TOWNS
The Tyler County Courthouse is located at 121 Main Street, Middlebourne WV 26149; phone: 304-758-4811.
Beginnings [1]
Tyler County was formed in 1814 from Ohio County and named in honor of John Tyler, governor of Virginia from 1868 to 1811, and father of John Tyler, tenth president of the United States. A spirited rivalry between the Ohio River community of Sistersville and the "inland" village of Middlebourne — so-named because it was thought to be halfway between the Pennsylvania line and the salt wells of the Kanawha Valley — ended when the Virginia legislature named Middlebourne the permanent county seat in 1816. The influencing factor in this choice rested in the settlement pattern of the population which was concentrated along Middle Island Creek in the vicinity of Middlebourne.