Preston County is a county located in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 34,216. Its county seat is Kingwood. The county was formed from Monongalia County in 1818 and named for Virginia Governor James Patton Preston.
Monongalia County, known locally as Mon County, is located in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 105,822, making it West Virginia's third-most populous county. Its county seat is Morgantown. The county was founded in 1776. Monongalia County is included in the Morgantown, WV Metropolitan Statistical Area, and is the largest county in North-Central West Virginia. It is part of the Pittsburgh media market.
Marshall County is a county in the U.S. state of West Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 30,591. Its county seat is Moundsville. With its southern border at what would be a continuation of the Mason-Dixon line to the Ohio River, it forms the base of the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia.
Kanawha County is a county in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 180,745, making it West Virginia's most populous county. The county seat is Charleston, which is also the state capital and most populous city. Kanawha County is part of the Charleston, WV Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Hancock County is a county in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 29,095. Its county seat is New Cumberland and its largest city is Weirton. The county was created from Brooke County in 1848 and named for John Hancock, first signer of the Declaration of Independence. Located at the tip of the state's Northern Panhandle, Hancock County is the northernmost point in both West Virginia and, by some definitions, the Southern United States. Hancock County is part of the Weirton-Steubenville, WV-OH Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Pittsburgh-New Castle-Weirton, PA-WV-OH Combined Statistical Area.
Brooke County is a county in the Northern Panhandle of the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 22,559. Its county seat is Wellsburg. The county was created in 1797 from part of Ohio County and named in honor of Robert Brooke, Governor of Virginia from 1794 to 1796. Brooke County is part of the Weirton-Steubenville, WV-OH Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Pittsburgh-New Castle-Weirton, PA-WV-OH Combined Statistical Area.
Clarksburg is a city in and the county seat of Harrison County, West Virginia, United States, in the north-central region of the state. The population of the city was 16,039 at the 2020 census, making it the tenth-most populous city in West Virginia. It is the principal city of the Clarksburg micropolitan area, which had a population of 90,434 in 2020. Clarksburg was named National Small City of the Year in 2011 by the National League of Cities.
In the United States before 1865, a slave state was a state in which slavery and the internal or domestic slave trade were legal, while a free state was one in which they were prohibited. Between 1812 and 1850, it was considered by the slave states to be politically imperative that the number of free states not exceed the number of slave states, so new states were admitted in slave–free pairs. There were, nonetheless, some slaves in most free states up to the 1840 census, and the Fugitive Slave Clause of the U.S. Constitution, as implemented by the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, provided that a slave did not become free by entering a free state and must be returned to his or her owner.
William Alexander MacCorkle, was an American teacher, lawyer, prosecutor, the ninth Governor of West Virginia and state legislator of West Virginia, and financier.
Bluefield State University is a public historically black university (HBCU) in Bluefield, West Virginia. Despite being an HBCU, Bluefield's undergraduate student body is now over 80% white. The university is part of West Virginia's public university education system.
William Erskine Stevenson was an American cabinet-maker, farmer, and Republican politician from Parkersburg, West Virginia. He was the third governor of West Virginia from 1869 until 1871.
Rand is a census-designated place (CDP) on the Kanawha River in Kanawha County, West Virginia, United States. As of the 2010 census, its population was 1,631. It is surrounded by the communities of Malden and DuPont City.
Bethuel Middleton Kitchen was a nineteenth-century politician from Virginia and West Virginia.
Lewis Ruffner was an American merchant, magistrate, slaveowner and politician who helped found the state of West Virginia. Originally a salt manufacturer in the Kanawha Salines, Ruffner served several terms in the Virginia House of Delegates representing Kanawha County before resigning as he became the company's agent in Louisville, Kentucky, but returned to Virginia in 1857. Although a slaveowner with relatives who fought for the Confederacy, Ruffner became a prominent Unionist, represented Kanawha County during the Wheeling Conventions, initial West Virginia Constitutional Convention, and first West Virginia House of Delegates during the American Civil War. Fellow legislators named him Major General of the state's militia in 1863, but he declined to accept a commission in the Union Army because salt manufacture was also crucial to the war effort. After the war, General Ruffner suffered a debilitating injury trying to avert a mob attack and became known as a mentor of Booker T. Washington, his former houseboy.
Fairmont Senior High School, is a public high school in Fairmont, West Virginia. The current school building, built in 1928, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Serving grades nine through twelve, it is one of three high schools in Marion County, along with East Fairmont High School and North Marion High School.
Christopher Harrison Payne was a prominent religious, educational, and political leader of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Born in the American South during the time of slavery, Payne rose to a level of prominence achieved by few, regardless of race. One of his many accomplishments include being the first African American elected to the West Virginia Legislature.
Jack Robert Nuzum (1921–1998) served several years as Circuit Judge representing Randolph County in Elkins, West Virginia from 1976–1991. Prior to that, he was also a legislator, for Taylor County, West Virginia and then, neighboring Randolph County, West Virginia in the West Virginia Legislature as a member of the House of Delegates. After retirement from the judicial bench, Nuzum served as a Senior Judge for the State of West Virginia's Supreme Court System, occasionally being named to act in the place of other circuit judges when necessary. For many years, Jack R. Nuzum was a law partner of former West Virginia Governor Herman G. Kump in the Elkins law firm of Kump, Kump, and Nuzum. Herman Guy Kump was the 19th Governor of the state of West Virginia.
Jamie Darrell Lester is an American artist best known for creating ceramic, bronze, and steel sculptures that “focus on the human figure combined with imagery derived primarily from life in Appalachia, including birds, architecture, and landscape.” Lester also creates paintings, digital art, and music.
