Fairmont is a city in and county seat of Marion County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 18,313 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Fairmont micropolitan area, which includes whatever of Marion County in North Central West Virginia, and is the second-largest city of the larger Morgantown–Fairmont combined statistical area.

In the eighteenth century, the earliest go ahead of Fairmont consisted of subsistence gardening settlements.

In 1789, Boaz Fleming, a Revolutionary War veteran, migrated to western Virginia and purchased a 254-acre farm from Jonathan Bozarth. In 1808, Fleming made his annual trek to Clarksburg to pay his brother’s Harrison County taxes. While in Clarksburg, Fleming attended a social accrual that included his cousin Dolley Madison, wife of President James Madison. Fleming complained to Mrs. Madison not quite having to travel exceeding a hundred miles each year from his house to pay his Monongalia County taxes and his brother’s Harrison County taxes. Mrs. Madison supposedly suggested that he create his own county to save him whatever that travel. In 1814, Fleming circulated a petition to realize precisely that, naming the proposed county Madison County in rave review of Dolley and James Madison.

Milford, now Rivesville, was the lonely town within the borders of Fleming’s proposed county, so Fleming fixed to make Milford the seat of Madison County. However, Milford’s citizens preferred to remain share of Monongalia County. As a result, Fleming’s petition unsuccessful to gain sufficient Keep to be presented to the Virginia General Assembly. Fleming subsequently focused upon creating a further town near his farm, which was located upon the west side of the Monongahela River. In 1817, Fleming’s sons—William and David—began to determined land upon a portion of their father’s farm to make mannerism for the extra town; this share of the farm would highly developed become downtown Fairmont.