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Hardy County History and Information

Hardy County Facts

See D.O.T. Maps for a Detailed County Map

Hardy County was authorized by the Virginia General Assembly on December 10, 1785 and organized in February 1786 from parts of Hampshire County. It was named in honor of Samuel Hardy (1758-1785). He was born in Isle, Wight County Virginia in 1758 and graduated from William and Mary College in 1781. An attorney, he served in the Virginia General Assembly in 1777 and in 1781, represented Virginia in the Continental Congress in 1783 and 1785, served briefly as Virginia's lieutenant governor and was a signer of the Deed of Cession that transferred the Northwest territory to the American government. He died in New York in October 1785.

County Seat - Moorefield was charted by the Virginia General Assembly in 1777. The town was located on Conrad Moore's land and named in his honor.
Hardy County's first county court meeting took place on February 7, 1786 at William Bullitt's home in Moorefield. Jonathan Heath, Abraham Hite, Robert Pogue, Abel Ruddle, Stephen Ruddle, Felix Seymour, Michael Stump, William Vause, Garrett Van Meter, Job Welton, and Vincent Williams served as Justices of the Peace. Brigadier General Joseph Neville, of Mount Storm, was named County Sheriff. He previously served as Hampshire County's Surveyor and, at a later meeting, was named Hardy County Surveyor as well. Edward Williams was appointed County Clerk.

. See also Extended History for more historical details.

Areas adjacent to Hardy County are Hampshire County (north), Frederick County, Virginia (east), Shenandoah County, Virginia (southeast), Rockingham County, Virginia (south), Pendleton County (southwest), Grant County (west). Hardy County Cities and Towns Include Baker, Fisher, Lost City, Lost River, Mathias, Milam, Moorefield, Old Fields, Rig, Wardensville

Official County Government/ Community Website
Hardy County, West Virginia History Books at Amazon.com
Family History Library - The largest collection of free family history, family tree and genealogy records in the world.

Hardy County Court Records

See Also West Virginia Land Records, Marriage Records, Court & Probate Records

PLEASE READ!! Please call the clerk's department to confirm hours, mailing address, fees and other specifics before visiting or requesting information because of sometimes changing contact information.

Hardy County Clerk has Land Records from 1786, Marriage Records from 1795, Probate Records from 1786 and Birth & Death Records from 1853 -Present and is located at the Courthouse, 204 Washington Street, Moorefield, WV 26836; 304-538-2929, Fax: 304-538-6832 .
The County Clerk's many duties include some of the following: the issuance of marriage licenses, birth and death certificates, record births, marriages and deaths in the county, serve as the recorder of all documents, prepare and send to all heirs a Notice to Redeem and take care of publications, redemptions or recording deeds with regard to delinquent property, issue military service discharge records and probate wills and assist in administration of estates.

Hardy County Clerk of Circuit Court has Court Records from 1786 and is located at the Courthouse, 204 Washington Street, Moorefield, WV 26836-1155; 304-538-7869, Fax: 304-538-6197 .
The County Clerk of the Circuit Court's many duties include some of the following: Serve as the Clerk to the Circuit and Family Court, Issue mesne (during the progress of a case) process, Issue final process to enforce and execute judgements, Appoint guardian ad litem where required, Responsible for all papers filed in the office; serve as registrar, recorder and custodian for all pleadings, documents and funds pertaining to cases filed in circuit court and family court, Responsible for the administration and management of the petit and grand jury systems in the county.

Since West Virginia was part of Virginia prior to 1863, see Virginia Databases for all records before that date.

Click Here to Search West Virginia Court, Land, Wills & Financial Records! - Researchers often overlook the importance of court records, probate records, and land records as a source of family history information.

Below is a list of online resources for Hardy County Court Records. Email us with websites containing Hardy County Court Records by clicking the link below:

West Virginia Marriage Records, 1863-1900
Hardy County, West Virginia Court Books at Amazon.com
West Virginia Immigration & Emigration Records - Immigration records help the family historian to understand the movements of their ancestry as they relocated to different parts of the world.

