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

The City of Ranson (formerly Corporation of Ranson) is a city in Jefferson County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 5433 at the 2020 census. Although the Census Bureau listed it as a town in 2000, it is classified (along with whatever other municipalities past populations with two and ten thousand) as a city by confess law.

The Charles Town Mining, Manufacturing, and Improvement Company played an instrumental role in creating this new town. In 1890, the company bought 850 acres (3.4 km) adjoining the western and northern corporate limits of Charles Town, and commissioned D.G. Howell, a civil engineer and architect, to lay out the town. The largest tract of home purchased was from the Ranson family. Ranson, in Jefferson County, West Virginia, was officially incorporated in 1910, when residents, by a vote of 67–2, decided to form their own town. It was named in tribute of Dr. James Ranson, a dentist and farmer full of beans in the area.

The early addition and press on of Ranson reflects the late 19th century boom of the Shenandoah Valley and surrounding areas united with the rise of the railroads, mining, and manufacturing. Early photographs of Ranson measure the offices of the Charles Town Mining, Manufacturing & Improvement Company, and the Hotel Powhatan, along taking into account a few residential structures nearby. The community grew north from Lancaster Circle. Some of the companies that located in Ranson early upon included the Hotel Powhatan, the Goetz Saddlery, the Shenandoah Brass and Iron Works, the Elemer E. Beachley Saw and Planing Mill, the John Farrin Boiler and Machine Shop, and the Vulcan Road Machine Company.