Editing Monroe County, West Virginia (section)

==History==
Monroe County was created from [[Greenbrier County, West Virginia|Greenbrier County]] on January 14, 1799, and was named for [[Virginia]] civic figure [[James Monroe]], who would be elected fifth [[President of the United States]] in November 1816.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wvculture.org/history/counties/monroe.html|title=Monroe County history sources|access-date=January 29, 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130601023004/http://www.wvculture.org/history/counties/monroe.html|archive-date=June 1, 2013}}</ref>  It was one of fifty Virginia counties that were admitted to the [[United States of America|Union]] as the state of West Virginia on June 20, 1863, at the height of the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]. Monroe County did not participate in the creation of the new state, but was included by Congressional decree. Almost all the men from Monroe who served in the Civil War enlisted in the Confederate army.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/ahistorymonroec00mortgoog/page/n474 Morton, Oren F., ''A History of Monroe County, West Virginia'', Ruebush-Elkins Co., 1916, pgs. 422-460]</ref>

In 1863, West Virginia'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>  Monroe County was initially divided into seven townships: Forest Hill, Red Sulphur, Second Creek, Springfield, Sweet Springs, Union, and Wolf Creek. In 1871, part of Forest Hill Township was added to the new county of [[Summers County, West Virginia|Summers]], and the remaining territory distributed between Red Sulphur and Springfield Townships. The following year, the six remaining townships became magisterial districts. Except for minor adjustments, the six historic magisterial districts were unchanged until the 1990s, when they were consolidated into three new districts: Central, Eastern, and Western.<ref>[[United States Census Bureau]], [[United States Census|U.S. Decennial Census]], Tables of Minor Civil Divisions in West Virginia, 1870–2010.</ref>