Editing Marshall County, West Virginia (section)

===Towns, roads and railroads===
The first town in what became Marshall County, Elizabethtown (which would later become Moundsville), was established in 1798 and named for Joseph Tomlinson's wife. In 1831 a second community, Mound City, was established across Grave Creek, which ultimately joined with the first and jointly became known as Moundsville. A road between Wheeling and Elizabethtown was opened through the efforts of Ohio County officials in 1810. The following year, the U.S. Congress began funding construction of the [[National Road]], running from [[Cumberland, Maryland]] across the [[Appalachian Mountains]] to [[Uniontown, Pennsylvania]] and [[Washington, Pennsylvania]] then [[Wheeling, West Virginia|Wheeling]] and points westward. The road reached Wheeling (upstream from Elizabethtown) in 1818, and in 1830 Congress authorized rebuilding and improvement of the road using [[macadam]]. This led to the establishment of taverns and inns, including in Marshall County, although Wheeling (at the end of the Ohio River narrows as well as where the National Road crossed the Ohio River) would become the only city developed in Ohio County in this era. The National Road received additional impetus when the [[Wheeling Suspension Bridge]] across the Ohio River was completed in 1848, although by this time railroad and steamboat technology had improved and superseded the roadway.

The Virginia General Assembly created Marshall County from part of Ohio County on March 12, 1835, the same year Congress gave the National Road (and its maintenance responsibilities) to the states. It was named in honor of [[John Marshall]], Chief Justice of the [[History of the Supreme Court of the United States|United States Supreme Court]], who died that year.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gannett |first=Henry |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ |title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |year=1905 |page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n199 200]}}</ref> Its local government was organized in June, with its county seat at Elizabethtown. Jacob Burley, Benjamin McMechen, John Parriott, Samuel Howard and Zadock Masters became the new county's first Justices of the Peace, and Elbert H. Caldwell was selected as first Commonwealth attorney.<ref>Marshall County 1925 History, pp. 105–107.</ref> The first courthouse was finished the following year, and replaced in 1875. The building was the seat of county government, and underwent major renovations in 1974.<ref name="ReferenceA">Marshall County 1984 History, pp. 12–13.</ref>

Agriculture was the main industry during the first decades of Marshall County history, but trade continued along the Ohio River and the National Road. Early businesses included the River Shore Flour Mill (1832) and the Mound City Flour Mill (1845).<ref name="ReferenceA" /> Marshall County's first newspaper began printing in Elizabethtown in 1831.

An iron forge was established at [[Benwood, West Virginia|Benwood]] near the Ohio river and Wheeling/Ohio County border in 1850, and that industrial area would develop following the Civil War.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Marshall County history sources |url=http://www.wvculture.org/history/archives/counties/marshall.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160413134610/http://www.wvculture.org/history/archives/counties/marshall.html |archive-date=April 13, 2016}}</ref> The [[Baltimore and Ohio Railroad]] reached the Ohio River when two construction crews met at [[Rosbys Rock, West Virginia|Rosbys Rock]] in Marshall County about five miles from Moundsville on December 24, 1852.<ref>{{Cite web |title=E-WV &#124; Rosbys Rock |url=https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/127}}</ref> In 1857, the railroad first crossed the Ohio river downstream, near [[Parkersburg, West Virginia|Parkersburg]]. Although both towns and the railroad proposed a bridge linking Benwood and [[Bellaire, Ohio]] long before, litigation by the pre-existing ferry company as well as the Civil War discussed below, meant the bridge was not completed until 1870, although refurbished, the [[B & O Railroad Viaduct]] remains in use today and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.