Sumner County, Tennessee Genealogical Records Information

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Sumner County History and Information

Sumner County Facts

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In 1786 the North Carolina General Assembly created Sumner County from Davidson County and named in honor of Jethro Sumner (1733-1785), French and Indian War soldier, Revolutionary War commander at Charleston, Brandywine and Germantown who defended North Carolina against Cornwallis in 1780. The rolling hills and well-watered lands attracted pioneer leaders of the stature of Daniel Smith and Anthony Bledsoe as well as those of more meager means such as Hugh Rogan. However, Native Americans did not passively accept this frontier advance; periodic warfare resulted in the deaths of both Indians and settlers, including Robert Peyton, the last known Sumner settler killed by Indians. The opening of wagon roads, the influx of new settlers, and a preemptive strike at the Indian raiders' base village of Nickajack ended the Indian wars by 1795.

Cairo emerged as an early trade center and important port along the Cumberland River. However, in 1801, the general assembly authorized the purchase of 41.5 acres from Captain James Trousdale and thereon established Gallatin as the county seat.

Newspapers were published in Gallatin. Scattered early issues are available from 1827, and a complete run begins in 1950. See Extended History for More information.

Sumner County is bordered by Davidson County (southwest), Macon County (east), Robertson County (west), Trousdale County (southeast), Wilson County (south), Allen County, Kentucky (northeast) and Simpson County, Kentucky (northwest). Cities and Towns include Gallatin, Goodlettsville, Hendersonville, Millersville, Mitchellville, Portland, Walnut Grove, Westmoreland, White House. The Official County Website is located at http://www.sumnertn.org/

Tennessee State Library and Archives has Inventories of Sumner County Records on Microfilm. Click Here to Order County Microfilm Inventories and Reels. Early Sumner County Records. Newspaper Microfilms are loaned to Tennessee libraries. Individual reels may also be purchased. An Inventory of Newspapers on Microfilm at TSLA is available on our web site. . Sumner County, Tennessee History Books at Amazon.com.

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There are free downloadable and printable forms to help with your research. These include U.S. Census Extraction Forms, U.K. Census Extraction Forms, Research Calendar, Ancestral Chart, Research Extract, Correspondence Record , Family Group Sheet , Source Summary Form.

Sumner County Court Records

See Also Tennessee Land Records, Marriage Records, Court & Probate Records

PLEASE READ!! Please call the clerk's department to confirm hours, mailing address, fees and other specifics before visiting or requesting information because of sometimes changing contact information.

Sumner County Clerk has Marriage Records from 1787 and Probate Records from 1788 and is located at Courthouse, 355 N. Belevedere Dr., #111, Gallatin, TN 37066; Telephone: (615) 452-4282.
The County Clerk maintains Marriage & Divorce records. It also has jurisdiction over probate cases. Wills, administrations, and all other records pertaining to probate are recorded in the respective county clerk's office. If the will or administration was contested, the records of these actions may be filed in the circuit court or chancery court.

Sumner County Register of Deeds has Land Records from 1787 and is located at Courthouse, 355 N. Belevedere Dr., #111, Gallatin, TN 37066; Telephone: (615) 452-4282.
The Register of Deeds office has land records beginning with county organization, land records are available from the register of deeds at the Sumner county courthouse. Land and property records include transfer of real estate or personal property, mortgages, leases, surveys, and entries.

Sumner County Clerk of Circuit Court has Court Records from 1785 and is located at Courthouse, 355 N. Belevedere Dr., #111, Gallatin, TN 37066; Telephone: (615) 452-4367 .
Circuit Court Clerks serve an important role in the operation of the court system in Tennessee. Chancery courts have jurisdiction over property disputes, and circuit courts oversee criminal cases, divorces, and adoptions. Early courts included courts of common pleas and quarter sessions.

There are a few online databases for Court, Land and Probate Records which include: Index to Tennessee Death Records 1908-1912, Tennessee Marriage and Bible Records, Tennessee Marriages to 1825; Tennessee State Marriages, 1780-2002 and Tennessee Marriages, 1851-1900.