Hardy County Vital Records

See Also Research In Tax Records

While people were taxed in Virginia prior to 1782, not many tax lists for that early period have survived, and the originals that have survived are at the Virginia State Library. Colonial period taxes were imposed on the personal property of males who were twenty-one and older, and called "tithables." While there is no comprehensive list or collection of early tax lists, many fragments are printed throughout Virginia genealogical literature

West Virginia has one of the most complete sets of old tax records in existence. Land tax records dating from 1782 to 1936 for all counties, with some through 1959, are available at the Archives and History Library in Charleston. Most county clerks have duplicate copies in their offices. As noted in the section on Virginia, the Virginia State Library has the original unindexed personal property tax records from 1782 to 1863.

Below is a list of online resources for Hardy County Tax Records. Email us with websites containing Hardy County Tax Records by clicking the link below:

Hardy County, West Virginia Tax Books at Amazon.com

Hardy County Genealogical Addresses

The Repositories in this section are Archives, Libraries, Museums, Genealogical and Historical Societies. Many County Historical and Genealogical Societies publish magazines and/or news letters on a monthly, quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis. Contacting the local societies should not be over looked. State Archives and Societies are usually much larger and better organized with much larger archived materials than their smaller county cousins but they can be more generalized and over look the smaller details that local societies tend to have. Libraries can also be a good place to look for local information. Some libraries have a genealogy section and may have some resources that are not located at archives or societies. Also, take a special look at any museums in the area. They sometimes have photos and items from years gone by as well as information of a genealogical interest. All these places are vitally important to the family genealogist and must not be passed over.

Below is a list of online resources for Hardy County Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing Hardy County Genealogical Addresses by clicking the link below:

Hardy County Historical Society, P. O. Box 380, Moorefield, WV 26836
Local West Virginia Researchers, Find a local researcher or become a local researcher.
West Virginia Archives and History, The Cultural Center; 1900 Kanawha Boulevard, E.; Charleston, WV 25305-0300. Read here before requesting research
Publication: West Virginia History. This facility consists of the library, archives, and a museum containing materials from 1760 to present.
West Virginia Genealogical Society, Post Office Box 249, Elkview, West Virginia 25071
West Virginia Historical Society, PO Box 5220, Charleston, WV 25361
West Virginia Newspapers & Periodicals Records - Newspapers and periodicals are the diaries of local communities. They are excellent sources of family history details - often recorded nowhere else. Look for obituaries, marriages, legal notices, and more found in our Historical Newspaper Archives.
West Virginia Genealogical Society Books at Amazon.com

Hardy County Church & Cemeteries

Click Here to Search West Virginia Obituary Records! - This database is a compilation of obituaries published in U.S. newspapers, collected from various online sources. Obituaries can vary in the amount of information they contain, but many of them are genealogical goldmines, including information such as names, dates, places of birth and death, marriage information, and family relationships.

There are many churches and cemeteries in Hardy County. Some transcriptions are online. A great site is the Hardy County Tombstone Transcription Project.

Many religious groups have deposited their records at the West Virginia and Regional History Collection. Church record inventories compiled as part of the Historical Records Survey are available there and at the FHL. For a complete discussion of early church records, see Virginia-Church Records.

The most extensive collection of West Virginia tombstone inscriptions was compiled by the Historical Records Survey. Available at the West Virginia and Regional History Collection and on microfilm at the FHL, the collection includes inscriptions through 1939-40. The DAR and others have published volumes of cemetery records.

Below is a list of online resources for Hardy County Cemetery & Church Records. Email us with websites containing Hardy County Cemetery & Church Records by clicking the link below:

Find Obituaries in The World's Largest Newspaper Archive at NewpaperArchive.com! - Find thousands of West Virginia obituaries to help you research your family history. Search for a West Virginia newspaper obituary about your ancestor or a celebrity. Begin your search today and find death notices and funeral announcements printed in newspapers from West Virginia.
West Virginia Cemetery Readings, 1941
Hardy County, West Virginia Cemetery Books at Amazon.com
Hardy County, West Virginia Church Books at Amazon.com

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

Click Here to Search West Virginia Family Tree Records! - The use of published genealogies, electronic files containing genealogical lineage, and other compiled sources can be of tremendous value to a researcher.

