Editing Point Pleasant, West Virginia (section)

==History==
A Shawnee village known as Upper Shawneetown was established in this area before 1749, which the Shawnees called "Chinoudaista" or "Chinodahichetha."<ref>[https://kb.osu.edu/bitstream/handle/1811/55896/1/OHIO_ARCHAEOLOGIST_40_3_SUMMER_1990.pdf Philip Shriver, "Lower Shawnee Town on the Eve of the French and Indian War," ''Ohio Archaeologist,'' Vol 40:3, Summer 1990, pp. 16-21]</ref><ref name = "Feight">[https://sciotohistorical.org/items/show/35 Andrew Lee Feight, "Lower Shawnee Town and Celoron's Expedition," ''Scioto Historical,'' accessed November 22, 2020]</ref><ref>[https://www.academia.edu/37142554/Appalachian_Migrations_Historic_and_Prehistoric Robert F. Maslowski, "Appalachian Migrations: Historic and Prehistoric. In ''Instances of Prehistoric and Historic Archaeology in the Mountainous Areas of the Eastern United States: Papers from Upland Archaeology in the East Symposium XI,'' Clarence R. Geir, Compiler, pp. 49-63. James Madison University, 2012]</ref>

=== The Céloron Expedition (1749) ===
[[File:L'AN 1749 DV REGNE DE LOVIS XV ROY DE FRANCE - Plaques OHIO.png|thumb|In 1749 French explorer Pierre Joseph Céloron de Blainville asserts sovereignty of France over the Ohio valley by burying a lead plaque called « of Point Pleasant ».]]

In the second half of 1749, the [[France|French]] explorer [[Pierre Joseph Céloron de Blainville]] (1693-1759) claimed French sovereignty over the [[Ohio Valley]], burying a lead plaque at the meeting point of the Ohio and Kanawha Rivers.

The text on the plaque is as follows: 
:''L'AN 1749 DV REGNE DE LOVIS XV ROY DE FRANCE, NOVS CELORON, COMMANDANT D'VN DETACHEMENT ENVOIE PAR MONSIEVR LE MIS. DE LA GALISSONIERE, COMMANDANT GENERAL DE LA NOUVELLE FRANCE POVR RETABLIR LA TRAN QUILLITE DANS QUELQUES VILLAGES SAUVAGES DE CES CANTONS, AVONS ENTERRE CETTE PLAQUE AU CONFLUENT DE L'OHIO ET DE TCHADAKOIN CE 29 JVILLET, PRES DE LA RIVIERE OYO AUTREMENT BELLE RIVIERE, POUR MONUMENT DU RENOUVELLEMENT DE POSSESSION QUE NOUS AVONS PRIS DE LA DITTE RIVIERE OYO, ET DE TOUTES CELLE~ QUI Y TOMBENT, ET DE TOUTES LES TERRES DES DEUX COTES JVSQVE AVX SOURCES DES DITTES RIVIERES AINSI QV'EN ONT JOVY OU DV JOVIR LES PRECEDENTS ROIS DE FRANCE, ET QU'ILS S'Y SONT MAINTENVS PAR LES ARMES ET PAR LES TRAIT TES, SPECIALEMENT PAR CEVX DE RISWICK D'VTRECHT ET D'AIX LA CHAPELLE.''<ref>The Céloron Plate, one of only two to be recovered among the six placed by Céloron along the Ohio River during the expedition, is in the collections of the [[Virginia Historical Society]]. It was recovered in 1849 after washing out from the river bank; a monument marks the spot today.</ref>

:''(In the year 1749, in the reign of [[King Louis XV]], we, Celoron, commander of a detachment sent by [[Roland-Michel Barrin de La Galissonière|Commander de La Galissonière]], Commander General of [[New France]], for the restoration of peace in various untamed villages in the region, have buried this plaque at the confluence of the Ohio and Tchadakoin [Rivers] this 29th day of July near the fine river bank, to commemorate the retaking into possession of the afore-mentioned river bank and all the surrounding lands on both river shores back to the river sources, as secured by previous kings of France, and maintained by force of arms and by treaties, specifically the Treaties of [[Treaty of Ryswick|Rijswick]], of [[Treaty of Utrecht|Utrecht]] and of [[Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748)|Aix la Chapelle]]) ''

