Boone County, West Virginia Early History of Boone County The Early History of Boone County was submitted by Sandy Spradling, E-mail address: This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The submitter grants that this information may be freely copied and distributed to any genealogy site or genalogical organization. BOONE COUNTY Lies south of Kanawha, and was organized in the Spring of 1847. Like all the counties in West Virginia south of the Great Kanawha river, it is mountainous and broken. It is valuable only as a mineral and timber country, and is by no means noted for its agricultural qualities or advantages. The first court of justice that was ever held in Boone county, as I have been informed by James M. Laidley, Esq., one of the oldest practitioners at the Kanawha bar, met at the house of John Hill, then a Justice of Logan county, who lived about three-fourths of a mile below the present county-seat - Ballardsville - now owned by the heirs of H. H. Hopkins, deceased. There were four Magistrates present, who had invited Mr. Laidley to attend also, and assist at the organization of the county. He was elected the first Commonwealth's Attorney, having for his competitor the present Judge of that circuit, Hon. Evermont Ward. John Hill, the oldest Justice, was commissioned High Sheriff of the county. Judge McComas held the first circuit court in Boone county, and appointed J. H. French, now of Mercer county, Prosecuting Attorney fol that court. Until the court-house was built at the junction of the Pond and Spruce forks of Little Coal river, half a mile above the present courthouse, court was held in the log church at the mouth of Turtle creek, a mile and a half below. Grand juries, when charged, and petit juries, when cases were submitted to them, retired to the paw-paw bushes surrounding the church, to deliberate. Of the four Justices who organized the first county court, who were commissioned as such in the county of Kanawlia, but two survive-Adam Cool and John A. Barker, of Big Coal river-both honest men and faithful public servants. Mr. Laidley, the first Commonwealths Attorney, is still living, and promises many more years of active and useful labor. The court-house and jail were burned by the Federal troops during the late civil war, and many of the countv's most valuable records were destroyed. History of Kanawha County, George W. Atkinson, 1876, p 27