Legislative Act Making Berkeley County a Part of West Virginia

Legislative Act Making Berkeley County
a Part of West Virginia

Acts of the Legislature of West Virginia
1863

WHEREAS, by an act of the general assembly of the state of Virginia, entitled "An act giving consent to the county of Berkeley being admitted into and becoming part of the state of West Virginia," passed January thirty-first, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, it was, among other things, enacted that polls should be opened and held on the fourth Thursday of May, then next, at the several places for holding elections in the said county for the purpose of taking the sense of the qualified voters thereof on the question of including the said county in the state of West Virginia; and if the governor of the said state of Virginia was of opinion that the said vote had been opened and held, and the result ascertained and certified pursuant to law, he should certify the result of the same under the seal of the said state of Virginia to the governor of this state; and if a majority of the votes given at the said polls should be in favor of the said county becoming part of this state, the same should become part of this state when admitted, with the consent of the legislature thereof; And whereas, Francis H. Peirpoint, governor of the commonwealth of Virginia, did, on the twenty-second day of July, in the present year, after reciting that polls were opened in the said county on Thursday, the twenty-eighth day of May, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, for the purpose indicated in the above entitled act, certify, under his hand and the less seal of the said commonwealth, that from the returns on file in the executive department thereof, a very large majority of the votes cast at the said election were in favor of the said county of Berkeley becoming part of the state of West Virginia: therefore,

1. The county of Berkeley, lately constituting part of the commonwealth of Virginia, is hereby admitted into and made part of this state; and shall constitute part of the tenth senatorial, and of the tenth judicial circuit, and shall at the election herein provided for, and at every annual state election thereafter, choose two members of the house of delegates.

2. It shall be the duty of the governor, so soon as he shall have reason to believe that an election can be properly held in the said county, to issue his proclamation directing an election to be held on such day as he shall appoint, at the several places for holding elections therein, for the election of two delegates, an assessor, a clerk of the circuit court, sheriff, prosecuting attorney, surveyor of lands, and recorder, and appointing three voters of the said county, any two of whom may act, and any one or more of whom may fill vacancies in their own body, who shall serve as superintendents of the said election.

3. The said superintendents shall, for every place of voting in the said county, appoint three commissioners, any two of whom may act, and a conductor, to superintend and conduct the election at the place for which they are appointed. They shall furnish the commissioners for each place of voting with the proper ballot-boxes, poll books and forms. But if at the time the polls should be opened at any place of voting, there shall be present but one commissioner willing to act, he shall associate with himself, as a commissioner, some freeholder of the county then present; and if there be no commissioner present willing to act, any two freeholders of the county present, and willing to act, shall be commissioners.

4. In all other respects the said election shall be conducted, and the result ascertained and returned, according to the directions contained in clauses V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII, XVII, XIX, XX, and XXI, of an ordinance of the constitutional convention, entitled "An ordinance to provide for the organization of the state of West Virginia," passed February nineteenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-three. The secretary of the state shall prepare and forward in time, to the superintendents to be appointed as aforesaid, poll books and the proper forms of oaths and returns, and three printed copies of the constitution, as amended, for every place of voting in the said county; and the said superintendents shall make proper distribution of the same.

5. The terms of office of the persons elected at the election herein directed to be held, shall commence as soon thereafter as they are qualified, as required by law; but shall continue and be computed as if the same had begun on the first day of January last.

6. All officers acting within the said county by the authority of the laws of Virginia, and under the reorganized government thereof, at the time of the passage of this act, shall continue to exercise the powers and perform the duties of their respective offices, in the name and under the authority of the state of West Virginia, until the officers elected or appointed under this or any other act of this legislature for the discharge of similar duties, are qualified.

7. Clause X of the third section of an act entitled "an act to fix the terms of the several courts," passed at the present session of the legislature, is hereby repealed; and in place thereof it is hereby directed that the commencement of the terms of the circuit courts held in the several counties of the tenth circuit, shall be as follows: For the county of Pendleton, on the first day of March, and the same day of May, September, and November; for the county of Hardy, on the tenth day of March, and the same day of May, September, and November; for the county of Hampshire, on the twenty-third day of March, and the same day of May, September, and November; for the county of Morgan, on the tenth day of April, and on the same day of June, October and December; for the county of Berkeley, on the sixteenth day of April, and on the same day of June, October, and December.

8. The governor shall also appoint one person for each magisterial district of the said county of Berkeley, commissioners to divide the same into townships, under the provisions of an act passed at the present session of the legislature, entitled "an act to provide for the division into townships of the several counties of the state."