The name of the county is derived from its exceptionally high altitude, and the name of its county seat, Monterey, reflects the popular interest felt in the victory General Taylor had just won over the Mexicans at the Battle of Monterey.
After the formation of Highland County five counties destined to lie in West Virginia were established. The first of these, Hancock, created in 1848 out of Brooke, lies in the extreme northern tip of the present state between the Ohio river and the Pennsylvania state line. Its name honors the first Signer of the Declaration of Independence, whose distinguished signature is familiar through countless reproductions.
In this same year from portions of Jackson and Wood counties was formed Wirt. This is in the northwestern area of the state not far from Parkersburg. In the description of bounds, only three land owners are named, John Stephens, junior, John P. Thomasson and William Goff.
The name of the county honored the distinguished lawyer, William Wirt, who had died a few years before. He had served as Attorney General of the United States from 1817 to 1829 and had been a candidate for the Presidency on the Anti-Masonic ticket in 1832. He is best remembered for his life of Patrick Henry.
The third county created in 1848 was Putnam, composed of parts of Kanawha, Cabell and Mason counties, and lying to the west of the city of Charleston. Its name recalls a hero of the Revolutionary War, General Israel Putnam who distinguished himself at the Battle of Bunker Hill and became a popular hero.
The year 1850 saw the formation of two more counties now in West Virginia. The first one, Raleigh, was taken from the southern part of Fayette. In its bounds, the lands of Isaac Sonners and Jackson Jarrell, and the New, Coal, and Guyandotte rivers are noted. The name was "in memory of Sir Walter Raleigh who made the earliest effort to colonize Virginia." It is pleasant to see that Virginia finally recognized her debt to this valiant soul, even though it was tardily done, for he died in 1618.
A few days after Raleigh became a county, the Virginia Assembly enacted that the county of Wyoming be erected out of the county of Logan. Wyoming lies in the southern central portion of West Virginia. The reason for the name is obscure, whether it was for the beautiful Wyoming Valley in north central Pennsylvania watered by the Susquehanna River, or for the brutal massacre of its inhabitants on 4 July 1778 by a British and Indian force is unknown.