USA > Virginia > Virginia county names : two hundred and seventy years of Virginia history > Part 4
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Northumberland and Lancaster counties adjoin the Chesapeake Bay, and carry on a vigorous trucking trade by means of the ves- sels that ply the bay and the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers.
Essex and Middlesex are two small tide- water counties on the south bank of the Rap- pahannock; the two counties together have an area of only 433 square miles, about the average area of a single county.
10P. 146.
A COUNTY NAMED AFTER AN ENGLISH ISLAND
ISLE OF WIGHT,
Organized 1634
CHAPTER VIII
A COUNTY NAMED AFTER AN ENGLISH ISLAND
The shire of Hants, sometimes called Hampshire, furnished the names for two Vir- ginia counties. In 1754 Virginia had a county organized and called Hampshire, after the English shire itself. This county, now greatly reduced in size, is the oldest county within the limits of the present State of West Virginia. One of the New England States also is named after the English shire.
The Isle of Wight, near the mainland of England, is a part of Hants, a shire in the southern part of England. The county in southeastern Virginia probably received its name from this Isle of Wight.1 The present name of the county was adopted in 1637, but for the first three years of its existence the county was called Warrosquyoake;2 also spelled Warrasqueake. Warrosquyoake is the name of an Indian tribe whose king
1My theory supported by Dr. B. W. Green.
"Cooke's "Virginia," pp. 50-51.
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Virginia County Names
warned Captain Smith that Powhatan was not to be trusted too much, even if appear- ances should indicate that no harm was medi- tated. Smith was just then going to visit Powhatan in order to procure corn. Pow- hatan tried hard to get Captain Smith into his power, but the Englishman was too good a strategist to be deceived by the pretensions of the Indian. Smithfield, the principal town of the county, was established in 1752, and takes its name from Arthur Smith, the original owner of the land.3 Near Smithfield is an old church, which is said to have been built by Sir Joseph Bridger in 1632. The church was originally a splendid structure, and for many years it stood in ruins, but has lately been repaired, and is used by the Methodist Episcopal Church South.
Among other industries, Smithfield con- tains the largest establishment in the State de- voted to the peanut trade.
3Whitehead's "Virginia Handbook," p. 266.
PART IV AMERICAN WARRIORS AND STATESMEN
7
COUNTIES NAMED AFTER ELEVEN REVOLU- TIONARY PATRIOTS
!
BLAND, . Organized 1861
CAMPBELL, . Organized 178 1
CARROLL,
Organized
1842
CLARKE, . Organized
1836
FRANKLIN,
Organized
1785
GREENE,
Organized 1838
MATTHEWS, . Organized
1790
MONTGOMERY, Organized
I776
PULASKI,
Organized
1839
RUSSELL,
Organized
1785
WARREN,
Organized
1837
CHAPTER IX
COUNTIES NAMED AFTER ELEVEN REVOLU- TIONARY PATRIOTS
Virginia played a leading part in the American Revolution, and the geographical names she then bestowed clearly indicate the zeal she manifested in the struggle for inde- pendence. Of the eleven counties formed during the ten years beginning in 1776, six1 bear the names of Revolutionary patriots, while one-Rockingham-is named after an English statesman who opposed England's hostile course towards the colonies. Virginia now has eleven counties named after Revo- lutionary patriots. Five of the eleven derive their names from natives of Virginia, and a brief sketch of these Virginians follows im- mediately below.
In 1861, when Bland county was organ- ized from Wythe, Tazewell, and Giles coun- ties, the people of Virginia were feeling very much as they did during the troublous times
1Seven, if Greenville county is named after General Nathaniel Greene. See pp. 75-76.
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Virginia County Names
at the beginning of the Revolution. In the days preceding the Revolution the colony of Virginia was suffering under the oppressive measures of a mother government that was disregarding the rights of her individual daughter colonies. In the days preceding the struggle of 1861-65 the State of Virginia was smarting under the helplessness of a central government that could not protect her indi- vidual rights as a State.2 In the days be- fore Lexington, Virginia was fearing an armed invasion from the soldiers of England; in the days before Sumter,3 Virginia was fear- ing an armed invasion from the soldiers of the United States.
Wythe, Tazewell, and Giles counties were all named after American patriots that had signally emphasized their love for independ- ence and for freedom from external interfer- ence in matters pertaining to local self-gov- ernment. The county that was being taken
2Many Northern States had passed laws, in opposition to the United States law, that prevented Virginia and other Southern States from recovering runaway slaves. If the central government could not protect the individual States of the South in one domestic institution,-slavery,- was it not natural for the South to suppose that other States' rights were also in danger?
