Editing Marshall County, West Virginia (section)

===Emigration and conflict===
In 1752, according to [[Christopher Gist]]'s diary, Gist explored the Ohio River Valley area in what became Marshall County on behalf of the [[Ohio Company]], a group of [[Virginia]] investors, before the conflict which became known as the [[French and Indian War]]. The French explorer Sieur De la Salle had traveled on the Ohio River in 1669, and Captain [[Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville|deBlainville]] had buried lead plates staking France's claim to the valley in 1749. English speakers attempted to strengthen their claims initially by settlement, much to the displeasure of local Native Americans. The British government prohibited colonists from officially settling in the area in the 1763 peace treaty following that war.<ref name="Marshall County 1984 History p. 10">Marshall County 1984 History, p. 10.</ref>

Nonetheless, emigrants crossed the mountains. John Wetzel staked a claim along [[Wheeling Creek (West Virginia)|Wheeling Creek]] in what is now Marshall County's Sand Hill District in 1764 (building a fortification by 1769). The British concluded the [[Treaty of Fort Stanwix]] with the [[Iroquois]] in 1768, which purported to give them this area and much of the Ohio River valley, despite the claims of other native peoples, particularly the Algonquian-speaking tribes. The Zane brothers ([[Ebenezer Zane|Ebenezer]], and later Andrew, Jonathan and Silas) built cabins at the confluence of Wheeling Creek and the Ohio River in 1770, and their settlement decades later became [[Wheeling, West Virginia|Wheeling]]. Joseph, James and Samuel Tomlinson built a cabin on the Flats of [[Grave Creek (West Virginia)|Grave Creek]] at what became [[Moundsville, West Virginia|Moundsville]] around the same time, but experienced "Indian troubles" upon returning the following spring, and despite fortifying it, left until 1773. In 1774, Native Americans decided to drive the settlers from their valley and attacked Michael Cresap's settlement at Cresap's Bottom. The British colonists and military fortified [[Fort Henry (West Virginia)|Fort Fincastle]] at what became Wheeling and which was renamed "Fort Henry" during the [[American Revolutionary War]]. Cresap gathered other settlers and counterattacked, continuing what became locally called Cresap's War, or [[Dunmore's War]]. In the only pitched battle of that war (considerably downstream of Marshall County), Virginia militia led by colonel [[Andrew Lewis (soldier)|Andrew Lewis]] defeated outnumbered native warriors led by Shawnee Chief [[Cornstalk (Shawnee leader)|Cornstalk]] at the [[Battle of Point Pleasant]] on October 10, 1774.<ref name="Marshall County 1984 History p. 10" />

The large Ohio River valley area which Virginians called the [[District of West Augusta]] (the first county organized west of the [[Appalachian Mountains]]) sent two delegates to the Virginia convention in 1775, which eventually established the Commonwealth of Virginia. The District was governed from [[Fort Pitt (Pennsylvania)|Fort Dunmore]] (as Virginians renamed it by 1774, and which later became [[Pittsburgh]], [[Pennsylvania]]). In 1776, the [[Virginia General Assembly]] created the counties of [[Ohio County, West Virginia|Ohio]], [[Monongalia County, West Virginia|Monongalia]] and [[Yohogania County|Yohogania]] from what had been the District of West Augusta. The Commonwealth of [[Pennsylvania]] also claimed much of this area, and established [[Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania|Westmoreland County]] with similar boundaries. Pennsylvania divided the area of Westmoreland County that Virginia considered Yohogania County into [[Fayette County, Pennsylvania|Fayette]] and [[Washington County, Pennsylvania|Washington Counties]] in 1781 and 1783. It also negotiated its border with Maryland, and only ceded the area south of the [[Mason–Dixon line]] to the United States in 1787, when Virginia ceded its claims north of the Ohio River as well, allowing the Continental Congress to establish the [[Northwest Territory]] from the area west of both states' reduced claims.

Meanwhile, during the ongoing raids from Native Americans and their British allies, particularly during 1777, many settlers (including in what became Marshall County) left smaller blockhouses and retreated to [[Redstone Old Fort|Fort Redstone]] at [[Brownsville, Pennsylvania]] until the end of the [[American Revolutionary War]].<ref>Scott Powell, History of Marshall County, West Virginia (1925; reprinted by Heritage Books Inc. 1998) pp. 14–17 {{ISBN|0-7884-0920-4}}</ref> Nonetheless, hostilities continued, as the Wetzel brothers repulsed a raid on Beeler's Station in 1782.<ref name="wvculture.org">[http://www.wvculture.org/History/wvmemory/hmresults.aspx?County=Marshall&Title History. County Marshall] wvculture.org</ref> In 1784, General [[George Washington]] was among the veteran patriots who bought or established land claims in Ohio County (in what later became Marshall County) as the revolutionary war ended. [[Lawrenceville, West Virginia|Clark's Fort]] had been built in 1779 on Wheeling Creek at what became the Pennsylvania/Virginia boundary.<ref>{{Cite web |date=April 2, 2021 |title=Lawrenceville, West Virginia &#124; Discovering Lewis & Clark ® |url=https://www.lewis-clark.org/article/2966}}</ref> Several additional blockhouses and forts were built in 1784, including Baker's Station at [[Cresap, West Virginia|Cresap]] (where the Warrior's Trail reached the Ohio River), and another Clark's Fort at [[Sherrard, West Virginia|Sherrard]] (on Wheeling Creek at what became the intersection of routes 88 and 86), and Martin's Fort and Himes Blockhouse where Fish Creek joined the Ohio River. John Wetzel died during a raid on Baker's Station in 1787.<ref name="wvculture.org" />

Hostilities with local tribes did not formally end until the [[Treaty of Greenville]] in 1795.<ref>Marshall County 1984 History, pp. 8–10.</ref> The following year the Virginia General Assembly split off the northernmost part of Ohio County as [[Brooke County, West Virginia|Brooke County]], but what became Marshall County remained in Ohio County. (Point Pleasant, the location of the critical 1774 battle became a different county's seat when [[Mason County, West Virginia|Mason County]] was split from [[Kanawha County, West Virginia|Kanawha County]] in 1804.)