Hardy County History
Hardy County was authorized by the Virginia General Assembly on December 10, 1785 and organized in February
1786 from parts of Hampshire County. It was named in honor of Samuel Hardy (1758-1785). He was born in Isle, Wight
County Virginia in 1758 and graduated from William and Mary College in 1781. An attorney, he served in the Virginia
General Assembly in 1777 and in 1781, represented Virginia in the Continental Congress in 1783 and 1785, served
briefly as Virginia's lieutenant governor and was a signer of the Deed of Cession that transferred the Northwest
territory to the American government. He died in New York in October 1785.
The First Settlers
The first native settlers in West Virginia's Potomac Highlands (Grant, Hampshire, Hardy, Mineral, Pendleton, Pocahontas,
Randolph, and Tucker counties) were the Mound Builders, also known as the Adena people. Remnants of the Mound Builder's
civilization have been found throughout West Virginia, with many artifacts found in the Northern Panhandle, especially
in Marshall County.
A more thorough presentation of the first native settlers in West Virginia can be read on-line here.
The following is a brief overview of that history:
• Several thousand Hurons occupied present-day West Virginia during the late 1500s and early 1600s.
• During the 1600s, the Iroquois Confederacy (then consisting of the Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga, Oneida, and Seneca
tribes) drove the Hurons from the state and used it primarily as a hunting ground.
• During the early 1700s, the Shawnee, Mingo, Delaware, and other Indian tribes also used present-day West Virginia
as a hunting ground. West Virginia's Potomac Highlands was inhabited by the Tuscarora. They eventually migrated
northward to New York and, in 1712, became the sixth nation to formally be admitted to the Iroquois Confederacy.
The Cherokee Nation claimed southern West Virginia.
• In 1744, Virginia officials purchased the Iroquois title of ownership to West Virginia in the Treaty of Lancaster.
• The Delaware, Mingo, and Shawnee sided with the French during the French and Indian War (1755-1763). The Iroquois
Confederacy officially remained neutral, but many in the Iroquois Confederacy allied with the French.
• When the French and Indian War was over, England's King George III feared that more tension between Native Americans
and settlers was inevitable. In an attempt to avert further bloodshed, he issued the Proclamation of 1763, prohibiting
settlement west of the Allegheny Mountains. The Proclamation was, for the most part, ignored.
• During the summer of 1763, Ottawa Chief Pontiac led raids on key British forts in the Great Lakes region. Shawnee
Chief Keigh-tugh-qua, also known as Cornstalk, led similar raids on western Virginia settlements. The uprisings
ended on August 6, 1763 when British forces, under the command of Colonel Henry Bouquet, defeated Delaware and
Shawnee forces at Bushy Run in western Pennsylvania.
• In 1768, the Iroquois Confederacy (often called the Six Nations) and the Cherokee signed the Treaty of Hard Labour
and the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, relinquishing their claims on the territory between the Ohio River and the Alleghenies
to the British.
• In April 1774, the Yellow Creek Massacre took place near Wheeling. Among the dead were Mingo Chief Logan's brother
and pregnant sister. Violence then escalated intoLord Dunmore's War.
• On October 10, 1774, Colonel Andrew Lewis and approximately 800 men defeated 1,200 Indian warriors led by Shawnee
Chief Cornstalk at the Battle of Point Pleasant, ending Lord Dunmore's War.
• The Mingo and Shawnee allied with the British during the American Revolutionary War (1776-1783). One of the more
notable battles occurred in 1777 when a war party of 350 Wyandot, Shawnee, and Mingo warriors, armed by the British,
attacked Fort Henry, near present-day Wheeling. Nearly half of the Americans manning the fort were killed in the
three-day assault. Following the war, the Mingo and Shawnee, once again allied with the losing side, returned to
their homes in Ohio. As the number of settlers in the region grew, both the Mingo and the Shawnee move further
inland, leaving western Virginia to the white settlers.
Hardy County's European Pioneers and Settlers
In 1725, John Van Meter accompanied a group of Delaware warriors as they traveled through the Potomac Highlands
to attack the Catawba Indians. The war party passed through present-day Grant and Hardy counties before being ambushed
by a group of Catawba warriors in present-day Pendleton County. John Van Meter escaped, and returned to his home
in New York where he told his children about his adventures in western Virginia.
In 1736, John Van Meter's son, Isaac, who has since moved to New Jersey, decided to explore western Virginia
for himself. He traveled to present-day Moorefield and established his tomahawk rights to 400 acres of land. He
then returned to his New Jersey home and upon his return the following year found James Coburn living on his land.
After Isaac paid him some money to resolve the land dispute, James Coburn relocated to present-day Petersburg in
Grant County.
In 1739, Isaac Van Meter and his brother, John Van Meter, received a patent for 40,000 acres of land from Virginia
Governor William Gooch. John Van Meter received a patent for 30,000 acres in the present-day Martinsburg area,
and Isaac Van Meter received a patent for 10,000 acres in the Moorefield area. Lord Fairfax immediately challenged
the patents as an infringement on his land holdings. Isaac later sold much of his land to a relative, Jost Hiyt.
