Berkeley County History

Berkeley County was created by an act of the House of Burgesses in February 1772 from the northern third of Frederick County (Virginia). At the time of the county's formation it also consisted of the areas that make up the present day Jefferson and Morgan counties. Berkeley County is the state's second oldest county.

Most historians believe that the county was named for Norborne Berkeley, Baron de Botetourt (1718-1770), Colonial Governor of Virginia from 1768 to 1770. In 1769, he dissolved the Virginia General Assembly after it adopted two resolutions that he felt bordered on treason (the Assembly declared that Virginia should no longer submit to taxation by England and that Virginia would no longer send its criminals to England for trial). Despite his differences with the General Assembly, Norborne Berkeley was well respected by the colonists. He was referred to as the "good governor of Virginia. " There is a monument to his memory in Williamsburg, and two counties were named in his honor, Berkeley (in present day West Virginia) and Botetourt in Virginia.

Other historians claim that the county may have been named in honor of Sir William Berkeley (1610-1677). He was born near London, graduated from Oxford University in 1629, and was appointed Governor of Virginia in 1642. He served as Governor until 1652 and was later reappointed Governor in 1660. He continued to serve as Virginia's Governor until 1677 when he was called back to England. He died later that year, on July 9, 1677.

Advocates of Norborne Berkeley note that the other Governor Berkeley (William) was known by some as the "Tyrannical Governor of Virginia" because he ordered the hanging of Nathaniel Bacon's followers for resisting his authority.

The First Settlers

The first native settlers in the eastern panhandle region of present-day West Virginia were the Mound Builders, also known as the Adena people. Remnants of the Mound Builder's civilization have been found throughout West Virginia, with a high concentration of artifacts located at Moundsville, West Virginia, just north of the county (in Marshall County). The Grave Creek Indian Mound, located in the center of Moundsville, is one of West Virginia's most famous historic landmarks. More than 2,000 years old, it stands 69 feet high and 295 feet in diameter.

According to missionary reports, several thousand Hurons occupied present-day West Virginia during the late 1500s and early 1600s. They were driven out of the state during the 1600s by members of the powerful Iroquois Confederacy (consisting of the Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga, Oneida, and Seneca tribes, and joined later by the Tuscaroras tribe). The Iroquois Confederacy was headquartered in New York and was not interested in occupying present-day West Virginia. Instead, they used it as a hunting ground during the spring and summer months.

During the early 1700s, West Virginia's eastern panhandle region, including present-day Berkeley County, 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 area was also used as a hunting ground by the Mingo, who lived in both the Tygart Valley and along the Ohio River in West Virginia's northern panhandle region, the Delaware, who lived in present-day eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, but had several autonomous settlements as far south as present-day Braxton County, and by other members of the Iroquois Confederacy, especially the Seneca, one of the largest and most powerful members of the Iroquois Confederacy.

The Mingo were not actually an Indian tribe, but a multi-cultural group of Indians that established several communities within present-day West Virginia. They lacked a central government and, like all other Indians within the region at that time, were subject to the control of the Iroquois Confederacy. The Mingo originally lived closer to the Atlantic Coast, but European settlement pushed them into western Virginia and eastern Ohio.

The Seneca, headquartered in western New York, was the closest member of the Iroquois Confederacy to West Virginia, and took great interest in the state. In 1744, the Seneca boasted to Virginia officials that they had conquered the several nations living on the back of the great mountains of Virginia. Among the conquered nations were the last of the Canawese or Conoy people who became incorporated into some of the Iroquois communities in New York. The Conoy continue to be remembered today through the naming of two of West Virginia's largest rivers after them, the Little Kanawha and the Great Kanawha.

The Seneca, and other members of the Iroquois Confederacy, claimed all of present-day West Virginia as their own, using it primarily as a hunting ground. Also, war parties from the Seneca and other members of the Iroquois Confederacy often traveled through the state to protect its claim to southern West Virginia from the Cherokee. The Cherokee were headquartered in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee and rivaled the Iroquois nation in both size and influence. The Cherokee claimed present-day southern West Virginia as their own, setting the stage for conflict with the Iroquois Confederacy.

In 1744, Virginia officials purchased the Iroquois title of ownership to West Virginia in the Treaty of Lancaster. The treaty reduced the Iroquois Confederacy's presence in the state.

During the mid-1700s, the English had made it clear to the various Indian tribes that they intended to settle the frontier. The French, on the other hand, were more interested in trade. This influenced the Mingo to side with the French during the French and Indian War (1755-1763). Although the Iroquois Confederacy officially remained neutral, many in the Iroquois Confederacy also allied with the French. Unfortunately for them, the French lost the war and ceded the all of its North American possessions to the British. Following the war, the Mingo retreated to their homes along the banks of the Ohio River and were rarely seen in the eastern panhandle.

