Passed February 1, 1866 Fourth
Session.
Be it enacted by the
Legislature of West Virginia:
1. So much of the county of
Hampshire as is included within the following boundary lines, to-wit;
Beginning at the point where the f dividing line between the county of
Hardy and the .said county of Hampshire intersects the -line between this
state and the state of Maryland, thence running with said line between
said counties of Boundaries of Hardy and Hampshire, crossing Patterson's
creek to the dividing Mineral county, line between the townships of Welton
and Romney, in the said county of Hampshire, on the top of Middle Ridge,
thence along the top of Middle Ridge and with the said line between the
townships of Welton and Romney, to the dividing line between the townships
of Frankfort and Springfield in the said county of Hampshire; thence along
the top of said Middle Ridge and with said line between the said townships
of Frankfort and Springfield to the Maryland line, thence with the
dividing line between this state and the state of Maryland to the place of
beginning, shall form one distinct and new county, which shall be called
and known by the name of Mineral county.
2. All township officers
within the bounds of the said new county, at the date of the passage of
this act, shall remain in office for and during the terms for which they
have been elected, and until their successors shall be elected and
qualified according to law. The supervisors of the several townships
within the said new county in office as aforesaid, shall constitute the
board of supervisors of the said county of Mineral until their successors
are elected and qualified as aforesaid, and shall have all the powers and
perform all the duties, invested and imposed by law upon other boards of
supervisors.
3. The county seat of said new
county shall be at the village of County seat New Creek, situated on the
Baltimore and Ohio railroad, and the board of supervisors of said new
county shall proceed as soon as practicable after the passage of this act
to provide a suitable court house and other public buildings for the said
county, in the manner required by the seventh section of the act passed
October twenty first, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, entitled "An Act
defining in part the powers and duties of the several counties of the
state."
4. The judge of the circuit
court of the said new county shall as soon after the passage of this act
as practicable, appoint a clerk for said court, and a prosecuting attorney
and sheriff for said county,
County officers who shall hold
office until the first day of January, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven,
and until their successors shall be elected and qualified according to
law.
5. The said new county shall
be attached to the same judicial circuit, and to define same congressional
and senatorial districts with the said county of
Hampshire.
6. The said new county and the
said county of Hampshire shall each elect one delegate to the House of
Delegates until a new appointment of representation therein shall be made
as provided in the constitution of this state.
7. All process issued in the
said county of Hampshire before the .organization of the said new county,
and all public, dues and officers' fees which may remain unpaid by the
citizens of the said new county, shall be executed, returned, collected
and accounted for, by the sheriff or other officer in whose hands the same
may have been placed, in the same manner as if this act had not been
passed.
8. The courts of the said
county of Hampshire shall retain jurisdiction over all actions, suits and
proceedings herein pending at the passage of this act, and shall try and
determine the same, and award execution or other process thereon, except
in cases in which both parties reside in the said new county, which last
mentioned cases, together with the papers and a transcript of the record
of the proceedings therein had, shall, after that day, if either party so
desire, be removed to the courts of the said new county, and there tried
and determined as other cases.
9. The board of supervisors of
said new county may create an additional number of townships therein, not
exceeding four, without submitting their action in the matter to a vote of
the people. The said board may also provide a place for holding the courts
of said new county in the town of Piedmont, until the Completion of the
court house at New Creek.
[Source: Session laws; By West
Virginia; Publ.1866; Pgs. 7-10; Transcribed and submitted to Genealogy
Trails by Andrea Stawski Pack]
