From Staff Reports

WHEELING — On Thursday, West Virginia will mark 161 years of statehood with events centered at West Virginia Independence Hall — the location where landowners gathered more than a century-and-a-half ago to form a more perfect union.

The highlight of this year’s festivities at Independence Hall — formerly known as the Customs House — is the dedication of the new Arthur I. Boreman statue. Boreman, the state’s first governor, will now watch over downtown Wheeling from his perch outside West Virginia Independence Hall at 16th and Market streets.

West Virginia’s 161st birthday celebration will take place from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Thursday inside the museum. People can enter through the front doors.

At noon on the front steps, a re-enactor will depict President Abraham Lincoln reading Proclamation 100, which admitted West Virginia to the Union as the 35th state.

Then later, the dedication of the new statue of Boreman, West Virginia’s first elected governor, is slated to begin at 4 p.m. in the parking lot behind the museum. The event will include the firing of a cannon at about 4:30 p.m., said Deborah Jones, West Virginia Independence Hall site manager.

She said there will also be re-creations of the original inauguration activities held in 1863. Music will be provided by a choir of girls.

Boreman took over as the new state’s governor in 1863 just before the battle at Gettysburg and with the outcome of the Civil War unclear, according to information from local historian Margaret Brennan, also a member of the Gov. Arthur Boreman Statue Fund Committee.

At that time, the state had no money and other Union states were suspicious of the new West Virginia. But Boreman held the state together, she said.

Boreman was born July 24, 1823, in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania. In addition to Waynesburg, the family lived in Middlebourne and Moundsville.

Boreman was a lawyer, learning from his brother William. After being admitted to the bar, he and his brother-in-law opened a legal office in Parkersburg.

From 1855-61, Boreman served in the Virginia Legislature. When he was 38 he was named president of the Second Wheeling Convention, which met at the now West Virginia Independence Hall Museum. He was 40 years old when he became governor of the new state of West Virginia.

The Boreman statue was created by artist and sculptor Jamie Lester of Morgantown. It depicts Boreman during his June 20, 1863, inauguration speech. It stands about 8 feet tall, weighs about 2,000 pounds and is situated beside the West Virginia Independence Hall Museum.