Mercers Bottom West Virginia

Mercers Bottom is an unincorporated community in Mason County, West Virginia, located on the east bank of the Ohio River along West Virginia Route 2, approximately 13.5 miles south of Point Pleasant. The name originally referred to a much larger area but now generally encompasses a two-mile stretch of Route 2 between Apple Grove to the north and Ashton to the south.

The community is named for Revolutionary War General Hugh Mercer, who received a 16,000-acre land grant in the region for his military service. This tract was surveyed by order of George Washington for Mercer's heirs after his death at the Battle of Princeton in 1777. The area became known as Mercer's Bottom due to its location along the Ohio River bottoms above Eighteen-mile Creek.

The first actual settler was Thomas Hannan, who arrived in 1790. Prior to his settlement, hunters Andrew Fleming and a Mr. Mercer had built a cabin on the land. Other early settlers included Jesse George, John Hereford, Robert Hereford, Thomas Powell, Edward S. Menager, and Rev. John Canterbury. Notably, John Morris discovered the first salt water on the Kanawha River.

Nearby are the graves of early settlers such as Adjutant John Hereford and Ensign John Wilson, both soldiers in Washington's Revolutionary Army. John Hereford, born in 1758 in Fairfax County, Virginia, served as adjutant under Lafayette at the Battle of Yorktown before moving to Mercers Bottom in 1808. He later served as a magistrate and sheriff, dying there in 1846.