This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/CFC.2ACI/984 Message Board Post: THE FORMATION OF HARRISON, WOOD, JACKSON, RITCHIE, WIRT, AND PLEASANTS COUNTIES, VIRGINIA (Now West Virginia) When Augusta county had been formed in 1738 it had included all the "utmost parts of West Virginia" and extended from the Blue Ridge to the Mississippi. From its original limits have been carved West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. But gradually this was being divided and subdivided. For example, in 1778, after Clark's campaign, the county of Illinois was created to include all of Virginia west of the Ohio, and in 1783, this vast territory was added to the Union. In 1776, the first Assembly of the newly declared Commonwealth of Virginia passed an act dividing what has been known as the district of West Augusta into three counties --- Monogalia, Ohio and Youghiogheny. Then in May, 1784, an act of the Assembly provided the "From and after the 20th of July next, the county of Monongalia shaw be divided into two distinct counties by a line beginning on the Maryland line at the Fork Ford on the land of John GOFF, thence down the said creek to Tygart's Valley ford: thence up the said creek to the line of Ohio county, and that part of said coutny lying south of the line shall be called and known by the name of the county of Harrison." Wood county was formed from Harrison by an act of Assembly Dec. 21, 1798 by which was declared a certain section of land "shall from and after the first day of May next, from one distinct county to be called and known by the name of Wood county." It was named in honor of General James WOOD, then governor of Virginia, whose father was the founder of Winchester, and who had himself done vallant service during the Revolution. Parts of Wood county subseqently were cut off and became protions of the new counties of Jackson (1831); Ritchie (1843); Wirt (1848); and Pleasants (1851), and the ultimate area as it now exists is 375 square miles. ---The Sentinel Parkersburg, West Virginia June, 1939 - Anniversary Edition Sec. 8 Pg. 7, Col. 3 Estracted by Debbie (Noland) Nitsche Diamonddeb@comcast.net March 2004