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Monongalia County is located in the north-central part of the state. It lies on the Appalachian Plateau and has a terrain that is more hilly than mountainous. The land is drained by the Monongahela and Cheat rivers and their tributaries.
The first known white settlement in the county was made by Thomas Decker in 1758 near the junction of present-day Decker's Creek and the Monongahela River at Morgantown, but the colony was abandoned after an Indian massacre in 1759. Another settlement at Ice's Ferry along the Cheat River was more successful. It grew into an important shipping and processing center for the iron industry and supported an estimated population of 2,500 at its zenith in the early 1800s.
Monongalia County is the "mother county" of northern West Virginia. The original Monongalia County was larger than the state of Delaware. It was formed in 1776, during the governorship of Patrick Henry, from the Virginia District of West Augusta. The county was named for the Monongahela River, and though spelled differently, both words are taken from the Algonquian Indian tongue and mean 'river of sliding.' Twenty counties were later formed from this original county, 17 in West Virginia and three in Pennsylvania. In 1790, there were 1,768 people living in Monongalia County.
The Monongahela River was used from the time of the earliest settlements to float goods down the river to markets on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. The first steamboat came to Morgantown in 1826, but navigation of the river by heavy ships was possible only at times of high water. The completion of the lock and dam system in the late 1880s and early 1890s made year-round slack-water navigation of the river a reality.
During the Civil War, the people of Monongalia County were overwhelmingly opposed to secession, and many supported the creation of the new state of West Virginia. Waitman T. Willey (1811-1900) played a large part in the statehood movement and was the first senator from the new state, serving until 1871. Several companies of Union soldiers were raised in the county. Though there were no major battles fought within the confines of the county's borders, one of the most famous Confederate raids occurred at Morgantown in April of 1863, when 2,000 Confederate troops, led by Generals William Jones and John Imboden, invaded Morgantown to gather supplies and horses.
Monongalia County is underlaid by several seams of coal, including the Pittsburgh seam -- one of the most valuable coal seams in the world. Coal production began after the Civil War, with two mining establishments producing in the county by 1870. Major commercial mining operations began in the 1880s and reached 11,780,607 tons by 1925. The size of the population of the county in this period reflects this boom, doubling from 24,334 in 1910 to 50,083 in 1930. Glass has also been a major industry in the county, especially in Morgantown.
Morgantown, the county seat, was founded in 1766-68 by Col. Zackquill Morgan on the site of an earlier settlement established in 1758 by Thomas Decker. It became the county seat in 1782 and was named in honor of Morgan and incorporated in 1785.
Morgantown is the site of the main campus of West Virginia University, the state's largest educational institution. The school is the outgrowth of three earlier academies established in Morgantown -- Monongalia Academy (1814), Morgantown Female Academy (1831) and the Woodburn Female Seminary (1858). This property was given to the State of West Virginia in 1867 and, under the provisions of the Morrill Act of 1862, the West Virginia Agricultural College was established. The name was changed to West Virginia University in 1868.
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(From E. Lee North's 'The 55 West Virginias,' published by West Virginia University Press. Used with permission.)
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