Cut and pasted from the West Virginia Division of Culture and History, a brief synopsis of how WV became a state. It seems appropriate to end my year of pro WV padding with West Virginia Day even if I don't have off like everyone else. :)

"West Virginia became the 35th state of the Union on June 20, 1863.

From the formation of the earliest communities, a sectionalism developed between western and eastern Virginia. The Virginia State Constitution, adopted in 1776, granted voting rights only to white males owning at least 25 acres of improved or 50 acres of unimproved land. This reflected the interest of eastern Virginia, discriminating against the emerging class of small land owners in western Virginia.

Representation was based on the total population, including slaves. Due to the large slave population of eastern Virginia and the general absence of slaves in western Virginia, representation in the General Assembly favored the East.

Many West Viriginians wanted to end slavery in trans-Allegheny Virginia in order to provide more paying jobs for white workers.

On October 24, 1861, residents of thirty-nine counties in western Virginia approved the formation of a new Unionist state. The accuracy of these election results have been questioned, since Union troops were stationed at many of the polls to prevent Confederate sympathizers from voting. It is estimated that somewhere between 16,000 and 20,000 men served in the Confederate Army in this war of "brother versus brother."

The United States Constitution says a new state must gain approval from the original state, which never occurred in the case of West Virginia. Since the Restored Government was considered the legal government of Virginia, it granted permission to itself on May 13, 1862, to form the state of West Virginia."


Taken at the WV Tourism Center off I-77.