Roane County and Spencer, its seat of government, together commemorate Spencer Roane, Virginia Supreme Court judge and Patrick Henry's son-in-law. The county was formed in 1856 and had a population of 5,381 when the 1860 census was taken. Roane County participated in the area's oil and natural gas boom of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and by 1910 the population had grown to 21,543, the largest figure recorded. As production declined throughout the twentieth century, so did the population. By 2000, it had fallen to 15,446.
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