Harrison County, West Virginia
| Harrison County, West Virginia | ||
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Harrison County Courthouse
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 Location in the U.S. state of West Virginia |
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 West Virginia's location in the U.S. |
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| Founded | May 3, 1784 | |
| Seat | Clarksburg | |
| Largest city | Clarksburg | |
| Area | ||
| • Total | 417 sq mi (1,080 km2) | |
| • Land | 416 sq mi (1,077 km2) | |
| • Water | 0.5 sq mi (1 km2), 0.1% | |
| Population (est.) | ||
| • (2015) | 68,714 | |
| • Density | 165/sq mi (64/km²) | |
| Congressional district | 1st | |
| Time zone | Eastern: UTC-5/-4 | |
| Website | www |
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Harrison County is a county in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 69,099. The county seat is Clarksburg. The county was founded in 1784.
Harrison County is part of the Clarksburg, WV Micropolitan Statistical Area.
White trappers visited the area that is now Harrison County as early as the 1760s when it was still part of the vast Augusta County, Virginia. The settler Daniel Davisson claimed the land upon which present-day Clarksburg, Harrison County was formed in 1773, when the area was still part of the vast Monongalia County, Virginia.
Harrison County was created in 1784, formed from Monongalia County and named for Benjamin Harrison V, who had recently retired as the Governor of Virginia. (He was the father of William Henry Harrison, 9th President of the United States and great-grandfather of Benjamin Harrison, 23rd president.) From the vast territory that was called “Harrison County” in 1784 were carved, over the next 72 years, all of eight present day West Virginia counties and parts of ten others.
The first meeting of the Harrison County court was held on July 20, 1784 at home of George Jackson. One of the first orders of business was to select a permanent county seat. It was decided to move the county seat to Clarksburg. The town, named in honor of the explorer General George Rogers Clark (1752–1818), was chartered by the Virginia General Assembly in October 1785, and it was incorporated in 1795.
Clarksburg's first newspaper, The By-Stander, began publication in 1810. Clarksburg began to grow following the construction of the Northwestern Turnpike connecting Winchester and Parkersburg, which reached it in 1836. Clarksburg's economic development was also helped by the arrival of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1856. The railroad was instrumental in the development of the local coal mining industry during the late 1800s and early 1900s.
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