In 1782, occurred a division of Bedford County. The eastern end was cut from the whole and named for General William Campbell, the hero of King's Mountain, one of the decisive battles of the Revolution. Campbell lies to the east of a line beginning "at the mouth of Judy's creek on James river, thence to Thompson's mill on Buffalo creek, thence to the mouth of Back creek on Goose creek thence the same course continued to Staunton river." Staunton is the name given the Roanoke River as it passes through Bedford, Campbell, Charlotte and Halifax Counties. In Mecklenburg, it resumes its original name of Roanoke and so continues into Albemarle Sound.
The next development was Harrison, taken from Monongalia County. Neither is now a Virginia county, but it is mentioned since it honors Benjamin Harrison, one of the seven Virginia Signers of the Declaration of Independence who also completed in 1784, the year the county was formed, a three year term as Governor of the Commonwealth.
In the next year, a new county, Nelson, now in Kentucky, was created. This, too, honored a former Governor and Signer of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Nelson. It was his home in Yorktown that Lord Cornwallis used as his headquarters during the siege and battle.
In 1786, Franklin was formed out of "that part of the county of Bedford lying south of Staunton river together with so much of the county of Henry lying north of a line to be run from the head of Shooting creek to the west end of Turkeycock mountain, thence along the top of the mountain to intersect the dividing line between the counties of Henry and Pittsylvania, thence along that line to the mouth of Blackwater river." The reason for this name is obvious: all America honored the achievements of Benjamin Franklin.
DEED OF CESSION. VIRGINIA GIVES THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY
The tempo of western expansion had increased to such an extent that four counties were formed in 1786. One of these, Hardy, lies now in West Virginia as does its parent county of Hampshire. It might be well to explain now, even though out of chronological sequence, the genesis of West Virginia. In May 1861 when Governor Letcher called out the Virginia militia, many persons living beyond the Alleghanies throughout that section of Virginia bordering on Ohio and Pennsylvania were not in sympathy with his action. The residents of some forty counties held a convention and were almost unanimous in their desire to break away from Virginia and form a new state. A constitution was framed which was ratified by the people in May 1862. The following year, 1863, West Virginia became a state of the Union and at one blow, Virginia lost a third of her territory. The loss of the rich coal fields and other natural resources of West Virginia impoverished the Old Dominion more severely and made "Reconstruction Days" longer and more difficult than they might otherwise have been.