Editing Wellsburg, West Virginia (section)

==History==
[[File:Main Street, Wellsburg, W. Va (84269).jpg|thumb|Wellsburg in the early 20th century]]
The town was laid out in 1790, and its post office was opened on September 1, 1870.

In 1772, the Cox brothers, Friend, Israel, and Jonathan, made [[Cabin rights|tomahawk rights]] claims totaling {{convert|1,200|acre|km2}} in the area now including Wellsburg. In March 1788, Charles Prather purchased {{convert|481|acre|km2}} from the Cox heirs for $3,000. In 1791, Prather petitioned Ohio County to incorporate the town of Charlestown, Virginia, naming it after himself. The original name continued until 1816, when it was changed to Wellsburg, to avoid confusion with [[Charles Town, West Virginia|Charles Town, Jefferson County]]. The new name was in honor of Alexander Wells, Charles Prather's son-in-law, builder of the first large flour warehouse in the east. Late in 1890, nearby Midway and Lazearville were annexed to Wellsburg.<ref name="e-WV"/><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/earlywesterntrav04thwa/page/108/mode/2up |title=Early Western Travels, 1748–1846 |editor-last=Thwaites |editor-first=Reuben Gold |volume=4 |year=1904 |publisher=The Arthur H. Clark Company |page=108 |via=[[Archive.org]] |access-date=2023-08-29}}{{Open access}}</ref>

Wellsburg was the home of [[Patrick Gass]], the last surviving member of the Lewis and Clark expedition and author of a memoir of the famous journey. Here also was the home of [[Joseph Doddridge]], author of ''Notes on the Settlement and Indian Wars''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Richards |first=Samuel J. |title=The East-West Divide and Frontier Efforts of the Reverend Dr. Joseph Doddridge |url=https://doi.org/10.5325/pennhistory.85.4.0460 |journal=Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies |volume=85 |issue=4 |pages=460–487}}</ref> In 1832, the original [[Grimes Golden]] apple tree was found just east of Wellsburg. The first glass factory in Western Virginia was built at Wellsburg in 1813.<ref name="e-WV"/>

Wellsburg has a [[National Register of Historic Places listings in Brooke County, West Virginia|number of entries]] on the [[National Register of Historic Places]]. The most notable are [[Miller's Tavern]] and [[Wellsburg Wharf]]. The [[Wellsburg Historic District]] was listed in 1982.<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2010a}}</ref>