Editing Jackson County, West Virginia (section)

===Incorporation and splits===
Two years later (in 1831) citizens petitioned for incorporating the county, which was formed from sections of [[Kanawha County, West Virginia|Kanawha]], [[Wood County, West Virginia|Wood]], and [[Mason County, West Virginia|Mason]] Counties, and named for [[Andrew Jackson]], seventh [[President of the United States]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jackson County history sources |url=http://www.wvculture.org/history/counties/jackson.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130210133434/http://www.wvculture.org/history/counties/jackson.html |archive-date=February 10, 2013 |access-date=January 29, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Gannett, Henry |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ |title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States |publisher=Govt. Print. Off. |year=1905 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n166 167]}}</ref>

[[Ripley, West Virginia|Ripley]], on Big Mill Creek about 12 miles from its confluence with the Ohio River and the location of a bridge on the West Columbia Pike as well as both a sawmill and a flour and grist mill (which also had a carding machine to make wool yarn), was laid out in 1832 and became the county seat; the courthouse was completed by October 1833, although it was not incorporated until 1852 (and re-incorporated in 1867).<ref>Early History, pp. 76-77</ref> [[Ravenswood, West Virginia|Ravenswood]], about 12 miles further up Big Mill Creek, would be platted the next year by Henry Fitzhugh. Bartholomew Fleming began operating a ferry at Ravenswood in 1840, and a wagon road between Ravenswood and [[Spencer, West Virginia|Spencer]] (which later became Roane County's seat) was completed in the early 1840s. However, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad would not reach Ravenswood and Spencer (on the [[Wheeling, West Virginia|Wheeling]] to [[Huntington, West Virginia|Huntington]] line) until 1886.<ref>Early History pp. 11-12</ref> Jackson County's population in 1840 was 4,890.<ref name="wvencyclopedia.org" />

Increased settlement led to the formation of two additional counties from parts of what had been Jackson County. In 1848, the Virginia General Assembly authorized the creation of [[Wirt County, West Virginia|Wirt County]] from inland portions of Jackson and Wood Counties. In 1856, the Virginia General Assembly created [[Roane County, West Virginia|Roane County]] from Jackson County.