WHEELING, W. Va. – The Ohio Valley Civil War Roundtable will host speaker Thomas Hazlett inside the historic courtroom of West Virginia Independence Hall in Wheeling on Saturday, March 26 at 11 a.m. Hazlett’s lecture will discuss the treason trial, and Wheeling’s potential role, of Jefferson Davis who served as the president of the Confederacy from 1861 – 1865. The program is free and open to the public.
Hazlett, a Wheeling native, was educated at Linsly Military Institute, Kenyon College, with a degree in history and the West Virginia College of Law. A member of the West Virginia and Ohio Bar, he has been practicing law in the St. Clairsville/Wheeling area for the last 45 years and has spent much of his spare time reading and studying history. The lecture is free and open to the public.
For more information about WVIH, contact Debbie Jones, site manager, at (304) 238-1300 or Deborah.J.Jones@wv.gov.
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 Department of Arts, 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 major holidays. The museum is located on the corner of 16th and Market Streets in Wheeling.