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Braxton County is a county in the central part of the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 12,447. The county seat is Sutton. The county was formed in 1836 from parts of Lewis, Kanawha, and Nicholas counties and named for Carter Braxton, a Virginia statesman and signer of the Declaration of Independence. In 2010, the center of population of West Virginia was in northern Braxton County. Important salt works were located at Bulltown and here, in 1772, Captain Bull and his family and friendly Delaware Indians were massacred by frontiersmen. Jesse Hughes helped Jeremiah Carpenter track and kill the Indians responsible for the Carpenter massacre. Jeremiah was a notable fiddle player who wrote a song Shelvin’ Rock about the experience of escaping to rock shelter.
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[edit] HistoryThe following excerpt was copied from History of Braxton County and Central West Virginia by John Davison Sutton, published in 1919: Page 161 Braxton County At the time of the Revolutionary war, the territory now embraced in Braxton county belonged to the county of Augusta [Virginia], and while that grand old county was noted for its patriotism and the splendid soldiers she furnished the war, this portion of the county was yet in an unconquered wilderness. It had neither soldiers, scouts, pioneers nor hunters. While a few of the old soldiers came to the bounds of Braxton county after the war and made this their home and were buried here, yet during the Revolutionary struggle there were no white inhabitants nearer than the Monongahela valley, extending as far south and west as the present site of Clarksburg, the West Fork as far up as Hacker's creek and the Buckhannon settlement. Page 162 At the time of the war of 1812, the territory now embraced in Braxton county belonged to the counties of Harrison and Kanawha, and was very sparsely settled, and we have no account of any organization being made up from this section. We have received a few names of soldiers, either residents at the time or became so later. Andrew Skidmore, a soldier of the Revolution was buried in the Skidmore cemetery at Sutton; his grave is marked by a plain cut stone. Martin Delany, soldier of the Revolution, served in Penna. line, died near the mouth of Birch river in 1837. Joseph Carpenter, buried on the Westfork of Little Kanawha river. Jacob Fisher of Hardy county, Virginia, lived with William Cutlip on Holly river in 1840; was a pensioner of the Revolution. Jeremiah Carpenter, buried at Union Mills. Benjamin Carpenter was buried at the mouth of Holly river. [edit] Research TipsWest Virginia Vital Records Online has Braxton County records.
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