[9] However, although many here as the 19th century began wanted the National Road westward to follow McCulloch's Path (improvements beginning after the Northwestern Turnpike company's formal incorporation by the Virginia General Assembly in 1827), Congress instead authorized construction on an easier route (Nemacolin's Path) through Maryland and Wheeling, which opened in 1818.

Carlile became a leader of the Wheeling Convention which led to creation of the Restored Government of Virginia during the American Civil War.

The B&O line made Clarksburg an important Union supply base throughout the war, with at one point more than 7000 troops in the city.

Native son Edwin Maxwell was the Republican nominee for Governor of West Virginia in the 1884 election, though he lost narrowly to Emanuel Willis Wilson.

The population grew from 4,050 in 1900 to 27,869 in 1920, partly because in 1917 it annexed the previously independent surrounding communities of Adamston, Stealey, North View and Broad Oaks.

In 1924, Clarksburg hosted a parade for its "native son", John W. Davis, who had become the "dark horse" Democratic presidential candidate (but lost) to Republican incumbent Calvin Coolidge.

During the 1920s, Clarksburg's Melville Davisson Post (1869–1930) may have been the country's highest paid author, writing 17 novels including the characters of Randolph Mason and Uncle Abner.

[18] On October 11, 1996, seven men having connections with the Mountaineer Militia, a local anti-government paramilitary group, were arrested on charges of plotting to blow up the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Criminal Justice Information Services Division complex in Clarksburg.

While members of the group had been assembling large quantities of explosives and blasting caps, militia leader Floyd Raymond Looker obtained blueprints of the FBI facility from a Clarksburg firefighter.

Plastic explosives were confiscated by law enforcement officials at five locations in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.

Looker was taken into custody after arranging to sell the blueprints for $50,000 to an undercover FBI agent, whom he believed to be a representative of an international terrorist group.

To the molds of Köppen the climate may be considered the southern boundary of the Dfb zone at low altitudes in the North American continent (limit of 39 ° N), although in the immediate vicinity it is Dfa.

The extent further to the south is due to the eastern and southeastern mountain ranges blocking the oceanic influence in part, even if it is minimal anyway by the considerable distance from the coast.

During the first decade of the 20th century, French was frequently spoken on the West Virginia streets of such communities as South Charleston, the North View section of Clarksburg, and the small town of Salem.

About 1900, changes in window-glass manufacture brought thousands of immigrants from the Charleroi area of Belgium just when the industry was expanding into West Virginia to take advantage of cheap natural gas and large deposits of silica sand.

For a generation, window-glass factories, many of which were worker-owned cooperatives, relied heavily on these Belgian immigrants to provide the skills necessary to make West Virginia a national center of production.

The Charleroi basin of the Hainaut province in Belgium was dependent upon coal mining, steel production, and window-glass manufacturing.

Belgian glassworkers found in the United States an effective trade union to represent their workplace concerns and the means to build a vibrant political movement advocating democratic socialism.

In fact, some of these Belgian enclaves, including Star City near Morgantown and Adamston (now part of Clarksburg), elected Socialist mayors in the years before World War I.

Economic development brought successive waves of immigrants in the 19th and early 20th centuries, including Irish, Italians, Greeks, French, Belgians, and Spanish.

[9] Early 20th century Clarksburg boasted eight banks, three hospitals, and several fine hotels, including the elegant seven-story Waldo, which opened in 1909.

During the Depression the city lost industry and population, but during World War II the railroad again made it a central clearinghouse.

Organized in Akron, Ohio, in 1911 the firm relocated to Clarksburg in 1914 because of the availability of glass sand and cheap natural gas for fuel.

Miniature glass children's dishes, including tea pots, cups, saucers, and other pieces, were sold as inexpensively boxed sets when World War II limited the availability of metal for toys.

Hazel Atlas glass plants in West Virginia included one along the Tygart River in Grafton (1916–60) that largely produced wide-mouth canning jars, and the world's largest tumbler factory in Clarksburg (1902–87).

However, the company began to struggle in the late 1960s due to increased foreign competition and rising production costs.

[41][42][43] In July 1995, the Federal Bureau of Investigation completed construction on its Criminal Justice Information Services Division complex in Clarksburg.

Since 1979 Clarksburg has hosted the annual West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival held during Labor Day weekend.

The Northwestern Turnpike, now known as U.S. Route 50, chartered in 1827, and began in 1831, reached Clarksburg in 1836 and was macadamized from the Tygarts Valley River to Parkersburg in 1848.

Clarksburg is served by the North Central West Virginia Airport, approximately 7 miles east of the city.