West Virginia County Information
Creation and Naming of West Virginia Counties
Click on a county name in the
dropdown list for details
(sorted in order of formation)
West Virginia County Creation and Name Data
ID | County | Year Formed | Creation Statute | Formed From | Legislative Petition at Library of Virginia | Eponym | County Name Information | Eponym Description | Eponym Time Relation To County Creation | Legislation Passed | Effective Date | Notes |
1 | Hampshire | 1754 | Link to statute | Augusta, Frederick | Link to petition | County Hampshire, England | Link to name information | English county | | 11/27/1753 | 5/1/1753 | English county famous for its very fat hogs |
This county was created by the State of
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2010 Census Data
ID | County | Population | County Seat | Housing Units | Total Area sq mi | Water Area sq mi | Land Area sq mi | Population Density per sq mi | Housing Units per sq mi |
1 | Hampshire | 23,964 | Romney | 13,688 | 645 | 4.38 | 640 | 37.4 | 21.4 |
Links to Maps of WV (Va.) Counties (maps may not display properly on
some mobile devices)
Present(Bing)
Present(Google)
1953
1927
1901
1862
1845
1831
1818
1804
1796
- Eponyms are mentioned in legislation forming seven West Virginia
counties. One county specified its eponym by petition.
- Five counties were formed after West Virginia became a state in
1863.
- Most of the links under Creation Statute point to the
HathiTrust Digital Libary.
HathiTrust is a partnership of academic
and research institutions, offering a
collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the
world.
- Links under Legislative Petitions at Library of Virginia point to
digitized legislative petitions by inhabitants of a county/counties for
division of a county/counties to form a new county at the Library of
Virginia (LVA). The LVA
Legislative Petitions web page provides for searches of their hard
copy petitions as well as the digitized versions. The digital
legislative petition database is an ongoing project to digitize the petition
collection starting alphabetically with Accomack County.
- Links under County Name Information generally point to
Wikipedia pages
about the county eponym.