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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.

Prince Edward County, Virginia

Prince Edward County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Farmville
Year Organized: 1754
Square Miles: 353

Court House:

P.O. Box 382
County Courthouse
Farmville, VA 23901-0382

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Prince Edward is named for Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of York and Albany (1739-1767) the younger brother of George III of Great Britain.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

Prince Edward County, Virginia formed from Amelia County. Legislative enactment in 1753. Organized in 1754. Other changes seem to have occurred from 1844-1845. [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.]

Prince Edward County was named in honor of Edward Augustus, a son of Prince Frederick Louis, a grandson of George II, and a younger brother of George III. The county was formed from Amelia County in 1753. Its area is 357 square miles, and the county seat is Farmville.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 354 square miles (916 km²), of which, 353 square miles (914 km²) of it is land and 1 square miles (3 km²) of it (0.31%) is water. Most of the county's streams drain into the Appomattox River, a tributary of the James River, but in the southeastern corner of the county, streams drain via the Nottoway River into the Chowan River and thence into Albemarle Sound in North Carolina. The highest point in the county is the top of Leighs Mountain at 714 feet above sea level.

Neighboring Counties:

Amelia County, VA to the northeast
Appomattox County, VA to the west
Buckingham County, VA to the north
Charlotte County, VA to the southwest
Cumberland County, VA to the north
Lunenburg County, VA to the south
Nottoway County, VA to the east

Cities and Towns:

- Farmville (County Seat)	town	Incorporated Area
- Pamplin City	town	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resource Guide

Counties: US Map

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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