Our Community

A Brief History

Mason County was formed in 1804 from a portion of Kanawha County, Virginia. The area proved to be fertile hunting grounds for Native Americans thousands of years prior to the arrival of the first European settlers. While the French had the first recorded interest in the area, the British sympathies of Lord Dunmore of Virginia led to the decisive battle that gave control of the Ohio River valley to the colonists.

On October 10, 1774, 1,100 men under the leadership of Colonel Andrew Lewis won a bitterly contested and bloody battle with the indian warriors of Chief Keightughaqua (Cornstalk) that led to the opening of the western frontier. Chief Cornstalk led the brutally successful destruction of a settlement in the Greenbrier Valley in 1763, but 14 years later, he and his son Elinipsico were murdered in Point Pleasant.

Mason County holds many fascinating stories. Early settlers, including Dr. Jesse Bennett, are buried in Pioneer Cemetery. In 1794, Dr. Bennett was the first physician to perform a Caesarean section in American. The patient was his wife and the procedure was a success.

The area also has its mysteries. Between Route 35 and the Kanawha River is George Washington's Lost Colony, an area in which 28 acres were cleared, 2,000 peach pits planed for an orchard, and more than a dozen buildings constructed - but no traces have ever been found of this community.

• Andrew and Charles Lewis March, Krodel Park
• Boone's Trading Post
• "Border Gray's", Gunn Park, Point Pleasant
• Captain John Hereford / Mercer's Bottom
• Dr. Jesse Bennett, Pioneer Cemetery
• Early graves, Pioneer Cemetery
• Fort Robinson, WV 62, north of Point Pleasant
• Gen. John McCausland, US 35, south of Point Pleasant
• George Rogers Clark, Courthouse Lawn, Point Pleasant
• Harmony Baptist Church, WV 62, south of Point Pleasant
• Lakin Sate Hospital, Lakin
• "Lost Colony", US 35 south side
• "Mark Twain" family, WV 62, south of Point Pleasant
• May Moore Mound, WV 2, south of Gallipolis Ferry
• Mercer's Bottom, near county line
• Point Pleasant Battle, Battle Monument State Park
• Thomas Hannan, WV 2, north of Cabell-Mason line
• Virgil Lewis, Mason
• War of 1812, Battle Monument State Park