Tucker County was created out of Randolph County, West Virginia in 1856. For this book, author Hu Maxwell combines political history and the progress of local institutions with sketches of contemporary luminaries and their families. Thus the volume opens with a discussion of the county’s indigenous people and topography; first contact with Europeans; pioneering types like John Minear, Jesse Hughes, and James Goff; the successful formation of the county; schools and churches; the lumber industry; the railroad in Tucker county; newspapers; travelers and their accounts of the county; a detailed account of the Civil War in Tucker County; and a number of statistics pertaining to county politics.

The balance of the work consists of genealogical/biographical sketches of hundreds of Tucker County families or persons, a representative sampling of which is as follows: Ashby, Atherton, Ault, Austin, Auvil, Baughman, Beckner, Bever, Biler, Bishoff, Blanchard, Bohon, Bolyard, Boner, Bonifield, Bright, Buckbee, Burns, Callihan, Calvert, Campfield, Channell, Cline, Closs, Cooper, Corrick, Cosner, Day, Dice, Dumire, Eastham, Evans, Ewin, Fansler, Fink, Fitzwater, Flanagan, Funk, Gilmore, Godwin, Gower, Hansford, Harsh, Hebb, Helmick, Hovater, Hull, Irons, Judah, Kalar, Kepner, Knapp, Knotts, Lambert, Lipscomb, Loughry, Love, Luzier, Maxwell, Mayer, Metz, Minear, Moore, Motony, Nester, Parsons, Pase, Pennington, Phillips, Poling, Powell, Propst, Purkey, Raines, Root, Ruffin, Ryan, Schaffer, Shoemaker, Snyder, Spencer, Spersert, Stevens, Street, Stull, Swisher, Talbott, Toy, VanMeter, Vanscoy, Varner, White, Wilmoth, Wilson, Wilt, Wolford, Yager, Yokum, and Yotring.