FOW Tour - Dr. Archibald S. Todd House

On June 27, 2019 Friends of Wheeling toured the Dr. Archibald S Todd House at 88 14th Street.

Deed records show that this property was purchased by Dr. Archibald S. Todd in mid-January 1864. The 1864 Wheeling City Directory lists Dr. Todd’s residence as being at the south side of Quincy (now 14th Street), between 5th (now Eoff) and 6th (now Jacob) Streets – a description that matches the address now known as 88 14th Street.

Archibald Todd (1798 – 1883) was born in New York, the son of John Todd and Jane Caldwell. He moved west in 1820, after his initial education and assisted first in the medical practice of his brother, Dr. S.P. Todd, and later in the practice of another brother, Dr. Martin Luther Todd, in Wheeling. After further studies at Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky, he returned to Wheeling to stay. His biography in the History of the Panhandle states that he “almost immortalized the family name by the discovery of that famous household medicine so popular as Todd's Liver Pills, probably the finest family carthartic ever submitted to the public.” Newspaper advertisements from 1860 and 1862 show that the pills claimed to cure “bilious diseases,” dyspepsia, vertigo, and loss of appetite, among other problems caused by “debilitating livers.”

Archibald Todd was one of the founders of every medical society ever organized in the city of Wheeling or in the state of West Virginia and was also well-known as a mineralogist and botanist. Prior to the Civil War, in 1835, he served as surgeon of a regiment of state troops commanded by Benjamin Franklin Kelley. He began Wheeling’s first free clinic in 1845 and served as “Overseer of the Poor,” an elected position in which he was to see to the care of orphans, widows, and others in need in the community. He was a ruling elder in the First Presbyterian Church of Wheeling, and a stained glass window was placed in the church in his memory. He is buried in Peninsula cemetery.

Dr. Todd and his wife Mary (nee Jarrett), had six children. The oldest was Carolene Louise ‘Carrie’ (1832 – 1915). She married Dr. John C. Hupp in 1853. Although city directories don’t list Carolene and John Hupp at this address, they are interesting enough to include in this narrative. Hupp was educated at West Alexander Academy and Washington College, Pennsylvania, from which he graduated in 1844. He studied medicine under Dr. F. Julius LeMoyne and at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from which he graduated in 1847. He located in Wheeling in late 1847. In addition to his medical practice, Hupp kept busy with other pursuits. In 1873 he inaugurated the policy in the Wheeling schools that when a female teacher does the work of a male instructor she was to have the same pay and rank as he would. Also in 1873, he made a successful effort before the board of education to obtain free school education for colored children and was instrumental in the formation of Wheeling’s first Lincoln school in 1866 – one of the first such schools for black citizens in the United States. In 1875, through his influence, the German language became a branch of study in the public schools, and in 1877 he was equally successful in making industrial drawing a regular branch of study in the schools. Carolene and her staff are credited with making the state’s first 35-star flag. That flag and portraits of John and Carolene Hupp now hang in WV Independence Hall.

The fourth child of Archibald and Mary Todd was Martin Luther Todd, named after his uncle, Archibald’s older brother. He was educated at Washington and Jefferson College and served as a Presbyterian minister before his untimely death at age 30. He was one of the founders of the Children’s Home of Wheeling, and his sister Carolene served as president of its Board of Managers for 25 years.

Following the death of Dr. Todd in 1883 and his widow in late 1896, this property went to their grandson, Archibald T. “Archie” Hupp, Sr. (1855 – 1943), the son of Carolene and John Hupp. Following his education at Wheeling public schools and Linsly, Archie Hupp began work at the Speidel whole grocery company, rising to the position of vice president. He was very active in the Masonic order, achieving the rank of 33rd Degree Scottish Rite Mason and serving as the local order’s treasurer for 25 years. The site of the Scottish Rite building, across the street from this property, must have been quite convenient for him.

Following his death, the property was sold to Dr. Arthur L. Jones, a urologist, and his wife Blanche. Dr. Jones (1889 – 1965) was born in Mannington, WV. After graduating from Fairmont State Teachers College and teaching school in his home town for six years, Jones entered Jefferson Medical College, graduating in 1919 and beginning practice in Wheeling the following year. He retired in 1964, a year before his death. During his professional career, Dr. Jones served as president of the Ohio County Medical Society and was a member of the state and American medical societies.

Following the death of Dr. Jones, his widow sold the property to Howard Friedrichs, Chester R. Hubbard, and Andrew Rock in late 1965, and the house was then used for lawyers’ offices. Larry and Susan Dodd bought the property in 1975, and the city directory from the following year shows offices of Dr. Larry Dodd and attorney Chester Hubbard at this address.

Several other businesses had offices in the house in subsequent years, and Wheeling Health Right is first shown there in 1988, the year that organization purchased the property for $55,000. From about 2000 to 2016, the house was known as the Mother Jones House. It housed Wheeling Jesuit University students who provided outreach services to residents of the East Wheeling neighborhood, including work at Laughlin Chapel and delivering meals for Catholic Charities. Health Right sold the property to Laughlin Community Center in late 2003 for $71,000. The property is now on the market for $110,000.