Rockbridge County, Virginia

Rockbridge County is a county located in the U.S. state &mdash; officially, "Commonwealth" &mdash; of Virginia. As of the 2000 census, the population was 20,808. Its county seat is Lexington6. The population figures do not include those residing in the independent cities of Buena Vista and Lexington.

Rockbridge County was named for Natural Bridge.

Cyrus McCormick invented the reaper near Steele's Tavern at the northern end of the county.

Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,557 km² (601 mi²). 1,553 km² (600 mi²) of it is land and 4 km² (1 mi²) of it (0.22%) is water. The land area figures do not include the independent cities of Buena Vista and Lexington.

Towns

 * Glasgow
 * Goshen
 * Brownsburg (unincorporated)
 * Raphine (unincorporated)

The independent cities of Buena Vista and Lexington are separate political jurisdictions located within Rockbridge County. Lexington is the county seat (in spite of its independent status), and it shares three constitutional officers with Rockbridge County: Sheriff, Clerk of the Circuit Court and Commonwealth's Attorney. Buena Vista does not share constitutional officers with either Rockbridge County or Lexington.

Notable residents
Stonewall Jackson- General in the CSA Army lived in Lexington, the county seat.
 * Robert H. Adams (1792-1832), born in Rockbridge County, United States Senator from Mississippi
 * Archibald Alexander (1772-1851), born in Rockbridge County, noted Presbyterian clergyman, president of Hampden-Sydney College and one of the founders of and the first professor of Princeton Theological Seminary
 * Adam Rankin Alexander (1772-1851), born in Rockbridge County, United States Congressman from Tennessee
 * Samuel Houston the only man (to date) to be Governor of two U.S. states (Texas, Tennessee).
 * Robert E. Lee, former commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the U.S. Civil War, who, after the war, accepted the presidency of Washington and Lee University (then Washington College).

Cyrus McCormick- inventor of the reaper.

Archibald Stuart Founder of Phi Beta Kappa


 * Cy Twombly
 * Pat Robertson