Editing Clarke County, Virginia (section)

==History==
The first settlement of the [[Virginia Colony]] in the future Clarke County was in 1736 by [[Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron]] who built a home, Greenway Court, on part of his {{convert|5|e6acre|km2|abbr=unit}} property, near what is now the village of [[White Post, Virginia|White Post]]. White Post was named for the large signpost pointing the way to Lord Fairfax's home.

As it lay just west of the Blue Ridge border demarcated under Governor Spotswood at Albany in 1722, the area was claimed along with the rest of the Shenandoah Valley by the Six Nations Iroquois (who had overrun it during the later [[Beaver Wars]] in around 1672), until the [[Treaty of Lancaster]] in 1744, when it was purchased from them by Governor Gooch.

Many of the early settlers of what became Clarke County were children of Tidewater planters, who settled on large land grants from Lord Fairfax. Two thirds of the county was settled by the plantation group, and the plantation lifestyle thrived until the Civil War. County status came in 1836, when it was divided off from Frederick County. Clarke County was known for its large crops of wheat.

During the [[American Civil War]], [[John S. Mosby]], "the Gray Ghost" of the [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]], raided [[General officer|General]] [[Philip Sheridan]]'s supply train in the summer of 1864, in [[Berryville, Virginia|Berryville]]. The [[Battle of Cool Spring]] was fought in Clarke County on July 17 and 18, 1864, followed by the Battle of Berryville on September 3, 1864.

In 1881 was founded the [[Bank of Clarke County]], a still-functional [[regional bank]] with headquarters in [[Berryville, Virginia|Berryville]].<ref>{{cite web
 |url         = http://www.bankofclarke.com/history.html
 |title       = History of Bank of Clarke County
 |access-date  = March 10, 2017
|url-status     = live
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20170203065329/http://www.bankofclarke.com/history.html
 |archive-date = February 3, 2017
}}</ref>

Early in the 20th century, the future Virginia politician [[Harry F. Byrd Sr.]] and his wife established their first home near Berryville, where he undertook extensive agricultural activity growing peaches and apples. Byrd became a state senator in the upper house of the [[Virginia General Assembly]], served a term as a [[Governor of Virginia]], and was a [[United States senator]] for over 30 years. He headed the powerful [[Byrd Organization]], which dominated state politics between the mid-1920s and the 1960s.

In 1996, [[Forrest Pritchard]] revitalized [[Smithfield Farm]] by starting a grass-fed, sustainable livestock operation. Renamed 'Smith Meadows', it is currently one of the oldest fully grass-finished farms in the United States, and its story was chronicled in the New York Times bestseller Gaining Ground.