University of Virginia Library

The County Justices

Eighteen county justices of the peace were commissioned
by the Governor for the new county and
were as follows: Elijah McClanahan, Nathaniel
Burwell, Thomas Fowler, Lewis Harvey, William
McDermid, James Kyle, John H. Griffin, William C.
Bowyer, Elias Thomas, Andrew Reynolds, Absalom
Smith, John F. J. White, Joseph Woods, George W.
Shanks, Michael Miller, William Farley, Thomas
Tosh, John McCauley, and John R. Richardson.

These justices, with the exception of William Farley,
met at Salem on the twenty-first day of May,
1838, at the house occupied by Benjamin Faris as
a tavern, but owned by Charles Dillard, and proceeded
in accordance with the provisions of the Act
of formation to organize a county court. Faris's
Tavern stood on the site now occupied by the Presbyterian
Church.