted the at
tention OF Baltimore firm, who made him
an offer to move to Wheeling and sell
leather for them. In 1923, when the sub
iect of this sketch was onlyl3 years OF
age he accepted and left the mountains for
his new home on the banks the Ohio.
The family came by wagon over the road,
but the household goods were transported
down the Ioughiegheny river in rude
boat, built for the rnrpose.
Daniel LAMB Sr arT When n heW Wheeling during
ia ~ is9n and 1921 was sowing the seeus
OF sectional agitation that twenty years ago
eliminated in war. Wheeling was but u
village then, and there were only twenty
four States in the Union. The business
houses that line the bank OF the river now
were then unthOusht of. The great mills
that have made name, fame and wealth for
the place were then far in the future.
Steamboat navigation was yet little more
than an experiment, and transportation on
the river was mostly by keel boats. One or
two diminutive steamers, that then stood
for the hundreds of elegant crafts that now
make the Ohio moving panorama OF busi-
ness life, were the objects OF great curiosity,
and when they we're expected curious
crowds gathered on the river banks TO well
come them. Not 5000 people made up the
population of Wheeling. \ little cotton
factory, capable OF employing dozen hands,
stood where the Baltimore & Ohio depot
now is. A small glass manufacturing es-
Enlistment occupied the present site of the
paper mill stood near the river and with q
small machine shop, completed the sum
total of the manufacturing industries OF
Wheeling up to the yeBr 1880. The place
then derived its chief importance from
being the Western termini and the ship
ping point for all the goods transported
from the business houses OF the East by
the great six-horse wagons that then rum
bled over the national road. Here they
left their burdens to be loaded upon keel
boats and pushed down the Ohio river by
mana. 1DeTe Was tlIlle NdSOuluS lucll Oc-
yond here. Stages carried passengers
through 10 Cincinnati, but the merchan-
disc stopped here and went West by water
To look back to those days they seem very
far off, when you cast an eye over the great
industries and the busy business of the
city. Yet this man covers with his use.
full years nearly every phase of its growth,
from its foundation to the present mo-
ment.
In 1923, and for many years thereafter,
the great forwarding and commission
houses were all that Wheeling had TO boast
of. 1t did not grow much from 1920 to
1890. The population increased couple OF
thousand in the ten years, but the cholera
and the change that steamboats, made in
river navigation reduced it again. so that
when the year came that made the threshold
of Mr.. Lambs life, which set the mile stone
that marks the point where youth ends and
manhood begins, the population was not
greater than 5000. and al the manufaC-
tories were silent.