s township. Other elective offices
introduced at this time were county supervisors, a county clerk,
collector, assessor, overseer of the poor, and overseer of roads. All
these officials--some serving the township and others the county--were
salaried, and greatly increased the size of the governmental apparatus
formerly centered in the county court. The Board of county supervisors
was the general governing body of the county, comprised of members
elected from each township.

Although this expansion of the structure of county government came in
response to recognition that problems of the 1870's could not be
solved with government geared to the 1770's, the impact of these
problems plus Virginians' conservative political tradition led to
dissatisfaction with the township system from its inception. As soon
as the original force of the reconstruction movement was spent,
therefore, this system was modified to bring it more into line with
Virginia's historic governmental institutions. In 1875 and 1884 the
number of separate elective offices was decreased, the independent
powers of the townships were reduced, and the townships were converted
into "magisterial districts."[108] Gradually the power to appoint all
county officers except those with constitutional status was given to
the board of county supervisors and the county's Circuit Court judge.

[Illustration: Map of Fairfax Court House from G. M. Hopkins, _Atlas
of Fifteen Miles Around Washington_, 1879.]

The last quarter of the nineteenth century saw the appearance and
disappearance of a number of public offices now only dimly remembered.
For example, the county office of commissioner of roads dated from
1831, but the constitution of 1869 created township overseers of roads
who, with the commissioner of roads, formed the county road board.
When the townships were abolished, the duties of these boards were
transferred to the commissioner of roads and road surveyor. By 1900
this highly decentralized system had resulted in enactment of several
hundred local road laws by the states and led to a confused situation
that was not cured until the state highway system and highway
department were established in 1919.[109]

From the time of the disestablishment of the Church of England, care
of the County's poor and orphans had been the responsibility of the
County's overseer of the poor. Public health measures to suppress
smallpox also were carried on by this officer. The constit