Pulaski County (Va.) Circuit Court

Although chartered in 1849, construction on the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad did not commence until the 1850s. Construction began in January 1850, but the 204 mile line would not be completed until October 1856. The eastern end of the railroad began in Lynchburg, Virginia and extended through southwestern Virginia to the Tennessee state line at Bristol. In Lynchburg, the line connected with other railroads heading east through Petersburg and Richmond.

During the Civil War, the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad served as a vital link between Richmond and the Confederate armies. The railroad hauled troops, weapons, and supplies throughout Virginia to Tennessee. Supplies such as food, livestock, salt, copper, and iron ore were shipped on the line. After several attempts, the Union army finally destroyed parts of the railroad in late 1864.

The railroad was soon rebuilt after the end of the Civil War and came under the control of former Confederate general William Mahone, who was named president of the line in 1867. In 1870, the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad became part of the Atlantic, Mississippi, and Ohio Railroad along with the South Side Railroad and the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad. In 1882 the name of the line was changed to the Norfolk and Western. Today, much of the original railroad line remains in service to the Norfolk Southern Corporation.

The volumes were used as exhibits in the chancery case Pryde and Jones versus Virginia and Tennessee Railroad Company heard in the Circuit Court of Pulaski County.

From the guide to the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad Company Monthly Estimates Ledgers, 1850-1855, (The Library of Virginia)

Pulaski County was formed from Montgomery and Wythe Counties in 1839. Part of Wythe County was added to Pulaski on 31 March 1862.

Pulaski County was named for Count Casimir Pulaski, the Polish patriot who served in the American army during the Revolutionary War and who was killed during the siege of Savannah in 1779.

During the 1869-1870 session, the General Assembly passed an "Act to Secure Identification of Persons Convicted of Criminal Offences." On 2 November 1870, the act was approved. The act specified that "every clerk of the court of each county and corporation shall keep a register of full and accurate descriptive lists of every person convicted in his own or any other court of record of his county or corporation, of felony or other infamous offence, and a duly certified and attested copy of any such descriptive list may be used as prima facie evidence of the facts therein stated in any question of identity. Such registers shall be kept written up, well indexed, and shall be open to public inspection at reasonable hours. The register shall follow a set form and each descriptive list shall be attested by said clerk."

In addition, "the clerk of every court of record of each county or corporation, other than the county or corporation court, shall within ten days from the date of conviction of any person in his court of any offence mentioned in the first section of this act, deliver to the clerk of the county or corporation court, for record in said register, an attested descriptive list of the person so convicted, in the form hereinbefore prescribed." The judges of the respective courts are responsible for seeing that the provisions of the act are "punctually and properly carried out" by their respective clerks. The act was amended on 18 January 1871 and outlined the following: "For the services mentioned in this or the first section of this act, the clerk shall be entitled to a fee of fifty cents, to be paid out of the state treasury." By and large, the county and circuit court clerks went about compiling these registers throughout the counties of Virginia as late as the 1960s.

Order/Minute books record all matters brought before the court when it was in session and may contain important information not found anywhere else. A wide variety of information is found in order/mintute books--including individuals convicted of felonies.

The original register was created by the County Court until 1904. After this date, felonies were recorded in the Circuit Court.

From the guide to the Pulaski County (Va.) Register of Convicts, 1872-1926, (The Library of Virginia)

Stephen Matteson Epperly was the first man in Virginia and one of the first in the United States to be convicted of murder with no confession, body, or eyewitness. The case is considered a precedent-setting one. Eighteen year old Gina Renee Hall, a student at Radford University, disappeared in 1980 June after leaving a Blacksburg nightspot with a man. Evidence against Epperly included small amounts of blood and hair that matched Hall's and were found at the home of a friend of Epperly's on Claytor Lake in Pulaski County. He was convicted in 1980 December of first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison. Epperly's appeals received national attention when he challenged the expert testimony of a dog handler who claimed his dog tracked Epperly's trail from Hall's abandoned car to Epperly's home in Radford eight days after the crime. Appeals court rulings rejected Epperly's claim that the dog-tracking testimony tainted his trial. The courts also rejected Epperly's claim that the prosecutor interfered with a fair trial by improperly instructing police officers not to talk with defense attorneys. To date he has been unsuccessful in obtaining parole. Gina Hall's body has never been found.

