Grant County, West Virginia

Grant County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Petersburg
Year Organized: 1866
Square Miles: 477

Court House:

5 Highland Avenue
County Courthouse
Petersburg, WV 26847-1705

Named: For Ulysses S. Grant Army during the Civil War, Secretary of War (1868), and 18th President of the United States (1869-1877).

State & County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

Early History of Grant County, West Virginia

Grant County was created by an act of the state legislature on February 14, 1866 from parts of Hardy County. It was named in honor of General Ulysses Simpson Grant (1822-1885), graduate of the Military Academy at West Point, General of the Union Army during the Civil War, Secretary of War (1868), and 18th President of the United States (1869-1877). Although his two Presidential Administrations were rocked by scandals, and historians generally consider him one of the nation's least respected Presidents, he remained very popular with the public for his accomplishments during the Civil War.

When the county was originally formed, the county seat was temporarily held at John May's Mill, near the North Fork of Luney's Creek. Soon afterwards, a courthouse was constructed in Maysville, named for John and Henry May, two brothers who settled there in 1831.

Most historians believe that Petersburg, the current site for the county seat, was named for Jacob Peterson in 1745. He operated the first general store in the area. Others suggest that it may have been named for Peter Jefferson, father of Thomas Jefferson, who was part of the John Lewis surveying party that passed through the county in 1746.
When the first post office was opened within the present site of Petersburg in 1833 the town was renamed Lunice Creek because Virginia already had a Petersburg. The town was incorporated in 1845 as Lunice Creek. The original name for the town was restored when West Virginia became a state. The town was incorporated by the West Virginia legislature in 1910.

The Fairfax Stone, marking Maryland's southwestern border, is situated in the extreme western angle of the county. It was placed there on October 17, 1746.

Neighboring Counties:

North: Garrett County, Md.
Northeast: Mineral County; Hampshire County
Southeast: Hardy County
Southwest: Pendleton County; Randolph County
West: Tucker County

Cities:

Arthur
Bayard
Cabins
Dorcas
Gormania
Lahmansville
Landes Station

Maysville
Medley
Mount Storm
Petersburg (County Seat)
Wilson

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resource Guide

The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of our country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."

Penn Foster High School

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