3Bland was organized March 26, Sumter was attacked April 12.
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After Eleven Patriots
from these three counties must also, in its name, emphasize Virginia's love for inde- pendence and for State sovereignty. Thus it came about that Virginia, in the troublous, soul-stirring times of 1861, named Bland county4 after the patriotic Virginian and American, Richard Bland.
Richard Bland, of Jordan's Point, Prince George county, was one of the most eminent statesmen of the Revolutionary period. He was of the same lineage as Giles Bland,5 who had perished as a martyr to liberty after Bacon's Rebellion of 1676 had been crushed ; and in his veins flowed the blood of the kingly Powhatan. Bland's services to his State6 and his country were neither few nor unimportant. He was long a member of the House of Bur- gesses, he belonged to the Committee of Cor- respondence in 1773, was one of the seven delegates7 from Virginia to the General Con- gress that met in Philadelphia September 5,
"The county clerk of Bland, 1895, suggested that the county was named after a Mr. Bland who was instru- mental in having the county organized.
"Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. v. p. 43. 6Then a colony.
"The other delegates were Peyton Randolph, Richard Henry Lee, George Washington, Patrick Henry, Benja- min Harrison, and Edmund Pendleton.
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Virginia County Names
1774, and was on the Committee of Safety in 1775-76. Only the infirmities of old age prevented his serving as a delegate to a Gen- eral Congress in 1775. John Esten Cooke® thus describes the old patriot : "Richard Bland, an old man nearly blind and wearing a band- age over his eyes, the author of the 'Enquiry into the Rights of the American Colonies,' and called the Virginia Antiquary
Bland early and vigorously expressed his be- lief that the American Assemblies had the ex- clusive right to tax the colonies, and he heartily opposed Great Britain in her policy of taxing the colonies without giving them representation. At the age of sixty-six, and in the year of the Declaration of Independence,' Richard Bland yielded up his spirit to his country's God, the Author of liberty.
The comparatively insignificant battle of King's Mountain possibly determined the names of two Virginia counties. Campbell and Russell counties are named after Gen- erals William Campbell and William Russell, respectively, who especially distinguished themselves at King's Mountain. This battle
8Cooke's "Virginia," p. 406.
'October 29, 1776.
105
After Eleven Patriots
was fought October 7, 1780, under circum- stances that would naturally have given the victory to the unfatigued British troops. Campbell, with a regiment of 910 cavalrymen and 50 riflemen, marched fifty miles in eighteen hours, much of the time through rain, mud, and darkness. Without pausing for rest, he at once made a fierce attack on the British Colonel Ferguson, who commanded a force of 1105 men. Though the fighting was obstinate, Ferguson himself was slain, and all of his men either killed, wounded, or cap- tured. Campbell's conduct at the battle caused him to be promoted from colonel to general, and to receive the thanks of the Legislature and of Congress. Though his military ser- vices elsewhere were decidedly meritorious, Campbell is known in history as the "hero of King's Mountain." He died of sickness in the fall of 1781, at the age of thirty-six.
General William Russell, born in Culpeper county, was twenty-seven years old when the large county in southwestern Virginia re- ceived his name in 1785. At the age of fifteen Russell began his military career by joining Daniel Boone's expedition against the Indians, and had already become a veteran soldier, by fighting against these redskins, when he
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Virginia County Names
fought under Campbell at King's Mountain. Russell was the first American to reach the summit of the mountain and to receive a sword from the enemy. His gallantry at the mountain earned him a promotion to the rank of captain. He fought the next March at Guilford Court House, and served afterwards in many campaigns against the Indians. Rus- sell is more intimately connected with the his- tory of Kentucky than of Virginia, for he re- moved to Kentucky after the Revolution, was a member of the Virginia legislature that sep- arated Kentucky from the Old Dominion, and was, for many years, a legislator in the new State. In 1811 he succeeded General William Henry Harrison as commander of the frontier forces in Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. Kentucky, as well as Virginia, has a county named after General Russell.
Matthews (also spelled Mathews) county was named in honor of General George Mat- thews, a distinguished officer of the Revolu- tion. Matthews took a prominent part in the battle of Point Pleasant,10 which was fought just before the Revolutionary War. The contest occurred at the junction of the Kana-
10See Howe, p. 305, for a good description of the battle.
