Mason County, West Virginia Genealogical Records Information

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Mason County History and Information

Mason County Facts

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

Mason County was created by an act of the Virginia General Assembly on January 2, 1804, from parts of Kanawha County. The county was named in honor of George Mason (1725-1792). He was born in Virginia in 1725, was the author of the Constitution of Virginia, and a member of the Philadelphia constitutional convention that framed the Constitution of the United States during the summer of 1787. Not satisfied with the protections provided state's rights during the deliberations, he refused to sign the document and later opposed its ratification by Virginia.

County Seat - Point Pleasant is the county seat. It was originally chartered in 1794 and incorporated 1833. It is located on the mouth of the Kanawha River. It was named after Camp Point Pleasant, established there by General Andrew Lewis at the time of his famous battle with the Indians in 1774.

The Mason County Courthouse, a tri-level stone structure originally costing about $750,000, was completed in 1957. It replaced the 100-year-old former courthouse. In 1963, the former American Legion Building was purchased as an annex to the Courthouse and remodeled for office use. In 1968, the former Central School lot, located at Sixth and Viand Street, was purchased and converted into a park dedicated to Mason County veterans lost in war and in memory of those who lost their lives in the Silver Bridge Disaster.

See also Extended History for more historical details.

Areas adjacent to Mason County are Meigs County, Ohio (north), Jackson County (east), Putnam County (southeast), Cabell County (southwest), Gallia County, Ohio (west), Mason County Cities and Towns Include Apple Grove, Arbuckle, Ashton, Clifton, Gallipolis Ferry, Glenwood, Grimms Landing, Hartford, Hartford City, Henderson, Lakin, Leon, Letart, Mason, New Haven, Point Pleasant, Robertsburg, Southside, West Columbia

Official County Government/ Community Website
Mason County, West Virginia History Books at Amazon.com
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Mason 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.

Mason County Clerk has Land Records from 1803, Marriage Records from 1806, Probate Records from 1805 and Birth & Death Records from 1853 -Present and is located at the Courthouse, 200 6th Street, Point Pleasant, WV 25550; 304-675-1997, Fax: 304-675-2521 .
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.

Mason County Clerk of Circuit Court has Court Records from 1805 and is located at the Courthouse, 200 6th Street, Point Pleasant, WV 25550-1131; 304-675-4400, Fax: 304-675-7419 .
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 Mason County Court Records. Email us with websites containing Mason County Court Records by clicking the link below:

West Virginia Marriage Records, 1863-1900
Mason 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.

Mason 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 Mason County Tax Records. Email us with websites containing Mason County Tax Records by clicking the link below:

Mason County, West Virginia Tax Books at Amazon.com

Mason 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 Mason County Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing Mason County Genealogical Addresses by clicking the link below:

Mason City Historical Society, 6 Brown Street, Mason, WV 25260; Phone (304) 773-5557
mailing address: 6 Brown Street, Mason, WV 25260
Mason County Genealogical-Historical Society, Henderson, WV 25106
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

Mason 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 Mason County. Some transcriptions are online. A great site is the Mason 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 Mason County Cemetery & Church Records. Email us with websites containing Mason County Cemetery & Church Records by clicking the link below:

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 Mason County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information. Email us with websites containing Mason County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:

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Mason County, West Virginia Family Books at Amazon.com

County History

The First Settlers

The first native settlers along the Ohio River in the area of present-day Mason 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, West Virginia, just north of the county (in Marshall County). 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 sixty-nine feet high and 295 feet in diameter.

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 them 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 Ohio River valley, including present-day Mason County, was primarily used as hunting grounds by the Ohio-based Shawnee, the Mingo, who lived in both the Tygart Valley and along the Ohio River north of Mason County, and the Seneca, one of the largest and most powerful members of the Iroquois Confederacy.

The Shawnee settled in villages along the Ohio River, primarily in the area between present-day Wood and Cabell counties. Following the construction of Fort Pitt in 1758 by the British, the Shawnee moved further in-land and built a series of villages along the Scioto River in southern Ohio. These villages were collectively known as Chillicothe and served as their base camp for hunting and fishing in present-day West Virginia.

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.

The Seneca, headquartered in western New York, was the closest member of the Iroquois Confederacy to West Virginia and took great interest in the state. In 1744, the Seneca boasted to Virginia officials that they had conquered the several nations living on the back of the great mountains of Virginia. Among the conquered nations were the last of the Canawese or Conoy people who became incorporated into some of the Iroquois communities in New York. The Conoy continue to be remembered today through the naming of two of West Virginia's largest rivers after them, the Little Kanawha and the Great Kanawha.

War parties from the Seneca and other members of the Iroquois Confederacy often traveled through the state to protect its claim to southern West Virginia from the Cherokee. The Cherokee were headquartered in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee and rivaled the Iroquois nation in both size and influence. The Cherokee claimed present-day southern West Virginia as their own, setting the stage for conflict with the Iroquois Confederacy.

In 1744, Virginia officials purchased the Iroquois title of ownership to West Virginia in the Treaty of Lancaster. The treaty reduced the Iroquois Confederacy's presence in the Ohio River Valley.

During the mid-1700s, the English had made it clear to the various Indian tribes that they intended to settle the frontier. The French, on the other hand, were more interested in trade. This influenced the Delaware, Mingo, and Shawnee to side with the French during the French and Indian War (1755-1763). Although the Iroquois Confederacy officially remained neutral, many in the Iroquois Confederacy allied with the French. Unfortunately for them, the French lost the war and ceded the all of its North American possessions to the British. The Mingo retreated to their homes along the banks of the Ohio River, and the Shawnee retreated to their homes at Chillicothe.

