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October 1 On October 1, 1789, Kanawha County was established from portions of Greenbrier County and Montgomery County.
October 2 On October 2, 1786, Stephen West was granted 400 acres of land in Harrison County.
October 3 On October 3, 1763, About 150 troops under Colonel Charles Lewis defeated Native American warriors in a skirmish during Pontiac’s War on the headwaters of the South Fork near Fort Seybert, present-day Pendleton County.
October 4 Adam Stephen reported about 150 Native Americans were in the vicinity of Fort Cumberland on October 4, 1755.
October 5 On October 5, 1770, George Washington left Mount Vernon accompanied by Dr. James Craik to locate lands in the Ohio Valley for himself and other soldiers from the French and Indian War.
October 6 Forces under Colonel Andrew Lewis reached Point Pleasant, Mason County, on October 6, 1774, in preparation for the Battle of Point Pleasant against the Shawnee.
October 7 On October 7, 1763, the King of England announced the Proclamation of 1763, prohibiting settlement west of the Allegheny Mountains in an attempt to avoid conflict with Native Americans.
October 8 On October 8, 1764, Harman Blennerhassett was born in Hampshire, England.
October 9 On October 9, 1720, land speculator Andrew Lewis was born in Donegal, Ireland.
October 10 On October 10, 1774, the Battle of Point Pleasant, the only major conflict of Lord Dunmore’s War and regarded by some as the first battle of the American Revolution, was fought between the Virginia Militia and Shawnee and Mingo warriors at Point Pleasant, Mason County. Native forces under Chief Cornstalk attacked Virginia militiamen under Colonel Andrew Lewis, hoping to halt Lewis’s advance into the Ohio Valley. The Shawnee forces were eventually forced to retreat, leading to the signing of the Treaty of Camp Charlotte.
October 11 Due to a territorial dispute with Pennsylvania, the council of Virginia created the District of West Augusta, including all of present-day West Virginia, on October 11, 1773.
October 12 On October 12, 1792, Chronicles of Border Warfare author Alexander Scott Withers was born.
October 13 While surveying land for Lord Thomas Fairfax, Thomas Lewis reached the crest of the Allegheny Mountains in present-day West Virginia on October 13, 1746.
October 14 On October 14, 1769, author Joseph Doddridge was born in Pennsylvania.
October 15 On October 15, 1783 Alexander McClanahan was granted 200 acres of land in Greenbrier County.
October 16 On October 16, 1798, Isaac Williams was paid $10.00 for work on the road from Salem to Vienna.
October 17 On October 17, 1785, James Rumsey first tested his steamboat near the mouth of Sir Johns Run, present-day Morgan County.
October 18 On October 18, 1770, British representative John Stuart signed the Treaty of Lochaber with the Cherokee tribe, relinquishing all Cherokee claims to property from the North Carolina and Virginia border to a point near Long Island on the Holston River to the mouth of the Kanawha River at present-day Point Pleasant, Mason County. In this treaty, the Cherokee surrendered their rights to land in present-day southern West Virginia not included in the Treaty of Hard Labour in 1768.
October 19 On October 19, 1795, William Hays was granted 288 acres of land in Berkeley County.
October 20 On October 20, 1770, George Washington left Fort Pitt for western Virginia in search of lands he planned to claim as payment for his service in the French and Indian War.
October 21 On October 21, 1793, the Virginia Assembly convened in Richmond.
October 22 On October 22, 1792, George Fisher, Jr. was granted 60 acres of land in Pendleton County.
October 24 On October 24, 1768, negotiations of the Treaty of Fort Stanwyx began between British representative Sir William Johnson and the Six Nations of the Iroquois, relinquishing all Iroquois claims to the property west of the Allegheny Mountains and east of the Ohio River, comprising all of present-day West Virginia except the extreme southwestern part of the state. Along with the Treaty of Hard Labour, this effectively repealed the Proclamation of 1763, which had prohibited settlement west of the Alleghenies.
October 25 On October 25, 1785, John Prickett was granted 400 acres of land in Monongalia County.
October 26 On October 26, 1755, George Washington ordered Lieutenant John Bacon to select a location for what became Fort Ashby. He chose a place on the plantation of John Sellers at present-day Fort Ashby, Mineral County. He also ordered Bacon to construct Fort Cocke about one mile south of present-day Headsville, Mineral County.
October 27 George Washington and his party reached the mouth of the Little Kanawha and camped near the site of Harris’ Ferry, Wood County on October 27, 1770.
October 28 On October 28, 1805, Executors of the estate of the late John Dickinson sued the executors of the estate of the late Joseph Ruffner because Ruffner had failed to properly develop a salt manufacturing operation at Campbell’s Creek, Kanawha County, per the terms of the original sale. Ruffner’s executors, David Ruffner and Joseph Ruffner, reached an out of court settlement with the Dickinson executors several years later.
October 29 On October 29, 1751, The Greenbrier Company was authorized to stake out 100,000 acres of land along the Greenbrier River.
October 30 On October 30, 1776, A petition to the Virginia General Assembly argued the plan to create the colony of Westsylvania in western Virginia did not have the unanimous support of western Virginians.
October 31 Under the orders of Virginia Governor Robert Dinwiddie, George Washington and Christopher Gist demanded the French surrender its forts on the Ohio River on October 31, 1753, leading to the outbreak of the French and Indian War.
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