Buchanan County, Virginia: History and Information

Buchanan County, Virginia

Buchanan County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Grundy
Year Organized: 1858
Square Miles: 504

Court House:

P.O. Drawer 950
County Courthouse
Grundy, VA 24614-0950

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Buchanan is named for U.S. president James Buchanan

Demographics:

History

Buchanan County, Virginia formed from Russell and Tazewell Counties. [Virginia Counties: Those Resulting from Virginia Legislation, by Morgan Poitiaux Robinson, originally published as Bulletin of the Virginia State Library, Volume 9, January, April, July 1916, reprinted 1992 by Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, MD.]

Buchanan County was named for the United States president James Buchanan and was formed from Tazewell and Russell Counties in 1858. Its area is 508 square miles, and the county seat is Grundy. The population is 26,978 according to the 2000 census. Buchanan is one of the Commonwealth's Burned Records Counties. County court records were destroyed by fire in 1885; records created after that date suffered extreme damage in a flood in 1977. A few re-recorded deeds exist.

Neighboring Counties:

Mingo County, West Virginia - north-northeast

McDowell County, West Virginia - east

Tazewell County, Virginia - southeast

Russell County, Virginia - south

Dickenson County, Virginia - southwest

Pike County, Kentucky - northwest

Cities and Towns:

- Grundy (County Seat)

town

Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of our country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."

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