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West Virginia: Marion County History

Marion County History

Early History of Marion County, West Virginia

Marion County was created by an act of the Virginia Assembly on January 14, 1842, from parts of Harrison and Monongalia counties. The county was named in honor of General Francis Marion (1732-1795), the legendary hero of the American Revolutionary War. He was born at Winyaw, South Carolina and was a plantation owner. When the American Revolutionary War started he was appointed a Captain in the Second South Carolina regiment. He was later promoted through the ranks to General. His nickname was the "Swamp Fox." The nickname was derived from his hit and hide battle tactics. Typically outnumbered throughout the war, his troops would strike the enemy's supply lines, and then disappear into the woods and wetlands, like a swamp fox. After the war, he retired to his plantation near Eutaw, South Carolina.

The first English settlers in the county arrived in the Fairmont area during the 1760s. Jacob Prickett may have been the first, arriving in 1766. Captain James Booth and John Thomas arrived in 1770 or 1772, as did Thomas Helen. David Morgan and Nicholas Woods constructed cabins about five miles south of the present site of Fairmont in 1772. They were soon followed by Peter Straight, William Snodgrass, Henry Button, Thomas Button, John Dragoo and Frederick Ice. Together, they built Prickett's Fort, now reconstructed and a tourist attraction, for protection against the Indians in 1773 or 1774.

John Fleming and his brothers' three sons were the first settlers in Fairmont, the county seat. They arrived from Delaware in 1789. In 1793, Jacob Paulsley built a home on the east side of the Monongahela River in present day Fairmont. At that time, most of the future city was a dense, laurel thicket. The area's population remained very low until the construction of a road between Clarksburg and Morgantown in 1819. A halfway resting point was needed along the road. Boaz Fleming's land on the west side of the river was considered no good for cultivating, so the town was started there, and incorporated in 1820 as Middletown. Three ferries and a hotel owned by Frederick Ice were the first businesses in the town. Across the river, a post office was opened and called Paulsley, in honor of John Paulsley. In 1838, Paulsley was incorporated as Palatine. On February 4, 1843, the two towns merged and, by an act of the General Assembly, was renamed Fairmont, a contraction of Fair Mountain, one of the choices under consideration as the name for the new town. Fairmont was long known in the state for its saw, grist and woolen mills. The town experienced a growth spurt when the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad extended a line to the town on January 22, 1852.

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