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West Virginia: Roane County History
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Roane County History
Early History of Roane County, West Virginia
Roane County was created by an act of the Virginia General Assembly on March 11, 1856 from parts of Gilmer, Jackson and Kanawha counties. It was named in honor of Judge Spencer Roane (1762-1822)
Spencer Roane was born in Essex, Virginia on April 4, 1762. He studied the law and was appointed a judge of the Virginia general court in 1789 and a judge of the Virginia court of errors in 1794. He was appointed a justice of the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals in 1795 and served in that office until his death in 1822. He was a member of the commission that helped in the establishment of the University of Virginia in 1819. He died on September 4, 1822. His wife, Anne, was the daughter of Patrick Henry and his nephew, Thomas Ritchie, was one of the nation's leading publishers and the namesake for Ritchie County. It is said that his name was honored as the namesake for the county because of a simple act of kindness. According to the story, as a young boy J.P. Tomlinson's wagon became stuck in the mud. Judge Roane happened by and helped the boy free the wagon. Tomlinson never forgot the kindness and decades later, when laying the petition to form the new county before the Virginia General Assembly, he recommended that the new county be named in Judge Roane's honor.
Jesse Hughes was probably the first Englishman to set foot in present Roane County. He led a small party of explorers through the Little Kanawha Valley in 1772. Many of his and his wife's, Grace (Tanner) Hughes, descendants became the county's earliest settlers.
Spencer, the county seat, was patented by Albert Gallatin in 1787. The first settlers in the town were Samuel Tanner, his wife, Sudnar, and their child, and a man called Wolf, who lived with the Tanner family. They arrived in 1812. They found shelter in a cave while they built themselves a cabin. Several years later, more setters arrived, including J.S. Spencer, a school teacher. The town was then named Tanner's Cross Road, primarily because two paths bisected the town. It was later known as Cassville. In 1840, Raleigh Butcher, intending to go to California, came to where Spencer now stands and built a large frame house. The town then became known as New California, because it was the place where Butcher had stopped on his way west. The first meeting of the Roane county court was held at the home of M. Benson Armstrong on April 7, 1856 in New California. Later that year the county's voters selected New California as the site for their county seat. In 1858, the town was chartered by the Virginia General Assembly and renamed Spencer, presumably in honor of Judge Spencer Roane, although a weaker case can be made that it was also named in honor one of the town's first school teachers, J. S. Spencer. The town was incorporated on February 20, 1867.
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