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After Eleven Patriots
wha with the Ohio, and was the bloodiest ever fought on Virginia11 soil against the Indians. The battle raged stubbornly from sunrise till dark, but resulted at last in favor of the whites. Matthews afterwards fought at Brandywine and Germantown, and his regi- ment did much to save the American army from destruction at the latter place. He took no further part in the Revolution, for he was captured at Germantown and was not re- leased until the close of the war. He subse- quently removed to Georgia, where he was elected to Congress. He was governor of his adopted State during 1793-96.
Clarke county, which really should be spelled without the e, is so named in honor of General George Rogers Clark,12 a famous pioneer and Indian fighter. Although Clark
11Including West Virginia, for Point Pleasant is in West Virginia.
12Clark spelled his name without an e, as may be seen from many of his letters, which are in the State Library in Richmond. The Virginia county, strange to say, though named in his honor, is generally spelled Clarke. Ohio and Indiana have Clarke counties, both probably named after General Clark, and Illinois has a Clark county, also probably named after the same man. Missouri has a Clark county, so called ("American Cyclopedia") in honor of George's brother, William Clark. Some of the States, then, are inaccurate in spelling county names Clarke while intending for them to honor George Rogers Clark by the county name.
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Virginia County Names
was born in Albemarle county, Virginia, most . of his notable exploits were done in Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. It was largely by his bravery and skill that Kentucky was freed from the ravages of hostile Indians. Through him, also, the territory north of the Ohio River was secured to the United States when Great Britain made peace with us in 1783. This was because Clark had obtained possession of posts that gave him control over that country. Through his influence Ken- tucky was organized as a Virginia county in 1776, and after it became a State an east- central county was named Clark in his honor. Louisville, Kentucky, was founded by General Clark. George was one of six brothers,13 four of whom attained prominence in the Revolution. His younger brother William was joint commander with Captain Lewis on an exploring tour to the Pacific in 1804. On this tour Clark was of great service in nego- tiations with the Indians. Clarke's Fork and Lewis's Fork of the Columbia River are named after these explorers.
Bland and Russell counties, in southwest Virginia, between the Blue Ridge and Alle-
13" American Enclycopedia." George was born 1742. died 1808 or 1817; William was born 1770, died 1838.
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After Eleven Patriots
ghany mountains, have their surfaces broken by towering peaks and swift streams. Bland is between Giles and Tazewell on the West Vir- ginia border, and is drained by New River waters. Russell county, to the west of the Clinch Mountains, is drained chiefly by the Clinch River.
Campbell county is in Piedmont Virginia, and is drained by the Staunton and the James. This county contains Lynchburg,14 which, next to Roanoke, is the largest city west of Richmond in the State.
Clarke county, taken from Frederick in 1836, when Wlliam Clark, brother to George Rogers Clark, was Superintendent of Indian · Affairs, has West Virginia on its northern border. It is hemmed in on the east by the Shenandoah Mountains, and the Shenandoah River flows through it.
Matthews, one of the few tidewater coun- ties with a name distinctively American, is nearly surrounded by the Chesapeake Bay and its arms.
Montgomery, Pulaski, and Warren coun- ties are named in honor of men that fought and fell in the cause of American freedom.
14Until the census of 1900 Lynchburg was larger than Roanoke.
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Virginia County Names
All three are mountainous counties in the ele- vated portion of Virginia lying between the Blue Ridge and Alleghany mountains. Mont- gomery and Pulaski, in southwestern Virginia, are separated from each other by the New River, whose waters drain all of Pulaski and a considerable part of Montgomery. War- ren lies between the Blue Ridge and Massa- nutten mountains in northern Virginia, and is traversed by the Shenandoah River.
General Richard Montgomery, born in Ireland in 1736, had a short but brilliant career in the cause of the struggling colonies. He was put in command of an expedition sent against Canada, and soon obtained pos- session of Montreal and other important points. After a month's siege a desperate at- tempt was made, December 31, 1775, to cap- ture Quebec by assault. Montgomery was killed while cheering on his men, and they, in dismay at his death, at once retreated. In grateful recognition of his services Congress erected a monument to his memory in St. Paul's churchyard, New York city. Under this monument lies the dust of the fallen hero. Virginia is but one of many States to have a county named after General Montgomery. Count Pulaski, of Poland, who had already
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After Eleven Patriots
become a veteran soldier by service in Europe, was induced by Benjamin Franklin to join the American army in 1777. The Polish count and the French Marquis de Lafayette were together in their first battle for the colonies at Brandywine. After two years of fighting in our behalf, Pulaski fell mortally wounded in an ill-timed attack on Savannah, October 9, 1779. The responsibility for making the at- tack does not belong to Pulaski; he was simply obeying the orders of his commander. Exactly forty-six years after his death his friend Lafayette laid the corner stone of the statue of Liberty that was erected in Savannah in joint honor of the Polish noble- man and of General Nathaniel Greene. It may be of interest to note that the capital of Arkansas is in Pulaski county, and that Georgia and other States have counties named in honor of the brave foreigner.
