Editing Point Pleasant, West Virginia (section)

===Settlement===
"Camp Point Pleasant" was established by Col. Lewis at the time of the Battle, and the settlement that followed also took that name. Although not certain, Point Pleasant may have been permanently settled by whites as early as 1774. At about that time, a permanent stockade known as Fort Blair was erected there. Before that, hostilities between whites and Native Americans all along the [[Ohio River Valley]] probably precluded the possibility of settlement in the absence of a substantial stockade.<ref>Atkinson, George W. (1876), [http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wvkanawh/Early/early.html ''History of Kanawha County, From its Organization in 1789 until the Present Time''], Office of the West Virginia Journal, [[Charleston, West Virginia]].</ref> In 1776, a new fort was built on the site of the earlier fort and named for the recently deceased Virginia official [[Peyton Randolph]] (1721–1775). [[Fort Randolph (West Virginia)|Fort Randolph]] is best remembered as the place where Chief Cornstalk was murdered in 1777. It withstood an attack by Native Americans the following year but was abandoned in 1779.

George Washington's 1770 journey to the Ohio River Valley had been occasioned by military grants that had been awarded by proclamation in 1754 by [[Governor Dinwiddie]] to officers and soldiers who had served in the [[French and Indian War]]. The resulting survey encompassed 52,302 acres (or 80 square miles). It was subdivided in the 1780s as follows: 9,876 acres — including the present side of Point Pleasant — to [[Andrew Lewis (soldier)|Andrew Lewis]], 5,000 acres for George Muse, 5,000 acres for Peter Hogg, 8,000 acres for Andrew Stephens, another 3,000 acres for Peter Hogg, another 5,026 acres for George Muse, 3,400 acres for Andrew Waggener, 6,000 acres for John Poulson, 6,000 acres for John West. On the lower side of the Kanawha River, 13,532 acres for [[Hugh Mercer]] (see [[Mercers Bottom]]) and, finally, 10,990 acres for Washington himself.

Fort Randolph was rebuilt nearby in 1785 after the renewal of hostilities between the United States government and Native Americans, but it saw little action and was eventually abandoned once again.<ref>Two centuries later, a fort replica was built nearby.</ref> The settlement at Point Pleasant did not receive an official charter until 1794.