First Court of Giles County

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Giles County was formed from Montgomery, Monroe (now in West Virginia), and Tazewell Counties in 1806. It was named for William Branch Giles, United States senator from Virginia and later governor. North of here, the first court of Giles County was held on 13 May 1806 at the house of George Pearis. The new county seat, Pearisburg, was established in 1808. Pearis donated 53 acres of land for the town. A temporary log structure was built by 1807 to house the court until a permanent stone courthouse was built around 1810. It was replaced by the current courthouse that was erected in 1836.

Department of Historic Resources, 2000

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Charley L. Davis, trans., Giles County, Virginia Personal Property Tax List, 1806, Order Book, Minutes and Selected Marriages (Giles County, 1980), H-1 to H-3; Giles County Courthouse, National Register of Historic Places Nomination File (279-3), DHR; “A Guide to Counties in Virginia: Giles County,” The Virginia Genealogist 11 (Jan.-Mar. 1967): 12-14; James Hagemann, The Heritage of Virginia: The Story of Place Names in the Old Dominion (Norfolk and Virginia Beach, Va.: The Donning Company, 1986), 100; John O. and Margaret T. Peters, Virginia’s Historic Courthouses (Charlottesville and London: University Press of Virginia, 1995), 108-110; Emily J. Salmon and Edward D. C. Campbell, Jr., eds., The Hornbook of Virginia History, 4th ed. (Richmond: Library of Virginia, 1994), 164.