McDowell County was created from the western section of Tazewell County by the Virginia General Assembly on February 20, 1858, was named for James McDowell, governor of Virginia from 1843 to 1846, and became part of West Virginia on June 20, 1863. Throughout the 1800s, it was predominantly agrarian, with small self-sufficient farms and isolated communities, but the arrival of the Norfolk & Western Railway and the coal industry transformed its economy into a booming industrial one. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, experienced coal operators from Pennsylvania migrated there, opened mines, and established towns with company-owned houses, churches, schools, and stores near the rail line. Because the native workforce was small, coal companies recruited workers from the Pennsylvania coalfields, the American South, and Eastern Europe. The population grew rapidly and peaked at 98,887 in 1950, while doctors, lawyers, bankers, and merchants also moved in, settling outside company towns and establishing businesses in places such as Kimball, Welch, Iaegar, Davy, Anawalt, and War, which became merchant centers and railroad towns. By the 1950s, McDowell County was the leading coal producer in the United States, but after that decade mine mechanization reduced the need for workers, residents left in search of jobs and educational opportunities, and the population fell to about 20,000 by 2010.