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Martinsburg, the county seat of Berkeley County, was founded in 1773 by Gen. Adam Stephen. The area along Tuscarora Creek had been settled in the 1740s by Joseph and John Morgan, who came from Pennsylvania. Stephen later set up gristmills and flaxseed-oil mills along the creek.
The Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) Railroad arrived in Martinsburg in 1842, bringing a roundhouse and machine shops. Many workers were Irish, and the area near Tuscarora Creek became known as Irish Hill. The railroad helped the city grow quickly, and by the Civil War, Martinsburg was the second largest city in the Shenandoah Valley with 3,364 people.
