The following article is by my friend Bill Dollarhide, taken from his book, West Virginia Censuses & Substitute Name Lists, 1754-2003
Prologue: The area of West Virginia was first opened for settlement in 1774 due to the exploits of the last British appointed Governor of Virginia. John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, led a Virginia Militia force to a huge victory against a large confederation of well-armed Indians. The only major battle of Lord Dunmore’s War, the Battle of Point Pleasant took place at the mouth of the Kanawha River on the Ohio. That battle was later declared the first battle of the Revolutionary War, because it was the first battle between American forces and Indian forces armed and supported by the British Army. But Dunmore never knew he was fighting against the British, in fact, he had been promised that a British force would join his Virginia force in time for the battle But the British Army purposely left Dunmore’s militia on its own, expected them to lose to the Indians. Instead, Lord Dunmore’s Virginia Militia force won a decisive victory. In the resulting treaty, the Indians along the Ohio relinquished their rights to hunting grounds south of the river, essentially ceding the area of West Virginia and Kentucky to the British Colony of Virginia. The first white settlers in the area of West Virginia and Kentucky did not happen until after that treaty, and credit must be given to Lord Dunmore. Even after being betrayed by the British Army in 1774, Lord Dunmore fought furiously to preserve the British colony of Virginia against the American rebels. He fled Virginia in 1776 after an uprising in Norfolk, and soon after returned to Britain.
1558. Elizabeth I became Queen of England. The early exploration of North America took place during her 45-year reign, the Elizabethan Era, or “Golden Age.” When Elizabeth I was crowned, England was nearly bankrupt, but during her reign, the English Empire expanded and thrived, and English culture flourished in Literature, Theater, Music, and Architecture.
1584. Virginia. Sir Walter Raleigh claimed and named Virginia for the “Virgin Queen,” Elizabeth I, an area from present Chesapeake Bay to Florida, and everything “sea to sea” below a northwestern line to the North Pole.
1603. England. James I became King of England, the first monarch to rule both England and Scotland. (He was James VI of Scotland since 1566). During his reign the first permanent English colonies were established in Virginia and New England. James I was an advocate for the transportation of thousands of clan people living along the Scottish-English border to Ulster Province, Northern Ireland.
1606. Two joint stock companies were founded in 1606, both with royal charters issued by King James I for the purpose of establishing colonies in North America. The Virginia Company of London was given a land grant between Latitude 34° (Cape Fear) and Latitude 41° (Long Island Sound). The Virginia Company of Plymouth was founded with a similar land grant between Latitude 38° (Potomac River) and Latitude 45°(St. John River), which included a shared area with the London Company between Latitude 38° and Latitude 41°.
1607. April 26. Virginia. Three ships under the command of Capt. Christopher Newport sought shelter in Chesapeake Bay. The forced landing led to the founding of Jamestown on the James River, the first permanent English settlement, consisting of 104 men and boys. The Jamestown colony was led by Capt. John Smith and his cousin, Bartholomew Gosnold. A year later, about 100 new settlers arrived, finding only 38 survivors from the first group. In 1610, recently appointed governor of Virginia, Thomas West (Lord De La Warr) arrived at Jamestown to find only 60 settlers alive.
1609. Virginia. The 2nd Virginia Charter of 1609 extended the jurisdiction of the London Company to include former areas of the Plymouth Company. The language of the new charter now included the words, “sea to sea.” (James I was assured that the Pacific Ocean was just a bit west of the Appalachian Mountains).
1625. England. Charles I became King of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Soon after taking office, Charles began to note a large number of non-conformists among his subjects. Along with his Archbishop, William Laud, the King began a campaign to purge his church of the largest group of non-conformists, the so-called “Puritans,” a militant Calvinist religious group attempting to purify the Church of England.
1629-1640. As a result of the Charles I campaign to purge non-conformists from the Church of England, large groups of people were disenfranchised. Charles I disbanded Parliament and ruled England alone for eleven years. The Puritans referred to this era as “the eleven years of tyranny.” It was during these eleven years that some 21,000 Puritan immigrants established the Massachusetts Bay Colony of North America.
1633. Virginia. The Middle Plantation of the Virginia Colony was founded. The first major inland settlement after Jamestown, it later became Williamsburg.
