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Virginia Counties

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Virginia Counties

The Commonwealth of Virginia is divided into 95 counties and 39 independent cities, which are considered county-equivalents for census purposes.

Nelson County, Virginia

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

County Seat: Lovingston
Year Organized: 1808
Square Miles: 472

Court House:

P.O. Box 336
County Courthouse
Lovingston, VA 22949-0336

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Nelson is named for Governor of Virginia Thomas Nelson, Jr..

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Nelson County, Virginia formed from Jefferson County. Legislative enactment in 1784. Organized in 1785. [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.]

Nelson County was named for Thomas Nelson, Jr., governor of Virginia from June to November 1781. It was formed in 1807 from Amherst County. Its area is 471 square miles, and the county seat is Lovington.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 474 square miles (1,228 km²), of which, 472 square miles (1,223 km²) of it is land and 2 square miles (5 km²) of it (0.41%) is water. The Blue Ridge Mountains form the northwest boundary of the county; the James River forms the boundary to the southeast. Internally, Nelson consists of the Rockfish, Tye and Piney Rivers, along with many known creeks.

Neighboring Counties:

Augusta County, Virginia - northwest
Albemarle County, Virginia - northeast
Buckingham County, Virginia - southeast
Appomattox County, Virginia - south
Amherst County, Virginia - southwest
Rockbridge County, Virginia - west

Cities and Towns:

- Lovingston (County Seat)

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this 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."