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Doddridge County is a county located in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Its county seat is West Union.〔(【引用サイトリンク】accessdate=2011-06-07 )〕 Doddridge County is included in the Clarksburg, WV Micropolitan Statistical Area. ==History== The area that became Doddridge County, Virginia — now West Virginia — was first settled in the late 1780s by James Caldwell, who owned of land that included present West Union. Caldwell sold this land to Nathan Davis, Jr (1772-1866) and his brothers about 1807. They in turn sold to Lewis Maxwell (1790-1862), a Virginia Assembly delegate in the 1820s who later became a U.S. Congressman. In 1828 Ephraim Bee, Sr (1802-1888) and his wife Catherine established a log home on Meathouse Fork of Middle Island Creek, now part of West Union. They built an Inn across the "Creek" (really a river) at what was then being called Lewisport (Congressman Maxwell's namesake), below a blockhouse on the Northwestern Turnpike. The "Beehive Inn" became a very popular place for travelers and locals to meet, refresh themselves and re-provision. Bee operated the first local blacksmith shop; a farm, stables, tannery and horse-racing track soon followed. According to Ephraim's father, A.A. Bee: "The first bridge across Middle Island Creek (West Union ) was of hewed logs with a center abutment of stones. In the great flood of 1835 it was washed away". In 1842, a contract was awarded to the well-known civil engineer Claudius Crozet to build a new covered bridge at West Union, as part of a series of public works along the Turnpike. Ephraim Bee was by this time a district officer, magistrate, state legislator, hotelier, and postmaster. As blacksmith, he made all the bolts and bands for the West Union Covered Bridge, completed in 1843. When it was announced that Doddridge County would be formed, Ephraim Bee rallied to locate the county seat at Lewisport. But Nathan Davis, Jr (who was Ephraim's wife's uncle), Randolph, and others, won out in favor of West Union, across the river. Doddridge County was officially created in 1845 from parts of Harrison, Tyler, Ritchie, and Lewis Counties of what was then still Virginia. It was named for Philip Doddridge (1773–1832), the late distinguished statesman of western Virginia,〔http://www.wvculture.org/history/counties/doddridge.html〕 who had actually spent the greater part of his life in Brooke County. On the night of March 27th, 1858, a fire utterly devastated the town of West Union. Maxwell Ridge — named for the Congressman's family — is said to have a cave (Gatrell Cave) that was used by the Underground Railroad in the years leading up to the Civil War. Another nearby grotto, Jaco Cave, is said to have been used for the same purpose. The county seat of West Union was incorporated on 20 July 1881. Doddridge County’s oil and gas industry was an enormous boon to residents. The first oil pool in the county, at Center Point, was discovered ("brought in" as it was then termed) and drilled in 1892. This was an extension of the technology and boom of the western Pennsylvania oil and gas fields into Tyler and Doddridge Counties. Many farm owners, and sons of farm owners, split their time between their farmwork and the petroleum operations. Almost every local farm benefited from this as free gas was piped to the farmhouses of many landowners. Gas was very quickly being used locally for heating, lighting, and cooking, which replaced the wood stoves and kerosene and candles of previous generations. By 1906, the Ideal Glass Factory opened to take advantage of the abundant natural gas. It was followed by the Doddridge County Window Glass Company. The two plants employed about 300 people. In later years a garment factory opened, but closed in the 1970s. A long-remembered flood devastated West Union in June of 1950, destroying homes and businesses and killing more than 20 people throughout the county. (One casualty was the 107-year-old covered bridge.) Today farming, timbering, oil and gas, and the business of county government and public education support the area, and many people commute to jobs in Salem, Clarksburg, and Parkersburg, or to the North Central Regional Jail in Greenwood.〔 The Lathrop Russell Charter House, Doddridge County Courthouse, Silas P. Smith Opera House, and W. Scott Stuart House are individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places. West Union is also home to two nationally recognized historic districts: West Union Downtown Historic District and West Union Residential Historic District. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Doddridge County, West Virginia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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