Doddridge County, West Virginia: History
=== First settlers ===
The area that became Doddridge County, Virginia – now West Virginia – was first settled in the late 1780s by James Caldwell, who owned 20,000 acres (81 km2) of land that included present West Union. Caldwell sold this land to Nathan Davis Jr (1772–1866) and his brothers Joseph and William around 1807. They in turn sold 16,000 acres (65 km2) to Lewis Maxwell (1790–1862), a Virginia Assembly delegate in the 1820s who later became a U.S. Congressman. In 1828 Ephraim Bee, Sr (1802–1888) and his wife Catherine established a log home on Meathouse Fork of Middle Island Creek, now part of West Union. They built an Inn across the "Creek" (really a river) at what was then called Lewisport (Congressman Maxwell's namesake), below a blockhouse on the Northwestern Turnpike. The "Beehive Inn" became a popular place for travelers and locals to meet, refresh themselves and re-provision. Bee operated the first local blacksmith shop; a farm, stables, tannery and horse-racing track soon followed.
According to Ephraim's father, A.A. Bee: "The first bridge across Middle Island Creek [at West Union] was of hewed logs with a center abutment of stones. In the great flood of 1835 it was washed away". In 1842, a contract was awarded to the well-known civil engineer Claudius Crozet to build a covered bridge at West Union, as part of a series of public works along the Turnpike. Ephraim Bee was later to become a district officer, magistrate, state legislator, hotelier, and postmaster. As blacksmith, he made all the bolts and bands for the West Union Covered Bridge, completed in 1843.
Doddridge County was officially created in 1845 from parts of Harrison, Tyler, Ritchie, and Lewis Counties of what was then still Virginia. It was named for Philip Doddridge (1773–1832), the late statesman of western Virginia who was the leading voice for westerners during the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829–1830. When it was announced the new county would be formed, Ephraim Bee rallied to locate the county seat at Lewisport. But Nathan Davis Jr (who was Ephraim's wife's uncle), William Fitz Randolph, and others, won out in favor of West Union, across the river on the south side. There Ethelbert Bond (Nathan's son-in-law and William's wife's cousin) laid out the town lots in regular fashion on land formerly owned by Davis.
Progress of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, on its way from Clarksburg to Parkersburg, reached and bisected the county in 1856.
On the night of March 27, 1858, a fire devastated the town of West Union.
West Virginia became a state following the Wheeling Conventions of 1861, after the American Civil War had begun.
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. Doddridge County was divided into six districts: Central, Grant, McClellan, New Milton, Southwest, and West Union. A seventh district, Greenbrier, was created from part of New Milton in 1885; and an eighth, Cove, was formed from part of Southwest District between 1890 and 1900. The historic magisterial districts were consolidated into four new districts between 1980 and 1990: Beech, Maple, Oak, and Pine.
Maxwell Ridge – named for the Congressman's family – is said to have a cave (Gatrell Cave) that was used by the Underground Railroad in the years leading up to the Civil War. …