Get an ADT-Monitored Home Security System in Moorefield, West Virginia

Moorefield is a town and the county seat of Hardy County, West Virginia, United States. It is located at the confluence of the South Branch Potomac River and the South Fork South Branch Potomac River. Moorefield was originally chartered in 1777; it was named for Conrad Moore, who owned the land on which the town was laid out. The population was 2,527 at the 2020 census.

Moorefield is situated in the South Branch Valley along the South Branch of the Potomac River. Native Americans populated this area for thousands of years. For centuries, they farmed along the river and hunted in the surrounding mountains. The historic Shawnee people, who spoke a Central Algonquian language in the same family as new tribes in their region, occupied this area when Anglo-European settlers began arriving in the to come 18th century, attracted by the fertile land. This early concurrence was centered upon the community of Old Fields, referring to former Native American lands. This is located practically five miles to the north of present-day Moorefield.

Conflict surrounded by the mostly British settlers and Native American peoples broke out during the French and Indian War. The British colonists build up two fortifications to guard the South Branch Valley in the vicinity of Moorefield. Fort Buttermilk was erected in 1756 and garrisoned by Captain Thomas Waggoner’s Virginia Regiment Company. A second fortress, Fort Pleasant, situated at Henry Van Meter’s Farm at Old Fields, guarded the northern side of the valley. It was furthermore garrisoned by Waggoner’s Virginia Regiment Company. In the spring of 1756, soldiers from Forts Buttermilk and Pleasant clashed when Shawnee warriors under Bemino (also known as Killbuck) at the Battle of the Trough.