Clendenin, for whom the district was named, was a veteran of the Battle of Point Pleasant, in 1774, and about 1788 came to settle in the land that would become Mason County. His homestead in Clendenin District stood opposite the city of Gallipolis."Captain William Clendenin", in Hardesty's Biographical Atlas of Mason County. From 1789 to 1804, the area was part of Kanawha County, which obliged the residents to travel nearly sixty miles through the Kanawha Valley, between Point Pleasant and the county seat at Charleston, to conduct official business. In 1804, the settlers petitioned the Virginia General Assembly for the formation of a new county, to be named after George Mason, one of Virginia's delegates to the U.S. Constitutional Convention in 1787, and the "father" of the Bill of Rights. William Clendenin was chosen to deliver this petition to Richmond, where it was approved."The Year 1804", in Hardesty's Biographical Atlas of Mason County. Clendenin subsequently served as Mason County's first representative in the Virginia legislature. Clendenin is also credited with having brought the first domestic geese to Mason County, a flock of twenty delivered by none other than Anne Bailey."First Tame Geese Brought to Mason County", in Hardesty's Biographical Atlas of Mason County.
