The following events happened on these dates in West Virginia history. To read more, go to e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia at www.wvencyclopedia.org.

April 6, 1938: The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established Camp Kanawha in Kanawha State Forest. The CCC removed all the abandoned houses, coal tipples, and other structures no longer in use, and constructed roads, the forest superintendent’s residence, office, maintenance building, and picnic shelters.

April 6, 1944: Guitarist and singer David Morris was born in Ivydale, Clay County. With his brother John on fiddle, the Morris Brothers founded music festivals, supported union and environmental causes and promoted West Virginia traditional music nationwide. He died in 2016.

April 6, 1964: Brad Smith, the former head of Intuit, was born in Huntington and then grew up in Kenova. In 2021, he became the 38th president of his alma mater, Marshall University.

April 7, 1927: A. James Manchin was born in Farmington. In 1984, the longtime secretary of state was elected state treasurer but soon fell into trouble. With a stock market downturn in 1987, Manchin bore much of the blame when the state lost nearly $300 million in investments. He died in 2003.

April 7, 1947: Medal of Honor recipient Thomas W. Bennett was born in Morgantown. Believing it was wrong to evade the draft while others had to serve in Vietnam, he volunteered as a noncombatant medic. He was killed by gunfire while dragging a wounded soldier to safety.

April 7, 2004: Gov. Bob Wise signed legislation that transformed four colleges into universities: West Virginia State, Shepherd, Fairmont State and Concord.

April 8, 1891: The town of Paw Paw was incorporated. Strategically located on the Potomac River, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and the C&O Canal, Paw Paw was named for the banana-like pawpaw fruit that grows in the area.

April 8, 1951: An Air National Guard transport plane crashed near Kanawha (now Yeager) Airport, killing 21.

April 9, 1817: John Nuttall was born in England. He was one of the first operators to ship coal on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway in the early 1870s and founded the town of Nuttallburg in the New River Gorge.

April 9, 1900: Physician Margaret Byrnside “Dr. Maggie” Ballard was born. She actively pursued her interest in genealogy and local history and was a founder of the Monroe County Historical Society.

April 10, 1848: John Kenna was born in Kanawha County. In 1883, the state legislature elected him to the U.S. Senate, unseating the powerful Henry G. Davis. Kenna is one of two West Virginians memorialized by a statue in the U.S. Capitol.

April 10, 1932: Entertainer Blaze Starr was born as Fanny Belle Fleming in Wayne County. The owner of a burlesque club rechristened her “Blaze Starr.” Her story was the basis of the movie Blaze.

April 11, 1821: Congressman Jacob Beeson Blair was born in Parkersburg. Blair was the first West Virginian to be told by President Abraham Lincoln of Lincoln’s support for making West Virginia a state.

April 11, 1847: Diarist Sirene Bunten was born in French Creek, Upshur County. As a teenager, she kept a diary about her daily activities, including emotional accounts of life on the West Virginia home front during the Civil War.

April 11, 1909: Writer Hubert Skidmore was born at Laurel Mountain in Webster County. In his novels, Skidmore depicted stoic endurance by mountain people in the face of misfortune and economic exploitation by outside interests.

April 11, 1940: Award-winning artist Susan Poffenbarger was born in Charleston. Her work can be found in many galleries as well as in the IRS National Computing Center in Martinsburg and the Federal Courthouse Annex in Wheeling. She died in 2025.

April 11, 1964: Writer Pinckney Benedict was born in Lewisburg. His two collections of short stories, Town Smokes and The Wrecking Yard, as well as his novel Dogs of God were named Notable Books by the New York Times Book Review.

April 12, 1865: The 36th Virginia Infantry, known as the Logan Wildcats, disbanded. The Confederate company was created at Logan Courthouse on June 3, 1861, and consisted of about 85 men. The company saw its first action in the Battle of Scary Creek in Putnam County.

April 12, 1885: Photographer George James Kossuth was born. After opening his Wheeling studio in 1909, he achieved broad fame for his photos of the city and insightful portraits of world celebrities, including Richard Strauss, Jascha Heifetz, Leopold Stokowski, Clarence Darrow and Richard Nixon.