Welcome to Hardy County WV History and Genealogy Volunteers Dedicated to Free Genealogy This Site is Available for Adoption Our goal is to help you track your ancestors through time by transcribing genealogical and historical data for the free use of all researchers. We're looking for folks who share our dedication to putting data online and are interested in helping this project be as successful as it can be. If you are interested in joining Genealogy Trails, view our Volunteer Page for further information and then contact Kim. (Enough knowledge to make a basic webpage and a desire to transcribe data is required) We regret that we are unable to perform personal research for folks. All data we come across will be added to this site. We thank you for visiting and hope you'll come back again to view the updates we make to this site. If you would like to be kept informed of our state and county website updates, subscribe to any or all of our mailing lists West Virginia is covered under our "Northeastern States" mailing list. Lost River State Park Hardy County was created from Hampshire County in 1786 and named for Samuel Hardy, a distinguished Virginian. Through this county flows the South Branch of the Potomac River with its surrounding magnificent valley. In all West Virginia, one cannot find a more beautiful or interesting section than the South Branch Valley. Several miles wide, "the Valley," as it is commonly called, contains lands whose fertility lends itself to successful farming. Agriculture and stock raising have always been the main source of employment in this area, with corn, wheat, apples, peaches, melons, cattle and poultry having important interests. Truck-farming has a vital role, each household possessing its own small garden. On either side of the Valley are high mountains with rough terrain and heavy timber. Throughout the area wild-life is plentiful, and hunting has always been a major diversion and source of meat supply. In the winter snows are whipped by winds of gale force, and snowdrifts are usually numerous. The South Branch is a clear stream, quite wide, and of considerable depth in many places. Watering the Valley, the river abounds in fish and creates many picturesque settings. At times the usually calm waters surge from low banks and spread over the Valley, enveloping and ravishing the rich surrounding lands. The river has a peculiar feature in the field of geology as it flows through the Valley. At one point the river, thousands of years ago, did not cut across the mountains from one side to the other, but made a passage through them from end to end. This geological exception is now in the form of a narrow, trough-like gap, about seven miles long, and appropriately called "The Trough." At the present day, the gorge is several hundred feet deep, and the South Branch flows in a narrow channel at the bottom, with almost perpendicular walls of rock on either side. Hardy County Courthouse In the very center of the South Branch Valley, surrounded by high mountains, and located on the east side of the junction of the Moorefield River and the South Branch of the Potomac, is Moorefield, West Virgina, the county seat of Hardy County, West Virginia. A quiet farming center in 1860, the population of the Moorefield area at that time was about 1,500. At this period there were no bridges at Moorefield, and the South Branch had to be forded some three miles up the Valley, or the ferryboat, which was usually busy, had to be used. The main towns that communicated with Moorefield were Petersburg, West Virginia, Romney, West Virginia, and New Creek, West Virginia the latter having a stage line between the two points. -- Wikipedia.org Incorporated Towns * Moorefield * Wardensville Unincorporated Communities * Arkansas * Baker * Basore * Bass * Baughman Settlement * Bean Settlement * Brake * Cunningham * Durgon * Fisher * Flats * Fort Run * Inkerman * Kessel * Lost City * Lost River * Mathias * McCauley * McNeill * Milam * Needmore * Old Fields * Perry * Peru * Rig * Rock Oak * Rockland * Tannery * Taylor * Walnut Bottom Hardy County Data Online BIRTH DEATHS MARRIAGES CENSUS BIOGRAPHIES HISTORY OBITUARIES NEWSPAPER DATA MILITARY DATA WILLS  CEMETERIES   Website Updates: Dec 2012: 1883 Census of Pensioners, George Renick Obituary Aug 2012: William Fisher Biography, Joseph Sprigg Biography, Charles Mortimer Bishop Biography, William H. H. Flick Biography (More Data)  Surrounding Counties Hampshire County (north) Shenandoah County, VA (southeast) Pendleton County (southwest) Frederick County, VA (east) Rockingham County, VA (south) Grant County (west) Back to WV Genealogy Trails Back to Genealogy Trails Copyright © Genealogy Trails All data on this website is Copyright by Genealogy Trails with full rights reserved for original submitters.