He kept some property for himself and his other brother, Jacob Van Meter, and moved to Moorefield in 1744. By that
time, several families had already settled in the area, including the families of James Howard, John and James
Walker, Jonathan Coburn, and James Rutledge. Unfortunately, Jacob Van Meter was killed by Indians a few years after
moving to Moorefield, and Isaac Van Meter was killed by Indians in 1757.
Important Events in Hardy County during the 1700s and 1800s
Dr. Moses Hoge, a Presbyterian minister, may have been the first teacher in Hardy County. He taught school in Moorefield
from 1782 to 1787.
The first federal census in 1790 reveled that Hardy County had the third largest population (7,336) of the nine
counties that were then in existence within present-day West Virginia. Berkeley County had the largest population
(19,713) and Randolph County had the smallest population (951). There were 55,873 people living in present-day
West Virginia at that time.
In 1797, a large group of Hardy County residents, estimated at 154, left Hardy County seeking better economic opportunities
in the West. They settled in New Design, Illinois. New settlement in Hardy County slowed during the early 1800s
as most eastern seaboard pioneers traveled north of the county on their way west. In 1820, Hardy County's population
had fallen to around 5,700 people.
Recognizing that the county would not grow without a better means of transportation, Hardy County's citizens lobbied
the Virginia General Assembly for improved roads. During the late 1830s the Virginia General Assembly commissioned
an extension of the Northwest Turnpike from Moorefield to Warm Springs. During the 1840s, the Hardy County Turnpike
was also completed. It ran from Moorefield to Winchester, Virginia. These turnpikes and their extensions enabled
the expansion of the cattle industry that was rapidly replacing small scale agriculture as the primary means of
earning a living in Hardy County.
During the Civil War, most of Hardy County's residents were loyal to the South. The Hardy County Blues, commanded
by Captain John C.B. Mullin, became part of the 25th Virginia Infantry under the command of Colonel J. M. Heck.
The Hardy Greys, from Moorefield, was organized on March 23, 1861. In June of 1861, it was incorporated as Company
F of the 33rd Virginia Infantry under the command of Brigadier General Thomas J. Jackson. Shortly after its formation,
the 33rd Virginia fought at the battle of First Manassas (Bull Run). This is where General Jackson earned his famous
nickname, "Old Stonewall."
Initially, the Union Army held the advantage and while retreating with his brigade toward high ground, Confederate
General Bernard Bee of South Carolina (Jackson's friend from their years together at West Point) spotted Jackson
and his troops who had already taken position on the hill. Bee reportedly shouted to his troops, "Look, men,
there is Jackson standing like a stone wall! Let us determine to die here, and we will conquer!" His troops
then joined Jackson's, held off an assault from the Union Army, and later counterattacked the Union forces and
won the day.
As northern control of western Virginia strengthened during the war, southern military support was often in the
form of irregulars, troops never officially mustered into the Confederate Army. West Virginia's first governor,
Arthur Boreman, considered these irregulars the most serious threat to the new state. Jesse McNeill's Rangers,
organized in Hardy County, was the most famous of these irregulars to operate in West Virginia. During 1863 and
1864, they wreaked havoc on the B&O Railroad in the Eastern Panhandle, seizing numerous Union supplies. On
February 21, 1865, Captain McNeill and sixty-five hand-picked rangers left the Moorefield area and rode into Cumberland,
Maryland. They kidnaped Union Generals George Crook and Benjamin Kelley from their hotel rooms, returned to the
Moorefield area, and then sent the captured generals by coach under armed guard to Confederate General Jubal Early
in Staunton, Virginia. At the end of the war, McNeill and his rangers surrendered to Union troops under the command
of General (and future President) Rutherford B. Hayes.
The Hardy County Seat
Moorefield was charted by the Virginia General Assembly in 1777. The town was located on Conrad Moore's land and
named in his honor.
Hardy County's first county court meeting took place on February 7, 1786 at William Bullitt's home in Moorefield.
Jonathan Heath, Abraham Hite, Robert Pogue, Abel Ruddle, Stephen Ruddle, Felix Seymour, Michael Stump, William
Vause, Garrett Van Meter, Job Welton, and Vincent Williams served as Justices of the Peace. Brigadier General Joseph
Neville, of Mount Storm, was named County Sheriff. He previously served as Hampshire County's Surveyor and, at
a later meeting, was named Hardy County Surveyor as well. Edward Williams was appointed County Clerk.
Resources
Judy, Elvin Lycurgus. 1951. History of Grant and Hardy Counties, West Virginia. Charleston, WV: Charleston
Printing Company.
MacMaster, Richard K. 1986. History of Hardy County, 1786-1986. Salem, Wert Virginia: Walsworth Press, Inc.
Moore, Alvin Edward. 1963. History of Hardy County of the Borderland. Parsons, WV: McClain Printing Company.
Van Meter, James T. 2003. "Van Meter Pioneers in America." Internet article. Acessed on-line at:
http://www.vanmetre.com/Papers/van_meter_pioneers_in_america.htm.
West Virginia Division of Culture and History. 2002. "The Civil War in West Virginia." Charleston, WV: West Virginia Division of Culture and History. Accessed
on-line at: http://www.wvculture.org/history/civilwar.html.
Author
Dr. Robert Jay Dilger, Director, Institute for Public Affairs and Professor of Political Science, West Virginia
University.