Although the war was officially over, many Indians continued to see the British as a threat to their sovereignty and continued to fight them. In the summer of 1763, Pontiac, an Ottawa chief, led raids on key British forts. Shawnee chief Keigh-tugh-qua, or Cornstalk, led similar attacks on western Virginia settlements in present-day Greenbrier County. By the end of July, Indians had captured all British forts west of the Alleghenies except Detroit, Fort Pitt, and Fort Niagara. Then, on August 6, 1763, British forces under the command of Colonel Henry Bouquet retaliated and destroyed Delaware and Shawnee forces at Bushy Run in western Pennsylvania, ending the hostilities.

Fearing more tension between Native Americans and settlers, England's King George III issued the Proclamation of 1763, prohibiting settlement west of the Allegheny Mountains. However, many land speculators, including George Washington, violated the proclamation by claiming vast acreage in western Virginia. The next five years were relatively peaceful on the frontier. 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. With the frontier now open, settlers, once again, began to enter into present-day West Virginia.

During the American Revolution (1776-1783), the Mingo and Shawnee 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, Shawnee, and other Indian tribes terrorized settlers throughout the Ohio River Valley and Northern Panhandle regions. As a result, European settlement in the region came to a virtual standstill until the war's conclusion. Following the war, the Mingo and Shawnee, once again allied with the losing side, returned to their homes. However, as the number of settlers in the region began to grow, and with their numbers depleted by the war, both the Mingo and the Shawnee moved further inland.

European Pioneers and Settlers

Robert Cavelier de La Salle was probably the first European to set foot in present-day Mason County. He sailed down the Ohio River in 1669. In 1749, Louis Bienville de Celeron sailed down the Ohio River, and buried a lead plate in present-day Mason County. He claimed all of the lands drained by the Ohio River for King Louis XV of France. His journals indicate that he buried four lead plates at various locations along the Ohio River, but to date only two have been found. 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.

In 1750, Christopher Gist, an agent and surveyor for the Ohio Company, passed through the county. The first European woman to set foot in the county was Mary Ingles. She was taken prisoner by Shawnee Indians on July 8, 1755 at Draper's Meadow (now Blacksburg), Virginia and was forced to accompany the Indians through the county as they returned to Shawnee Village at Chillicothe, Ohio. Her escape four months later and her return through the wilderness to Virginia has a significant place in American folklore.

George Washington was a frequent visitor to the county as early as 1770. He surveyed the present site of Point Pleasant, the county seat made famous by the Battle of Point Pleasant in 1774, and was granted title to some 10,900 acres in the area for his services during the French and Indian Wars (1754-1763).

The Battle of Point Pleasant was considered a turning point in the war against the Indians and a precursor of the American Revolutionary War. During the battle on October 10, 1774, General Andrew Lewis' army of 1,100 waged what was probably the most fiercely contested battle ever fought with the Indians within the state of Virginia. One-half of General Lewis' commissioned officers, including his brother Charles were killed, as were seventy-five of his non-commissioned soldiers. Another 140 soldiers were wounded. The actual number of Indians engaged or killed in the battle is not known, but included warriors from the Shawnee, Delaware, Mingo, Wyandotte and Cayuga tribes, lead by their respective chiefs and by Cornstalk, Sachem of the Shawnees and King of the North Confederacy. The remaining Indians fled into Ohio with Lewis' men in pursuit. Now on the defensive, the Indians later agreed to a peace treaty, ending what had become known as Lord Dunmore's War (John Murray, fourth Earl of Dunmore, was Governor of Virginia at the time).

In 1777, Cornstalk, his son, Elinipsico, Red Hawk, and another prominent Indians were murdered while being held hostage at Fort Blair, which had been built at Point Pleasant following Lewis' victory. They were killed in revenge for the murder of a member of the garrison who had left the fort on a hunting trip while the hostages were there. Cornstalk is buried at the corner of the county courthouse in Point Pleasant.

Ann Bailey, whose first husband was killed at the Battle of Point Pleasant, and was known as "Mad Ann" (see Braxton County history) is also buried in Point Pleasant, in a public park near the battle monument.

Mason County was part of the proposed colony of Vandalia, whose capital was to be at the mouth of the Great Kanawha River, (i.e.. near Point Pleasant). The colony was opposed by the Washington family, primarily because they and their business partners had laid claim to much of the county and feared that the proposal, put forth by George Mercer and his business associates in 1773, would void those claims.

Among the early pioneers who made Mason County their home was Dr. Jesse Bennett. In 1794, he performed the first Cesarean section operation in the United States (on Elizabeth, his wife, saving both her life and the life of their daughter). He settled on 8,000 acres of land, near the home of Andrew Lewis, and served as Surgeon of the Second Virginia Regiment during the War of 1812 and as a member of the jury at Aaron Burr's trial for treason (see Wood County history for details).

Important Events of the 1900s

One of the most tragic events in recent Mason county history was the Collapse of the Silver Bridge on December 15, 1967. Forty-six people died when the bridge, which connected West Virginia and Ohio, collapsed. The bridge was constructed of an unusual eyebar-chain suspension and gave way, folding like a deck of cards. The National Transportation Safety Board later blamed the accident on the bridge's design.

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