Larger numbers of white settlers began arriving in 1766, with even more coming to the region after the American Revolutionary War.

When the earliest railroads came, in 1851, all land passed into private ownership, the population increased 70% in a decade, and industrialization truly began.

[8] During the American Civil War, more Preston County men enlisted in Union service than with the Confederacy.

There were virtually none within a half-hour’s walk from the old Clarksburg-Winchester Road, dated to the late colonial era.

The United States Census indicates that Preston County’s all-time slavery peak occurred in 1830, with 125 slaves accounted for, alongside 27 free colored persons.

Later that year, the counties were divided into civil townships, with the intention of encouraging local government.

This proved impractical in the heavily rural state of West Virginia, and the townships were converted into magisterial districts in 1872.

[10] Preston County was divided into eight districts: Grant, Kingwood, Lyon, Pleasant, Portland, Reno, Union, and Valley.

[12] In West Virginia's coldest month of January 1977, Terra Alta in Preston County saw a statewide record snowfall of 104 inches (2.64 m).

[19] As of the 2010 United States census, there were 33,520 people, 12,895 households, and 9,038 families residing in the county.

Generally speaking, most of the State of West Virginia has become a Republican bastion in the 21st century, after having leaned heavily Democratic between the New Deal and Bill Clinton).

Preston County has, by comparison, voted Democratic on at least one occasion, during Lyndon Johnson’s 1964 landslide election; however, Johnson's win over Barry Goldwater was much more decisive than his narrow victory in analogous Upshur County, and Bill Clinton came within 20 votes in 1996.