John S. Carlile

Management at Sweet Springs opened a new hostelry

Gordon Battelle received a B.A. from Marietta Collegiate Institute (Marietta College)

Castlerock community began

90 furnaces produced a million bushels of salt annually

Eli Moore graduated from Jefferson College

William Howe given patent for the Howe truss system

G. W. Hammond demolished Ferdinando Fairfax's plantation, Shannon Hill, and built the present dwelling in Jefferson County

Fayette County's first census recorded 3,924 residents

Two communion cups from this year are among the antiques of the Forks-of-Cheat Baptist Church

John Hale moved to the Kanawha Valley

Mill Island was built as a private house

John H. Hall invented the first working interchangeable firearms manufacturing system for breechloading rifle at Hall's Rifle Works

Chester Hubbard graduated as valedictorian from Wesleyan University of Connecticut

The first church was built in the Jackson County area

Jackson County's population was 4,890

Construction of the James River & Kanawha Canal was completed between Richmond and Lynchburg

Joseph Lightburn moved to Lewis County

Kanawha Salines Presbyterian Church was constructed

Mifflin Marsh began selling stogies to steamboat crews and passengers for four for a penny

John Chapman erected the first house in New Cumberland

All bridges on the Northwestern Virginia Turnpike were completed

William P. Rathbone and his sons purchased 12,000 acres at Burning Springs Run in Wirt County.

Census provided numerical proof that the white population of the Trans-Allegheny exceeded that of the rest of the state

Benjamin Stickley was licensed as a United Brethren evangelist

German members of the United Brethren in Baltimore migrated to Braxton County

The Rathbones purchased land at Burning Springs

Female Academy in Union (Monroe County) started

Locust Hill was built by Lucy Elizabeth Washington

The Wine family first settled in Braxton County

"Ruffner Pamphlet" published in Kanawha County

Gordon Battelle was ordained a Methodist minister

William Edwards was admitted to the New York bar

William Edwards published A Voyage on the River Amazon

John Floyd was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates

The Presbyterian Church was organized in Greenville

The Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike was completed

Cummins Jackson left Jackson's Mill to search for gold in CA

Joseph Johnson was elected again to the House of Delegates

Citizens of Parkersburg, Elizabeth, and Glenville organized the Little Kanawha Navigation Company

Alexander Martin graduated from Allegheny College, Pennsylvania

Mining began in West Columbia, Mason County

Large flood occurred on the Ohio River

The Staunton to Parkersburg Turnpike was completed

Pocahontas County was formed

A group of Dutch immigrants arrived in Pocahontas County

Samuel Price was again elected to the Virginia legislature as a Whig from Greenbrier Count.

Henry Ruffner published the Address to the People of West Virginia anti-slavery pamphlet

The first Stone & Thomas Department Store opened in Wheeling

The first permanent United Brethren church was built in Sand Hill

The Buckhannon Male and Female Academy was established

A grist mill was built at Valley Falls by Bradshaw and William Whitescarver

Charles Ellet Jr. secured contracts for the Wheeling and Niagara Falls suspension bridges

Two Dutch families settled near the headwaters of the Williams River

Two turnpikes were completed in Wood County

The Secession Convention, also known as the Virginia Convention of 1861, met in Richmond

Waitman Willey was selected as a delegate to the Virginia Secession Convention

George Summer was elected a member of the Virginia secession convention

Samuel Price returned to Richmond as a member of the Secession Convention of 1861

Chester Hubbard opposed secession as a delegate to Virginia's secession convention

Allen Taylor Caperton voted for secession at the Virginia convention

Virginia held a convention to consider secession from the United States

Unionist leaders rallied in Clarksburg

Meetings held to organize a loyal Unionist government for Virginia headquartered at Wheeling

Union regiment established Camp Buffalo

The office of the Parkersburg News was destroyed by a crowd of pro-Union men.

Virginia voters approved the Secession Ordinance.

Virginia seceded from the Union

Alexander Withers was selected as a delegate to the first Wheeling Convention

Jacob Blair and his two congressional colleagues met at the White House to discuss West Virginia admission into the Union with President Lincoln

President Lincoln decided in favor of statehood

George Imboden rose to the rank of colonel and took command of the of the 18th Virginia Calvary

The first school for black children, Sumner School, opened in Parkersburg.

Confederate General Stonewall Jackson based his forces in Berkeley Springs during his attack on Hancock, Maryland

Congress enacted the Morrill Act

Belle Boyd carried news of Union plans to Stonewall Jackson during the Shenandoah Valley campaign

John Echols served in the Kanawha Valley

John Hale served as a surgeon in the Civil War

A Natural gas well was first drilled in Hancock County

Nancy Hart was captured a second time as a rebel spy in Summersville

Collis P. Huntington persuaded Congress to designate the Central Pacific as the western half of the transcontinental railroad

Stonewall Jackson led a successful campaign in the Shenandoah Valley

Albert Jenkins was elected to the First Confederate Congress

Jacob Cox and men were driven out of the Kanawha Valley by Confederate advance led by Brig. Gen William W. Loring

U.S. troops were maneuvering from Western Virginia toward Tennessee

Joseph Lightburn was ordered to Charleston

City of Logan was occupied and burned by Union forces under Col. Edward Siber

Company 1, 12th Regiment, West Virginia Volunteer Infantry was organized in New Cumberland

The Point Pleasant Register was founded as a weekly

John Nugent was born in Wales

Federal troops occupied Raleigh County.

The Confederate Thurmond's Parisan Rangers raided in Fayette, Greenbrier and Monroe counties

Peter Van Winkle represented Wood County in Constitutional Convention

The Reorganized Government of Virginia added $40,000 for Weston State Hospital