Click Here to Search Tennessee Court, Land, Wills & Financial Records! - Researchers often overlook the importance of court records, probate records, and land records as a source of family history information.

Below is a list of online resources for Sumner County Court Records. Email us with websites containing Sumner County Court Records by clicking the link below:

Sumner County, Tennessee Court Books at Amazon.com
Tennessee Immigration & Emigration Records - Immigration records help the family historian to understand the movements of their ancestry as they relocated to different parts of the world.
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Sumner County Vital Records

See Also Research In Tax Records

Tennessee tax lists can be used to locate families, document historic properties and study community history. Early tax lists generally include all white males over 21 and indicate whether they owned land or slaves. They usually do not provide other personal information.

The tax lists enumerated for Sumner County for the years: 1787-1844, 1856, 1861, 1862, 1865-1870, 1891 ; are available on microfilm at the Tennessee State Library and Archives. They are generally filed with each county's records, but some early lists are in a separate collection. To order a search of the records by mail, follow this link [EMAIL]

The 1796 Constitution levied taxes on “every freeman of the age of twenty-one years and upward possessing a freehold in the county wherein he may vote, and being an inhabitant of this State, and every freeman being an inhabitant of any one county in the State six months immediately preceding the day of the election, shall be entitled to vote....”

Many early surviving tax records were published in an effort to replace the missing federal censuses. Original extant tax records are preserved in the respective county courthouse as well as in the Tennessee State Library and Archives, where a card index exists for tax records in its collection pre-dating 1835, arranged by county, date, and district.

Original tax schedules for most Tennessee counties for 1836 through 1839 are available at the Tennessee State Library and Archives.

The 1891 tax lists of male inhabitant voters in each county were recently found. Available on microfilm at the Tennessee State Library and Archives, these nine reels are arranged alphabetically within each district in each county. Tax records from trustees office in counties are available on microfilm as well.

Below is a list of online resources for Sumner County Tax Records. Email us with websites containing Sumner County Tax Records by clicking the link below:

Sumner County Genealogical Addresses

See Also Other Tennessee Genealogical Addresses

The Repositories in this section are Archives, Libraries, Museums, Genealogical and Historical Societies. Many County Historical and Genealogical Societies publish magazines and/or news letters on a monthly, quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis. Contacting the local societies should not be over looked. State Archives and Societies are usually much larger and better organized with much larger archived materials than their smaller county cousins but they can be more generalized and over look the smaller details that local societies tend to have. Libraries can also be a good place to look for local information. Some libraries have a genealogy section and may have some resources that are not located at archives or societies. Also, take a special look at any museums in the area. They sometimes have photos and items from years gone by as well as information of a genealogical interest. All these places are vitally important to the family genealogist and must not be passed over.

Below is a list of online resources for Sumner County Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing Sumner County Genealogical Addresses by clicking the link below:

Sumner County Archives, 155 East Main Street, Gallatin , TN 37066; Phone: (615) 452-0037; : [EMAIL]
Sumner County Historical Society, P.O. Box 1871, Gallatin 37066
Northeast Sumner Historical Society, P.O. Box 417, Westmoreland
Bledsoe's Lick Historical Association, P.O. Box 210, Castalian Springs, 37031
Northeast Sumner Historical Society P.O. Box 417, Westmoreland .
White House Historical Society, 412 Hwy. 76, 37188
Elmer Hinton Memorial Library, Bailey Room, 301 Portland Blvd., Portland, TN 37148 615-325-2279
Historic Cragfont, Inc., 200 Old Cragfont Road, Castalian Springs, TN 37031 615-452-7070
Westmoreland Public Library, 2305 Epperson Springs Road, PO Box 685, Westmoreland, TN 37186 615-644-2026
Local Tennessee Researchers, Find a local researcher or become a local researcher.
Tennessee State Library and Archives, 403 Seventh Avenue North, Nashville, TN 37243-0312; Phone: (615) 741-2764 , Fax (615) 741-6471
Tennessee Genealogical Society, P.O. Box 3343, 9114 Davies Plantation Rd, Brunswick, TN 38014, (901) 381-1447; [EMAIL]
Tennessee Historical Society, 300 Capital Boulevard, Nashville 37243
Tennessee Newspapers & Periodicals Records - Newspapers and periodicals are the diaries of local communities. They are excellent sources of family history details - often recorded nowhere else. Look for obituaries, marriages, legal notices, and more found in our Historical Newspaper Archives.

