Warren County was named for Joseph Warren, the revolutionary patriot who sent Paul Revere and William Dawes on their famous rides and who was killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill. The county was formed from Frederick and Shenandoah counties in 1836.

On February 21, 1818, the Virginia legislature passed a school bill that appropriated $45,000 annually from the Literary Fund for the education of poor children. (The Literary Fund had been established in 1810 with passage of a bill to appropriate "certain escheats, confiscated, and forfeited lands" for the "encouragement of learning.") Under the provisions of the 1818 School Act, each county court was required to appoint five to fifteen commissioners to establish and/or administer schools for children of the poor. A more comprehensive public school system was established by the legislature in 1870. Prior to 1818, county courts were given the option of whether to appoint a Board of School Commissioners.