Rockingham County/West Virginia

Z-213

Rockingham County During its October 1777 session, the Virginia General Assembly carved Rockingham County out of a large portion of Augusta County. The first court was held on 27 April 1778. Rockingham County was named for Charles Watson Wentworth, second marquis of Rockingham, a British prime minister who helped secure the repeal of the Stamp Act. During the Civil War, Stonewall Jackson concluded his famous Valley campaign with victories at Cross Keys and at Port Republic, 8–9 June 1862. Rockingham County is known for its poultry industry, particularly its turkey production. West Virginia Describing the contrast between both the “placid and delightful” Shenandoah and the “wild and tremendous” mountains in western Virginia, now West Virginia, Thomas Jefferson wrote in his Notes on the State of Virginia, “This scene is worth a voyage across the Atlantic.” According to tradition, the first European pioneer to settle in West Virginia was Morgan Morgan, a Welshman who immigrated to Mill Creek and acquired his land in November 1730; however, German immigrants were probably in the Shepherdstown area by 1727. In 1861, many counties in western Virginia opposed secession. As a result of this, several of these western counties formed the new state of West Virginia in 1863.

Department of Historic Resources, 2005

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Raus McDill Hanson, Virginia Place Names: Derivations, Historical Uses (Verona, Va.: McClure Press, 1969); Nancy B. Hess, comp. and ed., The Heartland: “Rockingham County,” (Harrisonburg, Va.: Park View Press, 1976); John A. Paul, “Address in Observance of Rockingham County’s Bicentennial,” from The Rockingham Recorder, Vol. III, April 1979; Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia (Chapel Hill, N.C.: Published for the Institute of Early American History and Culture at Williamsburg, Va., by The University of North Carolina Press, 1955); Otis K. Rice, West Virginia: A History (Lexington, Ky.: The University Press, 1985); Emily J. Salmon and Edward D. C. Campbell, Jr., eds., The Hornbook of Virginia History, 4th ed. (Richmond: Library of Virginia, 1994); John W. Wayland, A History of Rockingham County, Virginia (Ruesbush-Elkins Company, Dayton, Va., 1912); John Alexander Williams, West Virginia: A Bicentennial History (New York: Published for the Association of State and Local History by W. W. Norton & Co., Inc., 1976).