Wythe County is located in southwestern Virginia near the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was created in 1790, and named after George Wythe. Wythe was a legal mentor to Thomas Jefferson during the 1760s, and signed the Declaration of Independence. The crossroads town of Wytheville was the county seat during the Civil War, and remains so today. According to the 1860 census, the county's population was 12,305, and Wytheville's population was 1,111. Wytheville was said to have 1,800 inhabitants in 1863.