Mercer County is a county in Southern West Virginia on the southeastern border of the U.S. state of West Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 59,664. Its county seat is Princeton. The county was originally established in the State of Virginia by act of its General Assembly on March 17, 1837, (WV County Etymology) using lands taken from Giles and Tazewell counties.
Mercer County is part of the Bluefield, WV-VA Micropolitan Statistical Area.
History
Mercer County was named for the American Revolutionary General Hugh Mercer. Battle of Clark's House (1862) The County, which was founded in 1837 and is named for Revolutionary War General Hugh Mercer, is 420.8 square miles in size and includes everything from the rocky peaks of Pinnacle Rock State Park and the coalfields beyond to the undulating farmland of the New River Valley. East River Mountain and the Bluestone Gorge are notable features of Mercer County, which is drained by the New, Bluestone, and East Rivers and has the greatest mean elevation of any county in West Virginia.
Mercer County was strongly Confederate in political sentiment when the Civil War began. In 1860 it had roughly 6,000 residents, including several hundred enslaved people. Several Confederate companies were raised in the county, particularly from communities along the New River. The West Virginia State Archives' Civil War bibliography identifies Mercer County companies in the 24th Virginia Infantry, 23rd Battalion Virginia Infantry, 17th Virginia Cavalry, 30th Battalion Virginia Sharpshooters, and the Mercer Artillery, among other formations.
Mercer County's biggest encounter with the war came because of something that wasn't even in Mercer County: the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad. The railroad was strategically important to the Confederacy. In spring 1862, Union Gen. Jacob D. Cox launched a campaign through what is now southern West Virginia with the ultimate goal of reaching and disrupting the railroad in southwestern Virginia. Union troops left Fayetteville in mid-April, passed through Beckley, crossed Flat Top Mountain and entered Mercer County. On April 30/May 1, Union and Confederate troops fought around Camp Creek. The National Park Service specifically records the 23rd Ohio Infantry fighting there, suffering one killed and 20 wounded.
As the Confederates retreated, Col. Walter Jenifer ordered Princeton burned on May 1, 1862, apparently to deny shelter and supplies to the advancing Union army. Only a few structures survived. Fortunately, Mercer's county records had previously been removed to Concord Church in present-day Athens, preventing their destruction.
After passing through the ruins of Princeton, Cox's troops continued about 25 miles into Virginia, trying to reach the railroad. They got as far as Pearisburg, but Confederate resistance stopped the advance on May 10. The Union forces then withdrew toward Princeton. Confederates pursued them, skirmishing around Princeton on May 16. Confederate troops occupied Pigeon Roost, a ridge south of town, while Union troops began moving back into Princeton.
On the morning of May 17, 1862, the Battle of Pigeon Roost occurred. The principal fighting was between the 51st Virginia Infantry and 37th Ohio Infantry. Union soldiers approaching Princeton from the southeast apparently did not realize Confederate forces were waiting in ambush.
The attack caused an estimated, 18 Union soldiers killed, 38 wounded. The larger armies didn't launch another major engagement afterward. That evening, Union forces began withdrawing north, effectively ending Cox's attempt to reach and destroy the railroad at Dublin. The National Park Service gives broader casualties for the May 15–17 fighting at and near Princeton of 23 Union troops killed, 69 wounded and 21 missing, so we should be careful not to mix those numbers with the narrower Pigeon Roost casualties.
After West Virginia Statehood When West Virginia entered the Union in 1863, Mercer County became part of the new state despite its strongly Confederate sympathies. After the war, the political conflict didn't disappear. Instead, it became a fight over who controlled local government and even where Mercer County's government should be located.
In 1871, West Virginia's Republican-controlled government created Summers County from portions of Mercer, Monroe, Greenbrier and Fayette counties. Mercer County lost approximately 128 square miles of territory. After the war, state authorities attempted to move the county seat from strongly secessionist Princeton to Athens. West Virginia politics changed dramatically in 1872, when Democrats regained control of the state government following the Reconstruction period where Princeton becomes the permanent county seat.
Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency HQ in Bluefield During the early 20th century, Bluefield became a headquarters of the Baldwin–Felts Detective Agency, a private detective and security organization closely associated with the region's coal industry. Originally established to provide private police services to railroads, Baldwin–Felts expanded into the coalfields, where coal operators employed its agents to prevent unionization, monitor miners, exclude union organizers from company towns, and confront striking workers. The agency's activities contributed to the labor violence of the West Virginia Mine Wars of the 1910s and early 1920s.
The Great Depression in Mercer County By the end of the 1920s, Mercer County's economy was heavily tied to the Pocahontas coalfield and the railroads that carried its coal. That made the county particularly vulnerable when industrial demand collapsed during the Great Depression.
