Barbour County was formed from Harrison, Lewis, and Randolph Counties in 1843 and was named for Philip Pendleton Barbour, a distinguished Virginia jurist. It was the scene of opening hostilities on land between the armies of the North and the South in 1961. Taylor County was formed in 1844 from Marion, Harrison, and Barbour Counties and was named for John Taylor of Virginia. The county was the home of Bailey Brown, the first Union soldier killed in the Civil War; he was shot on May 22, 1861, at Fetterman, now Grafton.