Virginia named a county after the illus- trious French marquis, but Fayette is now a county of the State of West Virginia.
Among those who gave their lives for American independence, none was more gen- erally beloved than the talented Massachu- setts physician, General Joseph Warren. From 1766 he was energetic in the cause of
112
Virginia County Names
the colonies against the oppressive measures of Great Britain. In 1774 he was the virtual head of Massachusetts, for he was president of the State Congress and chairman of the Committee of Public Safety. It was by War- ren's orders that Dawes and Paul Revere set out on their famous midnight ride for Lex- ington. Longfellow's stirring poem. tells how these horsemen warned the Americans in time to meet the hostile British. Warren fought at Lexington, and two months later fell at Bunker Hill. The British General Howe de- clared his death to be an off-set to the loss of five hundred British soldiers. At Bunker Hill stands a monument erected to his memory. It was unveiled June 17, 1857, the eighty- second anniversary of his death.
Five of the six Virginia counties named during the seven years ending in 1842 were named after American patriots of Revolu- tionary fame: Clarke in 1836, Warren in 1837, Greene in 1838, Pulaski in 1839, and Carroll in 1842. Moreover, all four of the counties formed during that time within the limits of the present State of West Virginia- Braxton in 1836, Mercer in 1837, and Marion and Wayne in 1842-take their names from Revolutionary patriots. Roan-
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After Eleven Patriots
oke, formed in 1838 and having an Indian name, is the only one of ten Virginia-West Virginia counties formed within that period of seven years and not named in honor of Revolutionary heroes.
When Greene county, then, was formed in 1838, the Virginians seemed to be especially desirous of remembering the heroes of '76 in their county names. If, as has been sug- gested,15 Greenville county had been named in honor of General Nathaniel Greene in the latter part of 1780, the fact had been over- looked or disregarded in after years, for, fifty-eight years later, in 1838, Greene county received the name of the patriot from Rhode Island. If both Greene and Greenville coun- ties are named after General Greene, he is the only American besides Patrick Henry16 to be honored in the naming of more than one Virginia county.
General Nathaniel Greene,17 of Rhode Island, served with distinction during the en- tire Revolution. His services in that war probably rank second to Washington's only in value. He took a prominent part in many of the leading battles of the north, and, by his successful stand at the battle of Brandywine,
15P. 75. 16P. 144.
17See Pp. 75-76 also,
8
114
Virginia County Names
saved the American army from destruction. In the autumn of 1780, after he had been transferred to the command of the army of the South, by a skillful campaign of hard- fought battles he in ten months' time recov- ered all of the Carolinas and Georgia except the three seaports of Charleston, Wilmington, and Savannah. The scene of the hotly con- tested battle of Guilford Court House is now called Greensboro, in honor of 'General Greene. The Carolinas and Georgia granted him valuable property, and Congress gave him a medal in recognition of his services. After the war he visited his native State, but settled in Georgia in 1785 on lands that had been given to him by that State. He lived less than a year in his new home, for he died of sunstroke June 19, 1786, at the age of forty-four.
Greene, which is decidedly smaller than the average Virginia county, is just east of the Blue Ridge and is watered by the Rivanna and Rapidan rivers.
Charles Carroll, of Maryland, and Benja- min Franklin, of Massachusetts, are each honored with a county name in southwest Vir- ginia.
Carroll county contains some of the most
115
. After Eleven Patriots
elevated land in the State, and is enclosed on two sides by ranges of the Blue Ridge Moun- tains. It is drained by New River waters. Franklin is separated from Carroll by Floyd, and has the main Blue Ridge range on its western border. The county contains 445 square miles, and is drained by the Staunton and Dan rivers.
