SOME IMPORTANT DATES IN SCOTT COUNTY HISTORY

1749-50-Dr. Thomas Walker and companions visit Cumberland Gap and adjacent regions.
1763-Treaty in which France gave up to England all claim to the mainland east of the Mississippi River.
1769-Daniel Boone passes through Big Moccasin Gap on his way to Kentucky.
1769-Uriah Stone, Casper Mansker, John Rains, and Abraham and Isaac Bledsoe pass through Big Moccasin Gap to Kentucky.
1769-Thomas McCulloch made the first settlement within the territory of Scott County near Fort Houston, on Big Moccasin Creek.
1770-The Long Hunters pass through Big Moccasin Gap on hunting expeditions.
1770-Peter Livingston settled on the North Fork of the Holston at the mouth of Livingston's Creek.
1771-Silas Enyart settled on Little Moccasin Creek.
1772-James Green settled near the mouth of Stony Creek.
1772-Patrick Porter settled on the west side of Fall Creek, near Osborne's Ford.
1773-James Boone, Henry Russell, and party were massacred by Indians in Powell's Valley.
1773-Daniel Boone takes his family to Castle's Woods and becomes a resident in the Valley of the Clinch.
1773-John Blackmore, Joseph Blackmore, John Blackmore, Jr., John Carter, and Andrew Davis settled at Fort Blackmore.
1773-William Nash settled in Rye Cove.
1773-Charles Kilgore settled on the east side of Fall Creek, near Osborne's Ford.
17/3-Jonathan Wood settled on Big Moccasin Creek, near Fort Houston.
1774-Logan, the Mingo chieftain, captured two of Captain Blackmore's slaves at Fort Blackmore.
1774-Dale Carter was killed by Indians at Fort Blackmore.
1774-Daniel Boone and Michael Stoner were sent from Castle's Woods to warn surveying parties in Kentucky of the danger of Indian attack.
1774-Daniel Boone was placed in command of Fort Black-more and other forts on the Clinch while the militiamen were absent on the Point Pleasant campaign in Dunmore's War.
1774-Patrick Porter was given permission to erect a mill on Fall Creek by the County Court of Fincastle.
1774-John Livingston settled at the mouth of Little Moccasin Creek, north side of Clinch Mountain.
1774-Samuel Livingston and Stephen Walling settled at the head of Little Moccasin Creek.
1775-Samuel Richey settled on south side of Clinch River (William Gray farm).
1775-Daniel Boone and companions cut a road through Big Moccasin Gap.
1776-A son of Jonathan Jennings and one of his slaves were killed at Fort Blackmore by Indians.
1776-Isaac Crisman and family were slain by Indians in the Rye Cove.
1776-The inhabitants of Martin's Station flee to Fort Blackmore for protection.
1776-Jacob Lewis and family were slain by Indians near the head of Stock Creek.
1776-The Rye Cove Fort evacuated by order of Colonel Bledsoe, the inmates going to Fort Blackmore.
1776-Samuel Stedham settled at the "Mint Spring" on Little Moccasin Creek.
1777-Benge and band of Indians visit Fort Blackmore. They Capture Polly Alley, and Jane Whitaker.
1777-Fannie Napper (nee Alley) and her five children were captured by Indians at Fort Blackmore.
1777-Col. Joseph Martin stationed in the Rye Cove to guard the frontier.
1779-Capt. John Blackmore and family, and Jonathan Jennings and family, leave Fort Blackmore in boats for Nashboro, Tennessee.
1781-Fort Blackmore attacked by Indians, four men captured, and a large number of horses taken away.
1782-Thomas Wallin settled at the mouth of Stock Creek.
1787-John Carter's wife and six children killed by Indians near Fort Blackmore.
1788-Indians capture two Carter boys in the Rye Cove.
1789-Joseph Johnson's house on "Flat," or "Mill" Creek was burned; his wife and one child killed, and his other children carried into captivity by Indians.
1790-Bishop Asberry, the great Methodist organizer, visited Fort Blackmore.
1790-Mrs. Henry Hamlin killed, and Champ Hamlin captured by Indians at Fort Blackmore.
1791-Benge attacks the house of Elisha Ferris, within the present limits of Gate City, and cruelly murders all but Nancy Ferris.
1793-Benge murdered Harper Ratcliff and his entire family, six in number, near Big Moccasin Gap.
1793-Benge attacked Ensign Moses Cockrell and his pack-horse train on top of Powell's Mountain (Kane's Gap).
1794-Benge captured the Livingston family, and was killed by Vincent Hobbs and his company.
1814--An act forming Scott County from parts of Washington, Russell, and Lee counties, passed by the General Assembly of Virginia.
1815-The first court held in the dwelling of Benjamin T. Hollins at Big Moccasin Gap.
181S-The first county election was held, with just two voting places.
1815-The first Superior Court was held in May of this year.
1816-The first Court of Enquiry (Military) was held.
1817-A wooden courthouse was erected on the public square.
1829-Brick courthouse (the front part of present building) was received by the Court.
1870-The county was laid off into seven magisterial districts.
1870-In November of this year the first public free schools were opened in the county.
1887-The first passenger train reached Bratton's Switch, Gate City.

SCOTT COUNTY TERRITORY
Scott County territory was claimed by the French prior to the Treaty of 1763, in which France gave up all claim to the mainland east of the Mississippi River. At the close of the Revolution, France endeavored, by diplomacy in the Treaty of 1783, to regain the strip of territory between the English settlements on the Atlantic Coast and the Mississippi River, of which strip Scott County is part. France, however, was thwarted in her purpose by John Adams, who strongly insisted that the Mississippi River should be the western boundary of the United States. If France had been able to make good her claim in the treaty of 1783, the Mississippi Valley to the very headwaters of its eastern tributaries would have been French territory.

Scott has had a number of parent counties. It was part of Augusta County from 1745 to 1769; part of Botetourt County from 1769 to 1772; part of Fincastle County from 1772 to 1777; part of Washington County from 1777 to 1786; part of Washington and Russell counties from 1786 to 1792; part of Washington, Russell, and Lee counties from 1792 to 1814.

Scott County embraced a part of Wise County until 1856.

In 1814 a petition was presented to the General Assembly, asking that parts of the counties of Washington, Lee, and Russell be formed into a new county. This petition set forth the inconvenience to which its signers were subjected whenever they had need to attend the courts of their respective counties. In accordance with the wishes of the petitioners a bill was introduced in the General Assembly authorizing the formation of "a new county. This bill was enacted into law November 24, 1814.