Date: Sat, 17 Aug 1996 21:28:51 -0700 From: john foster <john.foster@camel.com> Organization: RETSOFtware To: dwmerrill@lbl.gov Subject: WV county formationinteresting stuff...
I saw a footnote (b) for Washington sitting on WV for some reason and then noticed omissions in the WV portion.
West Virginia became a state in 1863. The counties in that part (eventually 55) were part of Virginia before then. (Parts of Ohio, Yohogania (a PA county) and Monongalia counties ended up in Pennsylvania after the Mason-Dixon line straightened THAT out.
"Illinois" County was that spurious area to the WEST of the Ohio River all the way to the Mississipi River originally optimistically claimed by Virginia in 1792, but patriotically ceded to the US later. For practical purposes (especially since the start of the censuses in 1790) it never was part of the state. Kentucky was formed from that part of Virginia in 1792.
Beginning with the year 1734, twelve Virginia counties have made up the territory that is now West Virginia, ten of which have been reduced in area and continue to be a part of the Mother State: Orange, Frederick, Augusta, Botetourt, Fincastle*, Montgomery, West Augusta District*, Rockingham, Wythe, bath, Tazewell, Giles. * Fincastle was absorbed in the formation of Montgomery, Washington and Kentucky countyes. West Augusta District was likewise absorbed in the creation of Monongalia, Ohio and Yohogania counties. [the last would be that portion in Pennsylvania.]
An authoritative book on the West Virginia portion of county creation is "Making a State" by Edgar B. Sims (1956) publ. by the State of WV, Charleston WV:Mathews Printing and Litho. Co.
All counties were formed by 1863 (when WV split) except Grant (1866), Lincoln (1867), Mineral (1866) and Mingo (1895). The count for Virginia thus should have gone down by 52 in 1863...and the count for WV is 0 before then. The state split was made on county lines by then, depending on whether each county favored the North or South.