Mercers Bottom is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in Mason County,

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

, United States. It is situated on the east bank of the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

along West Virginia Route 2, some south of Point Pleasant.

Geography

The name "Mercer's Bottom" originally designated a much larger area than today. On modern maps, it generally occupies a two-mile stretch of Route 2 between Apple Grove (on the north) and

Ashton Ashton may refer to: Names *Ashton (given name) *Ashton (surname) Places Australia * Ashton, Elizabeth Bay, a heritage-listed house in Sydney, New South Wales *Ashton, South Australia Canada *Ashton, Ontario New Zealand * Ashton, New Zealand ...

(on the south).

History

Mercers Bottom is named for the celebrated Revolutionary War General

Hugh Mercer Hugh Mercer (16 January 1726 – 12 January 1777) was a Scottish-born American military officer and physician who participated in the Seven Years' War and Revolutionary War. Born in Pitsligo, Scotland, he studied medicine in his home country ...

(1726–1777) who (posthumously) received a large land grant here for his services. The 16,000-acre tract was surveyed by order of

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

for the General's heirs. According to '' Hardesty's West Virginia Counties'' (1883):

All that part of the district lying on the Ohio river bottoms above Eighteen-mile Creek, was included in the grant made by Congress to the heirs of General Mercer, who was killed at the
battle of Princeton The Battle of Princeton was a battle of the American Revolutionary War, fought near Princeton, New Jersey on January 3, 1777, and ending in a small victory for the Colonials. General Lord Cornwallis had left 1,400 British troops under the comman ...
,
New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
, January 3, 1777, while fighting by the side of
Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...
; hence the name
Mercer Bottom Mercers Bottom is an unincorporated community in Mason County, West Virginia, United States. It is situated on the east bank of the Ohio River along West Virginia Route 2, some south of Point Pleasant. Geography The name "Mercer's Bottom" orig ...
. Who located and surveyed the lands cannot now be learned, but his grandson,
Charles Fenton Mercer Charles Fenton Mercer (June 16, 1778 – May 4, 1858) was a nineteenth-century politician and lawyer from Loudoun County, Virginia who served in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Virginia General Assembly. Early and family life The ...
, of Virginia, afterward put the lands in market and sold them in quantities to suit purchasers. Thomas Hannan, whose name is preserved in that of the district, was the first actual settler - locating in the year 1790. Andrew Fleming and a Mr. Mercer, two hunters, had previously erected a cabin on the land which he purchased, and this was occupied by him until he could build a better one. Soon Jesse George purchased seventy acres of land at the mouth of Flatfoot Creek ... and became the second actual settler. Then came John Hereford, Robert Hereford, Thomas Powell, Edward S. Menager, John Morris — who discovered the first salt water on Kanawha river — George Withers, Robert Cremeans, James George, Rev. John Canterbury ...

Nearby are the graves of such early settlers as

Adjutant Adjutant is a military appointment given to an officer who assists the commanding officer with unit administration, mostly the management of human resources in an army unit. The term is used in French-speaking armed forces as a non-commission ...

John Hereford and Ensign John Wilson, both soldiers in Washington's Revolutionary Army. Hereford was adjutant in Col. John Alexander's Virginia Regiment under Lafayette at the

Battle of Yorktown The Siege of Yorktown, also known as the Battle of Yorktown, the surrender at Yorktown, or the German battle (from the presence of Germans in all three armies), beginning on September 28, 1781, and ending on October 19, 1781, at Yorktown, Virgi ...

. Born in

Fairfax County, Virginia Fairfax County, officially the County of Fairfax, is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is part of Northern Virginia and borders both the city of Alexandria and Arlington County and forms part of the suburban ring of Washington, D.C. ...

in 1758, Hereford moved to Mercers Bottom in 1808, served as magistrate and sheriff, and died there in 1846.

References

Unincorporated communities in Mason County, West Virginia Unincorporated communities in West Virginia {{MasonCountyWV-geo-stub