Céloron's expedition was a diplomatic failure since the local [[Native American tribes in Virginia|tribes]] remained pro-British, and British representatives refused to leave. This incident was the prelude to conflicts between the French and [[Kingdom of Great Britain|British]] in North America that would lead to the outbreak of the [[French and Indian War]] in 1754 (as part of the [[Seven Years' War]]) that would lead to the cessation of [[New France]] to the British and the ultimate expulsion of France from most of its possessions in North America.{{citation needed|date=November 2020}}

The expedition can nevertheless be seen in more positive terms as a geographical project since the Céloron expedition was the starting point for the first map of the [[Ohio Valley]], which was the work of the [[Jesuit]] [[Joseph Pierre de Bonnecamps]].

In 1770, Colonel [[George Washington]] visited the confluence that would become Point Pleasant, then proceeded 14 miles up the "Great Kanawha" and later reported that "This Country abounds in Buffalo and Wild game of all kinds as also in all kinds of wild fowl, there being in the Bottoms a great many small grassy Ponds or Lakes which are full of Swans, Geese, and Ducks of different kinds."<ref>Cleland Hugh (1955), ''George Washington in the Ohio Valley''; [[Pittsburgh]]: [[University of Pittsburgh Press]], pg 261.</ref>

=== The Battle of Point Pleasant (1774) ===
{{main|Battle of Point Pleasant}}
In the [[Battle of Point Pleasant]] (October 10, 1774), fought on the future site of the town, over one thousand Virginia militiamen, led by Colonel [[Andrew Lewis (soldier)|Andrew Lewis]] (1720–1781), defeated a roughly equal force of an Algonquin confederation of [[Shawnee]] and [[Mingo]] warriors led by Shawnee Chief [[Cornstalk (Shawnee leader)|Cornstalk]] (c. 1720–1777). The event is celebrated locally as the "First Battle of the [[American Revolutionary War]]," and in 1908, the [[U.S. Senate]] authorized the erection of a local monument to commemorate it as such. Most historians, however, regard it not as a battle of the Revolution (1775–1783) but as a part of [[Lord Dunmore's War]] (1774).
<gallery>
Image:The Lord Dunmore.png|Statue of [[John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore|Lord Dunmore]] at Point Pleasant, in front of the [[flood wall]] mural.
Image:Dunmore Saga.png|Mural with a quotation from ''Documentary History of Dunmore's War, 1774'', edited by [[Reuben Thwaites]] (here misspelled "Thwaits") and Louise Kellogg.
</gallery>

===Settlement===
"Camp Point Pleasant" was established by Col. Lewis at the time of the Battle, and the settlement that followed also took that name. Although not certain, Point Pleasant may have been permanently settled by whites as early as 1774. At about that time, a permanent stockade known as Fort Blair was erected there. Before that, hostilities between whites and Native Americans all along the [[Ohio River Valley]] probably precluded the possibility of settlement in the absence of a substantial stockade.<ref>Atkinson, George W. (1876), [http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wvkanawh/Early/early.html ''History of Kanawha County, From its Organization in 1789 until the Present Time''], Office of the West Virginia Journal, [[Charleston, West Virginia]].</ref> In 1776, a new fort was built on the site of the earlier fort and named for the recently deceased Virginia official [[Peyton Randolph]] (1721–1775). [[Fort Randolph (West Virginia)|Fort Randolph]] is best remembered as the place where Chief Cornstalk was murdered in 1777. It withstood an attack by Native Americans the following year but was abandoned in 1779.

George Washington's 1770 journey to the Ohio River Valley had been occasioned by military grants that had been awarded by proclamation in 1754 by [[Governor Dinwiddie]] to officers and soldiers who had served in the [[French and Indian War]]. The resulting survey encompassed 52,302 acres (or 80 square miles). It was subdivided in the 1780s as follows: 9,876 acres — including the present side of Point Pleasant — to [[Andrew Lewis (soldier)|Andrew Lewis]], 5,000 acres for George Muse, 5,000 acres for Peter Hogg, 8,000 acres for Andrew Stephens, another 3,000 acres for Peter Hogg, another 5,026 acres for George Muse, 3,400 acres for Andrew Waggener, 6,000 acres for John Poulson, 6,000 acres for John West. On the lower side of the Kanawha River, 13,532 acres for [[Hugh Mercer]] (see [[Mercers Bottom]]) and, finally, 10,990 acres for Washington himself.

