Hampshire County is a county in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 23,964. Its county seat is Romney, West Virginia's oldest town (1762). The county was created by the Virginia General Assembly in 1754, from parts of Frederick and Augusta Counties (Virginia) and is the state's oldest county. The county lies in both West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle and Potomac Highlands regions.
Romney is a city in and the county seat of Hampshire County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 1,848 at the 2010 census.
Moorefield is a town in Hardy County, West Virginia, USA. Moorefield is the county seat of Hardy County. It was originally chartered in 1777 and named for Conrad Moore, who owned the land upon which the town was laid out. The population was 2,544 at the 2010 census. Moorefield is located at the confluence of the South Branch Potomac River and the South Fork South Branch Potomac River.
Fort Ashby is a census-designated place (CDP) in Mineral County, West Virginia, USA, along Patterson Creek. It is part of the Cumberland, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,380 at the 2010 census. The community was originally chartered as Frankfort and then known as Alaska before it took the name of its well-known historic landmark.
Little Cacapon is an unincorporated community in Hampshire County in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Little Cacapon is located at the mouth of the Little Cacapon River on the Potomac, east of Okonoko. Okonoko-Little Cacapon Road and Spring Gap-Neals Run Road converge south of Little Cacapon. Because of its key location at the mouth of the Little Cacapon and on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, Little Cacapon played important roles in both the French and Indian and American Civil Wars. Generally pronounced kə-KAY-pən. Sometimes, despite the current spelling of the word some locals say KAY-pən.
Indian Mound Cemetery is a cemetery located along the Northwestern Turnpike on a promontory of the "Yellow Banks" overlooking the South Branch Potomac River and Mill Creek Mountain in Romney, West Virginia, United States. The cemetery is centered on a Hopewellian mound, known as the Romney Indian Mound. Indian Mound Cemetery is also the site of Fort Pearsall, the Confederate Memorial, Parsons Bell Tower, and reinterments from Romney's Old Presbyterian Cemetery. The cemetery is currently owned and maintained by the Indian Mound Cemetery Association, Inc.
Fort Ohio was a stockade fort erected by Job Pearsall in 1749 on the present site of Ridgeley, West Virginia. The building was of log construction, 45 feet (14 m) long and 25 feet (7.6 m) wide, with two stories. Its name comes from the Ohio Company which did have a trading post at that location. The Ohio Company found success because a trail across the Allegheny Mountains from the Potomac River at Cumberland to near modern-day Pittsburgh offered a direct route to the Ohio River.
Fort Cocke was a stockade, made of wooden palisades up stream from Fort Ashby. It was a square ninety feet on a side and enclosed about 1/5 acre. Blockhouses were built at each of the four corners. A barracks to house fifty men was constructed within the stockade. It was built by Captain William Cocke's First Company of Rangers under orders of George Washington dated October 26, 1755. It has been suggested that the fort was probably completed within a month.
Fort Cox or Cox's Fort was a French and Indian War stockade at the mouth of the Little Cacapon River on the Potomac River near Little Cacapon in Hampshire County, West Virginia.
Bemino —known as John Killbuck Sr. to white settlers—was a renowned medicine man and war leader of Shawnee and Delaware (Lenape) warriors during the French and Indian War (1754–63). He was a son of Netawatwees, at one time principal chief of the Delaware, and his own son was Gelelemend, a Delaware chief during the American Revolutionary War. Bemino lived with his people in what is now eastern Ohio, but was mostly active in the upper Potomac River watershed in what is now the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia.
Buffalo Creek is a 4.1-mile-long (6.6 km) free-flowing tributary stream of the South Branch Potomac River, itself a tributary of the Potomac River, making it a part of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Buffalo Creek is located in west-central Hampshire County in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Because the stream flows through several small farms, Buffalo Creek primarily serves agriculture purposes with segments used for livestock watering.
Fort Van Meter — or Fort VanMeter — is a mid-18th century frontier fort in the South Branch Potomac River Valley about 9 miles (14 km) southwest of Romney in Hampshire County, West Virginia, USA. It is located 15 miles (24 km) northeast of Moorefield and about a mile northeast of the former community of Glebe at the northern end of the rugged river gorge known as The Trough.
The Battle of the Trough was a skirmish of the early French and Indian War (1754–63) fought between Native Americans and British settlers in the valley of the South Branch Potomac River in what is now northern Hardy County, West Virginia, USA.
Fort Seybert was an 18th-century frontier fort in the Allegheny Mountains in what is now Pendleton County, West Virginia, United States. In a 1758 surprise raid occasioned by the French and Indian War (1754–63), most of the 30 white settlers sheltering there were massacred by Shawnee and Delaware warriors and the fort was burned. A similar number of settlers at nearby Fort Upper Tract had met the same fate on the previous day. Fort Seybert, of which almost no trace remains today, was situated about 8 miles northeast of the present town of Franklin.
Fort Forman was a stockade fort erected by Captain William Foreman at the beginning of the French and Indian War situated three miles north of Romney on the South Branch Potomac River near Vance on West Virginia Route 28. Fort Furman was in use from its construction in 1755 until 1764.
Romney Academy was an educational institution for higher learning in Romney, Virginia. Romney Academy was first incorporated by the Virginia General Assembly on January 11, 1814, and was active until 1846 when it was reorganized as the Romney Classical Institute. In addition to the Romney Classical Institute, Romney Academy was also a forerunner institution to Potomac Seminary. Romney Academy was one of the earliest institutions for higher learning within the present boundaries of the state of West Virginia.
Richard Stafford was a land speculator and pioneer of Hampshire County, West Virginia. He was one of the founding trustees of Fort Ashby, West Virginia, in 1787.
James Caudy was an American frontiersman, settler, and landowner in the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians of the Colony of Virginia—present-day West Virginia. Caudy was born in the Netherlands, immigrated to the Thirteen Colonies in the 1730s, and settled within the Cacapon River valley near present-day Capon Bridge in Hampshire County. As early as 1741, Caudy was associated with the arrangement and development of transportation routes throughout present-day Hampshire County. Caudy twice hosted George Washington; first during his surveying expedition in 1748 and again upon Washington's 1750 return to the Cacapon River valley.
Valley was a populated place and post office on the South Branch line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in the U.S. state of West Virginia. It was centered near the intersection of West Sioux Lane and Depot Valley Road, now located within the present-day corporate boundaries of Romney. Valley developed in 1884 following the completion of the South Branch line when the rail line's original southern terminus and corresponding Romney Depot were built there. The United States Post Office Department established a post office at Valley on May 19, 1928, remaining in operation until its disestablishment on June 15, 1937. Following the closure of Valley's post office, its mail was routed through the post office in Romney.
