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West Virginia Important Dates


Important Dates in West Virginia History

  • 1731 - 1734 Morgan Morgan, the first white settler in West Virginia established a home in Berkeley County, Virginia.

  • 1738 Frederick and Augusta counties were formed from Orange County, Virginia. Frederick County included territory later in the Eastern panhandle of West Virginia and began functioning in 1743. Augusta County encompassed all the area west of the Blue Ridge mountains north of the Carolinas and began functioning in 1745.

  • 1753 Hampshire County, Virginia was created. This was the first county whose boundaries were within present-day West Virginia.

  • 1775 West Augusta District was established by Virginia and included all of West Virginia and western Pennsylvania. Ownership of part of this district was disputed with Pennsylvania.

  • 1779 Virginia ceded most of the northern part of West Augusta District to Pennsylvania after Pennsylvania agreed to accept land grants that Virginia had made in the disputed region.

  • 1784 Virginia ceded its claims north of the Ohio River to the United States but reserved a section known as the Virginia Military District for Revolutionary War bounty land.

  • 1788 Virginia ratified the Constitution and became a state.

  • 1861 - 1865 In a dispute over secession, fifty western counties broke off to form the "restored government of Virginia," which remained loyal to the Union. The state of West Virginia was admitted to the Union in 1863. During the Civil War, about 32,000 West Virginia soldiers enlisted in the Union Army, while 9,000 served the Confederacy.

  • 1870's Industrial expansion in West Virginia attracted Black immigrants from southern states and European immigrants from overseas.

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