Smyth County, Virginia Order Book 12, 1859-1866

This book OB (Court Order Book) 12 is an especially important OB in that it details happenings in Smyth County, Virginia immediately prior to, during, and for the half year after the Civil War. OB 12 begins at Court 16 August 1859 with a listing of documents presented at Court and admitted to record since the July term (1859) of the court, and ends 560 pages later, at Court, 17 January 1866 with the appointment of Reese A. Gillespie as overseer of Road No. 17 of District 2 of Smyth County.

The first part of this book, up through Summer of 1860, consists of a lot of listings of court cases for debt (rulings for plaintiff with interest from (date) and costs, usually consisting of 6 to 13 causes per page; an example is given for each page; the plaintiffs are either companies or individuals, enumerated frequently over and over), numerous causes for forfeited forthcoming bond wherein the plaintiff is awarded the amount of the bond, plus interest and costs and this is reduced approximately one-half for final payment by the defendant; in these cases, the Plaintiff and Defendant have been transcribed. There is little genealogical information contained in these two type of entries other than marking people in time. Ditto the listing - sometimes protracted-- of causes which have been determined to be continued. The rest of this section of the OB 12 consists of the usual entries. The second part of the book from Summer/End 1860 through January 1866 is seemingly more important with usually the deletion of the long listings of debt and forfeited bond causes and less emphasis on extensive listings of continued causes. In the case of this second part of the OB 12, many entries have been recorded verbatim, with others fully summarized.

Jack Hockett and Donald Helton

2025, every-name index, 341 pp.

107-SMOB12