Marshall County, West Virginia
History, Records, Facts and Genealogy

Marshall County was created by an act of the Virginia General Assembly on March 12, 1835, from parts of Ohio County.

County Seat - The Marshall County Court was organized in 1835 in a school building in Elizabethtown at what is now the corner of First Street and Baker Avenue, Moundsville. The first courthouse at the present site on Seventh Street was used from 1836 to 1875, when the present building was constructed. It was completely renovated and enlarged in 1974. A Civil War monument stands at the corner of the Courthouse lawn flanked by two restored Civil War cannons. At the side of the building is a fountain and monument dedicated to the memory of all war veterans.

County Name - The county was named in honor of John Marshall (1755-1835). John Marshall was born in Germantown, Virginia on September 24, 1755. He served as a soldier during the American Revolutionary War and, after leaving the army in 1781 was licensed to practice law in his home county (Fauquier County). He served as a member of the Virginia General Assembly (1782-1791) and was named a special envoy to France in 1797. In 1798, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives representing Virginia from 1799 to 1800. He was then named Secretary of State by President Thomas Jefferson (1800-1801), and was selected Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court (1801-1835). The court's rulings during his tenure in office, especially Marbury vs. Madison (1803) which established the court's right of judicial review, established Marshall as one of the greatest Chief Justices in American political history. He died on July 6, 1835.

See also Extended History for more historical details.

Areas adjacent to Marshall County are Ohio County (north), Washington County, Pennsylvania (northeast), Greene County, Pennsylvania (east), Wetzel County (south), Monroe County, Ohio (southwest), Belmont County, Ohio (northwest). Marshall County Cities and Towns Include Benwood, Cameron, Dallas, Glen Dale, Glen Easton, McMechen, Moundsville, Proctor, Wheeling

Official County Government/ Community Website
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Marshall County Court Records

Marshall County Vital Records

Marshall County Census Records

Marshall County Maps & Atlases

Marshall County Military Records

Marshall County Tax Records

Marshall County Genealogical Addresses

Marshall County Church & Cemeteries

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

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Marshall County, West Virginia Family Books at Amazon.com

Extended History

The First Settlers

The first native settlers along the Ohio River in the area of present-day Marshall County were the Mound Builders, also known as the Adena people. Remnants of the Mound Builder's civilization have been found throughout the Ohio River Valley, with a high concentration of artifacts located at Moundsville. The Grave Creek Indian Mound, located in the center of Moundsville, is one of West Virginia's most famous historic landmarks. More than 2,000 years old, it stands 69 feet high and 295 feet in diameter. It was acquired by the state in 1917.

The mound was discovered by James Tomlinson and was opened under the supervision of Abelard B. Tomlinson in 1838. He discovered a vault 111 feet from the northern side containing the skeletal remains of two Indians, one of them surrounded with 650 ivory beads and wearing an ivory ornament about six inches long. The mound also contained ashes and bits of bones that are believed to be the remnants of Indians burned prior to their internment in the mound. Another vault was discovered near the top of the mound, containing a skeleton wearing beads, seashells and copper bracelets. An inscribed stone was removed from the vault and is on display at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.

According to missionary reports, several thousand Hurons occupied present-day West Virginia during the late 1500s and early 1600s. The powerful Iroquois Confederacy (consisting of the Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga, Oneida and Seneca tribes, and joined later by the Tuscaroras tribe) drove then from the state during the 1600s. The Iroquois Confederacy was headquartered in New York and was not interested in occupying present-day West Virginia. Instead, they used it as a hunting ground during the spring and summer months.

During the early 1700s, the Mingo made their home in both the Tygart Valley and along the Ohio River near present-day Marshall County. The Mingo were not actually an Indian tribe, but a multi-cultural group of Indians that established several communities within present-day West Virginia. They lacked a central government and, like all other Indians within the region at that time, were subject to the control of the Iroquois Confederacy. The Mingo originally lived closer to the Atlantic Coast, but European settlement pushed them into western Virginia and eastern Ohio.

Just prior to the outbreak of the French and Indian War (1755-1763), George Washington, then a British officer, reported seeing Mingo campfires near Follansbee, just north of present-day Marshall County (in Brooke County). During the war, the Mingo, Shawnee, and Delaware Indians allied themselves with the French. Unfortunately for the Mingo, the French lost the war and ceded the all of its North American possessions to the English. The Mingo then retreated to their homes along the banks of the Ohio River.

