West Virginia, Tucker County History

West Virginia: Tucker County History

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Tucker County History

Court House:	213 First Street County Courthouse Parsons, WV 26287-1235 Phone: (304)478-3104 Fax: (304)478-4464	NA
County Seat:	Parsons	Census Bureau Quick Facts
Organized:	1856	Capital Impact Data
Square Miles:	419	County Officials - NACo
Location:	39.103552N, -79.566944 W	Fedstats/Mapstats
		Political Graveyard
		WVGenWeb

Named:	For Henry S. George Tucker (1780-1848), an eminent jurist and statesman of Virginia

Neighbors:	North: Preston County East: Grant County Southwest: Randolph County West: Barbour County

Early History of Tucker County, West Virginia

Tucker County was created by an act of the Virginia General Assembly on March 7, 1856 from parts of Randolph County. According to the 1860 census, there were only 245 families, and 16 slaves, living in the county at that time.

The county was named in honor of Henry St. George Tucker, Sr. (1780-1848). He was born on December 29, 1780 in Williamsburg, Virginia. He graduated from William and Mary College, studied the law, and became a prominent Virginia jurist. He enlisted in the Continental Army during the War of 1812 and rose to the rank of Brigadier General of the Virginia State Militia. He later represented Virginia in the U.S. House of Representatives (1815-1819), served as a superior court judge (1824-1831), President of the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals (1831-1841), and Dean of the faculty at the University of Virginia (1841-1845). He died on August 28, 1848.

Samuel and John Pringle were the first Englishmen to set foot on the present site of Tucker County. In 1764, they passed through the county after deserting their post at Fort Pitt in 1761 (Pittsburgh). In 1766, John Couch became the first settler in the present county. He stayed six years before moving to Tygart Valley to join his two brothers who had settled there in 1772. In 1769, Christopher Neugen settled near Holly Meadows, lived there awhile and then moved away. Thomas Howell, who had been captured by Indians and taken beyond the Ohio River, passed through the present county in the early 1770s (probably 1771) after escaping and making his way through the wilderness back to Virginia. He died soon after reaching the settlements in Virginia.

Thomas Parsons, a prominent citizen who lived near Moorefield, listened to Howell's tales of a beautiful valley he had passed through and decided to see it for himself. In about 1773, he traveled over the mountains and visited the present site of Tucker County. After claiming the land, his two sons, Thomas, Jr. (1730-1804) and James (1740-1813), moved to the present county in 1774. In March 1774, John Minear (1732-1781) and about a dozen families also moved into the present county, near St. George. However, that summer Lord Dunmore's War broke out and, fearing for their lives, all of the settlers abandoned the county for nearly two years, returning in even larger numbers in 1776.

Tragedy struck the county's early settlers in April 1781 when three of its leading citizens, John Minear, Daniel Cameron and Jacob Cooper, were killed by Indians as they returned to their homes from Clarksburg to obtain legal patents for their lands.

The act creating the county specified that the county court was to be held on the lands of Enoch Minear on the east side of Cheat River, and was to be called Saint George (the area had been known as Westernford) in honor of Henry Saint George Tucker, Jr. (1828-1863), son of the county's namesake who had a distinguished military career, rising to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the Confederate Army. He died in 1863 from a fever at the Battle of Malvern Hill during the Civil War. He was serving as the clerk of the House of Delegates when the county was formed.

The first officer killed during the Civil War (Confederate General Robert S. Garnett) died at the Battle of Corrick's Ford, near Parsons, on July 13, 1861. Parsons, the current county seat, was named for Ward Parsons. He owned the land the town was built on. The town was incorporated by the West Virginia state legislature in 1893.

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