GILES COUNTY was was formed on 1st May 1806 by an act of the
General Assembly of Virginia that was passed on 16 January 1806. It was named for William
Branch Giles, United States Senator from Virginia at that time.
It was formed from the counties of
Montgomery,
Monroe (now in West Virginia), and
Tazewell.
On 2 January 1808 the General Assembly passed an act
adding a part of Wythe
County
to Giles, effective 1 March 1808. During that same session, by an act
passed on 7 January 1808, the town of Pearisburg was established.
The next change to the boundaries of Giles County came in 1824 when it contributed to the
formation of Logan County (now
West Virginia). Another boundary change came in 1830 when a part of Monroe County was
added to Giles, in 1841 a small
strip was added to Giles from
Mercer County (now West Virginia). Then in 1851 a part of
Giles was taken for the formation of
Craig County and in 1858 another strip from Giles was added
to Craig. In 1861 a large portion of Giles was taken for the
formation of
Bland County and it was not until March 1900 that Giles
County gained its permanent boundary with Bland.
In addition to the counties above, the original area that was Giles County now embraces the
whole or parts of the West Virginia counties of
Summers,
Raleigh,
Wyoming, Fayette,
Boone and
even a tiny part of
Kanawha.
Settlers in the New River, Bluestone, Guyandotte and Coal river settlements, like all settlers
in the burgeoning frontier areas, were pressing westward faster than their government and clergy
could follow them. New counties sprung up like mushrooms in the night, but never quite close
enough, soon enough. Pearisburg was closer than
Christiansburg, but only just; for at the time of its formation Giles County covered a hundred
miles of the New River valley with a mean width of 30 miles for an estimated area of 3,000
square miles. Today, the county seat is still Pearisburg, but Giles County now encompasses only
356 square miles.
There may be but 356 square miles, but those miles are choice. The rugged terrain has
provided some protection from "progress". While the wild, rugged, empty wilderness that was
once Giles will never be again, there remain areas of great beauty, relatively untouched. Those
who remain are mostly mountain people, a term impossible to define. If you're among them, you
know it; and if you aren't, you wouldn't understand--so goes the explanation. Others put it this
way: Mountains don't belong to mountain people; the people belong to the mountains.
Some of us whose ancestors left the mountains and valleys of the Great Kanawha, carry with
us still those mountains of Virginia. We shelter now in the Rockies, the San Juans, the Sierra
Nevada, the Olympics and Cascades. We feel vaguely uneasy on "wide-open plains".
We return to the fastnesses of mountains searching for connections, meaning, and history. And we
stay to listen to the music of the names: Little Stony Creek, Spruce Run, Angel's Rest, Salt Pond
Mountain, Tip Top, Walker Mountain, Dismal Peak, Burke's Garden. Giles County. Virginia. -
Jackie Masters
