[Source: History of
West Virginia
; By Virgil Anson
Lewis; publ. 1887; Pg. 686;
Transcribed and submitted by
Andrea Stawski Pack]
GILMER COUNTY.
Gilmer
County
was formed
by legislative enactment, February 3, 1845, from parts
of Lewis and Kanawha, and named from Thomas Walker
Gilmer.
Thomas Walker
Gilmer was born at Gilmerton,
Albemarle
County ,
Virginia , April 6th, 1802, and
educated at
Charlottesville and
Staunton
. He studied
law at
Liberty ,
Bedford
County , and
began the practice of his profession at
Charlottesville
. He
represented
Albemarle
County
in the
General Assembly from 1829 to 1840, with the exception
of two sessions, and was speaker of that body during the
sessions of 1838 and 1839. February 14, 1840, he was
elected Governor of Virginia, but a few months later
resigned to take a seat in Congress.
February 14, 1844, President
Taylor appointed him Secretary of the Navy. But his
labors were now nearing an end. He was killed by the
bursting of a gain on board the American war steamer
Princeton, at
Mount
Vernon
, February
28, 1844—fourteen days after his appointment.
,
Glenville, the county
seat, was incorporated March 10, 1856, when B.
Conrad, George E. Ball, and Preston Pew were appointed
to conduct the first municipal election. A branch of the
State
Normal School
was
established here February 19, 1872.
[Source: History of
West Virginia
; By Virgil Anson
Lewis; publ. 1887; Pg. 686; Transcribed and submitted
by Andrea Stawski Pack]
