Scott County, Virginia
Scott County is a county located in the far southwestern part of the U.S. state of Virginia, on the border with North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 21,576.[1] Its county seat is Gate City.[2] Scott County was formed by an act of the General Assembly on November 24, 1814, from parts of Washington, Lee, and Russell counties and was named for Virginia -born General Winfield Scott.[3] Scott County is part of the Kingsport–Bristol–Bristol, TN-VA Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is a component of the Johnson City–Kingsport–Bristol, TN-VA Combined Statistical Area, commonly known as the "Tri-Cities" region. The County Administrator is Freda Russell Starnes.
Scott County
United States
November 24, 1814
Gate City
539 sq mi (1,400 km2)
536 sq mi (1,390 km2)
3.1 sq mi (8 km2) 0.6%
21,576 
History[edit]
The area was occupied for thousands of years by indigenous Native Americans. Early Anglo-European settlers found evidence of a former native village at the mouth of Stony Creek on the Clinch River. Bands of Cherokee lived in the area.
In 1769 Thomas McCulloch was the first white settler in what was later organized as the county. Daniel Boone commanded several forts located here in 1774 during Dunmore's War, and several more were built in successive years.[4]
Increased settlement of colonial Americans encroached on Cherokee territory. A group known by the settlers as the Chickamauga Cherokee (but they were not a separate tribe), was led by Bob Benge. They had armed confrontations with settlers during the Cherokee–American wars. Benge was killed in 1794, years after the United States gained independence in the American Revolution.
By the time houses were built in the 1790s, the largely Scots-Irish population had increased. They were mostly yeomen farmers who had moved into the backcountry where land was more available. They were served by the Wilderness Road which brought traders to the area. After Scott County was formed in 1814, the first court took place in 1815.
The first public schools were not established here until 1870, years after the American Civil War and during the Reconstruction era in Virginia and other former Confederate states.[5] The wealthy planters of Virginia paid for their own children's education but nothing for the rest of the white people.