For over two hundred years the name of Carroll has been especially prominent in the State of Maryland. Though many of his name are held in high esteem, Charles Car- roll, of Carrollton, is easily first of them all in the love and respect of his countrymen. His naturally strong business capacity was ren- dered stronger by the opportunities afforded by a college education and by travel in Europe. At the outbreak of the Revolution he was considered the richest man in the colonies, and was probably worth two million dollars. During the Revolution Carroll served in the legislative halls of State and nation, and was one of the framers of Maryland's State constitution. The Maryland delegates to the General Congress of 1776 had been in- structed by the legislature to disavow any claim of independence, but Carroll had these instructions removed and was himself one of
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Virginia County Names
the first to sign the Declaration of Independ- ence. Until 1801 he was busily engaged in public affairs, but he then retired to a well- earned repose at his magnificent country es- tate near Baltimore. Many friends used to visit him there to enjoy the society of their cultured and generous host. At the death of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, on July 4, 1826, Carroll was left as the sole survivor of the signers of the Declaration of Inde- pendence. Exactly two years later he made has last public appearance, when he laid the corner stone of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail- road. He died in 1832 at the age of ninety- five. Ten years later the Virginia county was named in honor of the venerable Maryland patriot.
Three of Carroll's granddaughters mar- ried English noblemen, and were distin- guished at the court of George IV as "The American Graces"-a title fairly earned by their attractive manners and great beauty. In 1876 Governor John Carroll of Mary- land, a great-grandson of the illustrious Charles, took a prominent part in the Phila- delphia Centennial of American Independ- ence.
Virginia is but one of many States to name
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After Eleven Patriots
a county after the patriotic Ben Franklin. When Franklin county was, formed in 1785 the fame of Dr. Benjamin Franklin was well established both in Europe and America. As the founder of the University of Pennsyl- vania, as inventor of the lightning rod, as op- poser of the Stamp Act, and as signer of the Declaration of Independence, the great Bos- tonian proved his love for learning, science, and native land.
COUNTIES NAMED AFTER SEVEN VIRGINIANS
WYTHE, Organized 1789
GRAYSON, Organized I792
TAZEWELL, . Organized 1799
SCOTT, . Organized 1814
SMYTH,
Organized 1831
ALEXANDRIA, Organized 1847
DICKENSON,
Organized 1880
CHAPTER X
COUNTIES NAMED AFTER SEVEN VIRGINIANS
Wythe county, and Wytheville, its county seat, are named after George Wythe, another signer of the paper that declared the United States free and independent. Wythe was probably the most eminent Virginia jurist of the eighteenth century. During the Revolu- tion he was an ardent and active patriot.1 He helped George Mason and Richard Henry Lee to frame Virginia's State consti- tution in 1776,2 and soon afterwards aided Thomas Jefferson and Edmund Pendleton in the revision of the State laws. For more than twenty years Wythe was sole chancellor3 of Virginia, and he is generally known as Chan- cellor Wythe. Wythe ranked high among scholars, and by Jefferson was regarded as the best Greek and Latin scholar of Virginia.
1See Wythe in American Supplement to "Enclycopedia Britannica."
2Wythe, "Appleton's American Biography."
3 An office corresponding to the presidency of the Court of Appeals; it was abolished at Wythe's death.
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Virginia County Names
From 1779 to 1789 Wythe was Professor of Law at William and Mary College, and many of his pupils afterwards attained great emi- nence : Jefferson4-to whom he bequeathed his great library-and Madison subsequently be- came Presidents of the United States; Giles held the leadership of the Democratic-Repub- lican party in the national Senate for seven years, and was governor of Virginia for three years; John Marshall was Chief Justice of the United States for thirty-five years, and gained a reputation in law that has certainly not been surpassed, and probably has not been equaled, within the United States.
Jefferson, Madison, Giles, and Marshall were each honored by Virginia in the name of a county, though Jefferson and Marshall be- came a part of West Virginia when that State was formed.
Chancellor Wythe's residence in Williams- burg is still standing.
Grayson and Tazewell counties were named in honor of two United States Senators from Virginia, who died shortly before the counties were organized.
The Virginia legislature of 1782-83 was
*Jefferson took law under Wythe by private instruc- tion about 1760.
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After Seven Virginians
remarkable for the entrance into State coun- cils of several men who afterwards became quite distinguished. Among others were John Marshall, the future Chief Justice, and Wil- liam Grayson,5 after whom Grayson county is named. Together with Patrick Henry and others, Grayson vigorously opposed the rati- fication by Virginia of the United States Con- stitution. In 1788 Grayson and Richard Henry Lee were elected as the first two United States Senators from Virginia under the Con- stitution, over Madison, who was then the Federal leader in the State. Senator Gray- son only lived to serve two years of the term to which he had been elected.
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