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=== Early settlements === In the eighteenth century, the earliest development of Fairmont consisted of [[subsistence farming]] [[human settlement|settlements]].<ref>{{Cite journal |author=West Virginia SHPO |title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Fleming-Watson Historic District |url=http://www.wvculture.org/shpo/nr/pdf/marion/01001330.pdf |date=November 29, 2001 |publisher=National Park Service}}</ref> In 1789, Boaz Fleming, a [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]] [[veteran]], migrated to western [[Virginia]] and purchased a 254-acre farm from Jonathan Bozarth. In 1808, Fleming made his annual trek to [[Clarksburg, West Virginia|Clarksburg]] to pay his brother's Harrison County taxes.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dilger |first=Robert |title=The Early History of North-Central West Virginia |journal=The West Virginia Public Affairs Reporter |url=http://ipa.wvu.edu/r/download/43211 |format=PDF |date=2003 |publisher=Institute of Public Affairs |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=15–26 |access-date=March 24, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100626123104/http://ipa.wvu.edu/r/download/43211 |archive-date=June 26, 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref> While in Clarksburg, Fleming attended a social gathering that included his cousin [[Dolley Madison]], wife of President [[James Madison]]. Fleming complained to Mrs. Madison about having to travel over a hundred miles each year from his home to pay his Monongalia County taxes and his brother's Harrison County taxes. Mrs. Madison supposedly suggested that he create his own county to save him all that travel. In 1814, Fleming circulated a petition to do precisely that, naming the proposed county Madison County in honor of Dolley and James Madison. Milford, now [[Rivesville, West Virginia|Rivesville]],<ref>{{cite book|last=Butcher|first=Bernard|title=Genealogical and Personal History of the Upper Monongahela Valley, West Virginia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BN3IEGZANYUC&q=%22david+morgan%22+wv+milford&pg=PA514|year=1912|publisher=Clearfield Company|location=New York, NY|page=514|isbn=9780806348490}}</ref> was the only town within the borders of Fleming's proposed county, so Fleming decided to make Milford the seat of Madison County.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Burkett |first=Connie |title=Fairmont, Marion County WV (history) |url=http://www.wvgenweb.org/marion/towns/fairmonthis.html |website=Marion County WVGenWeb |date=2015 |access-date=April 6, 2016}}</ref> However, Milford's citizens preferred to remain part of Monongalia County. As a result, Fleming's petition failed to gain sufficient support to be presented to the [[Virginia General Assembly]]. Fleming then focused on creating a new town near his farm, which was located on the west side of the [[Monongahela River]]. In 1817, Fleming's sons—William and David—began to clear land on a part of their father's farm to make way for the new town; this part of the farm would later become downtown Fairmont.{{Citation needed|date=February 2022}}
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