Senator Henry Gassaway Davis & the WV Central Railroad Lecture Series

The Oakland B&O Museum will feature Dr. David Turner for its first lecture of the summer. It will be held at the 1884 Oakland B&O Station on Thursday, June 18th at 6:00.  Get-N-Go will cater the evening with appetizers and desserts and Turner  will begin his talk at 7:00.  

The museum officially opened its doors in July 2013 and has partnered with the B&O Museum in Baltimore for artifacts, displays, videos, and guidance on presentation of the museum.  Dr. Turner has been a member of the Davis & Elkins College faculty since 1985, where he is the chairman of the History Department.  He received his PhD in history from the University of Kentucky and his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.  Before joining the faculty at D&E he was an archivist for the National Archives.  In addition to being the author of numerous publications he wrote The Centennial History (2004),  an account of the first 100 years of Davis & Elkins College.  

He will be speaking about Senator Henry Gassaway Davis.  The college is named after Davis and his son-in-law, Stephen Elkins.  Davis founded the  Potomac and Piedmont Coal and Railroad Company which later became the West Virginia Central & Pittsburgh Railway.  He had a summer home at Deer Park and worked with John Work Garrett to transport coal, coke, and timber from the highlands in West Virginia to eventually Cumberland.  He was the Democratic Vice Presidential nominee in 1904 and to this day is still the oldest person to be nominated for President or Vice President on a major party ticket.