The earliest Europeans to explore Ashe County were Bishop Augustus Gottlieb Spangenberg - head of the Moravian Church in America - and his associates, Timothy Horsefield, Joseph Mueller, Henry Antes, Johan Merck, and Herman Loesch. Bishop Spangenberg wrote about his journey in Ashe in a diary that has been preserved by the Moravian church. He was given 100,000 acres (400 km²) in Virginia as a place for his fellow Moravians to settle. The only one of Spangenberg's group to return and permanently settle in Ashe County was Herman Loesch. Other early settlers were David Helton, William Walling, William McLain and Daniel Boone, the famous pioneer. With the exception of Boone, these men and their families all settled in Ashe in 1771.

During the Revolutionary War one skirmish was fought in Ashe County. It is called the "Battle of the Big Glades". The battle was fought in July 1780 between a force of Americans, led by Captain Robert Love, and a force of 150 British Loyalists on their way to Charlotte to join Lord Cornwallis, the British commander in the Southern colonies. The Americans won the skirmish.

In the 1780s, Ashe County was considered a part of the "State of Franklin". It consisted of three counties - Washington, Greene, and Sullivan. Ashe was considered to be a part of Washington County. The "State of Franklin" marked the beginnings of the State of Tennessee. Ashe County did not formally become a part of North Carolina until 1785. In 1799, Ashe was finally pronounced an official county of the United States and of North Carolina. Ashe County was named after Samuel Ashe, the Governor of North Carolina from 1795 to 1798. From 1807 to 1913, Ashe went through numerous boundary changes.

In 1849, the southwestern part of Ashe County was combined with parts of Caldwell County, Wilkes County, and Yancey County to form Watauga County. In 1859, the eastern part of the remainder of Ashe County became Alleghany County.

Ashe County has produced, or been visited by, several prominent people. Among them are Monte Weaver, a famous baseball player, who pitched for the Washington Senators and pitched a World Series game in 1933. After being traded from the Senators, he pitched for the Boston Red Sox, before being called into service in World War Two. Weaver died in 1994. Helen Keller came to Ashe County in 1944 to visit Marvin Osborne, a soldier who was left blind after being wounded in World War Two. Loretta Lynn sang at the Central Food Market in West Jefferson in the 1940s. (The Central Food building now houses a locally owned auto parts store.) In 1998, then-President Bill Clinton and his Vice-President, Al Gore, held a ceremony on the banks of the scenic New River to designate it as an American Heritage River. After the ceremony, both men had lunch at the historic Glendale Springs Inn, also located in Ashe County.

Townships, cities and towns

The County is divided into 19 townships: Chestnut Hill, Clifton, Creston, Elk, Grassy Creek, Helton, Horse Creek, Hurricane, Jefferson, Laurel, North Fork, Obids, Old Fields, Peak Creek, Pine Swamp, Piney Creek, Pond Mountain, Walnut Hill, and West Jefferson.

Municipalities in Ashe County include Jefferson, Lansing and West Jefferson.

Unincorporated communities in Ashe County include Crumpler, Todd, and Warrensville.
(Source: Wikipedia)

Date of erection.
Ashe County was formed in 1799 from "that portion of Wilkes lying west of the extreme height of the Appalachian Mountains." It is the extreme northwest corner of the State; bounded on the north by the Virginia line, east by the Appalachian Mountains, which separate it from Wilkes and Surry, and south by Watauga, Caldwell, and Wilkes Counties.

Origin of name.
It was called in honor of Samuel Ashe, who was but a short time before the erection of this county Governor of the State.

The character of Governor Ashe is one of which North Carolina may be well proud.
His father, John B. Ashe, was distinguished in the annals of the province as early as 1727; he had emigrated to the colony of North Carolina from England, under the auspices of the Earl of Craven, one of the Lords Proprietors, and settled in Wilmington, then called Newton; he had two sons, John Ashe and Samuel Ashe, both distinguished in the revolutionary history of the State.
Samuel Ashe was born in 1725. He was an educated man, and a lawyer by profession. The proceedings of the Committee of Safety and the journals of the Provincial Congress from 1774 to 1776 attest his firmness and patriotism. He did not, like his distinguished brother John, figure in the field of arms, but he was eminently conspicuous in the council and cabinet in conducting the affairs of the State, to which arms and force are but necessary accessories. If John Ashe was the Achilles, Samuel Ashe was the Nestor of North Carolina.

He was one of the three first judges in the State, 1777, and Governor in 1795. For further notice of Governor Ashe, the reader is referred to the Chapter LV. on New Hanover County.

—Jefferson, County Town.
Its capital town preserves in North Carolina the name of Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States. Its distance from Raleigh 202 miles.

The amount of taxes paid by Ashe to the public treasury is eight hundred and twenty-four dollars.
The amount received by Ashe from the public treasury for common schools is one thousand one hundred and thirty-six.

First settlement in 1755 and a general description:
Ashe County was settled about 1755. The face of the country is mountainous, its valleys fertile, yielding wheat, oats, barley, buckwheat, and potatoes in great abundance. It has extensive ranges for pasture; its air pure and water excellent; the climate favorable to longevity. It abounds in iron and saltpetre.

Produce, according to census returns of 1840:— 10,836 bushels wheat. 57,982 bushels potatoes. 150,279 corn. 97 distilleries. 10,970 buckwheat. 23,573 gallons produced. 17,805 rye. 735 dollars worth of ginseng. 108,505 oats. 16,193 pounds of sugar.

Population and products.
Population according to the census of 1850: 8,096 whites ; 86 free negroes; 595 slaves; 8,539 freed population; 587 persons over 20 who cannot read or write.
[Source: Historical sketches of North Carolina from 1584 to 1851; By John Hill Wheeler; Publ. 1851; Pgs. 168-169; Transcribed for Genealogy Trails by Andrea Stawski Pack.]