There
are thousands of people born and raised in the Valley
who achieve greatness everyday in their lives without
fame or recognition.
This page is in recognition of those who have achieved
national and international fame
and they are all from the Ohio Valley.
Clark
Gable - Cadiz, Ohio b.1901 d.1960 Movies ("Gone
With The Wind")
Robert
Urich - Toronto, Ohio b.1946 d. 2002 Television and
Movies ("Vegas", "Spenser for Hire",
"Soap", "Bob, Ted, Carol and Alice",
and "Lazarus Man")
Traci
Lords
- Steubenville, Ohio b.1968 (Movies, television)
John
Buccigross - Steubenville Catholic Central - Television
(ESPN NHL 2Night Co-Host.)
John
Corbett - Wheeling, West Virginia (Television - "Northern
Exposure")
Joyce
DeWitt - Wheeling, West Virginia b.1949 Television
("Three's Company")
Jimmy
"the Greek" Snyder - Steubenville, Ohio (Oddsmaker,
NFL Today CBS)
Charles
Ogle - Steubenville, Ohio Starred in Thomas Alva Edison's
"Frankenstein".
Dean
Martin - Steubenville, Ohio b.1917 d.1996 (Movies,
Television, Singer)
Brad
Paisley - Glen Dale, West Virginia - Country music
singer. Attended West Liberty College. Made live radio
debut at age 12 on WWVA’s “Jamboree USA”
in Wheeling, WV; by age 14, was playing near his hometown
at “Jamboree In The Hills” to crowds in excess
of 60,000; recently signed “He Didn’t Have To
Be” movie deal with TBS; co-authored book based on
“He Didn’t Have To Be.” Award
wins: 4 Grammy's, 8 CMAs, 1 ACM, 3 TNN Country Weekly
Music Awards, Male Vocalist of the Year 2000, 2001 and
2002
Will Thompson - East Liverpool, Ohio - Songwriter, published
four songs in 1874. Two of the songs were named, "My
Home on the Old Ohio" and "Gathering Shells
from the Sea."
Dr. Jon Nese - Steubenville, Ohio - Meteorologist, The
Franklin Institute, The Weather Channel.
Jon has co-written"A World of Weather."
Bob
Borden - Steubenville, Ohio - "Late Show With David
Letterman" - He's worked his way from the mailroom
to bit parts on Dave's show. He did a piece about
returning to his hometown, except Dave wouldn't pay to
go back to Ohio. Instead they went to a smalltown
in upstate New York.
Musicians
and Entertainers from Mingo Junction and the Valley
Dean
Martin - Steubenville, Ohio b.1917 d.1996 (Movies,
Television, Singer) Dean had a number one rated television
show in the 1960s, "The Dean Martin Show" aired
on NBC. He also hosted many celebrity roasts for them.
Wild
Cherry - Rob Parise - Mingo Jct, Ohio - Number one hit
song in 1976. The number two song of the year. (Billboard
Charts) "Play That Funky Music".
Ben DiFabbio - Mingo Jct, Ohio - Drummer with Wild Cherry,
has played television and radio shows with for "Pinkard
and Bowden."
Mark "Mark Eddie"
Lesinksi - Steubenville, Ohio - Comedian.
Michael
Fracasso - Mingo Jct, Ohio - Singer - Songwriter.
Mike
Veneman - Steubenville, Ohio - Comedian
Robert Porco - Stuebenville, Ohio - Artistic director
of the Cincinnati May Festival Chorus, the Cleveland Orchestra
Chorus.
James DeBlasis - Bellaire, Ohio - Artistic Director of
the Cincinnati Opera for 25 years.
Ron Bozicevich - Yorkville, Ohio - Double bassist of the
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Pops, 31 years,
soloist with the Cincinnati Symphony, graduate of the
Oberlin Conservatory, Juilliard School of Music, and Wheeling
Symphony Orchestra.
Tim Witkowski - Steubenville, Ohio - Band member of
"The Twinkeyz"
Dorothy "Sloop" Heflick - Steubenville, Ohio
- She was the inspiration for the song "Sloopy"
written by Bert Russell and Wes Farrell. The song was
later renamed "Hang on Sloopy" and in 1965 the
McCoys took it to number one. It is the State of Ohio's
official rock song and the Ohio State University's signature
song. And now back to the countdown...
