In compliance with the above section, the justices of the peace convened at the time and place named and proceeded to open the first county court ever held in Upshur county. The said justices were Adam Spitler, Simon Rohrbough, George Bastable, James T. Hardman, Jacob Lorentz, Daniel Bennett, K Hopkins, George Clark and John W. Marple. The court organized by the election of Mifflin Lorentz to the office of clerk. John Reger was then recommended to his excellency the governor as a suitable person to be commissioned high sheriff of the county, and Stewart Bennett was chosen commissioner of the revenue. Then an order was made appointing a committee whose duty it was to secure suitable lots in the town of Buckhannon upon which to erect the public buildings then after the transaction of miscellaneous business incident to the formation of a new county, the court adjourned.
For Upshur county was held on Thursday the 17th day of June, 1851 at the house of Andrew Poundstone, in the town of Buckhannon, it having been designated by the county court as the place for holding its sessions, until the erection of the county buildings. Present, the Hon. George H. Lee, one of the judges of Virginia, judge of the 2 2d circuit, and of the said circuit court of Upshur county. The first entry in the records of the term is as follows: "The court doth appoint George W. Miller, clerk of this court, to perform all the duties of "said office according to law, and to take all the fees and emoluments thereof as by law provided." Whereupon the said George W. Miller appeared in court, and together with A. M. Bastable, William Senton, Leonard L. D. Louden. Clinton G. Miller, D. D. T. Farnsworth, David Bennett and Mifflin Lorentz, as his bondsmen, "entered into a bond in the penalty of $8000, conditioned as the law directs."
Then the court appointed Matthew Edmiston to prosecute the pleas of the common wealth for the time being, and till otherwise ordered. William A. Harrison, Caleb Boggess, Jr., Matthew Edmiston, John McWhorter William D. Williams, Benjamin Wilson George W. Berlin, Richard L. Brown, Samuel Crane, Uriel M. Turner, and Robert Irvine, all of whom had been duly licensed to practice in courts of the commonwealth, came into court, and on their own motion, permission was granted them to practice in the courts of this county. The court then appointed Alvin M. Bastable and Richard L. Brown, mastery commissioners in chancery for court. On motion of George W. Miller, who had been elected clerk of the court, Gibson J. Butcher was permitted to q qualify as his deputy. He took the several oaths prescribed by law.
Second day. April 18.-Daniel Goff Edwin Maxwell and Benjamin Bassett wore granted a license to practice in the courts of this county, and Mifflin Lorentz qualified as deputy clerk. The first civil case ever tried in the county was then called: it was that of Thomas S. 'Prim and Thomas B. Curtiss, merchants doing business under the firm name of Prim & Curtiss vs. Isaac W. Simons, who came into court and confessed judgment in the sum of $1,077.77 - the debt in the declaration mentioned being $421.20.
Then was impaneled the first grand jury that ever sat as a jury of inquest for the body of Upshur county. Those composing it were Alvin M. Bastable, foreman, Tillson Janney, Clinton G. Miller, Daniel D. T. Farnsworth, George Ambrose, John L; Smith, Alias Bennett, David Bennett, Lewis Caricoff, William E. Balsely, John Lewis, Henry Reger, David S. Hazeldon, Wilson M. Haymond, Archibald Henkle and O. B. Louden. They were sworn, and after hearing the instructions of the court, retired to consider of their presentments. After some time they resumed into court, and presented Six true bills of indictment.