Crime Scene & Biohazard Cleanup Near North Beverly Beverly, WV

Beverly is an incorporated town in Randolph County, West Virginia, and the oldest settlement in the Tygart River Valley, founded in 1787.

The first settlers in the valley, David Tygart and Robert Files, arrived in 1753, but after seven members of the Files family were killed that summer, no further settlement was attempted in present-day Randolph County until 1772.

In 1787 the new Randolph County court authorized James Westfall Sr. to lay out a town for the county seat, first named Edmundton; in December 1790 the Virginia General Assembly established it as Beverley, renamed for Governor Beverley Randolph, and the third 'e' was soon dropped from the spelling.

Beverly served as the seat of Randolph County for more than a century, from 1790 until 1899, when the rapidly growing railroad and timber town of Elkins took over the role after an intense political fight.

The Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike reached Beverly in 1841, and the town developed rapidly as a regional center for transportation and trade.

During the Civil War both armies occupied Beverly at various times; in January 1865 Confederate general Thomas L. Rosser led 300 men through deep snow and bitter cold to surprise and capture two Union infantry regiments in the town, taking some 580 prisoners.

Rosser's troops partially burned the Beverly Covered Bridge, built in 1846-47 by celebrated covered-bridge builder Lemuel Chenoweth, who rebuilt it in 1872-73.

The entire town was entered on the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district in 1980, and many of its historic structures have since been restored.

The town is home to Beverly Elementary School.

The population was 622 at the 2020 census, down from 702 at the 2010 census.