Hampshire County | |
---|---|
| |
![]() Location within the U.S. state of West Virginia | |
![]() West Virginia's location within the U.S. | |
Coordinates: 39°19′N78°37′W / 39.31°N 78.61°W | |
Country | ![]() |
State | ![]() |
Founded | December 13, 1754 |
Named for | Hampshire, England |
Seat | Romney |
Largest city | Romney |
Area | |
• Total | 645 sq mi (1,670 km2) |
• Land | 640 sq mi (1,700 km2) |
• Water | 4.4 sq mi (11 km2) 0.7% |
Population (2020) | |
• Total | 23,093 |
• Estimate (2021) | 23,302 ![]() |
• Density | 36/sq mi (14/km2) |
Time zone | UTC−5 (Eastern) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC−4 (EDT) |
Congressional district | 2nd |
Website | www |
Hampshire County is a county in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 23,093. [1] Its county seat is Romney, [2] 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. [3] [4] The county lies in both West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle and Potomac Highlands regions.
Hampshire County is part of the Winchester, VA-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Although its creation was authorized in 1754, Hampshire County was not actually organized until 1757 [5] because the area was not considered safe due to the outbreak of the French and Indian War (1754–1763). According to Samuel Kercheval's A History of the Valley of Virginia (1833), the county was named in honor of its several prize hogs. The story goes that Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron (1693–1781), who owned the Royal Grant to the area, came upon some very large hogs in Winchester and asked where they had been raised. He was told that they were from the South Branch Potomac River Valley (now Hampshire County). He remarked that when a county was formed west of Frederick that he would name it in honor of the county Hampshire, England, famous for its very fat hogs.
Romney was initially settled by hunters and traders around 1725. In 1738, John Pearsall (or Pearsoll) and his brother Job built homes and in 1758 a fort (Fort Pearsall) for defense against Native Americans in present-day Romney. Their settlement was then known as Pearsall's Flats. In 1748, Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron sent a surveying party, including 16-year-old George Washington, to survey his lands along the Potomac and South Branch Potomac rivers. Washington spent three summers and falls surveying Lord Fairfax's Northern Neck estate, which included all of the present-day Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. In April 1748, he laid off several lots in an area known as the Trough, about ten miles (16 km) south of Romney, and he is known to have been in present-day Romney on October 19, 1749. Oral traditions claimed that Washington laid present-day Romney out into lots at that time, but written records from that era indicate that Romney was surveyed and laid out into lots by James Genn prior to Washington's arrival. Genn was also employed by Lord Fairfax.
In 1756, Fort Pearsall was constructed on Job Pearsall's plantation for protection against Native American raids and George Washington provisioned and garrisoned the Fort at various times until 1758. At that time, there were at least 100 people living in the general area. Following the end of hostilities in the area, Lord Fairfax recognized that more settlers would be interested in moving into the area and that he could earn some extra revenue by selling plots in the town. He sent a survey party to Romney in 1762 to formally lay out the town into 100 lots. At that time, he renamed the town Romney, in honor of the Cinque Ports city on the English Channel in Kent.
Confusion ensued for several decades concerning land ownership within the town, as counterclaims were made by the original settlers, and those who purchased lots laid out by Lord Fairfax's surveyors.
The first meeting of the Hampshire County Court was held in 1757, at Fort Pleasant, now Old Fields in Hardy County, and was presided by the Right Honorable Thomas Bryan Martin, Lord Fairfax's nephew. By that time, Hampshire County's population had fallen dramatically as most of the settlers had fled the county in fear of the Native Americans. The only families remaining lived near Fort Pearsall, near present-day Romney, and Fort Edwards, at present-day Capon Bridge on the Cacapon River. The vast majority of the remaining settlers, however, were in the vicinity of present Old Fields-Moorefield-Petersburg and were protected by the several forts in the area, including Fort Pleasant
Once the Native Americans were defeated at the Battle of Point Pleasant in 1774 settlers, once again, returned to the county. Additionally, with the end of the American Revolution, the Virginia Legislature nullified the English grant to Lord Fairfax in the region. The legislature gave fee simple grants to settlers who already had contracts with Lord Fairfax, and opened up the remaining lands as public domain open to settlement. [6] By 1790, when the first national census was taken, Hampshire County had 7,346 residents, making it the second most populous county in the present state of West Virginia at that time. Berkeley was the most populous county, with 19,713 people. There were nine counties that comprised the present state, with a total population of 55,873 people.