When view family trees online or not, be sure to only take the info at face value and always follow up with your own sources or verify the ones they provide. Below is a list of online resources for Hardy County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information. Email us with websites containing Hardy County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:

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Sites on USGenweb: [ Hardy County ] [ West Virginia ] [ Main Page ]
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Nichols and Related Families of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virgina.
West Virginia Family & Local History Records - The Family & Local Histories Collection lets you read journals, memoirs, and other first-hand historical narratives right on your computer. Gathered from some of the world's finest libraries, these materials may provide hard-to-find town, county, and state information; tax records and wills; military, church, and court records; as well as photographs, stories, and maps.
Genealogical Document Search and Retrieval Service
Hardy County, West Virginia Family Books at Amazon.com

County History

The First Settlers

The first native settlers in West Virginia's Potomac Highlands (Grant, Hampshire, Hardy, Mineral, Pendleton, Pocahontas, Randolph, and Tucker counties) were the Mound Builders, also known as the Adena people. Remnants of the Mound Builder's civilization have been found throughout West Virginia, with many artifacts found in the Northern Panhandle, especially in Marshall County.

The following is a brief history overview:

Several thousand Hurons occupied present-day West Virginia during the late 1500s and early 1600s.
During the 1600s, the Iroquois Confederacy (then consisting of the Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga, Oneida, and Seneca tribes) drove the Hurons from the state and used it primarily as a hunting ground.
During the early 1700s, the Shawnee, Mingo, Delaware, and other Indian tribes also used present-day West Virginia as a hunting ground. West Virginia's Potomac Highlands was inhabited by the Tuscarora. They eventually migrated northward to New York and, in 1712, became the sixth nation to formally be admitted to the Iroquois Confederacy. The Cherokee Nation claimed southern West Virginia.
In 1744, Virginia officials purchased the Iroquois title of ownership to West Virginia in the Treaty of Lancaster.
The Delaware, Mingo, and Shawnee sided with the French during the French and Indian War (1755-1763). The Iroquois Confederacy officially remained neutral, but many in the Iroquois Confederacy allied with the French.
When the French and Indian War was over, England's King George III feared that more tension between Native Americans and settlers was inevitable. In an attempt to avert further bloodshed, he issued the Proclamation of 1763, prohibiting settlement west of the Allegheny Mountains. The Proclamation was, for the most part, ignored.
During the summer of 1763, Ottawa Chief Pontiac led raids on key British forts in the Great Lakes region. Shawnee Chief Keigh-tugh-qua, also known as Cornstalk, led similar raids on western Virginia settlements. The uprisings ended on August 6, 1763 when British forces, under the command of Colonel Henry Bouquet, defeated Delaware and Shawnee forces at Bushy Run in western Pennsylvania.
In 1768, the Iroquois Confederacy (often called the Six Nations) and the Cherokee signed the Treaty of Hard Labour and the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, relinquishing their claims on the territory between the Ohio River and the Alleghenies to the British.
In April 1774, the Yellow Creek Massacre took place near Wheeling. Among the dead were Mingo Chief Logan's brother and pregnant sister. Violence then escalated intoLord Dunmore's War.
On October 10, 1774, Colonel Andrew Lewis and approximately 800 men defeated 1,200 Indian warriors led by Shawnee Chief Cornstalk at the Battle of Point Pleasant, ending Lord Dunmore's War.
The Mingo and Shawnee allied with the British during the American Revolutionary War (1776-1783). One of the more notable battles occurred in 1777 when a war party of 350 Wyandot, Shawnee, and Mingo warriors, armed by the British, attacked Fort Henry, near present-day Wheeling. Nearly half of the Americans manning the fort were killed in the three-day assault. Following the war, the Mingo and Shawnee, once again allied with the losing side, returned to their homes in Ohio. As the number of settlers in the region grew, both the Mingo and the Shawnee move further inland, leaving western Virginia to the white settlers.

Hardy County's European Pioneers and Settlers

In 1725, John Van Meter accompanied a group of Delaware warriors as they traveled through the Potomac Highlands to attack the Catawba Indians. The war party passed through present-day Grant and Hardy counties before being ambushed by a group of Catawba warriors in present-day Pendleton County. John Van Meter escaped, and returned to his home in New York where he told his children about his adventures in western Virginia.

