Princeton
West Virginia
Princeton
Princeton, city, seat (1837) of Mercer county, southern West Virginia, U.S., about 10 miles (16 km) northeast of Bluefield. The site was settled in 1826 and named for the American Revolutionary War general Hugh Mercer, who was mortally wounded at the Battle of Princeton on January 3, 1777. During the American Civil War, Princeton was the site of skirmishes (May 5–7, 1862) that were part of the larger campaign by both the Union and Confederate armies to gain control of western (from 1863 West) Virginia. In 1865 the county seat was moved to Athens, 5 miles (8 km) away, until Princeton forcefully regained it in 1869.
Princeton is a transportation centre for the surrounding farming and coal-mining region. Its manufactures include steel, fabricated wire, and coal-mining equipment. Concord College (1872) is in Athens, and Jefferson National Forest lies just to the south in Virginia. Pop. (2000) 6,347; (2010) 6,432.
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