During the American Revolution (1776-1783), the Mingo allied themselves with the British. In 1777, a party of 350 Wyandots, Shawnees, and Mingos, 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. The Indians then left the Fort celebrating their victory. For the remainder of the war, smaller raiding parties of Mingo and other Indian tribes terrorized settlers throughout the Northern Panhandle region. As a result, European settlement in the region came to a virtual standstill until the war's conclusion. Following the war, the Mingo, once again allied with the losing side, returned to their homes along the banks of the Ohio River. However, as the number of settlers in the region began to grow, and with their numbers depleted by the war, the Mingo decided to move further inland.

The most famous Mingo in West Virginia history was known to the European settlers as Logan. His real name was Talgayeeta. His father was a member of the Cayuga tribe and originally lived in central Pennsylvania. His father had taken the name Logan after a Pennsylvania official named John Logan. In 1763, Logan moved west to the Ohio River where he established a small settlement consisting of primarily of members of his extended family. Logan and the other members of his settlement were considered friendly and cooperative by most settlers in the region, until his settlement was attacked by English settlers on April 30, 1774. The attack occurred on the West Virginia side of the river, just north of present-day Marshall County (in Hancock County). Ten members of Logan's settlement, including two women, were killed and scalped by the settlers. Among the victims were members of Logan's immediate family, including his wife and all but one of his children. Several versions of the massacre circulated on the frontier. Lord Dunmore blamed a settler named Daniel Greathouse while Logan blamed Michael Cresap, a Maryland soldier and land speculator who was building cabins along the Ohio River as a means of securing land. Although the evidence suggests that Cresap was in the vicinity at the time of the massacre, many historians believe that he was not involved in the murders. In any case, following the massacre, Logan allied himself with the British and went on the warpath, leading four deadly raids on the Virginia and Pennsylvania frontiers and instigating what would later be called Lord Dunmore's War of 1774.

Logan gained national fame for his eloquent speech that was delivered during the peace negotiations following the Indians' defeat at the Battle of Point Pleasant in 1774. Logan was not at the decisive Battle of Point Pleasant, but returned to the main Indian camp during the peace negotiations. His famous speech was not delivered in council, but was given to Colonel John Gibson who wrote it down and delivered it on Logan's behalf during the negotiations. The speech was later published in many newspapers across the nation:

I appeal to any white man to say if he ever entered Logan's cabin hungry and I gave him not meat; if ever he came cold and naked and I gave him not clothing. During the course of the long and bloody war Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my love for the whites that my countrymen pointed as they passed and said, "Logan is the friend of white men." I had even thought to have lived with you but for the injuries of one man. Colonel Cresap, the last spring, in cold blood and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan, not even sparing my women and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any human creature. This called on me for revenge. I have sought it. I have killed many. I have fully glutted my vengeance. For my county I rejoice at the beams of peace. But do not harbor a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan? Not one.

After Lord Dunmore's War concluded, Logan moved from place to place and, in 1789, joined an Indian raiding party that attacked settlements in southwestern Virginia. He was later killed by one of his own relatives in 1780, near present-day Detroit. He said before his death that he had two souls, one good and the other bad, as he put it "...when the good soul had the ascendant, he [referring to himself] was kind and humane, and when the bad soul ruled, he was perfectly savage, and delighted in nothing but blood and carnage."

European Pioneers and Settlers

Robert Cavelier de La Salle was probably the first European to set foot in present Marshall County. He sailed down the Ohio River in 1669. In 1749, Louis Bienville de Celeron sailed down the Ohio River and may have set foot on the current site of Marshall County. He claimed all of the lands drained by the Ohio River for King Louis XV of France. He met several English fur traders on his journey and ordered them off of French soil and wrote strong letters of reprimand to the colonial governors protesting the English's presence on French soil.

Christopher Gist was the first Englishman to leave a recorded record of his visit to the county. In 1751, he explored the area on behalf of the Ohio Company. It had been granted 500,000 acres of land between the Great Kanawha and Monongahela Rivers by King of Great Britain. They were to forfeit the lands unless the company was able to locate at least 100 families upon the land within seven years. Its efforts to settle the region was, at least partly, responsible for the ensuing French and Indian Wars (1754-1763).

