CHARITABLE AND PENAL INSTITUTIONS. The State maintains an asylum for incurables at Huntington, and miners' hospitals at Fairmont, McKendree, and Welsh. Hospitals for the in sane are located at Weston and at Spencer. hav ing in 1900 an aggregate of 1629 inmates. There are a school for the deaf and blind at Romney. with 209 inmates, a boys' reform school at Pruntytown. with 288 inmates, and a girls' industrial school at Salem. with 50 inmates. The penitentiary. located at Moundsville. is supported by the labor of the convicts. In 1900 there were 508 inmates.
IlisToar. For many years after the settlement of the eastern part of Virginia the western section was entirely unknown. John Lederer, a German surgeon in the employ of Cover - Berkeley, was probably the first white mall to explore the region, in 1609. In the same year La Salle floated down the Ohio River and landed at several plaees within the State. AlAbraham Wood 111 1071 discovered the Great Kanawha. and Governor Spotswood of Virginia made an expedition into the present State in 1716. The grant to Lord Fairfax of the northern neck of Virginia included part of the present State. and his surveyors planted a stone at the headwaters of the 1U/tiller]] branch of the Poto mac to show the Ihnits of his grant. When the western part of Virginia began to fill up with the adventurous Scotch-lrish after 1732. scattered pioneers crossed the mountains, and soon eame in confliet with the French, who also claimed the country. (Sec Onto; FRENCH AND INDIAN \\'AR; VIRGINIA.) The Six Nations of New York also claimed this country by right of conquest, but ceded their claim to the whites in 1754 at Fort Stanwix. The other Indians refused to acknowl edge the cession, and in 1774, at Point Pleasant, one of the bloodiest of 'Indian battles was fought between a confederacy of Shawnees, Dela wares, Wyandots, Cayugas, and other Indians nude]. Cornstalk. and Virginia settlers and militia under Gen. Andrew Lewis. Lord Dunmore, the Governor of Virginia, did not attempt to aid the settlers. though he was near with a strong force. and it was openly charged that his hope was to cripple the colony so that it could not join in resistance to Great Britain. lit spite of the King's proclamation of 1763 declaring the west ern territory to be 'Indian country,' colonization was rapid and counties were formed. After the Revolution an entirely different society grew up in the western woods, compared with that in the east. The hardy backwoodsmen had few luxuries, few slaves, and little touch with Euro pean culture. Jealousies ensued between the sections, and the west complained bitterly that they had all the burdens of government without corresponding benefits. The representation in
the eastern counties was based partially upon the number of negroes, and a western freeman did not have the same representation as a resident of the east. The peculiar shape of the western part of the State made a number of the counties border on the free States of Ohio and Pennsyl vania, and many of the counties were Northern in sentiment at the approach of the Civil War. When Virginia passed the ordinance of secession there was much dissatisfaction. Numerous small meet ings were held, and on May 13, 1801, delegates from twenty-five counties met at Wheeling and called a convention to meet June I lth. Repre sentatives from forty counties attended, declared their independence of Virginia. and took meas ures for the establishment of a lwo•isional gov ernment. by electing Francis TI. Pierpont (q.v.) Governor. On July 2d a Legislature met and elected representatives to the United States Sen ate, who were admitted by that body. This ac tion was approved by the people October 24th, and delegates were also elected to a convention which met at Wheeling on November 26th. to frame a constitution, which was adopted on May 3, 1862. On Nay 13th the Legislature of the 'Restored Gm•ernment of Virginia' gave its consent to the formation of a new State. The act of admission was approved by President Lincoln, December 31, 1862. to take effect upon the insertion of a clause providing for gradual emancipation, and the State was formally admitted June 10. 1863. Dur ing the war an unusually large part of the popu lation was in arms. and 32,068 men were fur nished to the Federal Army. Slavery was entire ly abolished February 3. 1865. in advance of the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment. The re turn of the Confederate soldiers to the southern and eastern counties threatened the Republican control, and in 1866 an amendment was added to the Constitution all who had given aid and comfort to the Confederacy after June, 1861. In 1869 the number of voters numbered about 50.000. and the disfranchised29,316. By a compromise, general amnesty and negro suffrage were coupled and adopted in 1871, and in 1872 a new constitution went into force. The vote of the State was cast for Republican electors before this time. For the twenty years from 1872 to 1892 Democratic candidates were uni formly successful. The great development of mining and manufacturing has brought about a change of sentiment, and in 1896 insl 190 the State was found in the Republican column.