Grundy, Buchanan county West Virginia

[Jimmy]

I was listening to a radio Scotland programme this morning discussing Trump's first one hundred days, they focussed on the small town of Grundy in Buchanan County which is totally Trump friendly.
I was intrigued by the name Buchanan County and wondered if there was a Scottish connection here?

[Profane James]

It seems this particular county was named after the 15th US President, James Buchanan. No info on the diasporic population, perhaps someone close to the area will chime in.
I can tell you though, for every one place name that isn't related, there are probably 20 that are!

[Kanati]

There's Scots and Irish ancestry all through West Virginia. Myself being a Gordon from the Kanawha Valley.

[OC Richard]

I'm from central West Virginia, also Kanawha County (Chesapeake, actually) though my father's family has been on the Guyandotte since the 18th century (in southwest WV).

Pretty much all the surnames and place-names are British. WV was settled in the late 18th and early 19th century by English and Ulster Scottish settlers, and wherever the people settled they've stayed, pretty much.

The vast 19th century mass migrations from Ireland (starting around 1840) and Italy, Greece, Poland, and so forth (in the late 19th and early 20th centuries) left Appalachia nearly untouched, because they tended to settle in the big northern cities (New York, Boston, Philadelphia, etc).

We have Buckhannon and many other Scottish place-names. Near where my mother now lives there's a Culloden (pronounced "cull-OH-den").

We also have Cameron, Clendenin, Cowen, Craigsville, Dunbar, Eccles, Gilmer, Glasgow, Glen Dale, Glenville, Grantsville, Grant Town, Guthrie, Henderson, Kincaid, Lewis, Logan, McDowell, McMechan, Montgomery, Ritchie.

BTW there is no Buchanan (town or county) in West Virginia, only a Buckhannon.

We also have loads of English-sounding place-names like Berkeley, Beckley, Charleston, Chesapeake, Chester, Fairmont, Franklin, Hampshire, Jeffrey, Middlebourne, Minden, Preston, Princeton, Raleigh, Randolph, Ravenswood, Ridgeley, Spencer, Sutton, Wayne, Webster, Weston, Williamstown.

[Jimmy]

I'm from central West Virginia, also Kanawha County (Chesapeake, actually) though my father's family has been on the Guyandotte since the 18th century (in southwest WV).

Pretty much all the surnames and place-names are British. WV was settled in the late 18th and early 19th century by English and Ulster Scottish settlers, and wherever the people settled they've stayed, pretty much.

The vast 19th century mass migrations from Ireland (starting around 1840) and Italy, Greece, Poland, and so forth (in the late 19th and early 20th centuries) left Appalachia nearly untouched, because they tended to settle in the big northern cities (New York, Boston, Philadelphia, etc).

We have Buckhannon and many other Scottish place-names. Near where my mother now lives there's a Culloden (pronounced "cull-OH-den").

We also have Cameron, Clendenin, Cowen, Craigsville, Dunbar, Eccles, Gilmer, Glasgow, Glen Dale, Glenville, Grantsville, Grant Town, Guthrie, Henderson, Kincaid, Lewis, Logan, McDowell, McMechan, Montgomery, Ritchie.

BTW there is no Buchanan (town or county) in West Virginia, only a Buckhannon.

We also have loads of English-sounding place-names like Berkeley, Beckley, Charleston, Chesapeake, Chester, Fairmont, Franklin, Hampshire, Jeffrey, Middlebourne, Minden, Preston, Princeton, Raleigh, Randolph, Ravenswood, Ridgeley, Spencer, Sutton, Wayne, Webster, Weston, Williamstown.

Sorry, am i reading you correctly when you say that there is no Buchanan County in WV, , apparently there is one as well as in Iowa and Missouri.
President Buchanan's folks were Scots/Irish background although as a president it appears he was one of the most least successful, gettng little legislature passed, great how history begins to repeat itself

[ctbuchanan]

There is a Buchanan town and county in Virginia.
It is right off I-81 and I've driven through it several times on the way down to the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games.

[ctbuchanan]

It would appear OC Richard is correct. The city in West Virginia is indeed Buckhannon and it is the county seat for Upshur County. I can't locate any reference to either a Buchanan County or Buckhannon County in the state of West Virginia.

http://buckhannonwv.org/

perhaps you mistook the Virginia county for the one in West Virginia.

[OC Richard]

Yes people confuse Virginia and West Virginia all the time. Heck, I get the impression that most Americans don't realize there's even a state called West Virginia.

Too bad they selected "West Virginia" in 1863 rather than one of the other candidates such as Vandalia, Kanawha, Allegheny, Columbia, or Augusta. Then most people would know.

It goes to figure: there's a North Carolina and a South Carolina, a North Dakota and a South Dakota. They would have had to re-name Virginia "East Virginia" in 1865 to clean up the messy and confusing nomenclature.

[Mael Coluim]

As a native Virginian, I see a different problem in the Old Dominion state. We have Virginia and then there is Northern Virginia; a completely different "state".

[Tobus]

As a native Virginian, I see a different problem in the Old Dominion state. We have Virginia and then there is Northern Virginia; a completely different "state".

It's similar here in Texas. South Texas is a completely different place (different culture, different landscape, etc.) than, say, East Texas. And nobody knows what to do with Austin.

Keeping it on track, though, we have lots of Scottish place names in Texas too. Houston, for example. Even the town and county I live in, Kerrville (Kerr County) was named after a man of Scottish descent.