June 27, 2017
WHEELING, W. Va. – West Virginia Independence Hall (WVIH) in Wheeling will host the sixth program of the Fort Henry Commemoration Speaker Series in the courtroom at 5:30 p.m., Thursday, June 29. The speaker series is observing the 240th anniversary year of the first siege of Fort Henry and the 235th anniversary of the second siege. The program is free and open to the public.
Michael E. Nogay, historian, author and attorney, will present the lecture “Focus on Forts,” based on the new edition of his book Every Home a Fort, Every Man a Warrior. Nogay graduated magna cum laude from West Virginia University, where he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and served as editor of the Daily Athenaeum. In 1983, he received his Juris Doctor from Washington and Lee University where he was a Benedum Scholar. He is the founder of the Old Reel Collectors Association, with 800 members in more than a dozen countries. A lifelong resident of Weirton, Nogay and his wife, Robin, have three children, and he currently practices law with the firm Sellitti, Nogay and McCune, LLC.
Every Home a Fort, Every Man a Warrior chronicles the public and private fortifications in the Northern Panhandle during the colonial and Revolutionary War period. The book earned Nogay the honor of being named a West Virginia History Hero. During the lecture, he will share his research on Hollidays Cove Fort, among others, and his recent discovery of muster rolls of local forts, newly available from the National Archives.
The program is co-hosted by the Wheeling Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution and the Fort Henry Chapter, Sons of the American Revolution (DAR).
For more information about WVIH, contact Debbie Jones, site manager, at (304) 238-1300 or Deborah.J.Jones@wv.gov. For information about the speaker series, visit www.fthenrysar.org.
West Virginia Independence Hall has been on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) since 1970. It was originally built as a federal custom house in 1859, served as the home of the pro-Union state conventions of Virginia during the spring and summer of 1861 and as the capitol of loyal Virginia from June 1861 to June 1863. It also was the site of the first constitutional convention for West Virginia.
Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1988, the museum is maintained and operated by the West Virginia Division of Culture and History, with the cooperation and assistance of the West Virginia Independence Hall Foundation. The museum is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, except for major holidays. The museum is located on the corner of 16th and Market Streets in Wheeling.
The West Virginia Division of Culture and History is an agency within the Office of Secretary of Education and the Arts with Gayle Manchin, cabinet secretary. The division, led by Commissioner Randall Reid-Smith, brings together the past, present and future through programs and services focusing on archives and history, arts, historic preservation and museums. For more information about the division’s programs, events and sites, visit www.wvculture.org. The Division of Culture and History is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.
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