Jackson County is a county in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 27,791. Its county seat is Ripley, and its largest municipality is Ravenswood.
History
In 1674, frontiersman Gabriel Arthur visited a large Native American village, probably the first white person to reach the area. French traders visited by 1696 and British traders by 1703. In 1749, Celeron De Blainville and his party traveling on the Ohio River left lead plates claiming the area for France. Baltimore-born explorer Christopher Gist visited the following year.
In 1770, when the area was still part of the Colony of Virginia, George Washington, his friend Dr. James Craik, and Col. William Crawford surveyed what eventually became Jackson County, staying on their return from Fort Pitt along Sand Creek at an Iroquois village led by Keoshuta and later at his hunting camp (which later became Ravenswood). Washington patented land claims in that area in 1793. and other land was deeded to Albert Gallatin. The future Ravenswood site was acquired by Sallie Ashton, wife of Alexandria, Virginia judge Nicholas Fitzhugh, and purchased from other heirs by Henry Fitzhugh, who moved to and developed the area, including building a saw and gristmill. The first (private) school in the county was opened in Cottageville in 1807, the second school at Murrayville in 1818, followed by a school at Ripley in 1829 and one at Ravenswood in 1839. Hunter and Indian fighter Jesse Hughes (1750-1829) settled in Jackson County, but he and his wife were evicted in their old age for failing to properly secure the title for the farm on which they had lived for decades.
Incorporation and splits
Two years later (in 1831) citizens petitioned for incorporating the county, which was formed from sections of Kanawha, Wood, and Mason Counties, and named for Andrew Jackson, seventh President of the United States.
Ripley, on Big Mill Creek about 12 miles from its confluence with the Ohio River and the location of a bridge on the West Columbia Pike as well as both a sawmill and a flour and grist mill (which also had a carding machine to make wool yarn), was laid out in 1832 and became the county seat; the courthouse was completed by October 1833, although it was not incorporated until 1852 (and re-incorporated in 1867). Ravenswood, about 12 miles further up Big Mill Creek, would be platted the next year by Henry Fitzhugh. Bartholomew Fleming began operating a ferry at Ravenswood in 1840, and a wagon road between Ravenswood and Spencer (which later became Roane County's seat) was completed in the early 1840s. However, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad would not reach Ravenswood and Spencer (on the Wheeling to Huntington line) until 1886. Jackson County's population in 1840 was 4,890. Jackson County sent several delegates to the Wheeling Convention, but Roane County sent none. Daniel E. Frost of Ravenswood, editor of the county's first newspaper and who had represented both counties in the Virginia House of Delegates, became the delegate for both counties. Fellow delegates also elected him the Speaker of the Restored Government's General Assembly held at Wheeling in 1861 and 1862 (which prepared for West Virginia statehood). Col. Frost would die fighting for the Union in 1863. Henrietta Fitzhugh Barre, the daughter of Henry Fitzhugh, sympathized with the Confederacy and kept a diary, first published in 1961. Another former delegate George B. Crow of Angerona (a silver boom town) would enlist as a Confederate and also reach the rank of colonel, but he survived the war. Confederate raiders attacked Ravenswood and Ripley in May and September 1862, and again in May 1863.
In July 1863, the Battle of Buffington Island near Ravenswood became the only naval action in West Virginia. The 9th West Virginia supported the tinclad and ironclad naval vessels, and they and Union forces across the Ohio River captured 1700 Confederates and set the stage for the capture of CSA Major General John Hunt Morgan and ended his raids.
When West Virginia became a state in 1863, its counties were divided into civil townships, with the intention of encouraging local government. This proved impractical in the heavily rural state, and in 1872 the townships were converted into magisterial districts. Jackson county was divided into five townships: Gilmore, Grant, Hushan's Mills, Mill Creek, and Washington. All white males who owned at least a house and 12 square feet of land were granted the right to vote. reached Jackson county and led to several murders. The brother of a murdered U.S. Deputy Marshall published an account.
Timbering and oil and gas operations caused Jackson County's population to rise to 19,000 in 1900; it had the 6th largest area of cultivatable land of all West Virginia counties (divided mainly into small farms, hence by 1997 it also had the second largest number of farms in West Virginia). The Ohio River forms part of Jackson County's western border. Sandy Creek and Mill Creek, tributaries of the Ohio, flow through the county's northern and central portions.
Major highways
- 20px Interstate 77
- 20px U.S. Highway 33
- 20px West Virginia Route 2
- 20px West Virginia Route 34
- 20px West Virginia Route 62
- 20px West Virginia Route 68
- 20px West Virginia Route 87
- 20px West Virginia Route 331
Adjacent counties
- Wood County (north)
- Wirt County (northeast)
- Roane County (east)
- Kanawha County (south)
- Putnam County (southwest)
- Mason County (west)
- Meigs County, Ohio (northwest)
National protected area
- Ohio River Islands National Wildlife Refuge (part)