Hampshire County, West Virginia
Hampshire County is a
county located in the
U.S. state of
West Virginia. As of 2000, the
population is 20,203. Its
county seat is
Romney6,
West Virginia's oldest town (1762). Hampshire County was created by the
Virginia General Assembly on
December 13,
1753 from parts of
Frederick and
Augusta counties (
Virginia) and is the oldest county in the state of West Virginia. The county lies in both West Virginia's
Eastern Panhandle and
Potomac Highlands regions. Hampshire County is part of the
Winchester, VA-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA).
Although its creation was authorized in 1753, Hampshire County was not actually organized until 1757 because the area was not considered safe due to the outbreak of the
French and Indian War (1754-1763). According to
Samuel Kercheval's
A History of the Valley of Virginia, the county was named in honor of its several prize hogs. The story goes that
Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron, who owned the Royal Grant to the area, came upon some very large hogs in
Winchester and asked where they had been raised. He was told that they were from the
South Branch Potomac River Valley (now Hampshire County). He remarked that when a county was formed west of
Frederick that he would name it in honor of the county
Hampshire,
England, famous for its very fat hogs.
According to the
U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,670
km² (645
mi²). 1,662 km² (642 mi²) of it is land and 8 km² (3 mi²) of it (0.45%) is water.
Adjacent Counties
*
Allegany County, Maryland (north)
*
Morgan County (northeast)
*
Frederick County, Virginia (east)
*
Hardy County (south)
*
Mineral County (west)
Rivers and streams
|
Communities of Hampshire County. |
|
The South Branch Potomac River near South Branch Station. |
*
Potomac River**
Cacapon River***
Capon Springs Run***
Dillons Run***
Edwards Run***
Mill Branch***
North River****
Grassy Lick Run****
Tearcoat Creek*****
Bearwallow Creek**
Little Cacapon River***
North Fork Little Cacapon River***
South Fork Little Cacapon River**
North Branch Potomac River***
Green Spring Run**
South Branch Potomac River***
Big Run***
Mill Creek***
Mill RunNatural landmarks
Mountains
*
South Branch Mountain, 3028 feet (922 m)
*
Nathaniel Mountain, 2739 feet (834 m)
*
Mill Creek Mountain, 2648 feet (807 m)
*
Cacapon Mountain, 2618 feet (797 m)
*
Spring Gap Mountain, 2237 feet (681 m)
*
North River Mountain, 2149 feet (655 m)
*
Cooper Mountain, 2028 feet (618 m)
*
Baker Mountain, 2024 feet (616 m)
*
Patterson Creek Mountain, 2005 feet (611 m)
*
Sideling Hill, 1930 feet (588 m)
*
Little Cacapon Mountain, 1575 feet (480 m)
*
Ice Mountain, 1489 feet (453 m)
*
The Devil's Nose, 1121 feet (341 m)
Other geological formations
*
Caudy's Castle*
Hanging Rocks*
Mechanicsburg Gap*
The TroughHampshire County maps
*
Hampshire County's Original Boundaries*
Civil War Era Hampshire County*
Hampshire County in 1880*
Hampshire County in 1888*
WVDEP Modern Hampshire County Road Map*
Hampshire County in the 1755 Fry & Jefferson MapHistorical populations
of Hampshire County| Year | Population | | 1790 | 7,346 | | 1800 | 8,348 | | 1810 | 9,784 | | 1820 | 10,889 | | 1830 | 11,279 | | 1840 | 12,295 | | 1850 | 14,036 | | 1860 | 13,913 | | 1870 | 7,643 | | 1880 | 10,366 | | 1890 | 11,419 |
| | Year | Population | | 1900 | 11,806 | | 1910 | 11,694 | | 1920 | 11,713 | | 1930 | 11,836 | | 1940 | 12,974 | | 1950 | 12,577 | | 1960 | 11,705 | | 1970 | 11,710 | | 1980 | 14,867 | | 1990 | 16,498 | | 2000 | 20,203 |
| |
As of the
census2 of 2000, there were 20,203 people, 7,955 households, and 5,640 families residing in the county. The
population density was 12/km² (32/mi²). There were 11,185 housing units at an average density of 7/km² (17/mi²). The racial makeup of the county was 98.04%
White, 0.83%
Black or
African American, 0.24%
Native American, 0.16%
Asian, 0.02%
Pacific Islander, 0.12% from
other races, and 0.59% from two or more races. 0.55% of the population were
Hispanic or
Latino of any race.
