A fire in the Monongalia County clerk's office destroyed many early county court records. Because the future Preston County remained part of Monongalia until 1818, the loss created lasting gaps in the documentary record for its early settlers, land transactions, estates, and local government. Some surviving court papers and later record books remain at the West Virginia and Regional History Center.
Research status: Verified to source
Citation / research lead
West Virginia and Regional History Center, A&M 0026
After growing up in Terra Alta and graduating with honors from the Woman’s Medical College of Baltimore in 1884, Harriet B. Jones began practicing medicine in Wheeling in September 1885. She became the first woman licensed as a physician in West Virginia and later specialized in gynecology and abdominal surgery.
Research status: Verified to source
Citation / research lead
West Virginia and Regional History Center, “Dr. Harriet B. Jones, West Virginia Physician, Suffragist, and Activist”
Harriet B. Jones, who had grown up in Terra Alta, was elected as a Republican to represent Marshall County in the West Virginia House of Delegates. She was one of two women elected to the House that November and later won reelection to a second term.
Research status: Verified to source
Citation / research lead
West Virginia and Regional History Center, “Dr. Harriet B. Jones, West Virginia Physician, Suffragist, and Activist”
The Lake Lynn hydroelectric plant began operating on the Cheat River in Monongalia County, downstream from Preston County. Its dam created the reservoir now known as Cheat Lake and formed part of a power system serving northern West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania. The project also has a documented Preston connection through the construction albums of civil engineer and Preston County resident Harry Snedden Laird, preserved at West Virginia University.
Research status: Verified to source
Citation / research lead
WVU, Vaughn L. Kiger Collection, A&M 3986; WVU, Harry S. Laird albums, A&M 3827
As part of a statewide public-records survey funded by the Works Progress Administration, workers gathered and copied records from Preston County and every other West Virginia county. The surviving collection includes birth, marriage, and death registers; wills and estate settlements; land and court records; cemetery readings; and surveys of church records—preserving information that remains valuable to historians and family researchers.
Research status: Verified to source
Citation / research lead
West Virginia and Regional History Center, U.S. Works Progress Administration, West Virginia Historic Records Survey, Records, A&M 0046
The State Road Commission of West Virginia prepared a detailed Preston County highway map in cooperation with the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads and with assistance from the Works Progress Administration. Based on a statewide highway-planning survey, the map recorded roads, bridges, railroads, streams, communities, schools, churches, mines, businesses, farms, forests, and other features of the county’s landscape.
Research status: Verified to source
Citation / research lead
West Virginia and Regional History Center, County Highway Maps for West Virginia, A&M 4479
After prolonged heavy rain, the Cheat River reached a record crest of 36.9 feet at Rowlesburg. Floodwaters devastated Rowlesburg, Albright, and neighboring Cheat Valley communities, destroying homes, businesses, bridges, roads, and railroad infrastructure; 110 of Albright’s 132 homes were destroyed. Upstream in Tucker County, Parsons also suffered devastating flooding. Scientific study of the Cheat River and Black Fork documented exceptional flooding, erosion, and debris deposits, placing Preston’s losses within the wider disaster across the shared watershed.
Research status: Verified
Additional source
WVU archival finding aid — 1985 flood scrapbook research lead