County of town: Linvingston County
Location of town: US 36 & MO B
Location of P.O.: 104 Grant St. (MO-B), Wheeling
Elevation: 748'
Population: 264 (2013)
Wheeling, MO:
As much as 27 years before the town of Wheeling was started, part of the prairie had already been settled. In 1859 the Hannibal - St. Joseph railroad was built and towns sprang up all along the new railway. These railroad towns provided area customers with goods and services that had previously required many more miles of travel to obtain. The new town prospered and grew and their promoters made profits on the sale of supplies and services, and on the sale of town lots.
By 1893 the population had grown to over 250 and was expanding rapidly. A business for nearly every need and a market for farm products and produce were now located on Grant St. north of the railroad.
Wheeling modernization has included the addition of electricity in 1914, natural gas in 1954, modern fire equipment in 1960, dial telephones in 1961, and commercial water in 1965.
Wheeling will doubtless look quite different to its citizens of 2016 from the way it looks today, just as its present appearance and activities only faintly resemble those of 1866.
Wheeling, WV:
"The origins of the name "Wheeling" are disputed. One of the more credible explanations is that the word comes from the Lenni-Lenape phrase wih link or wee lunk, which meant "place of the head" or "place of the skull." This name supposedly referred to a white settler who was scalped and decapitated. His severed head was displayed at the confluence of Wheeling Creek and the Ohio River.[6] Native Americans had inhabited the area for thousands of years. In the 17th century, the Iroquois from present-day New York state conquered the upper Ohio Valley, pushing out other tribes and maintaining the area as their hunting ground.
"Originally explored by the French, Wheeling still has a lead plate remnant that the explorer Céloron de Blainville buried in 1749 at the mouth of Wheeling Creek to mark his claim. Later, Christopher Gist and George Washington surveyed the land in 1751 and 1770, respectively.
"During the fall of 1769, Ebenezer Zane explored the Wheeling area and established claim to the land via "tomahawk rights." (This process meant to girdle a few trees near the head of a spring, and mark the bark with the initials of the name of the person who made the claim). He returned the following spring with his wife Elizabeth and his younger brothers, Jonathan and Silas; they established the first permanent European settlement in the Wheeling area, naming it Zanesburg. Other families joined the settlement, including the Shepherds (see Monument Place), the Wetzels, and the McCollochs (see McColloch's Leap).
"In 1787, the United States gave Virginia this portion of lands west of the Appalachians, and some to Pennsylvania at its western edge, to settle their claims. By the Northwest Ordinance that year, it established the Northwest Territory to cover other lands north of the Ohio River and west to the Mississippi River. Settlers began to move into new areas along the Ohio.
"In 1793, Ebenezer Zane divided the town into lots, and Wheeling was officially established as a town in 1795 by legislative enactment. The town was incorporated January 16, 1805. On March 11, 1836, the town of Wheeling was incorporated into the city of Wheeling.
"By an act of the Virginia General Assembly on December 27, 1797, Wheeling was named the county seat of Ohio County.
"Although Wheeling lost its position as state capital in 1865, it continued to grow. In the late nineteenth century, Wheeling was the new state's prime industrial center. One early nickname (until an 1885 strike) was "Nail City", reflecting the iron manufacture in several mills which dated from the 1840s. Mills transformed pig iron into sheets which could be cut, and some mills also produced boiler plates, stoves, barrel rings and/or ornamental ironwork. Noted businesses of the era included the Bloch Brothers Tobacco Company (owned by state Senator Jesse A. Bloch who would in 1913 introduce legislation which became the state's Workmen's Compensation Act), and later steel concerns after development of the Bessemer process. Wheeling Steel Corporation was created in 1920 and grew after a 1927 strike caused J.P. Morgan and other investors to sell National Tube Company, which had been created in 1899, six years after local owners had consolidated five plants in the area as Wheeling Steel & Iron Company.
"Wheeling also had considerable associations with the American labor movement. In 1904 it became the first city in the country to refuse a proposed Andrew Carnegie gift of a free library, because of the industrialist's labor record, especially the notorious Homestead Strike of 1892. By contrast, cigar tycoon Augustus Pollack (despite once rousing controversy by a plan to use convict labor) left many bequests to the labor movement, which erected a memorial statue. The city's earliest union was the United Nailers (1860, which later merged into the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers), followed by the cigar makers in 1862. The 1877 railroad strike at Martinsburg, West Virginia reached Wheeling and became nationwide. In 1897, Eugene Debs, Mother Jones and Samuel Gompers were among the speakers at a national labor convention in Wheeling to discuss a nationwide coal strike.
"As the city grew, prosperous Wheeling residents built fine houses, especially on Wheeling Island, but slums also expanded.[16] As a result of that growth, an ordinance was passed regulating personal cesspools, including a ban on pipe communications with other homes and businesses unless offensive smells were properly trapped.
"With industry, Wheeling reached its peak of population in 1930. The Great Depression, and later changes and restructuring in heavy industry following World War II, led to a loss of working-class jobs and population. Capitalizing on its rich architectural heritage, Wheeling has worked to revive its main street, as well as promote heritage tourism near the Ohio River. West Virginia has also invested in fiber optics networks for advanced communication. Wheeling is becoming a center in health services and education as well." ~ Wikipedia