Wheeling - West Virginia - History

Colonel Ebenezer Zane and his brothers founded Wheeling in the winter of 1769-1770. They came from the south branch of the Potomac Valley in Virginia to settle a claim at the city's present site. Other settlers soon joined them, and in 1774 they erected Fort Fincastle. In 1776, they changed the fort's name to Fort Henry in honour of Patrick Henry. Wheeling was laid out in 1793, incorporated in 1806, and first chartered as a city in 1836. The National Road, now U.S. Highway 40, reached the Ohio River at Wheeling in 1818.

During the Civil War from 1861 to 1865, Wheeling was the headquarters of Virginians who opposed secession from the Union. Union supporters organized the state of West Virginia in Wheeling on June 20, 1863, and the city served as the state capital from 1863 to 1870 and from 1875 to 1885. Wheeling has a city-manager form of government.

In 1862, Wheeling was in Virginia, a state ripped apart by the American Civil War. West Virginia was born in Independence Hall building, now a National Historic Landmark, during the great conflict. This was the only territorial change resulting from America's greatest war.

Wheeling from the early settlement days has been a major industrial and transportation center and has been the country’s early "Gateway to the West."