[Source: History of
West Virginia
; By Virgil Anson Lewis; publ.
1887; Pgs. 641-642;
Transcribed and submitted by
Andrea Stawski Pack]
NICHOLAS COUNTY.
Nicholas County was formed from
Greenbrier, by Act of Assembly passed January 30, 1818. By it the
boundaries were defined, but so unsatisfactorily, that, by an Act of
January 29, 1820, they were entirely changed. The former Act
declared that the first court for the new county should be held at
the house of John Hamilton. The commissioners to locate the county
seat were John Hansford and John Wilson, of Kanawha; Samuel Brown
and John Welch, of Greenbrier, and William Marteney, of Randolph.
Wilson Cary
Nicholas.—The County derives its name from Wilson Cary Nicholas,
who was born in the city of
Williamsburg,
Virginia
, January 31, 1761. He was
a student in William and
Mary
College, but in 1779, left the institution
to enter the Continental army, in which he served as commander of
Washington
's Life Guard until the
close of the war. In 1784, he represented
Albemarle
County
in the General
Assembly, in which body he almost continuously occupied a seat until
1799, when he was elected to the United States Senate. In 1806, he
declined the mission to
France
and in 1807, was
elected a member of Congress and reelected in 1809. In 1814, he
became Governor of Virginia and served two terms. He died October
10, 1810.
Summersville, the county
seat, was legally established a town, January 19, 1820, on thirty
acres of land, the property of the heirs of John Hamilton. Robert
Hamilton, Robert Kelly, William Hamilton, John Groves, Samuel
Hutchison, John G. Stephenson, James Robinson, John Campbell and
Edward Rion, were appointed trustees. The town was incorporated
March 20, 1860.