During the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794, many Hampshire County men volunteered to serve under Major General Daniel Morgan to put down the insurrection. The men most likely volunteered at Moorefield in Hardy County and then marched north to Cumberland, Maryland. Approximately 1,200 of the 12,950 men under Morgan's command came from the area that would later become West Virginia.
Many early settlers of the Cacapon area were German Baptist Brethren (or Dunkers), pacifist farmers who often befriended local natives in frontier areas. [7] Other early missionaries helped to sustain the religious faith of the early European inhabitants. In 1775 two Baptist missionaries among a group of settlers moved to the Cacapon and organized the first European church in the county. In 1771 the work of the Methodist Episcopal Church was begun, in which later developments led to the formation of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. In 1753 Hampshire County had been formed into a parish by the Protestant Episcopal Church and from 1772 until his death in 1777 Rev. Nathaniel Manning served on the Glebe near present-day Moorefield. In 1787 a Primitive Baptist church was established at North River. Soon after the American Revolution there was preaching by the Presbyterians at different points in the county. In 1792 a Presbyterian church was organized at Romney and another, Mount Bethel Church, at Three Churches.
The wide lowlands of Hampshire County certainly invited agriculture, and fields of wheat and tobacco surrounded the important truck-patch of the settler. The rolling uplands offered pasturage for horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs, which were driven across country to market at Winchester. The streams abounded in fish and the mountains contained not only game but timber and stone for early settlers' homes. The limestone was burned for lime at Bloomery Gap, where remains of old lime-kilns give evidence of an early industry. Soon it was discovered that some of the strata contained iron ore. Much of it was transported to present-day Keyser, from an area along South Branch Potomac River south of the present limits of the county. In Bloomery Gap, a ruined furnace still stands, mute evidence of another former industry. In the early days the increasing population stimulated not only farming and grazing but every industry of a new country. Hampshire County was also known for its many gunmakers, located on or near the main road from Winchester to Romney. Among them were, Henry Topper, Jacob Kline, George Young, Benjamin Shane, George Glaze, William Britton and the Sheetz Family.
The building of the Northwestern Turnpike (U.S. Route 50) was an integral part of the development of Hampshire County. General Daniel Morgan first suggested the road be built in 1748, but his recommendations were not acted upon until the 1830s. Colonel Claudius Crozet, a Frenchman who had previously worked for Napoleon Bonaparte, engineered the road which connected Parkersburg with Winchester, Virginia. The turnpike traversed Hampshire County stretching through the communities of Capon Bridge, Loom, Hanging Rock, Pleasant Dale, Augusta, Frenchburg, Shanks, and Romney. Through the years, Romney became an important rest stop for travelers on the turnpike. This aided the local economy as hotels and taverns began to appear in the area.
During the American Civil War, the Hampshire Guards and Frontier Riflemen joined the Confederate Army. Although there were no major battles in Hampshire County, Romney changed hands at least fifty-six times during the war. It was often a case of one army evacuating the area allowing the opposing army to move into the town. This places Romney second behind Winchester as the town that changed hands the most during the American Civil War. On June 11, 1861, it changed hands twice in the same day. Some local Hampshire County historians speculate that Romney actually changed hands more than Winchester, but there are no surviving records to support the claim.