John Wetzel and his family were the first English settlers to build a cabin in the county. They arrived in the vicinity of Sand Hill in 1769 or 1770. Several other settlers, including Ebenezer Zane and his brothers Silas, Jonathan, and Andrew, a Mr. Mercer and a Mr. Bonnett settled nearby that same year. In March 1771, three brothers, Joseph, Samuel and James Tomlinson, Nathaniel Parr, and a man employed by the Tomlinsons named Con O'Neill arrived in the county. The Tomlinson brothers and their companions settled in the flats along Grave Creek, near Moundsville. As settlers continued to move into the region, James Tomlinson decided in 1798 to plat a town. He called it Elizabethtown, in honor of his wife. The first lot in the town was sold for $8 to Andrew Rogers on November 15, 1799. The town grew slowly. It was incorporated on February 17, 1830. At that time, it had about 300 residents. Another town, called Mound City, was begun nearby by Simon Purdy. It was incorporated as Moundsville on January 28, 1832. Its name was derived from the Mammoth Grave Creek Indian Mound, located there.

The act creating the county in 1835 named Elizabethtown the county seat. The act required that the first meeting of the Marshall County Court take place in the brick school house in the town on the first Thursday after the third Monday of May, 1835. On February 23, 1865, Moundsville and Elizabethtown merged into Moundsville.

One of the nation's oldest and largest Indian burial grounds is located in Moundsville. The mound is 69 feet high, 900 feet in circumference at the base, and 50 feet across at the top. It was acquired by the state in 1917. The mound was discovered by James Tomlinson and was opened under the supervision of Abelard B. Tomlinson in 1838. He discovered a vault 111 feet from the northern side containing the skeletal remains of two Indians, one of them surrounded with 650 ivory beads and wearing an ivory ornament about six inches long. The mound also contained ashes and bits of bones that are believed to be the remnants of Indians burned prior to their internment in the mound. Another vault was discovered near the top of the mound, containing a skeleton wearing beads, seashells and copper bracelets. An inscribed stone was removed from the vault and is on display at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.

Important Events of 1800s

On March 12, 1835, the general assembly of Virginia created Marshall County. It was cut from 240 square miles of the lower part of Ohio County. The county was named in honor of John Marshall, who at the time was the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

On Christmas Eve, 1852, the B&O railroad track was completed at Rosby's Rock. The railroad was the first to connect the Atlantic Ocean with the Ohio River. It connected Baltimore, Maryland to Wheeling, Virginia.

On February 23, 1865, Moundsville and Elizabethtown merged. Moundsville became the new county seat.

Important Events of 1900s

On July 10, 1921, a military plane enroute from San Antonio, Texas to Washington, D.C. crashed at Moundsville's Langin Field. Although the pilots survived, five spectators were killed and fifteen automobiles, as well as the airplane, were destroyed. The Wheeling Register called the accident one of the worst in American aviation history.

On April 28, 1924, an explosion occurred at Benwood mine, killing 111 coal miners and trapping many more. Rescue operations took nearly a week. Most of the dead were killed from the initial explosion.

Marshall County, West Virginia
History, Records, Facts and Genealogy

Marshall County Court Records

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

Marshall County Vital Records

See Also Vital Records in West Virginia

Marshall County Census Records

See Also Research In Census Records & Statewide Records that exist for West Virginia

Marshall County Maps & Atlases

See Also Research In State Map Collections

Marshall County Military Records

See Also Military Records in West Virginia

Marshall County Tax Records

See Also Research In Tax Records

Marshall County Genealogical Addresses

See Also Other West Virginia Genealogical Addresses

Marshall County Church & Cemeteries

See Also Church & Cemetery Records in West Virginia

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

Extended History

Marshall County, West Virginia History, Records, Facts and Genealogy

Marshall County Court Records

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

Marshall County Vital Records

See Also Vital Records in West Virginia

Marshall County Census Records

See Also Research In Census Records & Statewide Records that exist for West Virginia

Marshall County Maps & Atlases

See Also Research In State Map Collections

Marshall County Military Records

See Also Military Records in West Virginia

Marshall County Tax Records

See Also Research In Tax Records

Marshall County Genealogical Addresses

See Also Other West Virginia Genealogical Addresses

Marshall County Church & Cemeteries

See Also Church & Cemetery Records in West Virginia

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

Extended History

Marshall County, West Virginia
History, Records, Facts and Genealogy