Sumner County Church & Cemeteries

Click Here to Search Tennessee Obituary Records! - This database is a compilation of obituaries published in U.S. newspapers, collected from various online sources. Obituaries can vary in the amount of information they contain, but many of them are genealogical goldmines, including information such as names, dates, places of birth and death, marriage information, and family relationships.

There are many churches and cemeteries in Sumner County. Some transcriptions are online. A great site is the Sumner County Tombstone Transcription Project. The Tennessee Department of Transportation has county maps the show the locations of churches and cemeteries free for viewing or download here.

Although few histories for Tennessee churches have been published, there are church records for almost every county in the state. Baptist, Presbyterian, and Methodist were the principal religions of early settlers in the state, and documents from these groups make up the largest number of records available. Other representative religions include Lutheran, Church of Christ, Episcopal, Roman Catholic, and Jewish. Most early Tennessee churches only kept minutes and membership records. Church records could, however, include records of baptism, marriage, burial, membership, or removal, but it is rare to find all or several of these categories maintained by one church. .

As with cemetery records, the DAR has collected church records for Tennessee, available at the DAR Library in Washington, D.C., and through the FHL. Many compilations of church records have been compiled and/or published for the state. The Tennessee State Library and Archives has records of over one hundred churches that pre-date 1900.

There is a online Tennessee Marriage and Bible Records which contains over 25,000 records for the state of Tennessee for the years approximately 1720-1890. This includes marriages, births, deaths, and wills, etc., has been obtained from family bibles, church, court, and county records.

A large collection of transcripts of Tennessee cemetery records has been compiled by members of chapters of the DAR. Records collection available at the Tennessee State Library and Archives and through the FHL. The state library and archives has notebooks containing listings of cemetery records.

County genealogical and historical societies and local citizens have collected, compiled, and published numerous volumes of cemetery records.

Below is a list of online resources for Sumner County Cemetery & Church Records. Email us with websites containing Sumner County Cemetery & Church Records by clicking the link below:

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

Click Here to Search Tennessee Family Tree Records! - The use of published genealogies, electronic files containing genealogical lineage, and other compiled sources can be of tremendous value to a researcher.

When view family trees online or not, be sure to only take the info at face value and always follow up with your own sources or verify the ones they provide. Below is a list of online resources for Sumner County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information . Email us with websites containing Sumner County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:

Sumner County, Tennessee Family Books at Amazon.com
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Sites on USGenweb: [ Sumner County ] [ Tennessee ] [ Main Page ]
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Nichols and Related Families of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virgina.
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Tennessee Family & Local History Records - The Family & Local Histories Collection lets you read journals, memoirs, and other first-hand historical narratives right on your computer. Gathered from some of the world's finest libraries, these materials may provide hard-to-find town, county, and state information; tax records and wills; military, church, and court records; as well as photographs, stories, and maps.
Genealogical Document Search and Retrieval Service
The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture
Sumner County, Tennessee Genealogists Companion
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County History

The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture © Tennessee Historical Society
Archaeological evidence in Sumner County indicates occupation by Paleoindian, Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian cultures in the deep past. Two easily accessible prehistoric mounds stand at Castalian Springs, where Native Americans for centuries came to hunt the game which gathered at the springs and its salt lick. The first white long hunters included Henry, Charles, and Richard Skaggs, and Joseph Drake in 1765. Among other early explorers and long hunters were James Smith and an eighteen-year-old male mulatto slave in 1766, and Kasper Mansker, Isaac Bledsoe, and others in 1771-72. The first permanent settler was the fearless Thomas Sharp Spencer, who earned that distinction by living several months in the hollow of a sycamore tree at Bledsoe's Lick in 1776, then planting crops and building cabins from 1776 to 1779. By 1783 settlers had erected three forts--Mansker's, Bledsoe's, and Asher's--for protection against Indian attack.