There were 7,955 households out of which 31.30% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.70% were
married couples living together, 9.50% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.10% were non-families. 24.60% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.60% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.49 and the average family size was 2.94.
In the county, the population was spread out with 25.10% under the age of 18, 7.10% from 18 to 24, 27.60% from 25 to 44, 25.60% from 45 to 64, and 14.60% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 99.70 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.30 males.
The median income for a household in the county was $31,666, and the median income for a family was $37,616. Males had a median income of $28,884 versus $19,945 for females. The
per capita income for the county was $14,851. About 12.90% of families and 16.30% of the population were below the
poverty line, including 22.70% of those under age 18 and 13.10% of those age 65 or over.
County parks
*
Central Hampshire Park, Augusta
*
Green Spring Recreational Park, Green Spring
*
Hampshire Park & 4-H Camp, Romney
*
Romney Recreation Center, Romney
*
Shanks Roadside Park, Shanks
*
Edwards Run Wildlife Management Area*
Fort Mill Ridge Wildlife Management Area*
Nathaniel Mountain Wildlife Management Area*
Short Mountain Wildlife Management Area*
Springfield Wildlife Management AreaNational forests
*
George Washington National ForestPublic schools
*
Hampshire County Schools*
West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and BlindPrivate schools
*Maranatha Christian Academy
*Slanesville Christian School
Earliest European settlers
Romney was initially settled by hunters and traders around 1725. In 1738,
John Pearsall (or Pearsoll) and his brother
Job built homes and in 1758 a fort (
Fort Pearsall) for defense against
Native Americans in present-day Romney. Their settlement was then known as
Pearsall's Flats. In 1748,
Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron sent a surveying party, including 16 year-old
George Washington, to survey his lands along the
Potomac and
South Branch Potomac rivers. Washington spent three summers and falls surveying Lord Fairfax's
Northern Neck estate, which included all of the present-day
Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. In April 1748, he laid off several lots in an area known as
the Trough, about ten miles south of Romney, and he is known to have been in present-day Romney on
October 19,
1749. Oral traditions claimed that Washington laid present-day Romney out into lots at that time, but written records from that era indicate that Romney was surveyed and laid out into lots by
James Genn prior to Washington's arrival. Genn was also employed by Lord Fairfax.
18th century Hampshire County
In 1756,
Fort Pearsall was constructed on
Job Pearsall's plantation for protection against
Native American raids and George Washington provisioned and garrisoned the Fort at various times until 1758. At that time, there were at least 100 people living in the general area. Following the end of hostilities in the area, Lord Fairfax recognized that more settlers would be interested in moving into the area and that he could earn some extra revenue by selling plots in the town. He sent a survey party to Romney in 1762 to formally lay out the town into 100 lots. At that time, he renamed the town Romney, in honor of the
Cinque Ports city on the
English Channel in
Kent.
Confusion ensued for several decades concerning land ownership within the town as counterclaims were made by the original settlers and those who purchased lots laid out by Lord Fairfax's surveyors.
The first meeting of the Hampshire County Court was held in 1757, at
Fort Pleasant, now
Old Fields in Hardy County, and was presided by the Right Honorable
Thomas Bryan Martin, Lord Fairfax's nephew. By that time, Hampshire County's population had fallen dramatically as most of the settlers had fled the county in fear of the Native Americans. The only families remaining lived near Fort Pearsall, near present-day Romney, and
Fort Edwards, at present-day
Capon Bridge on the
Cacapon River. The vast majority of the remaining settlers, however, were in the vicinity of present Old Fields-Moorefield-Petersburg and were protected by the several forts in the area, including Fort Pleasant
Once the Native Americans were defeated at the
Battle of Point Pleasant in 1774 settlers, once again, returned to the county. By 1790, when the first national census was taken, Hampshire County had 7,346 residents, making it the second most populous county in the present state of West Virginia at that time.
Berkeley was the most populous county, with 19,713 people. There were nine counties that comprised the present state, with a total population of 55,873 people.
During the
Whiskey Rebellion in 1794, many Hampshire County men volunteered to serve under Major General
Daniel Morgan to put down the insurrection. The men most likely volunteered at
Moorefield in
Hardy County and then marched north to
Cumberland, Maryland. Approximately 1,200 of the 12,950 men under Morgan's command came from the area that would later become West Virginia.
