Mineral County History
Mineral County was created from Hampshire County by an act of the General Assembly on February 1, 1866. The
county was named in honor of its abundant minerals.
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.
Mineral County's European Pioneers and Settlers
John Lederer, a German physician and explorer employed by Sir William Berkeley, colonial governor of Virginia,
is believed to be the first Englishman to set foot in present-day Mineral County. He explored the area in 1669.
In 1736, Lord Fairfax sent a eight-man surveying party, under the leadership of Major William Mayo, to explore
his land holdings. It is believed that Mayo traveled through present-day Mineral County. In 1746, Thomas Lewis
led another surveying party, which included Peter Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson's father, into the Potomac Highlands
to establish the boundaries of Lord Fairfax's land holdings. They also passed through present-day Mineral County.
One of the earliest settlers in Mineral County was a farmer named Brown. George Washington mentions Brown in his
diary when he traveled through the county in 1748 as part of Thomas Lewis's survey team that was sent to the area
to survey Lord Fairfax's land holdings.
Important Events in Mineral County during the 1700s and 1800s
In 1750, the Ohio Company, formed to secure British rights to the Ohio Valley, established a large storehouse in
present-day Ridgeley. The Ohio Company's efforts to open trade with the Indians and encourage settlement in the
Ohio Valley played a part in the outbreak of the French and Indian War (1754-1763).
Most of Mineral County's settlers left the area during the French and Indian War. In 1755, then-Colonel George
Washington ordered the construction of a stockade and fort on the east side of Patterson's Creek in present-day
Mineral County to protect any remaining settlers in the area from Indian attacks and the supply line between Fort
Loudoun in Winchester, Virginia and Fort Cumberland. The Fort (later called Ashby's Fort, in honor of Colonel John
Ashby who commanded the militia stationed there for many years) came under attack on April 15, 1756 by, in Ashby's
words, a "vast number of Indians." The Indians tried to coax Ashby to leave the Fort and fight, but Ashby
wisely refused to engage the Indians directly. Recognizing that they could not breech the Fort's walls, the Indians
left the area. It is believed that these same Indians were the ones that three days later attacked and killed sixteen
soldiers stationed at Fort Edwards, near present-day Capon Bridge in
Hampshire County.
Mineral County residents generally sided with the Confederacy during the Civil War, though there were pockets of
Union support, especially New Creek and Piedmont.
The Mineral County Seat
In 1752, Christopher Beelor purchased land, including a portion of present-day Keyser, from Lord Fairfax. He became
the area's first, permanent English settler. However, a roving band of hostile Indians forced him to abandon the
area in 1773. He died in 1774. His widow, Mary, inherited the land and soon returned to the area with her new husband,
George Kyger. When he died in 1807, Mary sold her farm to James Mosley of Baltimore for 2,000 pounds. The other
part of the land on which Keyser is currently located was originally owned by Abram Inskeep. He granted it Patrick
McCarthy in 1802. McCarthy was one of the earliest settlers in the area, arriving in 1780. After he purchased the
land, the area became known as Paddy's Town. The McCarthy family soon became the most prominent in the region,
owning and operating the general store, several mills, and an iron foundry. In 1852, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
extended into the region and the town's name was changed to New Creek.
During the Civil War, Keyser served as a key supply point and reportedly changed hands fourteen times between 1861
and 1864. The town's name was changed to Keyser to honor William Keyser, vice-president of the railroad, when it
was incorporated in 1874. J. T. Hoke was elected Keyser's first mayor. In 1913, Keyser and South Keyser were merged,
creating the city of Keyser. Richard Welch won the city's first mayoral election.
Nancy Hanks, Abraham Lincoln's mother, was born on February 5, 1784 on the Doll farm on Mike's Run, near Keyser.
She died on October 5, 1818, at the age of thrity-four, in Indiana.
References
Gruber, Terry. 2002. "Ashby's Fort: Defending the Colonial Frontier." Internet article. Accessed on-line
at: http://web.hardynet.com/~gruber/ashbys_fort.htm.
Rummer, Robert L., Sr., Editor. 1980. Mineral County, West Virginia: Family Traits, Tracks, and Trails.
Dallas, TX: Taylor Publishing Company.
Pendleton County:
Mills, Donald, Editor. 1991. Pendleton County, West Virginia: Past and Present. Waynesville, N.C.: Don
Mills, Inc.
Morton, Oren F. 1910. A History of Pendleton County, West Virginia. Franklin, WV: Oren F. Morton.
Author
Dr. Robert Jay Dilger, Director, Institute for Public Affairs and Professor of Political Science, West Virginia
University.