Welcome and Introduction:

Welcome to the Russell County, Virginia History web site. This site is a companion site to my other websites related to Russell County history. This site will host Russell County information which does not fit on my Civil War website or my history blog.

The site currently has four areas of information:

The In The News section contains images and transcriptions of relevant historical newspaper articles related to Russell County, collected from various newspapers, including the Clinch Valley Times, the Tazewell Republican, the Abingdon Virginian, and the Lebanon News. The section now indexes over 3,300 obituaries or death notices from the Lebanon News and over 2,500 Russell County obituaries from other newspapers.

The Campbell Archive is a large collection of historic documents and images from the Campbell, Martin, and Steele families of Russell County. Most of the documents are from the 1850-1930 time period.

The most important collection of information on the site is the Slaves and Free Blacks of Russell County section. The African-American experience in Russell County is often overlooked, I intend this section to contain any and all references to slaves and free blacks in Russell County in order to facilitate historical and genealogical research on this topic.

The Transcription section of the site will contain transcriptions of Russell County Court Records. It currently contains several years of the Circuit Superior Court of Law and Chancery, as well as the County Court Law Order Books.

Eventually I'll add more sections to the website, and I will continue to update the current sections regularly.

Older updates

  • 12/23/2017 - Added transcription of the October Term of the 1853 County Superior Court of Law and Chancery
  • 12/9/2017 - Added transcription of the September Term of the 1853 Circuit Superior Court of Law and Chancery
  • 11/28/2017 - Added transcription of the August Term of the 1853 County Superior Court of Law and Chancery
  • 11/25/2017 - Added transcription of the Spring Term of the 1853 Circuit Superior Court of Law and Chancery
  • 11/11/2017 - Added transcription of the Fall Term of the 1852 Circuit Superior Court of Law and Chancery
  • 10/28/2017 - Added transcription of the Spring Term of the 1851 Circuit Superior Court of Law and Chancery
  • 10/7/2017 - Added transcription of the Summer and Fall Terms of the 1850 Circuit Superior Court of Law and Chancery
  • 9/14/2017 - Added transcription of the Spring Term of the 1850 Circuit Superior Court of Law and Chancery
  • 7/8/2017 - Added huge index (nearly 5,000) of Russell County related obituaries to the obituary index section.
  • 6/22/2017 - Added over 30 documents related to Freedmen's Bureau activity in Russell County to the Slaves and Free Blacks section.
  • 5/21/2017 - Added 1945 to the obituary index to the Lebanon News
  • 5/07/2017 - Added 1944 to the obituary index to the Lebanon News
  • 4/09/2017 - Added 1943 to the obituary index to the Lebanon News
  • 3/25/2017 - Added 1942 to the obituary index to the Lebanon News
  • 3/11/2017 - Added 1941 to the obituary index to the Lebanon News
  • 2/25/2017 - Added 1940 to the obituary index to the Lebanon News
  • 1/21/2017 - Added 1939 to the obituary index to the Lebanon News
  • 1/07/2017 - Added 1938 to the obituary index to the Lebanon News (no issues exist for 1935, 1936, or 1937)
  • 12/24/2016 - Added 1934 to the obituary index to the Lebanon News
  • 12/3/2016 - Added 1933 to the obituary index to the Lebanon News
  • 11/19/2016 - Added 1931 and 1932 to the obituary index to the Lebanon News
  • 10/22/2016 - Added 1930 to the obituary index to the Lebanon News
  • 10/07/2016 - Added 1929 to the obituary index to the Lebanon News
  • 9/25/2016 - Add three obituaries to the Slaves and Free Blacks mentioned in Newspaper Articles section.
  • 9/10/2016 - Add several slave mentions to the Slaves and Free Blacks mentioned in Law Order Books, 1853-1867 section.
  • 8/27/2016 - Indexed 154 obituaries from the Honaker Herald, Gladeville Sun, Bluegrass Enterprise, Bristol Herald, Bristol Herald Courier, Bristol Semi-Weekly Herald, Abingdon Virginian, the Protectionist (of Lebanon), and the Bickley Mills Post at obituary index
  • 8/13/2016 - Added 1928 to the obituary index to the Lebanon News
  • 7/16/2016 - Added 1927 to the obituary index to the Lebanon News
  • 7/03/2016 - Added 1926 to the obituary index to the Lebanon News
  • 6/18/2016 - Added 1925 to the obituary index to the Lebanon News
  • 6/04/2016 - Added 1924 to the obituary index to the Lebanon News
  • 5/23/2016 - Added slave and free black mentions from Will Book #6 and #7, 1847-1866.
  • 5/07/2016 - Added slave and free black mentions from Will Book #5, 1835-1846.
  • 4/23/2016 - Added 1923 to the obituary index to the Lebanon News
  • 4/09/2016 - Added 1922 to the obituary index to the Lebanon News
  • 3/26/2016 - Added 1921 to the obituary index to the Lebanon News
  • 3/15/2016 - Added 4 articles to Slaves and Free Blacks News Articles
  • 3/5/2016 - Added 1920 to the obituary index to the Lebanon News
  • 2/27/2016 - Added 1919 to the obituary index to the Lebanon News
  • 2/20/2016 - Added 1901 and 1918 to the obituary index to the Lebanon News
  • 2/13/2016 - Added 1917 to the obituary index to the Lebanon News
  • 2/6/2016 - Added 1916 to the obituary index to the Lebanon News
  • 1/30/2016 - Added 1915 to the obituary index to the Lebanon News
  • 1/23/2016 - Added 1914 to the obituary index to the Lebanon News
  • 1/16/2016 - Added 1913 to the obituary index to the Lebanon News
  • 1/9/2016 - Added 1883 and 1893 to the obituary index to the Lebanon News
  • 1/4/2016 - Added 1912 to the obituary index to the Lebanon News
  • 12/26/2015 - Added 1911 to the obituary index to the Lebanon News
  • 12/19/2015 - Added 1909 and 1910 to the obituary index to the Lebanon News
  • 12/12/2015 - Added 1907 and 1908 to the obituary index to the Lebanon News
  • 12/5/2015 - Added 1905 and 1906 to the obituary index to the Lebanon News
  • 11/28/2015 - Added 1903 and 1904 to the obituary index to the Lebanon News
  • 11/21/2015 - Began added obituary index to the Lebanon News
  • 11/3/2015 - Added remainder of Law Order Book mentions.
  • 10/28/2015 - Added death records of African Americans born before 1865, died between 1912-1961.
  • 10/12/2015 - Added many news articles to Slaves and Free Blacks section.
  • 10/5/2015 - Added extract of blacks and mulattos from the 1880 census.
  • 10/2/2015 - Added 1850 and 1860 Slave Census. Added extract of blacks and mulattos from the 1870 census. Began section on slaves and free blacks mentioned in newspaper articles.
  • 9/21/2015 - Transcribed more newspaper articles.
  • 9/17/2015 - Transcribed the Tazewell Republican articles.
  • 9/11/2015 - Transcribed most of the Abingdon Virginian, Bluefield Telegraph and Clinch Valley News articles.
  • 9/8/2015 - Site launches!