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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 county began taking formation on November 14, 1788, under the authorization of the Virginia General Assembly and was founded on October 5, 1789. The county was named for the Kanawha River, which in turn was named after a Native American tribe that lived in the area. During the American Civil War, a number of state infantry and cavalry regiments were organized in the county for both Confederate Army and Union Army service.
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. Kanawha County was divided into ten districts: Big Sandy, Cabin Creek, Charleston, Elk, Jefferson, Loudon, Malden, Poca, Union, and Washington. In the 1970s the historic districts were consolidated into five new magisterial districts: District 1, District 2, District 3, District 4, and District 5. A District 6 was created in the 1980s, but in the 1990s the county was redistricted again, reducing the number of magisterial districts to four: District 1, District 2, District 3, and District 4.
Kanawha County was the site of a bloody miners' strike in 1912, and a school textbook controversy in 1974, that resulted in bombings, and received national attention.
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