Early Churches
|
Mount Bethel Church at Three Churches, WV. |
Not only in a material way were the people of the county developing wealth but in an even more important way did they continue to advance. The early missionaries helped to sustain the religious faith of the early inhabitants. In 1775 two
Baptist missionaries among a group of settlers moved to the
Cacapon and organized the first church in the county. In 1771 the work of the
Methodist Episcopal Church was begun, in which later developments led to the formation of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South. In 1753 Hampshire County had been formed into a parish by the
Protestant Episcopal Church and in 1773 a missionary sent by that church began work. In 1787 a
Primitive Baptist church was established at
North River. Soon after the
American Revolution there was preaching by the
Presbyterians at different points in the county. In 1792 a Presbyterian church was organized at Romney and another,
Mount Bethel Church, at
Three Churches.
Early Industry
|
Old Bloomery Iron Furnace along WV 127. |
The wide lowlands of Hampshire County certainly invited
agriculture, and fields of
wheat and
tobacco surrounded the important truck-patch of the settler. The rolling uplands offered pasturage for horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs, which were driven across country to market at
Winchester. The streams abounded in fish and the mountains contained not only game but timber and stone for early settlers' homes. The limestone was burned for lime at Bloomery Gap, where remains of old lime-kilns give evidence of an early industry. Soon it was discovered that some of the strata contained
iron ore. Much of it was transported to present-day
Keyser, from an area along South Branch Potomac River south of the present limits of the county. In Bloomery Gap, a ruined furnace still stands, mute evidence of another former industry. In the early days the increasing population stimulated not only farming and grazing but every industry of a new country.
19th century Hampshire County
The building of the
Northwestern Turnpike (
U.S. Route 50) was an integral part of the development of Hampshire County. General Daniel Morgan first suggested the road be built in 1748, but his recommendations were not acted upon until the 1830s. Colonel
Claudius Crozet, a Frenchman who had previously worked for
Napoleon Bonaparte, engineered the road which connected
Parkersburg with Winchester, Virginia. The turnpike traversed Hampshire County stretching through the communities of Capon Bridge,
Loom,
Hanging Rock,
Pleasant Dale,
Augusta,
Frenchburg,
Shanks, and
Romney. Through the years, Romney became an important rest stop for travelers on the turnpike. This aided the local economy as hotels and taverns began to appear in the area.
During the
American Civil War, the Hampshire Guards and Frontier Riflemen joined the
Confederate Army. Although there were no major battles in Hampshire County, Romney changed hands at least fifty-six times during the war. It was often a case of one army evacuating the area allowing the opposing army to move into the town. This places Romney second behind Winchester as the town that changed hands the most during the American Civil War. On
June 11,
1861, it changed hands twice in the same day. Some local Hampshire County historians speculate that Romney actually changed hands more than Winchester but there are no surviving records to support the claim.
*
List of historic sites in Hampshire County, West VirginiaIncorporated cities and towns
*
City of Romney*
Town of Capon BridgeUnincorporated communities
*
List of Hampshire County Christmas Bulbs*
List of historical highway markers in Hampshire County, West Virginia*
List of placenames in Hampshire County, West Virginia *
List of routes in Hampshire County, West Virginia*
List of streams in Hampshire County, West Virginia*Ailes, John C.
Romney, West Virginia, 1762-1962. Romney, West Virginia, Hampshire Review, 1962.
*Ambler, Charles Henry. "Romney In The Civil War."
West Virginia History, Charleston, West Virginia, 1943-44. Arc 1. 4: 5.
*Brannon, Selden W.
Historic Hampshire. Parsons, West Virginia, McClain Printing Company, 1976.
*Callahan, James Morton.
History of West Virginia. 3 vols. Chicago and New York, American Historical Society, 1923.
*Hampshire County 250th Anniversary Committee.
Hampshire County, West Virginia, 1754-2004. 2004.
*Kercheval, Samuel.
A History of the Valley of Virginia. Woodstock, Virginia, 1850.
*Maxwell, Hu & H.L. Swisher.
History of Hampshire County, West Virginia: From its earliest settlement to the present. Morgantown, West Virginia, A. Brown Boughner, 1897.
*Sauers, Richard A.
The Devastating Hand of War: Romney, West Virginia During the Civil War. Leesburg, Virginia, Gauley Mount Press, 2000.
|
Hampshire County Courthouse, 1920s. |
*
Official Hampshire County Website*
Hampshire County 250th Anniversary Homepage*
Hampshire Review Newspaper*
Hampshire County Arts Council*
Hampshire County Chamber of Commerce*
Hampshire County Convention & Visitors Bureau*
Hampshire County Schools & Board of Education*
Hampshire County Sheriff's Office*
Hampshire High School*
Hampshire County Office of Emergency Services*
Hampshire County Public Library*
Terry Gruber's Colonial Hampshire County Research Articles
