page_title: Morgantown, West Virginia
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Morgantown, West Virginia / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Morgantown, West Virginia, 2006. Wharf District with historic buildings. Photographed by the uploader.
context_page_description: Morgantown is the county seat of Monongalia County, West Virginia, United States, situated along the Monongahela River. West Virginia University is located in the city. The population was 29,660 at the 2010 Census Bureau, making Morgantown the largest city in North-Central West Virginia. The Morgantown metropolitan area has a population of 138,176.
context_section_description: Morgantown is closely tied to the Anglo-French struggle for this territory. Until the Treaty of Paris in 1763, what is now known as Morgantown was greatly contested by white settlers and Native Americans, and by British and French soldiers. The treaty decided the issue in favor of the British, but Indian fighting continued almost to the beginning of the American Revolutionary War in 1775.
  Zackquill Morgan, son of Morgan Morgan, and his brother David entered the area of Virginia that would become Morgantown around 1767, although others, such as Thomas Decker, were recorded as attempting to settle in the area a decade earlier. Several forts were built in the area during this time: Fort Pierpont near the Cheat River, in 1769; Fort Coburn, near Dorsey's Knob, in 1770. Fort Morgan, at the present site of Morgantown, in 1772; Fort Dinwiddie, north several miles at Stewartstown, in 1772; Fort Martin, several miles north on the Monongahela River, in 1773; Fort Burris in the present-day Suncrest area of Morgantown, in 1774; and Fort Kern in the present-day Greenmont area of Morgantown, in 1774, in addition to other, smaller forts.
  Zackquill Morgan settled the area about 1772 by establishing a homestead near present-day Fayette Street and University Avenue. Morgan fought in both the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War, rising to the rank of colonel.  By 1783, following his wartime duties, Colonel Morgan commissioned Major William Haymond to survey his land and divide it into streets and lots. Colonel Morgan then received a legal certificate for 400 acres (1.6 km²) in the area of his settlement near the mouth of Decker's Creek. 50 acres (200,000 m²) were appropriated for Morgan's Town by the Virginia General Assembly in October 1785. On February 3, 1838, the Virginia General Assembly enacted a municipal charter incorporating the city, now with a population of about 700, as Morgantown, Virginia.  The town became part of the newly created state of West Virginia on June 20, 1863, through the Reorganized Government of Virginia.
caption: Historic warehouse in Wharf District, converted to restaurant during late-1990s/early-2000s riverfront refurbishing
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