Jackson County, West Virginia: History
In 1674, frontiersman Gabriel Arthur visited a large Native American village, probably the first white person to reach the area. French traders visited by 1696 and British traders by 1703. In 1749, Celeron De Blainville and his party traveling on the Ohio River left lead plates claiming the area for France. Baltimore-born explorer Christopher Gist visited the following year.
In 1770, when the area was still part of the Colony of Virginia, George Washington, his friend Dr. James Craik, and Col. William Crawford surveyed what eventually became Jackson County, staying on their return from Fort Pitt along Sand Creek at an Iroquois village led by Keoshuta and later at his hunting camp (which later became Ravenswood). Washington patented land claims in that area in 1793. and other land was deeded to Albert Gallatin. The future Ravenswood site was acquired by Sallie Ashton, wife of Alexandria, Virginia judge Nicholas Fitzhugh, and purchased from other heirs by Henry Fitzhugh, who moved to and developed the area, including building a saw and gristmill. The first (private) school in the county was opened in Cottageville in 1807, the second school at Murrayville in 1818, followed by a school at Ripley in 1829 and one at Ravenswood in 1839. Hunter and Indian fighter Jesse Hughes (1750-1829) settled in Jackson County, but he and his wife were evicted in their old age for failing to properly secure the title for the farm on which they had lived for decades.
Two years later (in 1831) citizens petitioned for incorporating the county, which was formed from sections of Kanawha, Wood, and Mason Counties, and named for Andrew Jackson, seventh President of the United States.
Ripley, on Big Mill Creek about 12 miles from its confluence with the Ohio River and the location of a bridge on the West Columbia Pike as well as both a sawmill and a flour and grist mill (which also had a carding machine to make wool yarn), was laid out in 1832 and became the county seat; the courthouse was completed by October 1833, although it was not incorporated until 1852 (and re-incorporated in 1867). Ravenswood, about 12 miles further up Big Mill Creek, would be platted the next year by Henry Fitzhugh. Bartholomew Fleming began operating a ferry at Ravenswood in 1840, and a wagon road between Ravenswood and Spencer (which later became Roane County's seat) was completed in the early 1840s. However, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad would not reach Ravenswood and Spencer (on the Wheeling to Huntington line) until 1886. Jackson County's population in 1840 was 4,890.
Increased settlement led to the formation of two additional counties from parts of what had been Jackson County. In 1848, the Virginia General Assembly authorized the creation of Wirt County from inland portions of Jackson and Wood Counties. In 1856, the Virginia General Assembly created Roane County from Jackson County. …