Place:Tazewell, Virginia, United States

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source: Family History Library Catalog

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Tazewell County is a county located in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Virginia. As of the 2000 census, the population was 44,598. It is part of the Bluefield, WV-VA micropolitan area which has a population of 107,578. The micropolitan area is the 350th largest statistical population area and the thirty-third largest micropolitan in the United States. Its county seat is the town of Tazewell.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Before the arrival of pioneers Tazewell County was a hunting ground for Native Americans. Although rare in the eastern United States, there are petroglyphs near the summit of Paintlick Mountain.

In the spring of 1771 Thomas and John Witten established the first permanent settlement in Tazewell County at Crab Orchard.

Tazewell County was created on December 20, 1799. The land for the county was taken from portions of Wythe and Russell Counties. It was named after Henry Tazewell, a United States Senator from Virginia as well as a state legislator and judge. Delegate Littleton Waller Tazewell originally opposed the formation of the new county but when Simon Cotterel, who drew up the bill to form the county, changed the originally proposed name of the county to Tazewell's namesake, in honor of his father Henry who had died months earlier, the bill passed.

Later, the town of Jeffersonville was renamed Tazewell and became the county seat.

Timeline

Population History

source: Source:Population of States and Counties of the United States: 1790-1990

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