Editing Hardy County, West Virginia (section)

==History==
The first European known to visit this area was John Van Meter in 1725. The earliest permanent European settlements were established in the 1730s.

Hardy County was formed in 1786 from [[Hampshire County, West Virginia|Hampshire County]] in Virginia. It was one of fifty counties admitted to the Union as the state of West Virginia in 1863.

That year, the newly independent state's counties were divided into [[civil township]]s, with the intention of encouraging local government. This proved impractical in the heavily rural state, and in 1872 the townships were converted into [[minor civil division|magisterial districts]].<ref>Otis K. Rice & Stephen W. Brown, ''West Virginia: A History'', 2nd ed., University Press of Kentucky, Lexington (1993), p. 240.</ref>  Hardy County was divided into three districts: Capon, Lost River, and Moorefield. A fourth district, South Fork, was formed in 1873 from part of Moorefield District, and a fifth district, Old Fields, was created in the 1980s.<ref>[[United States Census Bureau]], [[United States Census|U.S. Decennial Census]], Tables of Minor Civil Divisions in West Virginia, 1870–2010.</ref>

Hardy County has a rich African American history, with many free African Americans living there before the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]. This history is discussed in part 2 of the [[Henry Louis Gates]] television series ''[[African American Lives]]''.