Preston County at a Glance
Every community has a setting. Here’s a quick introduction to the county behind the timeline.
Where it is
Preston County lies in northeastern West Virginia, bordering Pennsylvania to the north and Maryland to the east. Its northern boundary follows the Mason–Dixon Line. The Cheat River runs through a landscape of mountains, valleys, farmland, and small communities. Kingwood is the county seat.
Source: West Virginia Encyclopedia
From Monongalia to Preston
The Virginia General Assembly created Preston County from part of Monongalia County on January 19, 1818. It was named for James Patton Preston, who was then governor of Virginia. The county’s creation established a new government boundary within a landscape whose human history reached much further back.
Population through time
How has the county grown and changed? Explore every federal census count from 1820 to 2020, with an interactive chart, a complete table, and links to the original sources.
The shape of the land
Preston County is high country. Much of it lies within the Appalachian Plateau and Allegheny Mountains, with elevations ranging from about 873 feet to more than 3,200 feet. But “plateau” does not mean flat. Over immense spans of time, the Cheat River and countless smaller streams cut into the uplands, leaving a landscape of broad ridges, steep hillsides, narrow valleys, and deeply carved river gorges.
That terrain would shape nearly everything that followed. It influenced where people could farm, where communities formed, how roads crossed the county, where bridges became necessary, and eventually where railroads could—and could not—go.
Source: West Virginia Encyclopedia
What lies beneath
The landscape has a much older story. Beneath Preston County are layers of sedimentary rock—sandstone, shale, limestone, coal and related formations—laid down hundreds of millions of years ago as environments changed from seas and rivers to floodplains and coal-forming swamps. Later Appalachian mountain-building gently folded many of those layers, while erosion gradually exposed and carved them into the landscape visible today.
Those rocks eventually became part of Preston County’s human story too: sandstone helped hold up ridges, streams cut transportation corridors through the terrain, and coal deposits supported an industry that transformed communities across the county.
Land and livelihood
Farms supplied food and trade goods, while roads connected communities across difficult terrain. The arrival of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in the 1850s expanded markets for coal and timber and encouraged towns to grow along its route.
Agriculture, mining, railroads, and timber all left their marks. So did schools, churches, military service, and community traditions—including the annual Buckwheat Festival for which Preston County became widely known.
Source: West Virginia Encyclopedia
Why older records say “Virginia”
Preston County was part of Virginia before West Virginia became a state on June 20, 1863. When you encounter “Preston County, Virginia” in an older family record, it does not necessarily mean your ancestor lived somewhere else—the state boundary changed around them.
Sources: county formation and West Virginia statehood
Find your way into the story
This overview is only a beginning. Explore a town or community, follow an industry, or put an ancestor’s lifetime in context. The timeline brings those individual moments together so you can see how local lives connected with a larger history.