Tennessee State Facts & Information

Select a county from the table below to to view more information on genealogical information & records pertaining to each county.

The official state website is located at http://www.tennessee.gov/.

Tennessee, in the East South Central region of the United States, lying between the Mississippi River on the west and the backbone of the Blue Ridge province of the Appalachian Mountains on the east. It is considered one of the border states between the North and the South. Tennessee entered the Union on June 1, 1796, as the 16th state. Although it seceded at the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, eastern Tennessee remained loyal to the Union. This border character reflects a deep-rooted difference between the upland and lowland areas. The east, with its rugged terrain covered with dense forest and brush, was settled mainly by independent yeoman farmers. It remained largely isolated from the outside world until the early 20th century. In contrast, the west, where cotton plantations once flourished, was linked with other regions through the Mississippi River. Central Tennessee, with its rolling inner core, had good transportation connections with other regions and developed a more diversified economy than that in the east. See Also The Lost State of Franklin

These regional differences are reflected in the division of Tennessee into three so-called grand divisions, which are recognized under state law: East Tennessee, Middle Tennessee, and West Tennessee. Each of the divisions has its distinctive regional center, or centers: Chattanooga and Knoxville in East Tennessee; Nashville, the capital and largest metropolitan area, in Middle Tennessee; and Memphis, with the largest city population, in West Tennessee.

Tennessee is believed to derive its name from Tanasi, the name used by the Cherokee people for a village on the Little Tennessee River. The river was named after the village, and the region named after the river. The state has no official nickname but is frequently called the Volunteer State, used in recognition of the valor displayed by volunteer soldiers from the state during wars in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Official State website is http://www.tennessee.gov/

At the time of Tennessee's first exploration by Europeans, Cherokee inhabited the area of present-day Tennessee, residing in the region east of the Tennessee River after eradicating the Uchee. The area of today's state was used by neighboring Native American tribes as a hunting ground. Cherokee claimed east Tennessee, while Choctaw asserted rights to middle Tennessee and the upper Cumberland River area. Shawnee claimed the lower Cumberland area, and Chickasaw used and claimed the territory between the Tennessee and Mississippi rivers, in west Tennessee.

The British organized Ft. Loudon in east Tennessee in 1756, and the 1763 Treaty of Hard Labour opened the region for settlement by North Carolinians and Virginians. The Watauga Association, formed about 1771, organized the first government for what is now Tennessee. North Carolina claimed the region, along with portions of what became middle and western Tennessee, based on its colonial charter granting land from sea to sea. A settlement, made by former Wataugans at French Lick in 1779 in present-day central Tennessee, was organized as the Cumberland Compact.

During the Revolutionary War, small groups of hunters and trappers, some with their families, trekked across the Blue Ridge to nestle in the deep river valleys in east Tennessee marking the first permanent settlements. Claims to Tennessee's western lands were ceded to the United States government after a difficult and complicated series of events beginning with the first cession act of 1784 that was repealed that same year. Frustrated over proceedings and lack of representation in the North Carolina legislature, settlers on the frontier of present-day East Tennessee formed the independent State of Franklin in 1784. Lasting only four years, it failed in 1788. North Carolina ceded the area of Tennessee to the U.S. government in 1790, reserving some sections, and Congress created the “Territory South of the River Ohio.” North Carolina granted Revolutionary soldiers land in the reserved area in middle Tennessee. In 1796, Tennessee separated from North Carolina and became the sixteenth state.

Frontier settlers from North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia migrated to Tennessee. Many were Scots-Irish who had traveled through the Shenandoah Valley down the Great Wagon Road to reach the territory. Germans from Pennsylvania and Virginia settled in the region west of Chattanooga. Others followed Robertson's Road into middle Tennessee.

Tennessee's history, following statehood, was partially linked with that of Andrew Jackson's military career and campaigns in the Battle of New Orleans and the Indian Wars. As part of the U.S. government policy toward Native Americans, West Tennessee was purchased from the Chickasaw who were removed, along with the Cherokee and other native tribes, to what is now Oklahoma. 

