Editing Buckhannon, West Virginia (section)

==History==
[[File:Baltimore and Ohio employees magazine (1912) (14738560576).jpg|thumb|left|[[Baltimore and Ohio Railroad]] "Blue Goose" in Buckhannon, 1914]]
According to tradition, the first settlers in the Buckhannon River Valley were brothers John and Samuel Pringle. John and Samuel were soldiers serving in the British army during the [[French and Indian War]] ([[Seven Years' War]]) who, in 1761, deserted their posts at [[Fort Pitt (Pennsylvania)|Fort Pitt]] (present-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). They traveled southward and upstream along the [[Monongahela River|Monongahela]] and [[Tygart Valley River|Tygart Valley]] rivers, continuing up what is now called the Buckhannon River. John and Samuel are said to have arrived in present-day [[Upshur County, West Virginia|Upshur County]] in 1764 and took up residence in the hollow stump of an [[American sycamore]] tree. They lived there for three years, surviving on game and fish. When they ran out of bullets in 1765, John made the journey to settlements along the [[South Branch Potomac River]] to purchase more and found out from the locals that the war was over and the brothers were no longer wanted men. After his return, they moved to the South Branch settlements. John later went to Kentucky, but Samuel returned to the river valley in 1769 with his new wife Charity Pringle (née Cutright), her brother John Jr., friends Thomas Hughes, and John and Elizabeth Jackson with their sons George and Edward. (Edward was the grandfather of [[Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson]]).<ref>{{Cite web|title=Samuel and John Pringle were the first Englishmen to set foot in present-day Upshur County|url=http://www.eg.bucknell.edu/~hyde/jackson/TourReunion2006.html|access-date=January 8, 2021|website=www.eg.bucknell.edu}}</ref>

The City of Buckhannon was established on January 15, 1816, possible named for [[Buckongahelas]]<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=14417 | title=Buckhannon / Frontier Days Historical Marker }}</ref> (1720-1805), the legendary [[Lenape]] Chief. A statue of Buckongahelas and his fallen son, crafted by Buckhannon sculptor Ross Straight, was erected in Buckhannon West Virginia’s Jawbone Park in 2000.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/687 | title=E-WV &#124; Buckongahelas }}</ref> Other historians think it more likely that the community and river were both named for John Buchannon, a missionary to the area in the 1780s.<ref>[http://www.polsci.wvu.edu/wv/Upshur/upshistory.html "Upshur County History"], West Virginia University</ref> The city was chartered by the [[Virginia General Assembly]] in 1852, and remained part of the Commonwealth of [[Virginia]] until the secession of West Virginia on June 20, 1863, during the [[American Civil War]]. Because of its near-central geographic location, Buckhannon was long considered a prospective site for the state capital. In 1866, the legislature approved a bill including Buckhannon among the choices for capital, but officials decided the river was not wide enough to accommodate desired commerce and ultimately settled with [[Charleston, West Virginia|Charleston]] as the state capitol.

The first courthouse was built in 1854. It served multiple functions, including as an opera house and town hall. Electricity was installed in 1891 to replace oil lamps, but the building suffered fire damage in the first six months of electrical service, eventually being razed in 1898. In its place, a [[Classical Revival]] style courthouse, designed by Charleston architect [[Harrison Albright]], begun construction in 1899 and was completed in 1901. An annex of the same style was added in 1995. In the cornerstone of the main building is a time capsule filled with turn of the 19th century artifacts.

The [[Sago Mine Disaster]], January 2, 2006, killed 12 and left one survivor. Officials said that a lightning strike in the coal caused the explosion. It was the worst mining disaster in the US since a 2001 disaster in [[Alabama]] killed 13 people, and the worst disaster in West Virginia since a 1968 incident that killed 78 people. National and international news crews were in the area for upwards of three days to cover rescue and recovery efforts.