There's also evidence that the problem wasn't simply the 1929 stock-market crash. The Pocahontas field was already dealing with coal overproduction and weakening markets before the Depression, and the national economic collapse made those problems considerably worse. Records of the Pocahontas Operators Association preserved at WVU include production, sales, hours worked, and tonnage lost because of a lack of market during the 1930s.
Bramwell had been one of the most extraordinary products of the Pocahontas coal boom. Wealthy coal operators lived there, and its bank handled fortunes generated by the surrounding mines. The economic downturn ended the period of extraordinary prosperity experienced by some of the county's coal communities. The Bank of Bramwell, which had accumulated substantial wealth through its connections to the coal industry, failed in 1933 during the Great Depression.
New Deal relief programs also affected the county's social welfare system. The Works Progress Administration assisted Mercer County in developing an experimental county poor farm at Sharp's Camp, where families were housed in individual cabins rather than the communal facilities traditionally used by county poor farms. The project came during a broader transformation of public assistance during the Depression, as federal welfare programs gradually replaced institutional poor relief.
There's evidence of additional WPA activity in Bluefield as well. One particularly interesting surviving building in what is now the Bluefield Green Book Historic District served as a WPA-sponsored nursery/daycare during the Depression before later becoming the Traveler's Inn Hotel serving Black travelers during segregation.
Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (0.4%) is water.
In 1863, West Virginia's counties were divided into civil townships, with the intention of encouraging local government. This proved impractical in the heavily rural state, and in 1872 the townships were converted into magisterial districts.Otis K. Rice & Stephen W. Brown, West Virginia: A History, 2nd ed., University Press of Kentucky, Lexington (1993), p. 240. Mercer County was divided into five districts: Beaver Pond, East River, Jumping Branch, Plymouth, and Rock. In the 1970s, Mercer County's five historic districts were consolidated into three new magisterial districts: District 1, District 2, and District 3. The new districts were renamed "District I", "District II" and "District III" during the 1980s.United States Census Bureau, U.S. Decennial Census, Tables of Minor Civil Divisions in West Virginia, 1870–2010.
Major highways (future) (future) Interstate 77 U.S. Highway 19 U.S. Highway 52 U.S. Highway 460 West Virginia Route 10 West Virginia Route 20 West Virginia Route 44 West Virginia Route 71 West Virginia Route 112
The West Virginia Turnpike, now part of Interstate 77, begins in Princeton.
Adjacent counties Raleigh County (north) Summers County (northeast) Giles County, Virginia (east) Bland County, Virginia (south) Tazewell County, Virginia (southwest) McDowell County (west) Wyoming County (northwest)
National protected area Bluestone National Scenic River (part)
Demographics
2020 census As of the 2020 census, the county had a population of 59,664. Of the residents, 20.2% were under the age of 18 and 22.1% were 65 years of age or older; the median age was 44.0 years. For every 100 females there were 93.3 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 90.1 males.
The racial makeup of the county was 88.1% White, 6.2% Black or African American, 0.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5% Asian, 0.4% from some other race, and 4.4% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race comprised 1.2% of the population.
There were 25,356 households in the county, of which 25.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them and 30.5% had a female householder with no spouse or partner present. About 31.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
There were 29,321 housing units, of which 13.5% were vacant. Among occupied housing units, 70.3% were owner-occupied and 29.7% were renter-occupied. The homeowner vacancy rate was 2.1% and the rental vacancy rate was 12.3%.
+Mercer County, West Virginia – Racial and ethnic compositionRace / Ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic)Pop 2000Pop 2010% 2000% 2010White alone (NH)58,07356,71152,26492.20%91.08%87.59%Black or African American alone (NH)3,6573,7403,6945.80%6.00%6.19%Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)1211351590.19%0.21%0.26%Asian alone (NH)2883232920.45%0.51%0.48%Pacific Islander alone (NH)7260.01%0.00%0.01%Other race alone (NH)37381390.05%0.06%0.23%Mixed race or Multiracial (NH)5128352,4050.81%1.34%4.03%Hispanic or Latino (any race)2854807050.45%0.77%1.18%Total62,98062,26459,664100.00%100.00%100.00%
2010 census As of the census of 2010, there were 62,264 people, 26,603 households, and 17,313 families living in the county. The population density was . There were 30,115 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 91.6% white, 6.1% black or African American, 0.5% Asian, 0.2% American Indian, 0.2% from other races, and 1.4% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 0.8% of the population. In terms of ancestry, 16.4% were Irish, 14.2% were German, 12.0% were English, and 11.2% were American.
Of the 26,603 households, 27.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.6% were married couples living together, 12.9% had a female householder with no husband present, 34.9% were non-families, and 30.1% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.30 and the average family size was 2.83. The median age was 42.5 years.
The median income for a household in the county was $32,131 and the median income for a family was $42,517. Males had a median income of $37,423 versus $25,778 for females. The per capita income for the county was $18,431. About 16.0% of families and 22.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 32.5% of those under age 18 and 11.4% of those age 65 or over.
2000 census