In 1736, John Van Meter's son, Isaac, who has since moved to New Jersey, decided to explore western Virginia for himself. He traveled to present-day Moorefield and established his tomahawk rights to 400 acres of land. He then returned to his New Jersey home and upon his return the following year found James Coburn living on his land. After Isaac paid him some money to resolve the land dispute, James Coburn relocated to present-day Petersburg in Grant County.

In 1739, Isaac Van Meter and his brother, John Van Meter, received a patent for 40,000 acres of land from Virginia Governor William Gooch. John Van Meter received a patent for 30,000 acres in the present-day Martinsburg area, and Isaac Van Meter received a patent for 10,000 acres in the Moorefield area. Lord Fairfax immediately challenged the patents as an infringement on his land holdings. Isaac later sold much of his land to a relative, Jost Hiyt. He kept some property for himself and his other brother, Jacob Van Meter, and moved to Moorefield in 1744. By that time, several families had already settled in the area, including the families of James Howard, John and James Walker, Jonathan Coburn, and James Rutledge. Unfortunately, Jacob Van Meter was killed by Indians a few years after moving to Moorefield, and Isaac Van Meter was killed by Indians in 1757.

Important Events in Hardy County during the 1700s and 1800s

Dr. Moses Hoge, a Presbyterian minister, may have been the first teacher in Hardy County. He taught school in Moorefield from 1782 to 1787.
The first federal census in 1790 reveled that Hardy County had the third largest population (7,336) of the nine counties that were then in existence within present-day West Virginia. Berkeley County had the largest population (19,713) and Randolph County had the smallest population (951). There were 55,873 people living in present-day West Virginia at that time.

In 1797, a large group of Hardy County residents, estimated at 154, left Hardy County seeking better economic opportunities in the West. They settled in New Design, Illinois. New settlement in Hardy County slowed during the early 1800s as most eastern seaboard pioneers traveled north of the county on their way west. In 1820, Hardy County's population had fallen to around 5,700 people.

Recognizing that the county would not grow without a better means of transportation, Hardy County's citizens lobbied the Virginia General Assembly for improved roads. During the late 1830s the Virginia General Assembly commissioned an extension of the Northwest Turnpike from Moorefield to Warm Springs. During the 1840s, the Hardy County Turnpike was also completed. It ran from Moorefield to Winchester, Virginia. These turnpikes and their extensions enabled the expansion of the cattle industry that was rapidly replacing small scale agriculture as the primary means of earning a living in Hardy County.

During the Civil War, most of Hardy County's residents were loyal to the South. The Hardy County Blues, commanded by Captain John C.B. Mullin, became part of the 25th Virginia Infantry under the command of Colonel J. M. Heck. The Hardy Greys, from Moorefield, was organized on March 23, 1861. In June of 1861, it was incorporated as Company F of the 33rd Virginia Infantry under the command of Brigadier General Thomas J. Jackson. Shortly after its formation, the 33rd Virginia fought at the battle of First Manassas (Bull Run). This is where General Jackson earned his famous nickname, "Old Stonewall."

Initially, the Union Army held the advantage and while retreating with his brigade toward high ground, Confederate General Bernard Bee of South Carolina (Jackson's friend from their years together at West Point) spotted Jackson and his troops who had already taken position on the hill. Bee reportedly shouted to his troops, "Look, men, there is Jackson standing like a stone wall! Let us determine to die here, and we will conquer!" His troops then joined Jackson's, held off an assault from the Union Army, and later counterattacked the Union forces and won the day.

As northern control of western Virginia strengthened during the war, southern military support was often in the form of irregulars, troops never officially mustered into the Confederate Army. West Virginia's first governor, Arthur Boreman, considered these irregulars the most serious threat to the new state. Jesse McNeill's Rangers, organized in Hardy County, was the most famous of these irregulars to operate in West Virginia. During 1863 and 1864, they wreaked havoc on the B&O Railroad in the Eastern Panhandle, seizing numerous Union supplies. On February 21, 1865, Captain McNeill and sixty-five hand-picked rangers left the Moorefield area and rode into Cumberland, Maryland. They kidnaped Union Generals George Crook and Benjamin Kelley from their hotel rooms, returned to the Moorefield area, and then sent the captured generals by coach under armed guard to Confederate General Jubal Early in Staunton, Virginia. At the end of the war, McNeill and his rangers surrendered to Union troops under the command of General (and future President) Rutherford B. Hayes.