Gilmer County was formed in 1845 from Kanawha and Lewis and was named for Thomas Walker Gilmer, Secretary of the Navy in Tyler's cabinet, who was killed in an accident on a war vessel. Farming is important there, particularly sheep and cattle raising. Doddridge County was formed in 1845 from Ritchie, Harrison, Tyler, and Lewis and was named for Philip Doddridge, a lawyer-statesman of western Virginia. Many of the Indians who once came to this state got war and hunting weapons from nearby flint quarries.