Welcome!

Welcome to the Lewis County, WVGenWeb project, which is part of The USGenWeb Project.
I'm Connie Burkett, the volunteer county coordinator for Lewis County, WVGenWeb.
Patricia Viellenave was the previous Lewis WVGenWeb County Coordinator (since Nov. 1, 1996).
We hope you find this site useful for your research.

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About Lewis County WV

• Lewis County was created from parts of Harrison County by an act of the Virginia General Assembly on December 18, 1816. Lewis County was enlarged on February 4, 1818, adding land east of the Buckhannon River. At that time, the county constituted 1,754 square miles, including present-day Lewis County as well as nearly all of Upshur, Gilmer, and Braxton counties, and parts of Barbour, Webster, Doddridge, Ritchie, and Calhoun counties.
• Lewis County was named in honor of Colonel Charles Lewis (1733-1774), who was killed at the decisive Battle of Point Pleasant in 1774. His dying words were "Push on boys. Don't mind me." He was second in command at the time, serving under his older brother, General Andrew Lewis.
• Lewis County's European Pioneers and Settlers: William Hacker, Thomas Hughes, Jesse Hughes, John Radcliff, William Radcliff, and John Brown were the first Englishmen to set foot in present-day Lewis County. They explored the area in 1769. Later that year, John Hacker built a cabin just to the south of the present-day Berlin. He is credited as Lewis County's first permanent European settler. John and William Radcliff built cabins not far from Hacker's cabin in 1770. Their settlement, later known as Hacker's Creek, almost failed from the start. After constructing cabins and planting corn and other crops, the three men returned to the South Branch settlements to get their families. While they were away, buffalo ate all of the crops they had planted. Fortunately, there was plenty of wild game available and the settlement survived and more than doubled in size annually as immigrants moved in from the east. Other early permanent settlers in the county included Jesse Hughes, John Whendy, Francis Tibbs and Daniel Veach.
• County Seat: Weston
• A fire in 1886 destroyed the courthouse, but records were saved.
• Beginning dates for major county records
  • Birth: 1853
  • Death: 1853
  • Marriage: 1816
  • Census: 1820
  • Land: 1817
  • Probate: 1816
• Lewis County was once the hand blown glass capital of the world. Many of Lewis County's glass factories have closed but the glass industry still flourishes here in small shops. The "Museum of American Glass in West Virginia" is in Weston.
• The former Weston State Hospital in downtown Weston, constructed between 1858 and 1881 (now known as the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum) is the largest hand-cut stone building in North America. The original hospital, designed to house 250 patients, was open in 1864 and reached its peak in the 1950's with 2,400 patients in overcrowded and generally poor conditions. Changes in the treatment of mental illness and the physical deterioration of the facility forced its closure in 1994.
• Thomas Jonathan Jackson known throughout the world as Stonewall Jackson grew to manhood in this county and was raised with the heritage and beliefs of its residents. Orphaned at an early age, he was raised by his fraternal family at Jackson's Mill now part of West Virginia University Extension Service 4-H grounds. You can still tour the historic area of the Mill. Every Labor Day Weekend the Mill comes alive with thousands of people when they visit the Jubilee where history and heritage crafts come together for a grand celebration.