1641. Virginia. Sir William Berkeley was appointed governor by Charles I. He served from 1642 to 1652 and again from 1660 to 1677. His older brother Lord John Berkeley, was the first Proprietor of the East New Jersey colony, and both brothers were Lords Proprietors of the Province of Carolina. William Berkeley transformed the Virginia colony by emulating the culture of southwest England’s plantation system.
1642. English Civil War. When Parliament was restored in 1640, it quickly became dominated by the same Puritans who King Charles I had removed from the Church of England. Beginning in 1642, Royalist supporters were forced to fight the armies of the Puritan Parliament in the English Civil War. The English Colonies took sides: the Virginia colony favored the Royalist/Cavalier side, while the New England colonies were in support of the Parliamentarian/Puritan side. The Province of Maryland had earlier allowed all religious persuasions to settle in Maryland. During the English Civil War, Maryland granted free land as refuge to any Puritans from Virginia to settle there. As a result, Annapolis, Maryland was first settled by Puritans from Virginia.
1645-1651. England. After his defeat and capture in 1645, Charles I refused to accept his captors’ demands for a constitutional monarchy, and briefly escaped captivity in 1647. While recaptured, his teenage son, Prince Charles, was able to marshal Scottish forces for the king. However, by 1648, Oliver Cromwell had consolidated the English opposition. King Charles I was tried, convicted, and beheaded for high treason in January 1649. The Civil War continued until 1651, when Oliver Cromwell, a Puritan, became Lord Protectorate, ruling the Commonwealth of England for the next seven years.
1651. Sir William Berkeley, Royal Governor of Virginia, wrote pamphlets directed at the 2nd sons of Southwest England, the men, like himself, who had been left out of their father’s estate because of the Primogenitor inheritance practice of that part of England. Berkeley offered the 2nd sons land grants for a small sum, with the promise of regaining the title and prestige of an English gentlemen they were denied in England. The timing of the appeal to the 2nd sons was right after the English Civil War, when a large number of Royalists and Cavaliers (Supporters of King Charles I), were left without power and influence. It was this era of English history that produced the leading families of colonial Virginia.
1658-1660. England. After Oliver Cromwell died in 1658, his son, Richard, was too weak politically to remain in power. In 1660, a new Parliament offered a restored English throne to the exiled Scottish King, son of Charles I, who accepted to become King Charles II.
1699. Virginia. The colonial capital moved from Jamestown to the newly incorporated town of Williamsburg.
1707. England and Scotland merged into the United Kingdom of Great Britain. The English Colonies now became the British Colonies.
1717. The arrival of the first Scots-Irish immigrants to the British Colonies was via Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Alexandria, New Bern, and Charles Towne. The so-called Scots-Irish (or Ulster Scots) were former border clan people who had lived near the Scottish-English border for centuries. A good number of them had moved into areas of Northern Ireland in the early 1600s, and a mass migration to most of the British colonies of America began in about 1717.
1746. Pioneer’s Road. The first wagon road through the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia was constructed in 1746, allowing wagon traffic from Alexandria to Winchester, Virginia. The first travelers on the roadway were almost exclusively Scots-Irish immigrants, who had changed their travel plans to arrive in Alexandria instead of Philadelphia. The trace of the old Pioneer’s Road is now called US Hwy 50.
1763. The Treaty of Paris ended the French and Indian War (in Europe and Canada: the Seven Years War). France ceded virtually all of its North American claims to Britain. Soon after, King George III declared the “Proclamation Line of 1763,” as a way of rewarding the Indians who had helped Britain against the French. The proclamation established an Indian Reserve that stretched from the Appalachian Mountain Range to the Mississippi River.
1768. Treaty of Fort Stanwix. A new “Line of Property” was drawn, separating British Territory from Indian Territory. From Fort Stanwix (present Rome, NY), the division line ran to Fort Pitt (now Pittsburgh) and down the Ohio River to the Tennessee River. The Fort Stanwix treaty line supposedly ceded all of present West Virginia and Kentucky to the British Colony of Virginia. But the Indian tribes near the Ohio River refused to recognize the Treaty of Stanwix, and continued to cross the Ohio into their traditional hunting grounds of present West Virginia and Kentucky.