Strong sentiments existed for the Union, particularly in east Tennessee. Opposing sentiments were advocated by those whose plantation economy depended on the institution of slavery. Black slaves were an important part of the state's farm economy. During the Civil War, Tennessee was an active battleground, with over 400 battles fought within its borders. Tennessee voted to withdraw from the Union but was the first to be readmitted.

Several epidemics swept through the populace following the war. Most of the state's railroads had to be rebuilt during the Reconstruction as Tennessee attempted to reclaim its previous importance in agriculture and commerce. In the beginning of the twentieth century a project to control floods and capture the Tennessee River's power with the building of Wilson Dam over the state's border in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, culminated in the Tennessee River Valley Authority in 1933. The energy production from the TVA created new industry and jobs in time to serve production needs during World War II.

• Spencer County: Formed in 1785 from Sullivan County and renamed Hawkins County in 1786
• Tennessee County: Created in 1788 from Davidson County. It was abolished and divided into Montgomery and Robertson Counties. Records now located in Robertson County. County Seat was Clarksville
• Wayne County: There was an earlier but a whole separate Wanye County which is included in Present day Carter County and part of Johnson County. It was establish in 1785 under the State of Franklin but was abolished in 1788.
• James County: Formed in 1870 from Hamilton and Bradley Counties and abolished in 1919 and merged with Hamilton County. All records located in Hamilton County. County seat was Ooltewah) The first county in the United States to be consolidated with another, James County was a unique venture in government and the only such instance in Tennessee history. Organized in 1871, largely from Hamilton County and a fraction of Bradley County, its forty-eight-year history was plagued with political strife and ended in bankruptcy in 1919.
  
  The Tennessee General Assembly passed the act creating a new county in January 1871, and Governor Dewitt Senter signed the law. The Honorable Elbert Abdiel James, a representative from Hamilton County, introduced the measure. The county was named in honor of his father, Reverend Jesse J. James. A Methodist minister and native of Sullivan County, Reverend James moved his family to Chattanooga around 1854, where they became prominently identified with the industrial and financial growth of the city.
  
  Political motives played a role in the creation of the new 285-square-mile county. The citizens of James County were predominately Republican and rural, while Chattanooga residents were largely Democratic and urban. In the 1870 census the population of the area that encompassed James County was reported at five thousand people of Scots-Irish, English, German, and Huguenot ancestry, with some blacks, and a few mixed-blood Indians and Melungeons.
  
  Thirteen towns or communities lay scattered across James County, including Ooltewah, Harrison, Apison, and Thatcher's Switch (Collegedale). Ferries along the Tennessee River played a vital role in the lives of James Countians and included Vann's Ferry, Field's Ferry, Teenor's Ferry, McCallie's Ferry, Daughtery's Ferry, and Blythe's Ferry. In 1920 James County turned over only twelve miles of poorly kept graveled roads to Hamilton County. Although the creators of the county expected the overflow from Chattanooga's flourishing economy to provide the tax base for building schools and roads for the rural area, the revenues never materialized. In 1919 James County made its quiet exit from politics and the American scene. Created out of political rivalry, plagued by chicanery throughout its history, insufficiently capitalized to provide proper services, deficient in natural resources, and unable to take advantage of nearby industrialization, the county had based its hopes on an agrarian economy dependent on the efforts of self-sufficient farmers, but as their labors provided an inadequate tax base, the result was substandard banking, communication, and transportation facilities.

This does NOT mean that ALL RECORDS were lost. Often, folks took their documents again in for recording after a disaster and later deeds will contain long chains of title, etc.

The destruction of courthouses greatly affects genealogists in every way. No only are these historic structures torn from our lives, so are the records they housed. Because of courthouse fires and other disasters, some Tennessee records filed at the county level are lost forever. Records filed at the county level include marriages; wills and other probate records; records of county, circuit and chancery courts; deeds; and tax records. Once destroyed they are lost forever. Even if they have been placed on mircofilm, computers and film burn too. The most heartbreaking side of this is the fact that many of our courthouses are destroyed at the hands of arsonist. However, not all records were lost.

The following list shows when courthouse fires and other disasters occurred in Tennessee.