Fort Randolph was rebuilt nearby in 1785 after the renewal of hostilities between the United States government and Native Americans, but it saw little action and was eventually abandoned once again.<ref>Two centuries later, a fort replica was built nearby.</ref> The settlement at Point Pleasant did not receive an official charter until 1794.

===19th century===
Mason County was carved out of Kanawha County in 1804, and Point Pleasant was designated the county seat then. According to historian [[Virgil A. Lewis]], "Point Pleasant did not flourish for many years [after the turn of the century]. There was no church for over fifty years, and society was low. There was a popular superstition that because of the fiendish murder of Cornstalk there in 1777, the place was laid under a curse for a hundred years".<ref>Lewis, Virgil A., ed. (1892), Notes to "Lewis Summer's Journal of a Tour from Alexandria, Virginia, to Gallipolis, Ohio, in 1808", ''Southern Historical Magazine: Devoted to History, Genealogy, Biography, Archæology and Kindred Subjects'', Vol. 1, No. 2 (February issue), pg 67, n. 59.</ref> Lewis also relates that a visitor to Point Pleasant in 1810 observed that ... <blockquote>Point Pleasant is pleasantly situated immediately above the mouth of the Great Kanawha, on an extensive and fertile bottom of the Ohio, of which it has a fine prospect up and down that river. It is the seat of justice of Mason county Virginia, and contains about 15 or 20 families, a log courthouse, a log jail and as usual (but unfortunately) in the Virginia towns, a [[pillory]] and [[whipping post]]. Point Pleasant seems rather on the stand in point of improvement, arising, it is said, from the difficulty in establishing the land titles. It is, however, a considerable place of embarkation for those descending the Ohio from the back and western parts of Virginia. There is one merchant. Mr. William Langtry.<ref>Lewis, ''[[Op. cit.]]''. (He is quoting the anonymous 1810 traveler.)</ref></blockquote>

Point Pleasant was incorporated in 1833.

During the [[American Civil War]], the Virginia Secession Convention of 1861, Mason County's delegate, lawyer James H. Couch (1821-1899), although an enslaver, voted against declaring secession. Mason County then sent no delegates to the Virginia House of Delegates until West Virginia's statehood, which Virginia's House of Delegates refused to recognize, thus seating James Hutcheson, who Confederate soldiers had elected in their camp. Meanwhile, William W. Newman claimed to represent Mason and nearby Jackson, Cabell, Wayne, and Wirt counties throughout the war.<ref>Cynthia Miller Leonard, The Virginia General Assembly 1619-1978 (Virginia State Library 1978) pp. 482, 485, 488</ref> Mason County sent more than 1000 men to the Union army and one company of 61 men to the Confederate Army (the [[37th Virginia Infantry]]).<ref>Virgil A. Lewis's Soldiery of West Virginia (1911, 1972 reprint) p. 223</ref> In March 1863, in the only wartime skirmish in Point Pleasant, during the [[Jones-Imboden Raid]], the 6th Virginia Cavalry and 8th Virginia Cavalry attacked the Mason County Courthouse, where they believed munitions stored, leaving bullet holes in the walls until a replacement was built in 1954.<ref>Mason County West Virginia: Experience History and the Mystery (Mason County Welcome Center) p. 8</ref>

===20th century===
Point Pleasant was widely noted for the 1967 collapse of the [[Silver Bridge]], which killed 46 people.

On October 10, 1974, Point Pleasant celebrated the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Point Pleasant. A replica of Fort Randolph was built in 1973-74 and dedicated as part of the festivities. The town of Point Pleasant was situated over the site of the fort and so the replica is located at Krodel Park, about one mile away.<ref>[http://www.pointpleasantwv.org/Parks&Campgrounds/Local/Fort_Randolph/fort_randolph_restoration.htm Fort Randolph restoration], from [http://www.pointpleasantwv.org/Parks&Campgrounds/Local/Fort_Randolph/Fort_Randolph_Hello.htm Fort Randolph website]</ref>

===National Register of Historic Places===
The [[Eastham House]], [[Lewis-Capehart-Roseberry House]], and [[Point Pleasant Battleground]] are listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]]. The central business district and surrounding residential areas are included in the [[Point Pleasant Historic District (Point Pleasant, West Virginia)|Point Pleasant Historic District]].<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2010a}}</ref>