Charles Henry Ambler
American historian, teacher, professor and civil servant
- 3 min read
- 2 chapters
Related on Lably
Through American Civil War
Early life and education
Charles Henry Ambler was born on August 12, 1876, in Matamoras, Ohio. His boyhood days were spent in St. Marys, West Virginia. He married Helen Mary Carle in 1920, who also attended West Virginia University; their marriage bringing two children, Mary Elizabeth and Mary Louise.
Ambler was a teacher in Pleasants County, West Virginia public school from 1894 to 1900. He attended West Liberty University. He was elected sheriff of Pleasants County and served in 1900–1901. In 1901 he enrolled at West Virginia University, where he earned an AB in social sciences, and a MA, in 1904 and 1905 respectively. He thereafter attended the University of Wisconsin, and became acquainted with Frederick Jackson Turner, noted for his famous, yet historically controversial, Frontier Thesis. Ambler earned his doctorate in history in 1908, using the first eight chapters of his work, Sectionalism in Virginia from 1776 to 1861 (1910), for his dissertation. Ambler went on to teach political science and history at Randolph-Macon College in Virginia until 1917. During his tenure there he met J. M. Battin, a former student of the college, who was in possession of the long forgotten diary of John Floyd, 25th Governor of Virginia, from 1830 to 1834, which Ambler made extensive use of when he wrote Floyd's biography. In writing the biography Ambler received helpful assistance from Doctor George B. Johnston, and Ann Mason Lee, both from Richmond, who were direct descendants of Floyd.
In the following thirty years Ambler was a member of the West Virginia University history department, and served as its chairman from 1929 until 1946. He created the West Virginia and Regional History Collection in West Virginia's university library.
Sign in to keep reading
One more chapter is free with a Lably account.
Later life
Ambler was the president of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association in 1942–43 and received numerous other recognitions of this sort. As a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates, he represented Monongalia County from 1951 until 1955. Ambler was a leading authority on the history of education in pre-statehood West Virginia in the 19th century, and noted that the failures in the free school system of the 1840s was due to the inefficiency of the state legislature and its failure to enact special laws.
Ambler's 1958 work, entitled, West Virginia, the Mountain State, (1958), is a rewriting and further elaboration of his earlier work, A History of West Virginia, (1933). Here he discusses the prominent geological divisions, i.e.the vast mountain ranges that divided the original region of Virginia, and how they led to the social divisions and sectionalism that, after years of political and Constitutional debate, led to the creation and establishment of the State of West Virginia.
Ambler also belonged to the American Geographical Society, the Masonic Order, and the International Order of Odd Fellows. Among Ambler's most notable legacies was his efforts in the creating the West Virginia and Regional History Collection in the West Virginia University library.
Charles Ambler died on August 31, 1957, aged 81. He is buried at Lawnwood Cemetery, Morgantown, Monogalia County, West Virginia.