Authors & editors
Dan Oates, Editor, Hanging Rock Rebel
Dan is retired from the W. Va. Schools for the Deaf and the Blind. He was an orientation and mobility instructor, low vision specialist, and service provider for early educational services to families having blind and low vision babies. He has lived in Romney most of his 70 years. He has spent many summers working at Space Camp® as a Crew Trainer and Education Program Manager in Huntsville, Alabama. He coordinates Space Camp® for Interested Visually Impaired Students (SCIVIS), a program designed for blind and visually students to attend Space Camp®. He also is a chair caner with 47 years of experience restoring old chairs.
He is an avid local historian who believes history should be shared. He writes a monthly column for the Hampshire Review on local history titled, "Out of Our Past". His two books, Hanging Rock Rebel, Lt. Blue's War in West Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley and Tales of the South Branch and Old Hampshire are available on this website.
Hampshire County is rich in history and many stories are left untold.
William H. Ansel, Jr. , Author, Frontier Forts Along the Potomac and Its Tributaries
William H. Ansel,. Jr., was a native of Springfield, West Virginia. He received his academic training at Potomac State College, Shepherd College and the College of Law of West Virginia University. As a student he excelled as a public speaker and won both scholastic and collegiate debating championships which, in turn, instilled a lasting respect for detailed and factual information so evident in all of his manuscripts.
Endowed with unusual traits of leadership and the innate ability to detect words of wisdom from trivial sources enhanced his talent as a gifted presenter of historical events with a colloquial tenor.
Initially a public school teacher and principal (1936-44), he also spent many years in public service. He was member of the West Virginia Legislature (1942-48); Assistant Attorney General, (1949), and was selected to serve as the West Virginia State Treasurer (1950-57). As State Treasurer he was credited with the sale of WWII Bonus Bonds and arranging the financing of the West Virginia Turnpike.
In 1958 he returned to Springfield and opened a private law practice in Romney and maintained that practice until his death in December of 1988.