1769-1772. The Colony of Virginia saw the Treaty of Fort Stanwix as an opportunity to open up settlement to its western lands. Beginning in 1769, land surveys were conducted in the Kanawha, Kentucky, and Cumberland River valleys In 1772, Fincastle County, Virginia was created, an area that included most of present West Virginia and all of present Kentucky. Due to resistance by the Indians and the impending Revolutionary War, the first settlements were delayed for a few years.
1774. Lord Dunmore’s War. After several Indian attacks against colonists moving into the lands south of the Ohio River, the Governor of Virginia, John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, asked the Virginia House of Burgesses to declare a state of war with the hostile Indian nations. Dunmore said that Virginians needed to defend their legal right based on the 1768 Treaty of Fort Stanwix. Lord Dunmore’s War ended after the Virginia Militia’s victory at the Battle of Point Pleasant (mouth of the Kanawha River on the Ohio River) in October 1774. In the resulting treaty, the Indians lost the right to hunt in the area south of the Ohio River.
– The Battle of Point Pleasant, two years before the Declaration of Independence, was later designated as the first battle of the Revolutionary War. Lord Dunmore was the last British-appointed Royal Governor, and led a militia force made up of mostly western Virginians against a large group of Indians. Expecting a force of British Army regulars to join them, the Virginians were left on their own. The Americans felt they had been set up by the British, believing the British Army had armed the Indians and then waited for the Americans to be defeated. Instead, Dunmore’s victory delivered the Ohio River into the hands of the Virginia militia for the duration of the Revolutionary War. Even after being betrayed by the British Army in 1774, Lord Dunmore fought furiously to preserve the British colony of Virginia against the American rebels. He fled Virginia in 1776 after an uprising in Norfolk, and soon after returned to Britain.
– In 1774, William Morris was the first permanent settler in the Kanawha country, at a place he named Cedar Grove at the mouth of Kelly’s Creek. Soon after, simultaneous migrations got underway into the northern and southern areas of present West Virginia.
1776. The name Fincastle was dropped, and the area was divided into three new counties: Kentucky, Washington, and Montgomery County, Virginia. The latter two counties were the jurisdictions of most of the first settlements of present West Virginia.
1776-1783. Revolutionary War. Much of the western expansion in Virginia was put on hold during the Revolutionary War. Fort Fincastle, at the site of present Wheeling, West Virginia, was under constant attacks by British-supported Indians. Later named Fort Henry, the small community successfully defended itself. This account from Lamb’s History of Wheeling City: “In 1782, a native army along with British soldiers attempted to take Fort Henry. During this siege, Fort Henry’s supply of ammunition was exhausted. The defenders decided to dispatch a man to secure more ammunition from the Zane homestead. Betty Zane volunteered for the dangerous task. During her departing run, she was heckled by both native and British soldiers. After reaching the Zane homestead, she gathered a tablecloth and filled it with gunpowder. During her return, she was fired upon but was uninjured. As a result of her heroism, Fort Henry remained in American control.” The Battle of Fort Henry was later referred to as the “last battle of the Revolutionary War.” (Thus, the American Revolution began and ended in present West Virginia).
1789. A new wagon road from Winchester to Clarksburg was completed, crossing the Allegheny Mountains of Northern Virginia. The wagon road opened the gates for large numbers of settlers into the Monongahela region. Within a few years, the roadway was extended to the Ohio River (at Parkersburg). This same route was improved in the early 1800s to become the Northwest Turnpike. Today it is known as U.S. Highway 50.
1790. Federal Census. the southern area (Greenbrier, Kanawha, Montgomery, and Wythe counties) had a population of about 20,000 people. The northern area (Berkeley, Hampshire, Hardy, Harrison, Monongalia, Ohio, Pendleton, and Randolph counties) had a population of about 35,000 people. The above map shows in black, the Virginia counties within the West Virginia area at the time of the 1790 Federal Census. The current 55 counties of West Virginia are shown in white. Virginia’s population in 1790 was at 691,757 people. Of that total, the West Virginia area was determined to have 55,873 people. Virginia’s 1790 census name list was lost. A reconstruction of the names of residents was made using tax lists from all counties, including the counties having areas that became West Virginia.
