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Concept
Keyser, West Virginia
Summary
Keyser (ˈkaɪ.zər) is a city in and the county seat of Mineral County, West Virginia. It is part of the Cumberland, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 4,853 at the 2020 census.
History of Keyser, West Virginia
Keyser, the county seat of Mineral County, is located on the North Branch of the Potomac River at its juncture with New Creek in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. Throughout the centuries, the town went through a series of name changes, but was ultimately named after William Keyser, a Baltimore and Ohio Railroad official.
The first local land grant was issued by Lord Fairfax to Christopher Beelor on March 20, 1752. The place was first called Paddy Town, for Patrick McCarty, an Irish immigrant who came to then-Hampshire County, Virginia, sometime after 1740. Eventually, a community developed, which was also known as "the Irish Settlement." Initially a peaceful village, Paddy Town came under repeated attacks by Native Americans after French and Indian forces defeated Major General Edward Braddock west of Paddy Town in 1755. Patrick McCarty's son, Edward McCarty, built an iron furnace and foundry and a salt well, near present-day Armstrong Street.
In the early 19th century, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (C&O Canal) was constructed alongside the Potomac, from Washington, DC, to Cumberland, Maryland. Originally planned to reach the Ohio River, the canal never reached Paddy Town; after being overtaken by the railroad, the canal stopped as far west as Cumberland. By 1844, Paddy Town fell into decline, which reversed when the town received an economic boost in 1852 when the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, in search of a path through the Alleghenies, arrived. Sometime between 1855 and the start of the Civil War, the townsfolk renamed the village New Creek Station, after the creek that runs by it.
In 1861, the American Civil War came to New Creek Station in then-Hampshire County, Virginia, when the Union established Fort Fuller. The railroad that had been a blessing to the town had turned into a curse, drawing repeated assaults by Confederate forces.
Official source
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