Margaret Brennan doesn’t live in the past, but she visits there regularly, examining and illuminating issues and interests that have shaped the state. An independent contract historian, Margaret’s early interest in history turned into an absorbing pursuit that is both vocation and avocation. Churches, schools, universities, municipalities and historical associations turn to her for help. She says, “It’s my job to clarify and organize the letters, papers and documents that provide invaluable information about how we came to be where we are now.“
Born and raised in Wheeling, Margaret focuses her educated attention on the events and principles that influenced the region and its growth. She says, “Each project has its own life. You follow the strands of the project from the present and work back.” She prepared the archives and display featuring papers and memorabilia of Wheeling Senator Judith Herndon for Mount de Chantal. “The senator attended Mount de Chantal and the Herndon Room is named for her. She was a senator in the 1980’s who died at a young age, but made important contributions to the area.”
Margaret has just completed work for a project of the Wheeling Symphony, the book “For the Love of Music, The History of the Wheeling Symphony Society. “The project took about eighteen months,” she says. “A music historian did the major writing, but through the research, I was able to enter the world of music.”
Margaret set up another display from the archives of Wheeling Hospital. “It’s the oldest hospital in the state. Near the end of the Civil War, it was a US Army General Hospital, receiving wounded soldiers from miles away, at a time when the system was overloaded and in turmoil.” The Wheeling Hospital research led to a deepening interest in Civil War medical history and Margaret joined the Civil War Medical Association. She recently returned from Richmond, site of the annual conference. “There was tremendous communication between Wheeling and Richmond during the Civil War. On racial issues, we were more in line with Southern Virginia thinking than Ohio-Pennsylvania thinking.”
She believes it is a critical topic. “One of the important stories of American history is the existence of the Underground Railroad. In this part of West Virginia, it was especially significant because the Ohio River was so important in the demarcation of the slave states and free states. We had great stories of heroism in our own backyard, but many leading families in Wheeling, God-fearing, church-going people, owned house slaves. Walking the streets of our city, we walk streets that were walked upon by slaves. ” Margaret says, “We can only understand the racial issues of today by understanding the slavery issue then. To understand West Virginia, you have to understand the Civil War.”
President of the Wheeling Area Historical Society, with twenty years of involvement with the association, Margaret is also a member of the West Virginia Historical Society Board and proud to be a new member of the West Virginia Archives and History Board. She has her own collection of files and books on Wheeling and West Virginia history, but says, “Information comes in a variety of ways. I go where I need to go to do the research.” She often finds herself going through boxes and folders of West Virginia families, seeking elusive information. “I clean, organize and inventory, then make a ‘finding aid’ for the materials so people can locate what they want.” She says, “It’s amazing in 2004 that there is so much we don’t know about our history.”
Margaret attended Wheeling College for her history degree, then continued her education with a Master’s degree from WVU and a Public History Certificate after practicing applied history including community research, institutional archives and archeological research on historic homes. She was hired by Wheeling Jesuit University for their 50th Anniversary Seminar Project and carried out research for Wheeling’s First Presbyterian Church and for Independence Hall, “the most important historical building in the state, since that’s where decisions were made that gave our state birth.”
Margaret, a driver who not only brakes but gets out of the car for historical markers, hopes to find time and funds for a project close to her heart. “”I’d like to bring all the information together about Irish participation in the Civil War. It’s never been fully covered,” she says. It’s an important Civil War topic for a professional historian but she admits to a little personal interest. “After all, I’m 99 % Irish!”
For more information, contact Margaret Brennan 304-277-2241.
Margaret Brennan