St. George is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

and former

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

Tucker County Tucker County is a county in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 6,762, making it West Virginia's fourth-least populous county. Its county seat is Parsons. The county was created in 1856 from a part of ...

West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...

, United States.West Virginia Encyclopedia: "Parsons."
West Virginia Humanities Council, Charleston, WV. Accessed 2013-07-28. As a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

, the population was 74 at the 2020 census. It is located on the

Cheat River The Cheat River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed August 15, 2011 tributary of the Monongahela River in eastern West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania in the Un ...

, where it is joined by Minear Run.

History

Originally known as Fort Minear and then as Westernford, St. George was settled in 1774 by German immigrant John Minear and his son, Jonathan, after early scouting visits to the area. In 1856, an act creating the county specified that Tucker's county court was to be held on the lands of Enoch Minear, descendant of Jonathan Minear. The town was then renamed Saint George in honor of Henry St. George Tucker, Jr. (1828–63), the son of the county's namesake,

Henry St. George Tucker, Sr. Henry St. George Tucker Sr. (December 29, 1780 – August 28, 1848) was a Virginia jurist, law professor, and U.S. Congressman (1815–1819). Biography Tucker was born on Mattoax Plantation in Chesterfield County, Virginia on December 29, 1780, ...

(1780–1848). The Skirmish at Bowman's Place occurred nearby in June 1861. During the Tucker County Seat War, on the evening of August 1, 1893, vigilantes from Parsons seeking to move the county seat broke into the courthouse and stole the county records and the courthouse bell, moving the government of Tucker County to Parsons, where it has remained to this day. The St. George Academy was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 2001.

Notable people

William Ewin William Ewin (October 8, 1808 – November 25, 1886) was an American artisan, lawyer, civil servant and State Senator. Early life Ewin was born in County Leitrim, Ireland on October 8, 1808. He then emigrated with his parents to New York Ci ...

(1808 – 1886), lawyer and State Senator *

Hu Maxwell Hu Maxwell (September 22, 1860, Saint George, Virginia (now West Virginia) — August 20, 1927, Evanston, Illinois) was a local historian, novelist, editor, poet, and author of several histories of West Virginia counties. Biography Maxwell was ...

, local historian born in St. George

References

Unincorporated communities in Tucker County, West Virginia Unincorporated communities in West Virginia Former county seats in West Virginia Populated places on the Cheat River {{TuckerCountyWV-geo-stub