ELKINS, a city of West Virginia, U.S.A., in the mountainous eastern part of the state ; the county seat of Randolph county. It is served by the Baltimore and Ohio and the Western Mary land railways. The population was 9,338 in 1928; 1930 it was 7,345. It is in a lumbering and coal-mining region; has various manufacturing industries; and is the seat of Davis and Elkins college (Presbyterian) , founded in 1903 by Senators Henry G. Davis and Stephen B. Elkins, who in 1889 had founded the town. Elkins was chartered as a city in 1889.