MARTINSBURGG  , a

town and the county-seat of Berkeley county, West Virginia, U.S.A., about 74 M . W.N.W. of Washing-ton, D.C . Pop . (1890) 7226; (1900) 7564 (678 negroes); (1910) 10,698 . It is served by the Baltimore & Ohio and the Cumberland Valley railways; the former has repair shops here . It lies in the Lower Shenandoah Valley at the foot of Little North mountain, in the midst of a fruit-growing region, peaches and apples being the principal crops . Slate and limestone also abound in the vicinity . The town has a fine Federal Building and a King's Daughters' hospital . There are grain elevators, and various manufactures, including hosiery, woollen goods, dressed lumber, &c . Martinsburg owns its waterworks, the supply being derived from a neighbouring spring . A town was laid out here a short time before the War of Independence and was named Martinstown in honour of Colonel Thomas Bryan Martin, a nephew of Thomas, Lord Fairfax (1692–1782); in 1778 it was incorporated under its present name . During the Civil War Martinsburg was occupied by several different Union and Confederate forces .