Tunnelhead
- Weirton, WV - Bill Tennant, guitar and vocals; Rich
Smith, drums; Patrick Dray, bass, and Anthony Dinardo,
guitar. This band is starting to get some airplay
and is trying to establish a name for themselves.
Noted
people and events that occurred in the Valley.
George
Washington - Surveyed the Valley for the British in
1700s.
Absalom Martin - Founded Martins Ferry, the first settlement
in Ohio, in 1785.
General
George Armstrong Custer - born 1839 in New Rumley,
Harrison County...died at Little Big Horn.
Stanton, Edwin McMasters (1814-1869) -- also known as
Edwin M. Stanton -- Grandfather-in-law of Ernest Lee Jahncke.
Born in Steubenville, Jefferson County, Ohio, December
19, 1814. U.S. Attorney General, 1860-61; U.S. Secretary
of War, 1862-68. Quaker. Died in Washington, D.C., December
24, 1869. Interment at Oak Hill Cemetery, Washington,
D.C.
Gaston
Gianni, Jr. - Inspector General of the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation.
Edward
Moody McCook - The fifth and seventh governor of the
Colorado territory. B. Steubenville, Ohio. 1835
Dard
Hunter - World's leading authority on paper during
his time. Born in Steubenville, Ohio. 1883
Pretty
Boy Floyd - Famous bank robber during the 1920s and 1930s
was killed between Wellsville and East Liverpool.
James
Wright - Won Pulitzer Prize for poetry, Collected Poems,
in 1972. Born in Martins Ferry, Ohio.(1927-1980)
William Dean Howells - Born in Martins Ferry, Ohio. Novelist
(1837-1920). Close friend and adviser to Mark Twain and
Henry James.
Dr.
Larry Smith - Mingo Jct, Ohio - Wrote "Beyond
Rust". It is a novella about growing up in the Valley.
Purchase his latest book, "Milldust
and Roses: Memoirs." It is set in Mingo Junction.
Ellsworth Milton Statler - Grew up in Bridgeport, Ohio.
Founded the Statler chain of hotels. Used the phrase "The
customer is always right."
Walter Reuther - Born in Wheeling, WV - (1907-1970) -
U.S. labor leader who was president of the United Auto
Worker and Congress of Industrial Organizations.
Isabella Thoburn - Born in St. Clairsville, Ohio - (1840
- 1901) - American missionary in India. Founded the Lucknow
University in 1871.
Benjamin Lundy - (1789-1839) - Lived in Wheeling, WV during
the 1820s and 1830s. American publisher and leading abolitionist.
Dedicated to antislavery movement.
Mabel Cratty - Born in Bellaire, Ohio (1868-1928) American
social worker, general secretary of the YWCA.
Captain David "Nick" Hauck - Mingo Jct, Ohio
- Member of the USAF Thunderbird team (Solo 6). He was
killed during an airshow in Utah in 1980. RIP
98TH
Ohio Volunteer Infantry - Fought in the Civil War.
Betty Zane - Born in Wheeling, WV. Died in Martins Ferry,
Ohio. - In 1782, Wheeling was attacked by Indians and
the inhabitants gathered in Fort Henry. Zane left the
fort during battle to obtain more powder. The men in the
fort objected that a man could run faster. Needless to
say, she brought back the powder and the fort was able
to hold out until help arrived. She was the story of legends.
Zane Grey, was a descendant of her family, and he captured
her tale in his novel, Betty Zane in 1903.
Lloyd
(Spud) Hughes - Mingo Junction, Ohio - developed menthol
cigarettes in 1920. Sold patent to a Kentucky cigarette
company.
Battle
of Lake Erie - 1794 The cannonballs used during the battle
were made in Weirton, WV.
Senator Joseph McCarthy -McCarthy shot into the headlines
by proclaiming that the U.S. government was infected with
communists. He made his charge midway through a speech
at Wheeling's McClure House Hotel. McCarthy had tried
to capture them with a bit of drama, reaching into his
suit coat for what he claimed was evidence of traitors
in high places. "While I cannot take the time to name
all of the men in the State Department who have been named
as members of the Communist Party and members of a spy
ring, I have here in my hand a list of 205 that were known
to the secretary of state as being members of the Communist
Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping
the policy of the State Department." Most of the people
in the audience didn't believe him. Unfortunately, a lot
of people in the country did.
