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Page County (Va.) Luray Township Board Minutes, 1870-1875. Local government records collection, Page County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia 23219.
This item came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of court papers from Page County.
Page County was named according to most sources, for John Page, revolutionary patriot, congressman, and governor of Virginia from 1802 to 1805. It was formed from Rockingham and Shenandoah counties in 1831.
The 1870 Virginia Constitution required that each county in the state be divided into no less than three townships (see Article VII, section 2). Based on the New England administrative organization of a county, each township would elect the administration officials for the offices of supervisor, clerk, assessor, collector, commissioner of the roads, overseer of the poor, justice of the peace, and constable. The supervisors of each township would comprise the board of supervisors for the county, and would be responsible for auditing the county accounts, examining the assessors' books, regulating property valuation, and fixing the county levies. The Acts of Assembly provided that each township be divided into school and electoral districts (see Acts of Assembly 1869-1870, Chapter 39). A constitutional amendment in 1874 changed the townships into magisterial districts and each district elected one supervisor, three justices of the peace, one constable, and one overseer of the poor. The supervisors of the districts made up the county board of supervisors whose duties were identical as those set out in 1870. The published Acts of Assembly appended a list of township names by county following the acts for every year that townships existed in Virginia.
Page County (Va.) Luray Township Board Minutes, 1870-1875, consists of minutes and accounts. Information recorded includes township redistricting, division of the township into road districts, establishment of tax and levy rates including special taxes for schools, appointment of election judges for road overseer election, accounts allowed against the township, appointment of road overseers, and examiniation of the accounts of road overseers, township collector, and township assessor.