Bellaire Public Library and the Great Stone Viaduct Society present the 4th Annual Winter Lecture Series. Joe Roxby will be the first guest speaker on February 3rd 2016 at 6:00 in the community room. His topic is, "The Legends of Forty Henry". Fort Henry played an integral part in our early history. Come join us as we experience the stories behind this legendary fort told only by Local Historian, Joe Roxby. This is a free event and opened to everyone. Light refreshments will be serviced.
Roxy was born in 1953 and is the son of Kay Roxby and the late Eugene (Gene) Roxby. He attended Grade School at old Sacred Heart in North Wheeling and was a member of its last graduating class. Roxby graduated from Wheeling Central in 1971 and from West Liberty State College with a degree in history in 1975.
Roxby entered police service with the Wheeling Police Department in 1978. He retired from that agency in December of 2003 with the rank of Lieutenant.
Among his other accomplishments, he is a staff writer for Precision Shooting magazine, and a noted local frontier historian. Along with Precision Shooting, Roxby has written pieces for Tactical Shooter, The Accurate Rifle, The Wheeling Intelligencer, Wheeling News-Register, The Times Leader and Outdoor Magazine. He is the co-author of the book The Heroic Age, Tales of Wheeling's Frontier Era and author of a book of short stories entitled Lost Legends of Fort Henry.
He is the past-president Fort Henry Living History, the group that each Labor Day Weekend puts on Fort Henry Days. Roxby notes with pride that during his tenure with that organization, it has grown to be the premier historical event in the upper Ohio Valley.
Roxby and was given a chance to work with his friends at Shooters Productions. The result was a beautiful and dramatic promotional video dealing with Fort Henry Days. His writing prowess has also led him to begin work on the screenplay for a proposed film about local legend Betty Zane, entitled Betty Zane: Legend of Fort Henry.
In 2008 Roxby was elected Magistrate of Ohio County and currently holds the office