With the exception of a two-year agricultural depression (1821-23) and cholera epidemics in 1849 and 1852, the first half of the nineteenth century was a period of growth, development, and recognition for Sumner County. Two residents, William Hall and William Trousdale, and Sumner-born William B. Campbell served as governors of Tennessee. Advantages provided by improved roads, a stagecoach line, river trade, and ferry services led to establishment of approximately thirty communities and, according to the 1820 census, a total of fifty-four manufacturing concerns, mostly distilleries and mills.

Following a tradition of building for permanence established by Daniel Smith's construction of Rock Castle and William Bowen's 1780s brick house near Mansker's Station, the county experienced an architectural boom during the 1800s. Among the more than one hundred showplace homes were James Winchester's Cragfont (1802), John Bowen's Trousdale Place (1822), Josephus Conn Guild's Rose Mont (1840s), Isaac Franklin's Fairvue (1832), and Daniel Smith Donelson's Hazel Path (1857). National reputations and fortunes amassed by owners of the several estates came from plantation-based agriculture and the raising of thoroughbred racehorses.

Sumner Countians, historically united in war, furnished 821 men to Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812, three companies to the Seminole War of 1836, and three to the Mexican War. Such devoted support of the Union divided voters on the question of secession early in 1861. But following the fall of Fort Sumter, the county voted 6,465 to 69 to declare Tennessee independent in the referendum of June 8.

Over 3,000 Sumner Countians were soldiers in the Civil War, and many of the first were trained at Camp Trousdale near Portland. In 1862 Confederate General John Hunt Morgan defeated Union forces at the battle of Gallatin but soon afterward withdrew, and the county was in Federal control for the rest of the war. The Union army hired local blacks, called contrabands, as contract labor, and in Gallatin black residents enlisted in the Union army's Thirteenth and Fourteenth U.S. Colored Troops.

Following the war, freed blacks established several communities, including Village Green and Free Hill, and organized the nation's first agricultural fair created by and for black citizens. The fair remained an annual event for nearly one hundred years. By the twentieth century, Gallatin's African American leadership had established strong churches and schools. Black businesses such as restaurants, dry cleaners, taxi services, and barbershops emerged, along with a black baseball team, the Travelers.

The early twentieth century brought added emphasis to agricultural production. Portland's strawberry industry expanded, and the location of a Kraft Cheese plant in Gallatin in 1928 provided a ready outlet for increased dairy production throughout the county. Out-of-state money underwrote the formation of the Southland Grasslands Hunt & Racing Foundation, which attempted to establish new steeplechase traditions in the Tennessee "bluegrass" country.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers provided a defining moment in county history during the early 1950s. With the corps's construction of Old Hickory Dam on the Cumberland River, TVA built a steam electric generating plant at Gallatin. The net result was new jobs, new recreational opportunities, and a housing boom along the hundreds of miles of lake shoreline.

Benefiting greatly from proximity to the lake and to Metropolitan Nashville, as well as from the advent of a growing local tourism industry, Hendersonville became the largest city in the county (32,000 residents in 1990) and a tourist center for country music fans. Conway Twitty and Johnny Cash once operated country music museums there. The Trinity Broadcast Network, a Christian cable television network, now uses the facilities at the former "Twitty City." Country music star Reba McIntyre owns a horse farm along the Cumberland River just south of Gallatin.

Educational opportunities within the county expanded with the opening of Volunteer State Community College at Gallatin in 1969. Employment opportunities were further increased with the addition of thirty-one new industries and the expansion of over 120 others, principally at Gallatin and Portland. The county's population boomed between 1990 and 2000, rising some 26 percent to 130,449 residents.

