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Brooke County, West Virginia, USA

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Profiles

  • Zachariah Franklin Taylor (1868 - 1943)
    Zachary Taylor, 75, 606 1/2 South Thirteenth street, Omaha, a retired decorator and former Council Bluffs resident, died at 12:30 p.m. Sunday in a local hospital following an illness of two weeks of a ...
  • Abigail Brown (1756 - 1832)
    Abigail Brown (Richardson) Name Abigail Richardson Gender Female Birth Date 1 May 1756 Birth Place Cambridge, Middlesex (Cambridge), Massachusetts, USA Marriage Date 26 March 1776 Marriage Place C...
  • Guy Henry Brady, Sr. (1901 - 1929)
    S/O Cinderella McDaniel and James Henry Brady H/O Ina Vanscoy (Married 22 Dec 1924, Braxton Co.) Guy Henry Brady Sr. BIRTH 29 Jan 1901 Braxton County, West Virginia, USA DEATH 16 Apr 1929 (aged...
  • Charles Edward Hill, WW II Veteran (1924 - 1999)
    Inscription: US MERCHANT MARINE, WWII Charles Edward Hill BIRTH 25 Feb 1924 Moundsville, Marshall County, West Virginia, USA DEATH 11 Sep 1999 (aged 75) West Virginia, USA BURIAL Franklin Cemetery Fra...
  • George William Nicholson (1897 - 1978)
    Parents John Wesley Nicholson 1872–1952 Drusilla Sutton Nicholson 1871–1910 Spouse Jane R Goff Nicholson 1903–1985 (m. 1920) Siblings Sanford Clinton Nicholson 1884–1919 Reuben Delbert Nichol...

This project is a table of contents for all projects relating to this County of West Virginia. Please feel free to add profiles of anyone who was born, lived or died in this county.

The Ohio Company of Virginia petitioned the British King for 500,000 acres of land in the Ohio River Valley in 1747, but the first settlers to this area, in what later became known as West Virginia's Northern Panhandle, were brothers Jonathan, Israel and Friend Cox. They staked a "tomahawk claim" to 1200 acres (400 acres for each brother) at the mouth of Buffalo Creek and extending along the Ohio River. Their cousin George Cox staked an adjacent claim a few years later.

In 1788 Charles Prather purchased 481 acres from Friend Cox's heir, John Cox; by that year's end Alexander Wells, formerly of Baltimore, Maryland and later of Cross Creek Township, Pennsylvania, established a trading post (together with his Baltimore cousin Richard Owings). In 1791 the Ohio County Court incorporated the town around the post as "Charlestown" (after Prather's first name). On November 30, 1796, the Virginia General Assembly formed Brooke County, named for Gov. Robert Brooke, from parts of Ohio County, and designated "Charlestown" as the county seat. Across the Appalachian Continental Divide to the east in Jefferson County, another Charlestown had previously been incorporated (it is now known as Charles Town). In addition, Charleston had been established at the confluence of the Elk and Kanawha rivers in 1788.

Addressing this confusion, the Virginia General Assembly on December 28, 1816, changed the Brooke county seat's name from "Charlestown" to Wellsburg, supposedly to honor Charles Wells, Prather's son-in-law. The first Masonic Lodge west of the Allegheny Mountains was established in Wellsburg on March 4, 1799. It was under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania for six years, but since December 17, 1817, it has been under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Virginia and later of West Virginia.

The first glass factory in Wellsburg was built in 1813, taking advantage of the relatively easy transportation on the Ohio River. When the National Road was built about five years later, its first crossing of the Ohio River was via a ferry further west. In 1818 Alexander Campbell founded the first Virginia school west of the Appalachians, which the Virginia General Assembly chartered in 1840 as Bethany College.

During the American Civil War, Brooke County's elected officials helped found the new state of West Virginia, after their efforts to block secession failed at the Virginia Secession Convention of 1861. Wellsburg received a new charter in 1866 from the newly established West Virginia legislature, and Samuel Marks became Wellsburg's first elected mayor.

In 1863, West Virginia's counties were divided into civil townships, with the intention of encouraging local government. This proved impractical in the heavily rural state, and in 1872 the townships were converted into magisterial districts. Brooke County was divided into three districts: Buffalo, Cross Creek, and Wellsburg. Wellsburg District was co-extensive with the city of Wellsburg. The districts of Follansbee and Weirton were created between 1970 and 1980. Buffalo and Cross Creek Districts were discontinued in 2008.

Cemeteries

Cemeteries

Links

Wikipedia