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WHEELING - The Ohio County Public Library’s next Lunch With Books program will take a look at Walt Whitman’s visit to Wheeling.
The program will take place at noon on Tuesday, Sept. 15, at the library in downtown Wheeling.
Few people would associate the poet Whitman (1819-1892) with West Virginia, yet in 1848 he briefly crossed the Appalachian mountains and visited the Wheeling on his way to New Orleans, writing about the city for a southern newspaper.
Dr. Stefan Schoberlein of Texas A&M University-Central Texas will present Whitman's writings about Wheeling and West Virgina, and discuss the city's role as an important hub for Northern travelers in route to the major cities of the South.
He will also introduce the captain of the steamboat that carried not only Whitman down the Ohio, but also President Zachary Taylor - Wheeling's own Samuel Mason, now buried at Greenwood Cemetery.