Editing Fairmont, West Virginia (section)

==History==
=== Early settlements ===
In the eighteenth century, the earliest development of Fairmont consisted of [[subsistence farming]] [[human settlement|settlements]].<ref>{{Cite journal |author=West Virginia SHPO |title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Fleming-Watson Historic District |url=http://www.wvculture.org/shpo/nr/pdf/marion/01001330.pdf |date=November 29, 2001 |publisher=National Park Service}}</ref>

In 1789, Boaz Fleming, a [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]] [[veteran]], migrated to western [[Virginia]] and purchased a 254-acre farm from Jonathan Bozarth. In 1808, Fleming made his annual trek to [[Clarksburg, West Virginia|Clarksburg]] to pay his brother's Harrison County taxes.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dilger |first=Robert |title=The Early History of North-Central West Virginia |journal=The West Virginia Public Affairs Reporter |url=http://ipa.wvu.edu/r/download/43211 |format=PDF |date=2003 |publisher=Institute of Public Affairs |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=15–26 |access-date=March 24, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100626123104/http://ipa.wvu.edu/r/download/43211 |archive-date=June 26, 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref> While in Clarksburg, Fleming attended a social gathering that included his cousin [[Dolley Madison]], wife of President [[James Madison]]. Fleming complained to Mrs. Madison about having to travel over a hundred miles each year from his home to pay his Monongalia County taxes and his brother's Harrison County taxes. Mrs. Madison supposedly suggested that he create his own county to save him all that travel. In 1814, Fleming circulated a petition to do precisely that, naming the proposed county Madison County in honor of Dolley and James Madison.

Milford, now [[Rivesville, West Virginia|Rivesville]],<ref>{{cite book|last=Butcher|first=Bernard|title=Genealogical and Personal History of the Upper Monongahela Valley, West Virginia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BN3IEGZANYUC&q=%22david+morgan%22+wv+milford&pg=PA514|year=1912|publisher=Clearfield Company|location=New York, NY|page=514|isbn=9780806348490}}</ref> was the only town within the borders of Fleming's proposed county, so Fleming decided to make Milford the seat of Madison County.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Burkett |first=Connie |title=Fairmont, Marion County WV (history) |url=http://www.wvgenweb.org/marion/towns/fairmonthis.html |website=Marion County WVGenWeb |date=2015 |access-date=April 6, 2016}}</ref> However, Milford's citizens preferred to remain part of Monongalia County. As a result, Fleming's petition failed to gain sufficient support to be presented to the [[Virginia General Assembly]]. Fleming then focused on creating a new town near his farm, which was located on the west side of the [[Monongahela River]]. In 1817, Fleming's sons—William and David—began to clear land on a part of their father's farm to make way for the new town; this part of the farm would later become downtown Fairmont.{{Citation needed|date=February 2022}}

=== Modern history ===
[[File:Tipple at Gaston mine 1908.jpg|thumb|left|Coal tipple at Gaston mine, October 1908]]
In 1819, Fairmont was founded as Middletown, Virginia. It was named Middletown because either it was in the middle of two cities, [[Morgantown, West Virginia|Morgantown]] and [[Clarksburg, West Virginia|Clarksburg]],<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=McMillan|first=Debra Ball|title=An Ornament to the City: Historic Architecture in Downtown Fairmont, West Virginia|publisher=Headline Books, Inc.|year=1996|isbn=0929915186|location=Terra Alta, WV|pages=10}}</ref> or Fleming's first wife, Elizabeth Hutchinson, was originally from [[Middletown, Delaware|Middletown]], [[Delaware]]. That same year, a road was built between those two cities. Fleming's new town was about halfway between the two cities, which made it a resting point. The town was incorporated as Middletown on January 19, 1820.{{Citation needed|date=February 2022}}

The current borders of Marion County were established in 1842, and Middletown was named the county's seat. At that time, William Haymond Jr. suggested that the town's name be changed to Fairmont because the town had a beautiful overlook of the Monongahela River, giving it a "fair mount". The Borough of Fairmont was incorporated in 1843 by the Virginia General Assembly.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kenny|first=Hamill|title=West Virginia Place Names: Their Origin and Meaning, Including the Nomenclature of the Streams and Mountains|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015009099824;view=1up;seq=264;size=125|year=1945|publisher=The Place Name Press|location=Piedmont, WV|page=236}}</ref>

In 1863, during the [[American Civil War]], Confederate General [[William E. Jones (general)|William E. Jones]] and his men raided Fairmont and cut the Union's supply lines to take food and horses. They also burned the books from the personal library of Governor [[Francis Harrison Pierpont]].<ref name=":0" />

Many of the first buildings in Fairmont were poorly constructed. By 1852—little more than 30 years after the city's founding—a large portion of Fairmont was reported to be run-down and dilapidated. Reports from 1873 indicate that these buildings had continued to fall into disrepair. On April 2, 1876, a fire destroyed a large portion of the city's [[business district]], as well as many houses in the area. The continuing dilapidation of the city's buildings may have contributed to the fire; the large number of [[coal]] [[coal mining|mines]] under Fairmont may have also played a role.{{Citation needed|date=February 2022}}

[[File:5 pm. Boys going home from Monougal Glass Works. A native remark, "De place is lousey wid kids." Fairmont, W. Va. - NARA - 523094.jpg|thumb|left|Child laborers at Monougal Glass Works in Fairmont, 1908.  Photo by [[Lewis Hine]].]]
Between 1891 and 1901—in a span of only 10 years—Fairmont's population had increased from 1,000 to 7,000. The City of Fairmont was chartered in 1899; as a result of the charter, the city absorbed the surrounding towns of Palatine (also known as East Side) and West Fairmont. By 1901, Fairmont was an important commercial center. Many [[railroads]]—including the [[Baltimore and Ohio Railroad]] on its way from [[Cumberland, Maryland|Cumberland]], [[Maryland]] to [[Wheeling, West Virginia|Wheeling]]—traveled through the city. By this time, Fairmont was also the leading center of the coal trade industry in northern West Virginia, employing some 10,000 workers in the coal mines around Fairmont.{{Citation needed|date=February 2022}}

By 1978, an issue with Fairmont's land experiencing [[subsidence]] appeared because the remains of Fairmont's 19th-century [[coal mines]] were crumbling. As a result, over the following years, the federal government along with other institutions spent money to fix the subsidence issue to prevent damage to the town.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Wicker|first=Tom|date=November 23, 1980|title=Fairmont, W. Va., Lives in Peril As Old Mines Under It Crumble; Cracks in the Wall Possible Domino Effect|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1980/11/23/archives/fairmont-w-va-lives-in-peril-as-old-mines-under-it-crumble-cracks.html|website=The New York Times}}</ref>