Bunker Hill, First Settlement in West Virginia

The small community of Bunker Hill holds a remarkable distinction: it is the site of the first permanent European settlement on record in what is now West Virginia.

In seventeen twenty-six, a Welsh immigrant named Morgan Morgan established his homestead here, making him the first documented European settler in the region. He built his cabin in the early seventeen thirties and went on to erect Morgan's Chapel in seventeen forty, one of the very first places of worship in Berkeley County. A monument to Morgan stands in Morgan Park in Bunker Hill, erected in nineteen twenty-four.

Morgan's descendants left a long footprint on the state. They founded Morgantown, the city that today is home to West Virginia University. His son Zackquill Morgan founded Morgantown, and the family name lives on in that university town.