Morgantown

Morgantown, a city and the county-seat of Monongalia county, West Virginia, U.S.A., on the Monongahela river, about 50 m. S.E. of Wheeling. Pop. (1890), IO11; (1900), 1895; (1910 census), 9150. The city is served by the Baltimore & Ohio and the Morgantown & Kingwood railways, and by several steamboat lines, the Monongahela being navigable to Fairmont, about 25 m. above Morgantown. Morgantown is the seat of the West Virginia University (co-educational), formed from the Monongalia Academy (incorporated, 1814) and the Woodburn Female Seminary (incorporated, 1858), and chartered in 1867 as the Agricultural College of West Virginia; in 1868 the present name was adopted. In 1908 the university had 80 instructors and 1534 students. Coal, glass-sand and limestone are found in the vicinity of Morgantown. The first settlement here was made about 1768 by the brothers David and Zackwill Morgan, and was named in honour of the latter. It was incorporated as Morgan's Town in 1785; and in 1905 a city charter was granted to it after the annexation of Greenmont (pop. 1900, 349), Seneca (pop. 1900, 723), and South Morgantown (p o p. I Q00, 405).