In 1863, West Virginia's counties were divided into civil townships, with the intention of encouraging local government. This proved impractical in the heavily rural state, and in 1872 the townships were converted into magisterial districts. [8] Between 1866, when Mineral County was formed from the western portion of Hampshire County, and 1871, when part of southern Mineral County was returned to Hampshire, the county was divided into six townships: Bloomery, Capon, [lower-roman 1] Gore, Romney, Sherman, and Springfield. These became magisterial districts in 1872, and a seventh district, Mill Creek, was formed in part from the land that had been in Mineral County from 1866 to 1871. [9]
According to the United States Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 645 square miles (1,670 km2), of which 640 square miles (1,700 km2) is land and 4.4 square miles (11 km2) (0.7%) is water. [10]
Census | Pop. | Note | %± |
---|---|---|---|
1790 | 7,346 | — | |
1800 | 8,348 | 13.6% | |
1810 | 9,784 | 17.2% | |
1820 | 10,889 | 11.3% | |
1830 | 11,279 | 3.6% | |
1840 | 12,295 | 9.0% | |
1850 | 14,036 | 14.2% | |
1860 | 13,913 | −0.9% | |
1870 | 7,643 | −45.1% | |
1880 | 10,366 | 35.6% | |
1890 | 11,419 | 10.2% | |
1900 | 11,806 | 3.4% | |
1910 | 11,694 | −0.9% | |
1920 | 11,713 | 0.2% | |
1930 | 11,836 | 1.1% | |
1940 | 12,974 | 9.6% | |
1950 | 12,577 | −3.1% | |
1960 | 11,705 | −6.9% | |
1970 | 11,710 | 0.0% | |
1980 | 14,867 | 27.0% | |
1990 | 16,498 | 11.0% | |
2000 | 20,203 | 22.5% | |
2010 | 23,964 | 18.6% | |
2020 | 23,093 | −3.6% | |
2021 (est.) | 23,302 | [11] | 0.9% |
U.S. Decennial Census [12] 1790–1960 [13] 1900–1990 [14] 1990–2000 [15] 2010-2020 [1] |
As of the 2020 census, there were 23,093 people and 9,912 households residing in the county. There were 12,416 housing units in Hampshire. The racial makeup of the county was 94.3% White, 0.8% African American, 0.3% Asian, 0.2% Native American, 0.7% from other races, and 3.8% from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 1.5% of the population.
Of the 9,912 households, 51.5% were married couples living together, 21.5% had a female householder with no spouse present, 20.8% had a male householder with no spouse present. The average household and family size was 3.57. The median age in the county was 47.3 years with 20.2% of the population under 18. The median income for a household was $50,890 and the poverty rate was 17.9%. [16]
As of the 2010 United States census, there were 23,964 people, 9,595 households, and 6,606 families residing in the county. [17] The population density was 37.4 inhabitants per square mile (14.4/km2). There were 13,688 housing units at an average density of 21.4 per square mile (8.3/km2). [18] The racial makeup of the county was 97.2% white, 1.0% black or African American, 0.2% Asian, 0.2% American Indian, 0.1% Pacific islander, 0.2% from other races, and 1.1% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 1.0% of the population. [17] In terms of ancestry, 29.0% were German, 12.9% were American, 11.9% were Irish, and 8.0% were English. [19]
Of the 9,595 households, 29.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.3% were married couples living together, 9.1% had a female householder with no husband present, 31.2% were non-families, and 25.8% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.44 and the average family size was 2.91. The median age was 42.6 years. [17]
The median income for a household in the county was $31,792 and the median income for a family was $45,447. Males had a median income of $36,828 versus $25,347 for females. The per capita income for the county was $17,752. About 11.0% of families and 16.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 20.1% of those under age 18 and 18.2% of those age 65 or over. [20]
As of the census of 2000, there were 20,203 people, 7,955 households, and 5,640 families residing in the county. The population density was 32 inhabitants per square mile (12/km2). There were 11,185 housing units at an average density of 17 units per square mile (6.6 units/km2). The racial makeup of the county was 98.04% White, 0.83% Black or African American, 0.24% Native American, 0.16% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.12% from other races, and 0.59% from two or more races. 0.55% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 7,955 households, out of which 31.30% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.70% were married couples living together, 9.50% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.10% were non-families. 24.60% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.60% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.49 and the average family size was 2.94.
In the county, the population was spread out, with 25.10% under the age of 18, 7.10% from 18 to 24, 27.60% from 25 to 44, 25.60% from 45 to 64, and 14.60% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 99.70 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.30 males.
The median income for a household in the county was $31,666, and the median income for a family was $37,616. Males had a median income of $28,884 versus $19,945 for females. The per capita income for the county was $14,851. About 12.90% of families and 16.30% of the population were below the poverty line, including 22.70% of those under age 18 and 13.10% of those age 65 or over.
During the Virginia Secession Convention, Hampshire County voted against secession, but much of this vote was within what is now part of heavily Unionist and Republican Mineral County, which was detached from it after the war. Following the detachment of Mineral – which was not to give a Democratic majority before 1936 or after 1976 – Hampshire County became solidly Democratic, not voting for any Republican candidate between 1868 and 1952 inclusive. [21] However, since 1968 Hampshire County has not voted for any Democratic presidential candidate apart from Jimmy Carter in 1976, and since 2000 it has suffered the same drastic declines in Democratic support as the rest of socially conservative West Virginia. [22] Donald Trump won the county by an overwhelming margin in 2016.
