Speaker Series, 2018: Images From the Right Bank: The Lives and Times of the Botelers of Fountain Rock

Dr. Jerry Bruce Thomas will present “Images From the Right Bank: The Lives and Times of the Botelers of Fountain Rock” at Shepherd University’s Byrd Auditorium on November 14, 2018 at 7 p.m.

The Auditorium is located in the Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education on the Shepherd campus. The event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will follow the talk.

Shepherdstonian Alexander Boteler was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives before the Civil War, a member of the First Confederate Congress, a Confederate officer, the owner of Boteler’s Cement Mill, an avid artist and cartoonist, an early supporter of building a Rumsey monument in Shepherdstown, and one of the founders of Shepherd College. In other words, he was a man engaged in the major events of his time with many interests and enthusiasms and a surprising talent.

Dr. Thomas’ interest in Alexander Boteler has led him to conduct considerable research on Boteler’s life and times, and a book is in process.

Dr. Thomas is a native of Wyoming County, WV. He received his BA from West Virginia University and his MA and PhD in American History from the University of North Carolina. After more than 30 years on the faculty at Shepherd University, specializing in courses in World Civilization and Recent American History, he retired in 2009. The University Press of Kentucky published his An Appalachian New Deal, West Virginia in the Great Depression in 1998. West Virginia University Press published a new edition (2010) as well as An Appalachian Reawakening: West Virginia and the Perils of the New Machine Age, 1945-1972 (2010). Thomas formerly served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Historic Shepherdstown Commission.

Dr. Thomas’ talk is the last in Historic Shepherdstown’s 2018 Speakers Series. The 2019 schedule will be announced early next year.