Bad as conditions were for the majority, they were even worse for the large landowners, the former wealthier class. Gentlefolk, wholly unused to manual labor, perforce turned to tasks theretofore the work of their slaves. The men ploughed and hoed, their women cooked, performed every household task and somehow kept up their homes. One of the few bright spots in the drab picture was that dwelling-houses seldom had been destroyed; thus at least there was human shelter. Also the small towns and hamlets, having escaped the devastation of the farm lands, were to a certain extent nuclei from which the new life could be built.
County government had well-nigh ceased to function during the war. All those who had borne arms against the United States or otherwise aided and abetted the Confederacy--that is, a very definite majority of the men of the county--now found themselves disfranchised; the minority of Union men, Quakers, Germans or others who had discreetly avoided acting with one side or the other, controlled the first local election after the peace. It was held on the 1st day of June, 1865. The court record, after a long silence and copied into its books later, begins again on the 10th of the following month:
"At a County Court held for Loudoun County on Monday the 10th day of July, 1865, present: George Abel, R. M. Bentley, Francis M. Carter, John Compher, Thomas J. Cost, John P. Derry, Enoch Fenton, Herod Frasier, Fenton Furr, Henry Gaver, John Grubb, William H. Gray, Eli J. Hoge, Joseph Janney, Alexander L. Lee, Charles L. Mankin, Asbury M. Nixon, Rufus Smith, Basil W. Shoemaker, Jno. L. Stout, Mahlon Thomas, Lott Tavenner, Henry S. Taylor, Michael Wiard, Jno. Wolford, Thomas Burr Williams and James M. Wallace. Gentlemen Justices elected who were on the 1st day of June 1865 duly elected Justices of the peace for the County of Loudoun, and who have been commissioned by the Governor, were duly qualified as such Justices by William F. Mercer, one of the Commissioners of Election for said County, appointed by the Governor by taking the several oaths prescribed by law."[180]
The new county officers were William H. Gray, presiding justice of the court; Charles P. Janney, clerk of the county; Samuel C. Luckett, sheriff; William B. Downey, commonwealth's attorney; Samuel Ball, commissioner of revenue.