Preston County was formed from Monongalia in 1818 and named for James Preston, thirteenth governor of Virginia. It is the site of a model Federal homestead project sponsored by Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, thirty-second President. Barbour County was formed from Harrison, Lewis, and Randolph in 1843 and named for the distinguished Virginia jurist Philip Pendleton Barbour. In 1861, it was the scene of opening hostilities on land between the armies of the North and the South.