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Chapter 6: Adapting to a New Nation [Includes Image Plates]
- The University Press of Kentucky
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Adapting to a New Nation A New ImmigrantWave. With the end of the Revolutionary War, Americans , long since grown mobile by habit, resumed their course westward in searchof new lands in trans-AlleghenyWest Virginia, Pennsylvania,Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Old Northwest. Each year thousandsof immigrantsgathered at Wheeling and Pittsburgh for thejourney down the Ohio. Others followed the Valley of Virginia southward to headstreams of the Cumberlandand Tennessee. In 1790 about 125,000 Virginians lived west of the Appalachians. More than 70,000 of them were in Kentucky, which experienced a dramatic population upsurge of nearly six hundred percent between 1783 and 1790. West Virginia had a less spectaculargrowth. In 1790her total population was 55,873, but only about 20,000 lived west of the mountains. Yet her subsequent increase was by no means inconsequential.Between 1790and 1830 it reached 317 percent, compared with a 354 percent growth for the nation as a whole. Much of the expansion occurred in the Monongahela, upper Ohio, and Kanawha valleys. Her population density of 7.3 persons per square mile compared with 7.4 percent for the nation. The population, however, was not evenly distributed,and much of the stateremained a mountainousand forestedfrontier. County and LocalGovernments. Expansion of settlementnecessitated the organizationof additionalcountiesand towns. Onlytwo of West Virginia's fiftyfive counties, Hampshireand Berkeley, formed in 1754and 1772,respectively, existed at the beginning of the Revolutionary War. The remainer of the statewas includedinFincastleCounty, which embracedtheterritory southof theNew and Kanawha rivers; in Botetourt and Augusta counties, which extended across most of the northcentralsectionto the OhioRiver; and the ill-definedDistrictof West Augusta, created in 1773to assert the authority of Virginia over the Forks of the Ohio region and provide an administrative shelter for its residents and those of the extreme northern parts of West Virginia. Further county reorganization occurred during the Revolutionary War. In 1776 the General Assembly divided the District of West Augusta into Yohogania, Monongalia, and Ohio counties. It split Fincastle County into Kentucky, Washington, and Montgomery counties, the last of which included the part of West Virginia south of the New and Kanawha rivers. In 1778 the trans-Allegheny portion of Botetourt County became Greenbrier County. 48 West Virginia: A History Continued population increases resulted in the formation of additional counties. By 1800the General Assembly had created Brooke, Hardy, Harrison, Kanawha, Monroe, Pendleton, Randolph, and Wood. The establishment of Cabell, Jefferson, Lewis, Logan, Mason, Morgan, Nicholas, Pocahontas, and Tyler brought the number of counties in West Virginia to twenty-two in 1830. Even then, the creation of new counties failed to keep pace with the expanding population. Moreover, some new counties were so large and their inhabitants were so isolated that their governments could not adequately meet the needs of the people. The General Assembly also authorized the establishment of numerous towns. It formally established Shepherdstown and Romney in 1762. Berkeley Springs (originally known as Bath), Lewisburg, Martinsburg, and Moorefield were created by the end of the Revolutionary War. Among other new towns established before the end of the century were Beverly, Bolivar, Charleston, Charles Town, Clarksburg, Darkesville, Franklin, Frankfort, Middletown (later renamed Fairmont), Morgantown, Point Pleasant, Salem, Smithfield (Berkeley County), Smithfield (Harrison County), Union, Vienna, Watson, Wellsburg (first known as Charlestown), and West Liberty. The Continuing Indian Menace. One of the most serious deterrents to the growth of trans-Allegheny West Virginia was the danger from Indians, which did not abate after the Revolutionary War. Between 1785 and 1787 British agents, including Sir John Johnson, Joseph Butler, and Joseph Brant, urged a confederation of tribes in the Northwest. Frontier leaders such as George Clendenin of Kanawha County, Hezekiah Davisson of Harrison County, and John Stuart of Greenbrier County, declared that West Virginia settlers were in greater danger than everbefore and that there was likely to be no peace as long as the British retained trading posts in the Northwest, contrary to the Treaty of Paris of 1783. For scores of families the Indian menace was etched in sad and bitter memories. Two examples suffice to illustrate their suffering and heartbreak. At Wheeling Indians killed young Andrew Zane and captured Isaac, his nine-yearold brother. Isaac grew up among the Indians, married the daughter of a Wyandot chief, and became the fatherof eight children. He chose nevertoreturn to his family. Another captive, Mary Kinnan, settled with her husband near Elkwater, on the Tygart Valley River. In 1791 Indians killed her husband and young daughter and carried the unfortunate woman to their towns in Ohio. Later...