Commonwealth's attorney for the case was Everett P. Shockley. Epperly's defense attorneys were Glenwood Lookabill and David Warburton though they were replaced for the appeals process.

From the guide to the Pulaski County (Va.) Commonwealth versus Stephen Matteson Epperly, 1980-1992 (bulk 1980), (The Library of Virginia)

Chancery Causes are cases of equity. According to Black's Law Dictionary they are "administered according to fairness as contrasted with the strictly formulated rules of common law." A judge, not a jury, determines the outcome of the case.

Pulaski County was named for Count Casimir Pulaski, the Polish patriot who served in the American army during the Revolutionary War and who was killed during the siege of Savannah in 1779. It was formed from Montgomery and Wythe Counties in 1839. Part of Wythe County was added to Pulaski in 1862. The county seat is Pulaski.

From the guide to the Pulaski County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1841-1912, (The Library of Virginia)

Lee L. Summers and Company operated in Pulaski County, Va., during the nineteenth century and were dealers in hay, corn, oats, chop, and mill-feed.

The volumes were used as exhibits in the chancery case L. L. Summers versus James Gemmell and others heard in the Circuit Court of Pulaski County.

From the guide to the Lee L. Summers and Company Daybooks and Ledgers, 1889-1896, (The Library of Virginia)

The Hygienic Ice and Cold Storage Company, based in Pulaski County (Va.), was incorporated in December 1906. Early officers of the company included R. L. Gardner, J. W. Miller, and George D. Peters. The purpose of the company was to manufacture, buy, and sell ice at wholesale and retail and to preserve in cold storage all kinds of food products of a perishable nature. The company bought, sold, stored, imported, and exported fruits, fish, butter, milk, poultry, eggs, etc. The company also bottled and sold table, mineral, and soda waters. On 29 February 1928, a special meeting of the stockholders was held to approve an agreement that sold the storage plant and all real estate to the New York based company the Jervian Corporation.

From the guide to the Hygienic Ice and Cold Storage Company Minute Book, 1906-1928, (The Library of Virginia)

Pulaski County was named for Casimir Pulaski, the Polish patriot who served in the American army during the revolutionary war and who was killed during the siege of Savannah in 1779. It was formed from Montgomery and Wythe counties in 1839. Its area is 333 square miles, and the county seat is Pulaski.

The 1902 voter registration books were created following the passage of the 1902 Virginia state constitution. The purpose of the 1902 state constitution was to maintain white suffrage while eliminating African-American voters by means of literacy tests as well as property and poll tax requirements.

From the guide to the Pulaski County (Va.) Lists of Voters Registered, 1873-1950, (The Library of Virginia)

J. Farmer was most likely Jerry Farmer who was born about 1836 in Virginia and was a physician in Dublin, Va., during the nineteenth century.

The volume was used as an exhibit in the chancery case Jerry Farmer vs. Heirs of Elbert S. Trinkle heard in the Circuit Court of Pulaski County.

From the guide to the J. Farmer Physician Ledger, 1867-1898, (The Library of Virginia)

The city of Newbern traces its beginnings to 3 March 1810 when Adam Hance laid off 28 lots fronting the Wilderness Road. Newbern was the county seat of Pulaski County through much of the 1800s and served as a stagecoach stop on the Wilderness Road. The Wilderness Road was the principle route used by settlers to reach Kentucky. In Virginia, the Wilderness Road ran from Frederick County south to Lee County and the Cumberland Gap.

From the guide to the Newbern (Va.) Stagecoach Daybook, 1838-1841, (The Library of Virginia)

Fizer and Hall was a butcher and meat shop operating in Pulaski County, Virginia, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. One of the partners was James K. Polk Fizer (born about 1851), a merchant and butcher in Pulaski County.

From the guide to the Fizer and Hall Ledgers, 1899-1907, (The Library of Virginia)