Editing Clarksburg, West Virginia (section)

===Settlement and early history===
[[File:Waldomore, a lavish home built in 1839 for state senator Waldo P. Goff in Clarksburg, West Virginia LCCN2015631633.tif|thumb|left|The [[Waldomore]] estate of the [[Waldomore#Goff Family|Goff political family]]]]
As early as 1772, settlers began claiming lands near where Clarksburg now stands, and building cabins. In 1773, Major Daniel Davisson (1748–1819) took up {{convert|400|acre|km2}}, upon which the principal part of the town is now located. By 1774, people settling near present Clarksburg included: Daniel Davisson, Obadiah Davisson (Daniel's father), Amaziah Davisson (Daniel's uncle), Thomas, John, and Matthew Nutter, Samuel and Andrew Cottrill (brothers), Sotha Hickman, and Samuel Beard. Undoubtedly, others located on these public lands, of which no official records were made.<ref name="genealogytrails.com"/>
The [[Virginia General Assembly]] authorized the town of Clarksburg in 1785. Now a city, it is named for [[General]] [[George Rogers Clark]], a Virginian who conducted many expeditions against the British and Indians during the [[Indian Wars]] and the war of the [[American Revolution]], including the strategically critical capture of the [[Forts of Vincennes, Indiana|Forts of Vincennes]], now in the State of [[Indiana]], in 1778.<ref name="autogenerated1">[http://www.clarksburg.com/a_brief_historical_tour_of_clark.htm] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070205170900/http://www.clarksburg.com/a_brief_historical_tour_of_clark.htm|date=February 5, 2007}}</ref>

As now-President [[George Washington]] had proposed years earlier, the General Assembly also authorized a road from [[Winchester, Virginia]] to [[Morgantown, West Virginia|Morgantown]] in 1786, and a branch from this road (which decades later became the [[Northwestern Turnpike]]) would soon begin through Clarksburg toward the [[Little Kanawha River]] (which flows into the [[Ohio River]] at [[Parkersburg, West Virginia|Parkersburg]]). In 1787, the Virginia General Assembly authorized the Randolph Academy at Clarksburg, a private school led by Rev. George Towers and the first west of the Alleghenies.<ref name="wvencyclopedia.org">{{cite web |url=http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/1204 |title=e-WV - Clarksburg |access-date=June 22, 2015 |archive-date=February 3, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210203031536/http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/1204 |url-status=live }}</ref> However, although many here as the 19th century began wanted the [[National Road]] westward to follow [[McCulloch's Path]] (improvements beginning after the [[Northwestern Turnpike]] company's formal incorporation by the Virginia General Assembly in 1827), Congress instead authorized construction on an easier route ([[Nemacolin's Path]]) through Maryland and [[Wheeling, West Virginia|Wheeling]], which opened in 1818.

Construction of the first Harrison County courthouse began in Clarksburg in 1787. That building was followed by four increasingly larger courthouses; the most recent one completed in 1932. The first Court House stood on what is now the North East Corner of Second and Main Streets; the jail stood on the opposite side of Main Street near where the Presbyterian church now stands.<ref name="wvencyclopedia.org"/>

Relatively poor transportation slowed northwestern Virginia's development, so subscribers in Winchester, [[Romney, West Virginia|Romney]], [[Kingwood, West Virginia|Kingwood]], Clarksburg, Parkersburg and other towns en route caused the [[Northwestern Turnpike]] to be built. While the toll road increased development around Clarksburg in the 1830s, it also used a relatively anachronistic model. Nonetheless, the Randolph Academy was razed and replaced by the Northwestern Academy in 1841, a year after stage coach service began between Clarksburg and Parkersburg on the Ohio River. Clarksburg's development increased more a decade later due to new technology and further subscriptions. The [[Baltimore and Ohio Railroad]] reached Clarksburg from [[Grafton, West Virginia|Grafton]] in 1856.

Two of the modern city's historic buildings date from this prewar era. The [[Stealey-Goff-Vance House]], now owned by the Harrison County Historical Society, was originally constructed in 1807, expanded in 1891 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. [[Waldomore]] was built beginning in 1839, served as the Clarksburg Public Library from 1931 to 1976 (when a new building was built next door for the majority of the collection), and added to the National Register in 1978.