Harrison County, West Virginia: History
=== Prehistory and early settlement ===
Evidence of prehistoric Indigenous occupation survives in Harrison County at the Oak Mounds, two burial mounds near Clarksburg.
European-American settlement began in the 18th century. Trapper John Simpson settled along the West Fork River in 1764. During the conflicts on the western Virginia frontier in the early 1770s, settlers constructed forts along the region's rivers. Nutter's Fort was built on Elk Creek in 1772. In 1773, Daniel Davisson claimed land near the confluence of Elk Creek and the West Fork River where Clarksburg later developed. By 1780, settlers there had built their adjoining houses in a defensive arrangement.
Settlement also developed along Simpson Creek in what became Bridgeport. The area was settled between 1771 and 1774, where settlers constructed a fort and established Simpson Creek Baptist Church.
By the end of the American Revolutionary War, settlement along the West Fork River had increased sufficiently for the Virginia General Assembly to create Harrison County from part of Monongalia County in 1784. The county was named for Benjamin Harrison V, who served as governor of Virginia from 1781 to 1784.
The first meeting of the Harrison County court was held on July 20, 1784, at the home of George Jackson. Clarksburg became the county seat and was chartered by the Virginia General Assembly in 1785.
Clarksburg developed as a center of government, law and education for northwestern Virginia. The Virginia General Assembly established Randolph Academy there in 1787, and a federal judicial district was established at Clarksburg in 1819.
Agriculture was an important part of the county's early economy. By the mid-19th century, Harrison County was known for cattle production. The opening of the Northwestern Turnpike in 1838 allowed cattle collected at Clarksburg to be driven east to Baltimore. The arrival of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in the 1850s improved access to eastern markets, and by 1863 Harrison County led the new state of West Virginia in beef cattle production.
Transportation links made Harrison County strategically important during the American Civil War. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad made Clarksburg an important Union supply base. Clarksburg was also the site of an 1861 rally associated with the movement that led to the creation of West Virginia.
Political and military loyalties within the county were divided. In the Bridgeport area, residents supported both the Union and Confederacy. During the Jones–Imboden Raid, Confederate forces under General William E. Jones captured a company of Union soldiers near Bridgeport on April 30, 1863, and destroyed railroad infrastructure in the area.
West Virginia entered the Union as the 35th state on June 20, 1863, and Harrison County became part of the new state. …