* Map Notes: In 1790, both Kentucky and West Virginia were still part of their parent state of Virginia. Neither progeny state was ever a territory. Kentucky’s statehood was in 1792; West Virginia’s statehood came in 1863. Kanawha’s southeastern boundary was statutorily to run from the Tug Fork of the Sandy River along the Cumberland Mountains to the Kanawha River. The ends of this line can be closely identified, but no such connecting continuous ridge exists. Map Source: Page 367, Map Guide to the U.S. Federal Censuses, 1790-1920, by William Thorndale and William Dollarhide.
1818. The National Road was completed for wagon traffic from Cumberland, Maryland to Wheeling, Virginia. The National Road was the first federally financed interstate highway in America, funded by a portion taken from public land sales in the Ohio country beginning in 1787.
1829. In reaction to the new state constitution of Virginia favoring slave-holding counties, public protests against slavery arose in the Virginia counties west of the Allegheny Mountains.
1830. The Wheeling Gazette proposed separation of western Virginia from eastern Virginia.
1852. The longest railroad in the world, the B & O Railroad from Baltimore to Wheeling was completed. It was 370 miles long. (The original tracks can be seen today from your car window while driving I-70).
1861-1871. Civil War Era – West Virginia Statehood. Before the start of the Civil War, two state governments evolved in Virginia, one in support of the Confederate cause, another in support of the Union side. Immediately after the succession of Virginia from the Union in 1861, a state convention for the “Restored Government of Virginia” was held in Wheeling. In 1862, a majority of the voters in the West Virginia region favored joining the Union. A 2nd Convention in 1862 installed a Governor, and on Jun 20, 1863, the state of West Virginia was recognized by the Lincoln Administration and declared a U.S. State by presidential decree. On that day, West Virginia separated from Virginia, and became the 35th state in the Union. The first capital was at Wheeling.
– West Virginia supplied Confederate soldiers as well as Union soldiers to the war effort. After the Civil War, returning West Virginia Confederate soldiers brought the anti-Union voters even with the Union voters in a few West Virginia counties.
– Two counties (Berkeley and Jefferson) tried to undo their inclusion into West Virginia, but an 1866 act of the U.S. Congress overruled their attempt.
– That ruling was followed by an 1866 lawsuit brought by Virginia against West Virginia to have its former counties returned, asserting that West Virginia’s statehood was unconstitutional.
– West Virginia was not officially recognized as a U.S. state until the 1871 Virginia v. West Virginia ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court in West Virginia’s favor.
1870. The capital of West Virginia was moved from Wheeling to Charleston, WV.
1875. The capital of West Virginia moved back to Wheeling, WV.
1885. The Capital of West Virginia moved back to Charleston, WV where it has remained since.
About West Virginia’s Censuses
– Since statehood, West Virginia has never taken a state census. And, the Colony/Commonwealth of Virginia has never taken a state census before or after statehood. Therefore, tax lists, landowner lists, and other name lists are needed as census substitutes.
– At the time of Virginia’s 1790 federal census, the area that would become West Virginia was within 12 Virginia counties, the jurisdictions where any census substitutes might be found today. See the 1790 map above.
– Due to the loss of most of Virginia’s 1790 and 1800 federal censuses, substitutes such as tax lists are useful to fill in the names of inhabitants. There are few statewide tax lists, but many countywide tax lists.
– In the 1810 federal census, Virginia had 17 missing counties, but only four were within the area of present West Virginia (Cabell, Greenbrier, Hardy, and Tazewell). Virginia is complete for every county, 1820 through 1860; and West Virginia is complete from its first census taken in its own name in 1870 through 1940 (with the exception of the 1890, lost for all states).
– Of West Virginia’s 55 modern counties, 50 were created as Virginia counties.
Further Reading:
West Virginia Censuses & Substitute Name Lists, 1754-2003 (Printed Book), softbound, 79 pages, Item FR0305.
West Virginia Censuses & Substitute Name Lists, 1754-2003 (PDF eBook), 79 pages, Item FR0306.
Online West Virginia Censuses & Substitutes: A Genealogists’ Insta-Guide ™ Laminated, 4 pages, 3-hole punched, Item FR0409.
Online West Virginia Censuses & Substitutes: A Genealogists’ Insta-Guide ™ 4 pages, Item FR0410.
Awesome Historical account ..