Braxton County Courthouse

 “County government as we know it today in West Virginia originated with the passage of the Judicial Amendment of 1880. The Amendment provided for a three-member, elective body; removed most of the county commissioner’s judicial function except limited ones as in settlement of accounts and appointment of guardians and committees; and retained the county court (now commission) with central authority in fiscal matters as its primary function.

West Virginia’s counties do not possess inherent rights of self government. They are under the State’s complete control as its creation; and their authority to perform even local functions is spelled out in the Constitution or by legislative enactments. In addition to members of the county commission, the elective officials are sheriff, assessor, prosecuting attorney, surveyor, county clerk and circuit clerk.”

—Richard Shelton 1913-2000
Founder of the West Virginia Association of Counties

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About Braxton County

Sutton is the county seat of Braxton County, which is in central West Virginia on the Allegheny Plateau. Contributing to the economy of the area are lumber operations, fruit and tobacco farms, oil and natural gas wells, coal, lumber, and granite quarries.

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Sutton was established in 1826 and it is the leading center for a farming region. It is in the geographical center of the state. The first settlement was formed in 1810 by John D. Sutton, for whom the city is named. In its 1826 charter the city was originally called Suttonville, but a new charter in 1889 reinstated the name of Sutton.

Confederate Army Capt. Jack Tuning burned the town in the winter of 1861. It was eventually rebuilt and the new charter given.

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Carter Braxton, an American Revolutionary political leader, is honored in the naming of Braxton County, which was founded in 1836. The county comprises some 520 square miles of land in the central part of the state. Braxton was a Virginia statesman and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

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