Editing Jackson County, West Virginia (section)

===American Civil War===
During the American Civil War, the county was divided, but tilted toward the Union, and suffered from raids and [[bushwackers]]. At the [[Virginia Secession Convention of 1861]], its joint delegate with upstream Roane County, lawyer [[Franklin P. Turner]], twice voted for secession after rival meetings held by pro- and anti-secession forces in Jackson County on April 8, 1861.<ref>{{Cite web |title=West Virginia Sesquicentennial Timeline: April 1861 |url=http://www.wvculture.org/history/sesquicentennial/186104.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110430191746/http://www.wvculture.org/history/sesquicentennial/186104.html |archive-date=April 30, 2011}}</ref> Jackson County sent several delegates to the [[Wheeling Convention]], but Roane County sent none. [[Daniel E. Frost]] of Ravenswood, editor of the county's first newspaper<ref>Early history p. 88</ref> and who had represented both counties in the Virginia House of Delegates, became the delegate for both counties. Fellow delegates also elected him the Speaker of the Restored Government's General Assembly held at Wheeling in 1861 and 1862 (which prepared for West Virginia statehood). Col. Frost would die fighting for the Union in 1863. Henrietta Fitzhugh Barre, the daughter of Henry Fitzhugh, sympathized with the Confederacy and kept a diary, first published in 1961.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015002162108&view=1up&seq=3 |title=The Civil War diary of MRS. Henrietta Fitzhugh Barr (Barre), 1862-1863, Ravenswood, Virginia (West Virginia) |publisher=Marietta College |year=1963}}</ref> Another former delegate [[George B. Crow]] of Angerona (a silver boom town) would enlist as a Confederate and also reach the rank of colonel, but he survived the war. Confederate raiders attacked Ravenswood and Ripley in May and September 1862, and again in May 1863.<ref>Early History pp.129, 131</ref>

In July 1863, the [[Battle of Buffington Island]] near Ravenswood became the only naval action in West Virginia. The [[9th West Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiment|9th West Virginia]] supported the tinclad and ironclad naval vessels, and they and Union forces across the Ohio River captured 1700 Confederates and set the stage for the capture of CSA Major General [[John Hunt Morgan]] and ended his raids.<ref>{{Cite web |title=e-WV {{!}} Buffington Island |url=https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/704 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130625005328/http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/704 |archive-date=June 25, 2013}}</ref>

When West Virginia became a state in 1863, its counties were divided into [[civil township]]s, with the intention of encouraging local government. This proved impractical in the heavily rural state, and in 1872 the townships were converted into [[minor civil division|magisterial districts]].<ref>Otis K. Rice & Stephen W. Brown, ''West Virginia: A History'', 2nd ed., University Press of Kentucky, Lexington (1993), p. 240.</ref>  Jackson county was divided into five townships: Gilmore, [[Grant District, Jackson County, West Virginia|Grant]], Hushan's Mills, Mill Creek, and [[Washington District, Jackson County, West Virginia|Washington]].<ref name="EH 4">Early History, p. 4.</ref><ref name="USCB: MCD Tables">[[United States Census Bureau]], [[United States Census|U.S. Decennial Census]], Tables of Minor Civil Divisions in West Virginia, 1870–2010.</ref> All white males who owned at least a house and 12 square feet of land were granted the right to vote.<ref name="EH 4" />  Hushan's Mills, including the area around Cottageville, was subsequently renamed "[[Union District, Jackson County, West Virginia|Union]]".<ref name="EH 4" />  In 1871, Gilmore Township was renamed "[[Ravenswood District, Jackson County, West Virginia|Ravenswood]]", and Mill Creek became "[[Ripley District, Jackson County, West Virginia|Ripley]]", after the county's two chief towns. All five townships became magisterial districts in 1872. They remained stable for over a hundred years, until in the 1990s they were consolidated into three new districts: [[Eastern District, Jackson County, West Virginia|Eastern]], [[Northern District, Jackson County, West Virginia|Northern]], and [[Western District, Jackson County, West Virginia|Western]].<ref name="USCB: MCD Tables" />