 The settlement of Philippi – formerly "Anglin's Ford" and "Booth's Ferry" – was platted, named, and made the county seat in the same year; it was chartered in 1844.By the 1850s, when a major covered bridge was constructed at Philippi to service travellers on the Beverly-Fairmont Turnpike, the County's population was approaching 10,000 people.The first newspaper in the County was the "Barbour Jeffersonian", published starting in August 1857 and running only to about June 1861.