Year | Republican | Democratic | Third party | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | |
2020 | 8,033 | 79.65% | 1,939 | 19.22% | 114 | 1.13% |
2016 | 6,692 | 77.11% | 1,580 | 18.20% | 407 | 4.69% |
2012 | 5,523 | 68.87% | 2,299 | 28.67% | 197 | 2.46% |
2008 | 5,222 | 62.56% | 2,983 | 35.74% | 142 | 1.70% |
2004 | 5,489 | 68.65% | 2,455 | 30.70% | 52 | 0.65% |
2000 | 3,879 | 63.62% | 2,069 | 33.93% | 149 | 2.44% |
1996 | 2,814 | 48.68% | 2,335 | 40.39% | 632 | 10.93% |
1992 | 2,767 | 44.84% | 2,365 | 38.32% | 1,039 | 16.84% |
1988 | 3,253 | 60.66% | 2,085 | 38.88% | 25 | 0.47% |
1984 | 4,065 | 65.70% | 2,102 | 33.97% | 20 | 0.32% |
1980 | 2,879 | 51.55% | 2,522 | 45.16% | 184 | 3.29% |
1976 | 2,097 | 40.32% | 3,104 | 59.68% | 0 | 0.00% |
1972 | 3,084 | 65.33% | 1,637 | 34.67% | 0 | 0.00% |
1968 | 1,959 | 44.08% | 1,791 | 40.30% | 694 | 15.62% |
1964 | 1,473 | 30.35% | 3,381 | 69.65% | 0 | 0.00% |
1960 | 2,541 | 47.14% | 2,849 | 52.86% | 0 | 0.00% |
1956 | 2,676 | 53.18% | 2,356 | 46.82% | 0 | 0.00% |
1952 | 2,173 | 47.61% | 2,391 | 52.39% | 0 | 0.00% |
1948 | 1,351 | 36.34% | 2,357 | 63.39% | 10 | 0.27% |
1944 | 1,638 | 39.73% | 2,485 | 60.27% | 0 | 0.00% |
1940 | 1,751 | 34.82% | 3,277 | 65.18% | 0 | 0.00% |
1936 | 1,512 | 28.39% | 3,792 | 71.21% | 21 | 0.39% |
1932 | 1,258 | 25.22% | 3,681 | 73.80% | 49 | 0.98% |
1928 | 1,779 | 45.31% | 2,132 | 54.30% | 15 | 0.38% |
1924 | 1,172 | 27.88% | 2,993 | 71.19% | 39 | 0.93% |
1920 | 1,214 | 35.02% | 2,221 | 64.06% | 32 | 0.92% |
1916 | 745 | 25.37% | 2,181 | 74.28% | 10 | 0.34% |
1912 | 406 | 16.55% | 1,777 | 72.44% | 270 | 11.01% |
Frederick County is located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 91,419. Its county seat is Winchester. The county was formed in 1743 by the splitting of Orange County. It is Virginia's northernmost county. Frederick County is included in the Winchester, VA-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Washington-Baltimore-Northern Virginia, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA Combined Statistical Area.
Morgan County is a county located in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 17,063. Its county seat is Berkeley Springs. The county was formed in 1820 from parts of Hampshire and Berkeley Counties and named in honor of General Daniel Morgan, prominent soldier of the American Revolutionary War. The county and town of Bath are considered excellent jumping-off points for exploring the Potomac and Cacapon Rivers just to the north and west, respectively. Also, the county is a tourist destination hosting numerous local artists, mineral water spas, and a large amount of outdoor recreation that includes fishing, boating, wildlife, hunting, and mountain scenery. The region is known for the famed Apple Butter Festival held annually in October. Morgan County is also the home of an important silica mine, part of U.S. Silica.
Hardy County is a county in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,299. Its county seat is Moorefield. The county was created from Hampshire County in 1786 and named for Samuel Hardy, a distinguished Virginian.
Berkeley County is located in the Shenandoah Valley in the eastern panhandle region of West Virginia in the United States. The county is part of the Hagerstown–Martinsburg metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the county population was 122,076, making it the second-most populous of West Virginia's 55 counties, behind Kanawha County. The City of Martinsburg is the county seat.
