U.S. Data Repository -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: History and Progress of the County of Marion, West Virginia by George A. Dunnington, Publisher 1880 Chapter XIII, THE TOWNS OF THE COUNTY In the year 1819, Fairmont (then called Middletown) was established and regularly laid out. The people of this vicinity, feeling a need of a town, determined to locate one, and held a meeting to decide upon a site. The farm of Boaz Fleming was considered by them the roughest and poorest, and least adapted to farming purposes, and having little idea that the new town would ever be more than a small hamlet, they finally selected his land. The new place was named Middletown, because it was about half-way between the towns of Clarksburg and Morgantown, and served as a stopping place for traverlers going to and fro between the two latter places. At that time much of Middletown was a laurel thicket, the only house being a log cabin occupied by Mr. Fleming, which stood near the corner of Jefferson street and Decatur Alley, or near where Mr. John Crane now resides. The old pear tree which stands in Mr. Crane's garden was planted by Mr. Fleming about the year 1800. A wolf trap stood near his house at the time Middletown was laid out. The first house built after the laying off of the town was by Mr. Samuel Jackson, father of Messrs. Oliver and James R. Jackson, of Fairmont. The first child born in Middletown was E. M. Conaway, who is now in his fifty-ninth year. From this time on to the organization of Marion county there were no events worthy of note happened within the territory now embraced therein, save the occasional laying out of a town, as the increase in population, and the need of a headquarters, would make it necessary. In 1837, Rivesville was laid out upon the land of Elisha Snodgrass, and named in honor of Hon. Henry C. Rives. In the year 1833, there had been a postoffice established at Robert Reed's tavern, near the forks of Booth's creek, and named Boothsville, in honor of Captain Booth, whose murder by the indians is related in a former chapter, and in 1839 a small town was laid off by Reed, adjacent to the post office, and has since grown to be quit a flourishing village, with a population of one hundred and fifty. In 1838, Palatine was established opposite Middletown on the east bank of the Monongahela river, when the land owned by William Haymond and John S. Barns, sr., who had jointly purchased it from Daniel and John Paulsley, the sons of Jacob Paulsley, who had moved upon the land in 1793. The tract was originally purchased by William Haymond, sr., for $140. Palatine is now the second town, in point of size and population, in the county. It contains at present about six hundred inhabitants, and is in a very flourishing condition. Here are located the Marion Machine Works, the oldest manufacturing establishment of any kind in the county. These works, over thirty years ago, manufactured the McCormick Reaper, the first reaping machine ever built for sale in the United States--a fact worthy of note. The Palatine Pottery is another very important branch of industry, which is located at this place. A large number of the male population of Palatine are employed in the several coal mines in the vicinity of Fairmont. Fairview, one of Marion county's most flourishing villages, was laid off in the summer of 1845. The only houses now standing upon the ground embraced within the limits were those built by Isaac Cotton (now occupied by Dr. Enos Amos) and David Higgins. Fairview is about eleven miles northwest of Fairmont, and is a picturesque town of over one hundred and fifty inhabitants. It contains one of the largest steam flouring mills in this section of the State, and is the center of the trade of quite a large scope of surrounding country. Basnettsville is a small settlement lying about half a mile south of Fairview. The third town in the county in population and importance, and the second in point of wealth, is Mannington, lying eighteen miles west of the county seat, on the B. & O. R. R. It is also the youngest place, for previous to the year 1850 there were but few houses on the ground of what is now a beautiful and properous town. All the land upon which Mannington is built belonged to Geo. H. J. Koon and James Furbee, the descendants of whom constitute a large portion of the leading inhabitants. Mannington is one of the most prominent towns of this section of West Virginia, considerable business being done there. One of the most important branches of trade carried on is that of the manufacture of leather. Mannington sold leather received a prize at the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia, in 1876. Quite a large lumber business is also carried on here. Worthington, Glover's Gap, Farmington and Barrackville are other villages of considerable importance which have sprung into existence. Newport, Winfield, Forksburg, Valley Falls, Nuzum's Mills, Texas, Benton's Ferry, Basnettsville, Bobtown, Houlttown and Barnesville may be classed among the smaller villages, some of them older than the county itself, but the majority are merely small stations upon the railroad which have been established since it was built. Benton's Ferry takes its name from Mr. Benton, who keeps the ferry upon the Vally river at that point. This ferry was established by Asa Bee, father of Ephraim Bee, of Doddridge county, who was succeeded by a family of Pettijohns, who gave way to John Mellett, which gentleman's son-in-law, Thomas Veach, afterwards had charge of it until Mr. Benton took possession. Valley Falls takes its name from the falls that are in the Tygart's Valley river at this point. The river is a beautiful winding stream of gentle current, but at these falls the river descends, principally by three or four perpendicular pitches, some seventy feet in about a mile. They were discovered by Jonathan Nixon, in the summer of 1785, while he was upon a hunting excursion.