Preston County is a county located in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 34,216. Its county seat is Kingwood. The county was formed from Monongalia County in 1818 and named for Virginia Governor James Patton Preston.
Preston County is part of the Morgantown, WV Metropolitan Statistical Area, and is the southernmost county of the Pittsburgh media market. It is the home of The Buckwheat Festival, a county fair known for making buckwheat pancakes.
History
Native Americans lived in (and traveled through) what would one day become Preston County; they crossed-over from the Ohio River watershed, which drains into the Mississippi River, into the Chesapeake Bay watershed. From 1736, European traders and explorers lived in the County, and one boundary stone was laid in 1746—the Fairfax Stone marking the limits of the North Branch of the River. Larger numbers of white settlers began arriving in 1766, with even more coming to the region after the American Revolutionary War. Traveling by foot or horseback, settlers built their own log cabins. Further development followed from 1818, when the National Road was built slightly to the north. When the earliest railroads came, in 1851, all land passed into private ownership, the population increased 70% in a decade, and industrialization truly began.
During the American Civil War, more Preston County men enlisted in Union service than with the Confederacy. There were relatively few slave owners in Preston County, and naturally, few slaves. There were virtually none within a half-hour’s walk from the old Clarksburg-Winchester Road, dated to the late colonial era. The United States Census indicates that Preston County’s all-time slavery peak occurred in 1830, with 125 slaves accounted for, alongside 27 free colored persons.
On June 20, 1863, Preston was one of 50 Virginia counties that were admitted to the Union as the State of West Virginia. Later that year, the counties were divided into civil townships, with the intention of encouraging local government. This proved impractical in the heavily rural state of West Virginia, and the townships were converted into magisterial districts in 1872. Preston County was divided into eight districts: Grant, Kingwood, Lyon, Pleasant, Portland, Reno, Union, and Valley. These remained largely unchanged until the 1990s, when they were consolidated into five new magisterial districts: First, Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (0.4%) is water.
Climate
In West Virginia's coldest month of January 1977, Terra Alta in Preston County saw a statewide record snowfall of .
The county has a warm-summer humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb). Average monthly temperatures in Kingwood range from 28.7 °F in January to 70.2 °F in July.[https://prism.oregonstate.edu/explorer/]
Major Highways
- 20px Interstate 68
- 20px U.S. Highway 50
- 25px U.S. Route 219
- 20px West Virginia Route 7
- 20px West Virginia Route 24
- 20px West Virginia Route 26
- 20px West Virginia Route 72
- 20px West Virginia Route 92
Adjacent Counties
- Fayette County, Pennsylvania (north)
- Garrett County, Maryland (east)
- Tucker County (south)
- Barbour County (southwest)
- Taylor County (west)
- Monongalia County (northwest)
- Grant County (southeast)
National Protected Area
- Monongahela National Forest (part)
State parks
- Cathedral State Park (also a Registered National Natural Landmark)
- Fairfax Stone State Park