Although the war was officially over, many Indians continued to see the British as a threat to their sovereignty and continued to fight them. In the summer of 1763, Pontiac, an Ottawa chief, led raids on key British forts. Shawnee chief Keigh-tugh-qua, or Cornstalk, led similar attacks on western Virginia settlements in present-day Greenbrier County. By the end of July, Indians had captured all British forts west of the Alleghenies except Detroit, Fort Pitt, and Fort Niagara. Then, on August 6, 1763, British forces under the command of Colonel Henry Bouquet retaliated and destroyed Delaware and Shawnee forces at Bushy Run in western Pennsylvania, ending the hostilities. Fearing more tension between Native Americans and settlers, England's King George III issued the Proclamation of 1763, prohibiting settlement west of the Allegheny Mountains. However, many land speculators, including George Washington, violated the proclamation by claiming vast acreage in western Virginia. The next five years were relatively peaceful on the frontier. 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. With the frontier now open, settlers, once again, began to enter into present-day West Virginia.

During the American Revolution (1776-1783), the Mingo and Shawnee, headquartered at Chillicothe, Ohio, allied themselves with the British. In 1777, a party of 350 Wyandots, Shawnees, and Mingos, 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. The Indians then left the Fort celebrating their victory. For the remainder of the war, smaller raiding parties of Mingo, Shawnee, and other Indian tribes terrorized settlers throughout northern and eastern West Virginia. As a result, European settlement in the region came to a virtual standstill until the war's conclusion. Following the war, the Mingo and Shawnee, once again allied with the losing side, returned to their homes. However, as the number of settlers in the region began to grow, and with their numbers depleted by the war, both the Mingo and the Shawnee moved further inland.

Earliest European Settlers

In 1670, John Lederer, a German physician and explorer employed by Sir William Berkeley, colonial governor of Virginia, became the first European to set foot in present-day Berkeley County. John Howard and his son also passed through the county a few years later, and discovered the valley of the South Branch of the Potomac. The next known explorer to transverse the county was John Van Meter in 1725. He came across the Potomac River, at what is now known as Shepherdstown, then he made his way to the South Branch River, where John Howard had once been. He believed the land he saw at the South Branch was possibly the best he had ever seen, and when he returned home to New York he advised his sons to precure land there, if they ever moved to Virginia.

In 1726, Morgan Morgan, II founded the first permanent English settlement of record in West Virginia on Mill Creek near the present site of Bunker Hill in Berkeley County. The state of West Virginia has erected a monument in Bunker Hill State Park commemorating the event, and has placed a marker at Morgan's grave, which is located in a cemetery near the park. Morgan Morgan married Catherine Garretson, of Delaware, and they had eight children. His son later settled in present-day Morgantown, West Virginia.

In 1730, John and Isaac Van Meter, two of John Van Meter's sons, secured a patent for forty thousand acres at the South Branch River, much of it located in present-day Berkeley County, from Virginia's Colonial Governor Gooch. The brothers sold the land the following year to Hans Yost Heydt, also known as Joist Hite. In 1732, Joist Hite and 15 families cut their way through the wilderness from York, Pennsylvania, passed through present-day Berkeley County, and settled near present-day Winchester, Virginia. In 1774, John Van Meter moved to a site near Moorefield, then part of Berkeley County, but now in present-day Hardy County. His brother, Isaac Van Meter, settler further to the west.

Important Events of the 1700s

In 1716, Governor Spottswood, the colonial governor of Virginia, decided that the Shanandoah Valley needed to be explored. He organized what he called the Trans-Mountain Order, or the "Knights of the Golden Horseshoe" in Williamsburg, which was, at that time, Virginia's capitol. Thirty men joined the order and accompanied Spottswood on the journey. All of men were provided a minature horseshoe with the inscription "Sic jurat transcudere montes," meaning "Thus he swears to cross the mountains."

In the fall of 1753, just prior to the outbreak of the French and Indian War (1754-1763), Virginia's Governor Robert Dinwiddie sent Major George Washington to a French fort at Pittsburg with a message informing the French comander that the fort was on land belonging to Virginia. The French commander returned the message, saying that he was ordered to hold the French territory in that area. Virginia then sent a group of men from Berkeley and Hampshire counties to erect a fort of their own at the forks of the Ohio River. However, the French attacked and captured it before it was completed. The French then finished the fort, naming it Fort Duquesne in honor of the Marquis du Quesne, Governor General of Canada.

Berkeley County was strongly for Independence during the American Revolutionary War (1776-1783). Most of the able bodied men in the county volunteered for service in the American army and it was the home of General Horatio Gates, one of George Washington's highest ranking officers.

