For anyone interested in the history of West Virginia, a wonderful museum, The West Virginia Culture Center and State Museum opened in Charleston this past June. I have been there – and it is absolutely worth the trip. It covers the entire history of what is now West Virginia from prehistoric times until the present. Its exhibits are extremely well done and I heartily recommend it. One of the things I learned while I was there is that the entire Eastern Panhandle which at the time was part of Virginia along with Loudon and Fairfax Counties was originally owned by one person: Lord Thomas Fairfax.
I’ll be brief about the history of our county – just a paragraph to provide some context. Jefferson County originally was part of Berkeley County which was founded in 1772. It was the second county founded in West Virginia after Hampshire County in 1753. In 1801 it became a separate county and is named after Thomas Jefferson. As I learned during my visit to the museum, the Eastern Panhandle didn’t begin to attract settlers of any number until the 1780s – although Shepherdstown (originally named Mecklenburg) and Romney were founded in 1762. One of the reasons that the settlers of “western Virginia” felt cut off from Virginia is that the most had to travel greater distances to get their county seat. The average distance in Virginia was 35-40 miles, while out in Western Virginia the average distance to the county seat was around 100 miles, and back then it took up to 25 times longer to travel that distance than it does today. Further, Virginia did not attend very well to the roads in western Virginia, making it even more difficult to get to the county seat. This caused the settlers here to feel cut off from Virginia. It eventually led to our secession from Virginia during the civil war. To make things even more complicated – when the state of West Virginia was founded in 1863, Jefferson and Berkeley Counties elected to join West Virginia. However, after the war, the state of Virginia sued to have Jefferson and Berkeley counties rejoin Virginia. The suit went all the way to the Supreme Court. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Elliot Simon
History
For anyone interested in the history of West Virginia, a wonderful museum, The West Virginia Culture Center and State Museum opened in Charleston this past June. I have been there – and it is absolutely worth the trip. It covers the entire history of what is now West Virginia from prehistoric times until the present. Its exhibits are extremely well done and I heartily recommend it. One of the things I learned while I was there is that the entire Eastern Panhandle which at the time was part of Virginia along with Loudon and Fairfax Counties was originally owned by one person: Lord Thomas Fairfax.
I’ll be brief about the history of our county – just a paragraph to provide some context. Jefferson County originally was part of Berkeley County which was founded in 1772. It was the second county founded in West Virginia after Hampshire County in 1753. In 1801 it became a separate county and is named after Thomas Jefferson. As I learned during my visit to the museum, the Eastern Panhandle didn’t begin to attract settlers of any number until the 1780s – although Shepherdstown (originally named Mecklenburg) and Romney were founded in 1762. One of the reasons that the settlers of “western Virginia” felt cut off from Virginia is that the most had to travel greater distances to get their county seat. The average distance in Virginia was 35-40 miles, while out in Western Virginia the average distance to the county seat was around 100 miles, and back then it took up to 25 times longer to travel that distance than it does today. Further, Virginia did not attend very well to the roads in western Virginia, making it even more difficult to get to the county seat. This caused the settlers here to feel cut off from Virginia. It eventually led to our secession from Virginia during the civil war. To make things even more complicated – when the state of West Virginia was founded in 1863, Jefferson and Berkeley Counties elected to join West Virginia. However, after the war, the state of Virginia sued to have Jefferson and Berkeley counties rejoin Virginia. The suit went all the way to the Supreme Court. And the rest, as they say, is history.