Backwoods Virginians and “The First Declaration of Independence”

There are many stories to be told of the earliest days of what is now West Virginia, and most have been told elsewhere already. But one story, which ties the origins of this region to the origins of the nation, deserves to be told more often. It involves a document which, while little known except [...]

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Memorial Day observances at Pricketts Fort honor war dead of five early American wars

On May 31st, Memorial Day, Pricketts Fort held observances in memory of the men from Pricketts Fort who served in the following wars: the French & Indian War, Pontiac’s Uprising, Lord Dunmore’s War and the American Revolution. The ceremony also memorialized the descendents of these men who served in the Civil War. At the time [...]

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Chief Logan & the birth of Pricketts Fort

On this date, in 1774, at a trading post in Baker’s Bottom, near Wheeling on the Ohio River, a peaceful band of Mingo Indians were set upon by rogue frontiersmen under Daniel Greathouse and brutally slaughtered.  Among the dead were members of the family of Chief Logan, who had until this time always been a [...]

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