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Histories of Roane County, West Virginia, its people, places and events.

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History : Roane County Celebrated 107th Birthday in March 1963
Posted by Webmaster on 2006/9/8 20:30:00 (2789 reads)

While West Virginia is this year celebrating her 100th birthday, Roane County has the distinction of already passing that milestone. The county of Roane was created by an act of the Virginia General Assembly on March 11, 1856, seven years before West Virginia became a state. But long before 1856, probably 1814, the first families were living in what is now Roane County. Parts of this county had been surveyed as early as 1785; had been visited by Jesse Hughes, the great scout and Indian fighter, as early a 1774, and a party of soldiers from Fort Pitt, (Pittsburgh) had passed through in 1765.

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History : Roane County Lynching of 1875 Described
Posted by Webmaster on 2006/9/8 20:20:00 (4919 reads)

(Editor's Note: A Roane county lynching of 1875 is described in detail in the following report by C. E. Douglas, of Vienna, a Wood county resident since 1922 and one time officer of the U.S. Treasury Department. A Roane county native, he has been interested in early history of West Virginia since he was a boy and this is the first in a series of columns he will write for The Sunday News.)

About the year 1875 a band of lawless men began terrorizing Roane and adjoining counties. Stores, homes and it has been said that even a train was robbed by them. Silas "Si" Counts who owned a store in Harper district, Roane county and for whom the post office of Countsville was named had been robbed on more than one occasion, his brother Wade Counts it was alleged killed a Jackson county man whom rumor said was connected with the robberies. Upon being arrested Counts furnished an alibi but this was nothing new.

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History : Early History of Roane County, West Virginia
Posted by Jack Nida on 2006/9/8 16:00:00 (4239 reads)

Some of the first families to come to the area of what is now called southeastern Roane County were John Kelly, Ware Long and Francis Garner. They with their families settled along Big Sandy Creek in 1809 about three miles below the mouth of Left Hand Creek. John Ashley and his family followed the next year and the area became known as Ashley's Settlement. These families probably came westward by the Kanawha and Elk Rivers and then up the Big Sandy.

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History : First Government of Roane County Organized
Posted by Webmaster on 2006/8/26 7:20:00 (5529 reads)

Eleven Justices of Roane County met at New California and organized the first government for the newly formed county.

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History : County, Town Named In Honor of Judge
Posted by Webmaster on 2006/8/26 6:50:00 (1726 reads)

The story behind the names of Spencer and Roane.

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