Short answers, pulled from the story.
Waitman Thomas Willey was an American lawyer and politician from Morgantown, West Virginia, born on the 18th of October, 1811. He is historically significant as one of the founders of the state of West Virginia during the Civil War and one of only two people in U.S. history to represent more than one state in the Senate, having represented both the Restored Government of Virginia and the new state of West Virginia.
Willey presented the petition to Congress for the creation of West Virginia on the 29th of May, 1862. He secured passage of the statehood bill by offering a compromise amendment providing for the emancipation of slaves under twenty-one years of age on the 4th of July, 1863, which satisfied Radical Republican opposition in Congress.
Willey could only attend school for about two months as a child because his family needed him to work the farm. On Christmas Day 1827, at age seventeen, he walked from his home to Madison College in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, with his belongings wrapped in a handkerchief. He worked hard, tutored other students, and graduated six months ahead of schedule in June 1831.
James Shields represented Illinois, Minnesota, and Missouri in the U.S. Senate, making him and Waitman T. Willey the only two people in U.S. history to represent more than one state in that body.
When Confederate forces under Jones moved into Morgantown in April 1863, Willey was one of their named targets. He escaped into Pennsylvania in a fast buggy after the raiders failed to destroy a suspension bridge over the Monongahela River.
The Waitman T. Willey House is a historic property in Morgantown, West Virginia, that Willey built in 1839-1840. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 and renovated in 2012; the area around it is now part of the Chancery Hill Addition.