Capon Bridge is a town in eastern Hampshire County, West Virginia, United States, along the Northwestern Turnpike, approximately 20 miles (32 km) west of Winchester, Virginia. The population was 418 at the 2020 census. Originally known as "Glencoe", Capon Bridge was incorporated in 1902 by the Hampshire County Circuit Court. It is named because of the construction of the bridge over the Cacapon River at that place, the name of the river being derived from the Shawnee Cape-cape-de-hon, meaning "river of medicine water".
Romney is a town in and the county seat of Hampshire County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 1,722 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Winchester, Virginia metropolitan area. The town was established in 1762 along with Shepherdstown; together, they are the two oldest towns in West Virginia.
Wardensville is a town in Hardy County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 265 at the 2020 census. Originally named Trout Run, Wardensville was chartered in Virginia in 1832 and incorporated in West Virginia in 1879. Wardensville is located west of the Great North Mountain range, which separates it from the Shenandoah Valley. The town lies on the east bank of the Cacapon River at its confluence with Trout Run. The George Washington and Jefferson National Forests border the town to its east and south.
Berkeley Springs is a town in, and the county seat of, Morgan County, West Virginia, United States, in the state's eastern panhandle. Berkeley Springs is also commonly used to refer to the area in and around the Town of Bath. In 1776, the Virginia Legislature incorporated a town around the springs and named it Bath. Since 1802, it has been referred to by the name of its original post office, Berkeley Springs. The population was 758 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Hagerstown–Martinsburg metropolitan area.
The Cacapon River, located in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia's eastern panhandle region, is an 81.0-mile-long (130.4 km) shallow river known for its fishing, boating, wildlife, hunting, and wilderness scenery. As part of the Potomac River watershed, it is an American Heritage River.
Hooks Mills is an unincorporated community in Hampshire County, West Virginia, United States. It is located on Hooks Mill Road which intersects Cacapon River Road 4.5 miles south of Capon Bridge. Hooks Mills is named for the saw and grist mill on the Cacapon River run by the Hook family from 1848 to the late 1930s.
Fort Pearsall was an early frontier fort constructed in 1756 in Romney, West Virginia to protect local settlers in the South Branch Potomac River valley against Native American raids. The area around present-day Romney had been settled as early as 1725 by hunters and traders in the valley.
Capon Chapel, also historically known as Capon Baptist Chapel and Capon Chapel Church, is a mid-19th century United Methodist church located near to the town of Capon Bridge, West Virginia, in the United States. Capon Chapel is one of the oldest existing log churches in Hampshire County, along with Mount Bethel Church and Old Pine Church.
Cacapon Mountain runs northwest through Morgan and Hampshire Counties in West Virginia's eastern panhandle, rising to its greatest elevation of 2,618 feet (798 m) above sea-level at High Point. Cacapon Mountain is a folded mountain ridge, belonging to the Appalachian Ridge and Valley Province. Cacapon Mountain spans 16 miles (26 km) NNE to the Potomac River near Great Cacapon.
U.S. Route 50 in West Virginia runs from the border with Ohio to Virginia, passing briefly through Garrett County, Maryland, and following the Northwestern Turnpike. Prior to the U.S. Highway System it was West Virginia Route 1 and in the 1930s, the road was not finished in Maryland. Today the section of US 50 from Clarksburg to Parkersburg on the Ohio River is part of Corridor D of the Appalachian Development Highway System.
The Capon and North Branch Turnpike was a 19th-century turnpike in Hampshire County in the U.S. state of Virginia. The turnpike facilitated increased communication and transportation between Cumberland, Maryland and Winchester, Virginia via the Northwestern Turnpike in Capon Bridge, West Virginia. As of July 2010, the Capon and North Branch Turnpike's original route is made up of segments of West Virginia Route 28, Springfield Pike, Slanesville Pike, and Cold Stream Road.
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.
The Capon Lake Whipple Truss Bridge, formerly known as South Branch Bridge or Romney Bridge, is a historic Whipple truss bridge in Capon Lake, West Virginia. It is located off Carpers Pike and crosses the Cacapon River. The bridge formerly carried Capon Springs Road over the river, connecting Capon Springs and Capon Lake.
Hebron Church is a mid-19th-century Lutheran church in Intermont, Hampshire County, in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Hebron Church was founded in 1786 by German settlers in the Cacapon River Valley, making it the first Lutheran church west of the Shenandoah Valley. The congregation worshiped in a log church, which initially served both Lutheran and Reformed denominations. Its congregation was originally German-speaking; the church's documents and religious services were in German until 1821, when records and sermons transitioned to English.