Richard Morgan was the first white man to find a home in West Virginia in 1726. He built his cabin on the site of the present Bunker Hill in the Mill Creek District of Berkeley County.1
Giles flour mill on Bunker Hill in the Mill Creek District of West Virginia
In order to arrive at this destination, Richard Morgan passed through the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains, encountered great Buffalo herds, hunted, fished, and had to deal with the more violent Indian tribes who opposed settlers.
The following year, a number of Germans from the valley of Susquehanna in Pennsylvania, crossed the Potomac River at a place known as the “old Pack-Horse Ford” (for a hundred years). They founded a village about a mile above on the southern bank which was named New Mecklenberg, in memory of their home in Germany. In 1762, this name was changed to Shepherdstown by an Act of the House of Burgesses.
Origin of the Germans. Mecklenberg, Germany is known for its Cranes
By 1734, Richard Morgan had removed to New Mecklenberg. Afterward, others who came to that region were: Robert Harper (at Harper’s Ferry), William Stroop, Thomas and William Forester, Israel Friend, Thomas Shepherd, Thomas Swearingen, Van Swearingen, James Formanfi (?), Edward Lucas, Jacob Hite, James Lemon, Richard, and Edward Mercer, Jacob Van Meter, Robert Stockton, Robert Buckles, John Taylor, Samuel Taylor, and John White, all settling along the Upper Potomac River in the West Virginia counties of Berkeley and Jefferson.
Four families by the name of Coburn, Howard, Walker, and Rutledge were the first to settle along the South Branch of the Potomac in 1735.
The Greenbrier Land Company was organized in 1749 and granted the right to survey and take up 100,000 acres of land on the Greenbrier River which was located at that time in the West Virginia counties of Pocahontas, Greenbrier, and Monroe. Interestingly, it was Andrew Lewis (afterward General Andrew Lewis of Revolutionary War fame) who was appointed as surveyor and agent for the company. In 1754 Lewis surveyed small parcels of land for various persons. It is said that by the year 1755, Lewis had surveyed more than 50,000 acres of land!
The Greenbrier River in West Virginia
Source: The Soldiery of West Virginia by Virgil Lewis, M. A.
No. It was Morgan Morgan. I live about three miles from his cabin in Bunker Hill; the owner of the property is a friend of mine. Sincerely, Katherine Genung