Arnold Henry Dohrman (1749--1813), a Portuguese merchant,
aided American seamen captured during the Revolution by
the English and set down penniless on the Portuguese coast.
He not only gave them money and weapons but also helped
them to reach home. In 1780 Congress made him United States
agent in Portugal, with no pay but with his expenses to
be paid by Congress. In 1785 he came to the United States
to try to collect for the disbursements he had made. Dohrman
left Mount Vernon with letters from GW to Richard Henry
Lee (president of Congress), James Wilson of Pennsylvania,
William Grayson of Virginia, and Samuel Chase of Maryland.
In 1787 Congress finally awarded Dohrman $5,806 72/90
with interest from the time of the expenditure and a salary
of $1,600 per annum, computed from the period "at
which his expenditures commenced to the present day."
Also he was granted one entire township in the Northwest
Territory. He and his family settled in Steubenville,
Ohio, in 1809 (JCC, 33:587--88; Dohrman to James Madison,
4 Mar. 1809, DLC: Madison Papers).
George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress, 1741-1799:
The Diaries of George Washington.
The Diaries of George Washington. Vol. 1V. 1784-June 1786.
Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig, eds. Charlottesville:
University Press of Virginia, 1978.
McCook, Anson George (1835-1917) Born in Steubenville,
Jefferson County, Ohio, October 10, 1835. Republican.
General in the Union Army during the Civil War; lawyer;
U.S. Representative from New York 8th District, 1877-83;
delegate to Republican National Convention from New York,
1884. Died in New York City, N.Y., December 30, 1917.
Interment at Union Cemetery, Steubenville, Ohio.
McCook, Edward Moody (1833-1909) Born in Steubenville,
Jefferson County, Ohio, June 15, 1833. Republican. Member
of Kansas territorial House of Representatives, 1859;
general in the Union Army during the Civil War; U.S. Minister
to the Hawaiian Islands, 1866-69; Governor of Colorado
Territory, 1869-73, 1874-75; member of Republican National
Committee from Colorado Territory, 1872-. Died of Bright's
disease, in Chicago, Cook County, Ill., September 9, 1909.
Interment at Union Cemetery, Steubenville, Ohio.
McCook, Edwin Stanton (1837-1873) Born in Carrollton,
Carroll County, Ohio, March 26, 1837. General in the Union
Army during the Civil War; secretary of Dakota Territory,
1872-73; died in office 1873. Member, Freemasons. Shot
and killed by Peter P. Wintermute, a banker and political
adversary, at a saloon in Yankton, Yankton County, Dakota
Territory (now S.Dak.), September 11, 1873. Interment
at Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati, Ohio. McCook County,
S.Dak. is named for him.
McCook, George Wythe -- also known as George W. McCook
-- of Steubenville, Jefferson County, Ohio. Democrat.
Ohio state attorney general, 1854-56; delegate to Democratic
National Convention from Ohio, 1860.
McCord, George W. of Brooke County, W.Va. Member of West
Virginia state house of delegates from Brooke County,
1881-83.
Moore, Arch Alfred, Jr. (b. 1923) -- also known as Arch
A. Moore, Jr. -- of Glen Dale, Marshall County, W.Va.;
Moundsville, Marshall County, W.Va. Born in Moundsville,
Marshall County, W.Va., April 16, 1923. Republican. Served
in the U.S. Army during World War II; lawyer; member of
West Virginia state house of delegates, 1953-55; U.S.
Representative from West Virginia 1st District, 1957-69;
member of Republican National Committee from West Virginia,
1963-67; Governor of West Virginia, 1969-77, 1985-89;
defeated, 1980.
Perrine, Charles Dillon - (1867-1951) - Born in Steubenville,
Ohio. U.S. astronomer who discovered the sixth and seventh
moons of Jupiter in 1904 and 1905. Charles discovered
13 comets and much work with extragalactic nebulae. He
later became the director of the National Observatory
in Argentina.
Ewing, Thomas (1789-1871) of Lancaster, Fairfield County,
Ohio. Adoptive father of William Tecumseh Sherman; father
of Thomas Ewing (1829-1896). Born near West Liberty, Ohio
County, Va. (now W.Va.), December 28, 1789. U.S. Senator
from Ohio, 1831-37, 1850-51; U.S. Secretary of the Treasury,
1841; U.S. Secretary of the Interior, 1849-50.