Ritchie County, Virginia
Information from the website of Ritchie County, West Virginia at http://www.ritchiecounty.wv.gov/about/Pages/default.aspx discussing the town of Harrisville which is the county seat: "The town was platted in 1822 and chartered by the State of Virginia as Harrisville, and named for Thomas Harris. The first post office was established on July 25th, in 1833 and was called Solus because a Harrisville post office already existed in the State of Virginia. The name was changed June 15th, 1847 to Ritchie Court House, Virginia. It was changed again February 14th, 1870 to Harrisville, West Virginia. Then on May 11th, 1874, it was changed back to Ritchie Courthouse. The final change was made on August 19th, 1985 to Harrisville, in honor of General Thomas M. Harris. General Harris was the nephew of Thomas Harris for whom the town was orginally named.
Ritchie County, Virginia
Ritchie County was formed in 1843 from parts of Wood, Harrison, and Lewis counties; and included land that is now in Doddridge and Pleasants Counties. In the 1860s a small portion of what was Gilmer County was added to Ritchie County.