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About Surry County

Surry County was named for Lord Surrey, prominent member of Parliament who protested the burdensome taxes placed on the colonies.  The county was formed from Rowan County in 1770 (approved by legislation in 1771).  Rowan was formed from Anson in 1753 and Anson was formed from Bladen in 1750.
 
Surry's first county seat was Richmond, now Old Town, in present-day Forsyth County.  The land for this seat of justice was donated by Martin Armstrong and William Sheppard.
 
In 1779 Wilkes County was formed from Surry.  Ten years later, Stokes County was formed from Surry's eastern border.  In 1790 it was deemed necessary to have the seat of justice in the center of the county, and Rockford was chosen.  The name Rockford came from the White Rock Ford on the Yadkin River.  The land for this county seat was deeded by Thomas and Moses Ayers.
 
By 1850 the populace again asked for a county division.  This time Yadkin County was formed from that part of Surry south of the Yadkin River.  This required a new seat of justice for Surry.  Frances and Charles Shober, heirs of Gottlieb Shober of Salem, donated sixty acres in the center of the county.  The new county seat was named Dobson for William Polk Dobson, one of Surry's most prominent citizens.
 
Surry County is bounded on the north by Carroll County in the Commonwealth of Virginia, on the east by Stokes County, on the west by Wilkes and Alleghany Counties, and on the south by Yadkin County.  It is 538 square miles in area and has 342,300 acres of land.
 
According to Fred Patterson, Surry County Soil Conservationist (1983), the county has two well defined physiographic areas within its borders -- the Piedmont and the Blue Ridge Mountains.  The Piedmont area is the largest, covering about 85 percent of the county.  This plateau is a broad, long plateau sloping to the southeast.
 
Elevation averages more than 1,000 feet above sea level.  Elevation of several towns are Mount Airy 1,048 feet; Dobson 1,265; and Elkin 873 feet.  The lowest elevation is 800 feet, in the southeast corner where the Yadkin River leaves the county.
 
The highest elevation is located in the Blue Ridge Mountains in the Northwestern section of the county.  There Fisher's Peak is 3,609 feet above sea level.

Source:  The Heritage of Surry County, North Carolina,
Volume I - 1983 [Editor's Foreword]