Indian attacks against the settlers of Virginia effectively ended when Andrew Lewis won The Battle of Point Pleasant and drove the tribes west in 1774.
In the year 1800, James Simpson purchased a thirty-one acre tract from William Lewis for one hundred dollars and began to build what would become the town of Salem.
On January 6, 1806, the "Town by the name of Salem" was established on "land of James Simpson near the upper end of the county of Botetourt" by Virginia's General Assembly.
It is thought that Salem (meaning "peace") was named to honor William Bryan, a prominent Citizen of the area, who had moved to Virginia from the county of Salem in New Jersey.

   Salem became a formally incorporated town by an act of The Virginia General Assembly in 1836.