Diocese of Wheeling

Comprises the State of West Virginia except the following counties, which are in the Diocese of Richmond: Pendleton, Grant, Mineral, Hardy, Hampshire, Morgan, Berkeley, and Jefferson; also the Counties of Lee, Scott, Wise, Dickinson, Buchanan, Washington, Russel, Grayson, Smyth, Tazewell, Carroll, Wythe, Bland, Floyd, Pulaski, Montgomery, Giles, and a portion of Craig Co., in Virginia; square miles in West Virginia, 21,355; in Virginia, 7,817; total 29,172. The Diocese of Wheeling was formed from the Diocese of Richmond by Apostolic Letters dated 23 July, 1850. The Rt. Rev. Richard Whelan, D.D., at that time Bishop of Richmond, was transferred to Wheeling as the first bishop of the newly-created see. He had been consecrated the second Bishop of Richmond, 21 March, 1841. The earliest record preserved in the Wheeling chancery sets forth that Rev. Francis Rolf was appointed pastor of Wheeling in 1829. He records a baptism performed by him on 3 November, 1828. There is evidence of priests having visited Wheeling at an earlier date. Wheeling was established as a town in 1795, and one vague tradition has it that it took its name from a certain Father Whelan, a Catholic priest, who came occasionally to minister to the spiritual wants of the members of his flock. The western part of Virginia, which in 1863 became the State of West Virginia, had never many Catholic settlers, nor does it appear to have had many professing any religion. In 1912 the Catholic population was estimated at about 50,000, and the total population at 1,000,000. A letter preserved in the archives of the Diocese of Wheeling dated Baltimore, 13 April, 1832, and signed James Whitfield, Archbishop of Baltimore, states the inability of securing a priest to be stationed at Wheeling, but the letter goes on: "I desired the priest who attends a congregation, on the way to Wheeling, about 40 miles on this side (Brownsville if I remember), to go and give Church once or twice a month. He seems to say that he would comply, as far as he could, with my wish." +