Lewis County, West Virginia     Lewis County Development

This file was submitted by N. L. Kotowski,
E-mail address:  <Haddeleigh@aol.com>

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LEWIS COUNTY DEVELOPMENT
Submitted by: N. L. Kotowski

South of Harrison, along the head waters of West Fork, Lewis county, which in
the early days had been a part of Harrison, soon felt the touch of changing
conditions produced by the railroad crossing the river below. Notwithstanding
its greater isolation, its first settlements were made perhaps as early as
those of Harrison. In 1772 its settlers on Hacker's Creek invaded and
destroyed the neighborning Indian settlement which had been made about 1765
at Bulltown (in Braxton) by a party of Delawares under Chief Bull from Orange
county, New York.

The first settlement on the site of Weston was made by Henry Flesher, who in
1784, after an attack by a party of Indians ravaging the settlements on West
Fork, discreetly took refuge for a time at the settlement made by Thomas
Hughes and others on Hacker's Creek. By 1800 several Virginia families, which
later exerted a strong social and political influence, established homes in
the Collins Settlement and elsewhere. With the increase in the number of
settlers and the development of settlements, the inconveniences of
communication with the county seat at Clarksburg found experession in the
demand for the formation of a new county. This demand was satisfied in 1816
by an act of the assembly which created Lewis. "Beginning at the head of the
left hand fork of Jesse's run; thence a straight line to the mouth of
Kincheloe's Creek; thence up said creek to the dividing ridge; thence a west
course to the Wood county line; thence to include all the south part of
Harrison down to the mouth of Buckhannon River; thence a straight line to the
beginning." Under the provisions of the act the first court was held at
Westfield, and the location of a permanent county seat was delegated to five
commissioners appointed for the purpose--Edward Jackson, Elias Lowther, John
McCoy, Lewis Maxwell and Dwight Stringer. These commissioners chose the site
of the present Weston which in January, 1818, was incorporated as a town
under the name of Preston, on lands of Lewis Maxwell and Daniel Stringer, and
governed by four trustees--Henry McWhorter, WIlliam Peterson, James M. Camp
and Robert Collins. By act of February, 1819, the name was changed to
Flesherville, which by act of the folowing December was succeeded by Weston
which has since borne the honor with no serious opposition. In the following
spring the first survey of the West Fork and the Monongahela, with a view to
the improvement of navigation, was begun just below the Weston court house.

Gradually, in many instances, the earlier log houses were succeeded by better
structures, expressing refinement, social tastes and prosperity. The early
settlements of the northern and eastern parts of the county were supplied
with lumber from choice yellow poplars and black walnuts prepared by water
power saw mills located along the neighboring streams. Many of the earlier
buildings are still preserved. Trees which were too large to be easily sawed
were split into fence rails or burned in the clearings.

In 1843 portions of Lewis were detached to contribute to the formation of
Barbour and Ritchie counties.

The population of the county steadily increased--two thousand each
decade--until 1850, after which the total population was considerably
decreased by the loss of territory occasioned by the formation of Upshur
county in 1851. By 1845 Weston contained about sixty dwellings.

The large development and aspiration of the people of Lewis at the middle of
the century found expressions in many ways--the most prominent of which
probably were the Weston and Fairmont Turnpike, the Weston and Gauley Bridge
Turnpike and the Weston and West Union Turnpike. A branch of the Exchange
Bank of Virginia was established by 1853.

On the eve of the civil war, Weston secured the location of the hospital for
the insane--the first and only state institution which was located in the
transmontane territory later included in West Virginia.

Source:
Genealogical and Personal History of the UPPER MONONGAHELA VALLEY West
Virginia, Vol. I, by James Morton Callahan, Lewis Historical Publishing
Company, 1912