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From the Logan Banner of Logan, WV, comes this item relating to county history dated October 22, 1926:
AS POLITICAL SUBDIVISION, LOGAN CO. IS DESCENDANT OF FIRST EIGHT SHIRES
Logan county was formed in 1824 from parts of Tazewell, Giles, Cabell and Kanawha. In 1895 Logan was bisected in two almost equal parts, from the southernmost of which Mingo was created. Logan’s area is 455.82 square miles; Mingo’s 423,50_ square miles.
Tracing this county’s ancestry back through Tazewell it will be found to have a long line of distinguished progenitors.
The county was named after John Logan, a famous Cayuga Indian but not a chief, who was changed from a staunch friend to an unrelenting foe of the whites after his family had been murdered at Yellow Creek, Ohio, not far from Wheeling.
Tazewell was formed from Wythe and Russell in 1799. It derived its name from a political strategem. Simon Cotterel, representative from Russell, introduced a bill to authorize the creation of a new county. A Mr. Tazewell, representing Norfolk County, opposed the measure. Cotterel induced him to suspend his opposition pending the rewriting of the bill. Then Cotterel erased the proposed name and substituted that of Tazewell. That silenced the objector, who then voted for the amended measure. According to G.W. Bickley’s history of Tazewell County, the Tazewell referred to was not Littletown Tazewell, who was governor of the state from 1834 to 1836.
At that time Tazewell county had an area of 3,000 square miles–two and a half times the size of Rhode Island and more than six times the six of Logan county.
Wythe county was formed from Montgomery in 1789, Russell from Washington in 1786, Washington and Montgomery from Fincastle in 1772, Botetourt from Augusta in 1769, Augusta from Orange in 1738, Orange from Spottsylvania in 1724, Spottsylvania from King and Queen, Essex, and King William in 1720, King William from King and Queen, and through a series of changes, descended from Charles River Shire, which was changed to York county, in 1643. Ten years before that “The General Assembly holden at James City the 21st of August, 1633, divided Virginia Colony into eight shires, named James City, Henrico, Warwick River, Warroskuyoak, Charles City, Elizabeth City, Accawmack and Charles River.”