Important events of the 1800s

Berkeley County was reduced in size twice during the 1800s. On January 8, 1801, Jefferson County was formed out of the county's eastern section. Then, on February 9, 1820, Morgan County was formed out of the county's western section. Berkeley County was of strategic importance to both the North and the South during the Civil War (1861-1865). The county, and the county seat, Martinsburg, lay at the northern edge of the Shanandoah Valley, and Martinsburg was very important because the main line of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road ran right through the town. The rail line was of great importance to both armies. Also, Matinsburg was close to the Union arsenal at Harpers Ferry.

Control over Martinsburg changed hands so many times that it is almost impossible to count. Prior to the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1863), the town changed hands fairly often. After Gettysburg, the city remained mostly in Union hands.

Most of Berkeley County's residents were loyal to the South during the Civil War. There were seven companies of soldiers recruited from the county: five for the Confederate Army and two for the Union Army. At least six hundred men from Berkeley County served in either the Confederate or Union Armies during the Civil War. The two Union Army companies were Company B, First Regiment, Virginia Volunteers, organized in Williamsport, Maryland, by Colonel Ward Lamon, with Joseph Kerns first in command, and Lieutenant James Fayman, second in command and Company C, Third Regiment, West Virginia Cavalry. Captain Peter Tabler was in command, and Lieutenant John E. Bowers was second in command.

The five Confederate companies were: Company B, Wise Artillery, with Captain E. G. Alburtis in command. However, Alburtis resigned in 1861, and was succeded by Captain James S. Brown; Company B, First Regiment, Virginia Cavalry, commanded by Captain James Blair Hoge, who was later succeeded by Captain G. N. Hammond, who was killed at the battle of Yellow Tavern in 1864; Company E, Second Regiment, Virginia Infantry, with Captain Raleigh Colson in command, who was later succeeded by Captain William B. Colston; and Company A, Seventeenth Battalion, Virginia Cavalry, commanded by Captain G. W. Myers.

In addition to supplying over six hundred soldiers to the War, Berkeley County was also the home of Belle Boyd, a famous spy for the Confederacy. She was born in Martinsburg in 1844, and lived there until the outbreak of the war. Belle Boyd's espionage career began by chance. On the fourth of July, 1861, a band of drunken Union soldiers broke into her home in Martinsburg, intent on raising the U. S. flag over the house. When one of them insulted her mother, Belle drew a pistol and killed him. A board of inquiry exonerated her, but sentries were posted around the house and officers kept close track of her activities. She profited from this enforced familiarity, charming at least one of the officers, Captain Daniel Keily, into revealing military secrets. "To him," she wrote later, "I am indebted for some very remarkable effusions, some withered flowers, and a great deal of important information." Belle conveyed those secrets to Confederate officers via her slave, Eliza Hopewell, who carried the messages in a hollowed-out watchcase. Then, one evening in mid-May, General James Shields and his staff conferred in the parlor of the local hotel. Belle hid upstairs, eavesdropping through a knothole in the floor. She learned that Shields had been ordered east, a move that would reduce the Union Army's strength at Front Royal. That night, Belle rode through Union, using false papers to bluff her way past the sentries, and reported the news to Colonel Turner Ashby, who was scouting for the Confederates. She then returned to town. When the Confederates advanced on Front Royal on May 23, Belle ran to greet General Andrew Jackson's men. She urged an officer to inform Jackson that "the Yankee force is very small. Tell him to charge right down and he will catch them all." Jackson did and that evening penned a note of gratitude to her: I thank you, for myself and for the army, for the immense service that you have rendered your country today." After the war, Belle moved west, married twice, and died in 1900 in Wisconsin, where she is buried.

Important events of the 1900s

Over one thousand (1,039) men from Berkeley County participated in World War I (1917-1918). Of these, forty-one were killed and twenty-one were wounded in battle. Eighty-eight of the soldiers were black. A monument to those who fell in battle was erected in 1925.

During World War II (1941-1945), the Newton D. Baker Hospital in Martinsburg treated thousands of soldiers wounded in the war. In 1945, the hospital employed over 1,350 civilians.

County Seat

Martinsburg, the county seat, was chartered by an act of the Virginia General Assembly in October 1788 on the lands of General Adam Stephen who commanded 500 troops mustered from Berkeley County during Lord Dunmore's War against the Indians in 1774. He subsequently rose to the rank of General during the American Revolutionary War before being dismissed for unsoldierly conduct at the Battle of Germantown. He named the town after his long-time friend, Colonel Thomas Bryan Martin. Martin was the nephew of England's Lord Fairfax and had started a settlement a few miles to the north. He had named his settlement Stephen City, in honor of his old-time friend. General Stephen later became the first sheriff of Berkeley County. Because the town did not legally exist at the time of the county's formation, the village of about 200 people did not have a legal name, but the area was known as the "Berkeley Court House."

The first county court session was held in Edward Beeson's home on May 19, 1772. The city was incorporated on March 30, 1868.

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