The Goodspeed Publishing Co., History of Tennessee, 1887
By an act of the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, passed October 26, 1799 Sumner County was reduced to its constitutional limit, 624 square miles. And by subsequent acts creating new counties, it has since been reduced to its present limits. The General Assembly of the State, by an act passed November 6, 1801, appointed Samuel DONELSON, Shadrick NYE, James WISLON, Charles DONOHO and Maj. Thomas MURRAY commissioners to purchase forty acres of land and lay out a town for the seat of justice to be called Gallatin, to superintend the sale of lots, the erection of public buildings etc. The act also provided that all general elections and musters should be held at the house of Capt James TROUSDALE until the courthouse should be erected and accepted, a then at said courthouse. Accordingly the aforesaid commissioners on the 25th of February, 1802, purchased of James TROUSDALE, for $490 the original site of the town of Gallatin containing forty-two and a half acres in the public square. The town was surveyed and platted, and the sale of lots made in the spring of 1802. Andrew JACKSON, John C HAMILTON, James CAGE, Wm MONTGOMERY, David SHELBY, Robert TROUSDALE, Wm SAMPLE, Peter LOONEY, John BRIGANCE and G. D. BLACKMORE were among the purchasers of lots.

The first courthouse in Gallatin was finished to the acceptance of the commissioners in 1803. The court-room occupied the whole of the first story, and the county offices the second. This building stood until about 1837, when it was taken down and the present one erected in its stead. The latter, which is a commodious two-story brick structure, was repaired and remodeled in 1867. It contains the county court-room and four offices on the second floor, and the circuit the chancery court room and four offices on the second floor. The first jail, built about the same time the courthouse was erected stood about 100 yards north of the female academy, and between Main and Franklin Streets. It has dungeons underneath where some prisoners were incarcerated in total darkness. In an early day Mr. John TOMKINS was the keeper of this jail. It stood until some time in the forties, when it was abandoned, and a second one was built near where the present workhouse stands. This latter jail was abandoned in 1867, when the present one was built near the public square. All the public buildings in Gallatin thus far described were made of brick.

Prior to July 1796, the court of pleas and quarter sessions was held at the following places, to-wit; John Hamilton's's from April, 1787, to the close of that year; Elmore Douglass, 1788; Simon Kuykendall's first half of 1789; then at Elmore Douglass' until July, 1790, when it was held in the first courthouse which was a small log building erected on West Station Camp Creek at the place formerly known as Mrs. Clarke's. The sessions were held at this courthouse until January, 1793, when the court met at the plantation of John Dawson. The April term 1793 was held at the house of Pearce Wall, and from July 1793, to January 1796, the sessions were held at the house of Ezekial Douglass. And from that date to January 1800, the sessions were held at the house of William Gillespie, and from April 1800 to July 1802, at the town of Cairo, and from October 1802, to January 1803 at the house of James Trousdale in Gallatin. Then at the house of James Cryer in Gallatin until October, 1803, when the first term of the court was held in the first courthouse at the permanent seat of justice. The first term of this court held under the organization of the State of Tennessee, was in July, 1796, when it was composed of the following justices commissioned by John Sevier, the first governor of the State, viz.: David Wilson, Thomas Donald, James Winchester, James Pearce, Edward Douglass, Wm. Cage, Stephen Cantrell, Isaac Walton, Thomas Masten, James Gwynn, Witheral Latimer and James Douglass. The first grand jury under the State organization was composed of the following names gentlemen: Archibald Martin, foreman; Edward Williams, James Farr, Joshua Wilson, Robert Hamilton, Lazarus Cullum, James Snowden, Wm Crabtree, Thomas Walten, Jeremiah Doney, Peter Looney, Ormund Alton, and Wm Edwards.

The court of pleas and quarter sessions continued in existence under that name until the year 1836.

Sumner County Published Records

1770-1790 Census of the Cumberland Settlements : Davidson, Sumner, and Tennessee Counties (in What is Now Tennessee) (Fulcher, 1987)
1850 U.S. Census, Sumner County, Tennessee (1997)
1860 U.S. Census, Sumner County, Tennessee (Sumner County Archives, 1996)
1870 U.S. Census, Sumner County, Tennessee (Sumner County Archives, 1995)
1880 Census, Sumner County, Tennessee (Sistler, 1991)
Beech Cumberland Presbyterian Church Cemetery Directory (Robinson, 1999)
County Court Minutes, 1787-1805 [vol .1 1787-1791; vol. 2 1791-1796; vol. 3 1796-1802; vol. 4 1801-1804; vol. 5 1804-1805] (WPA, 1937)
First Land Grants of Sumner County, Tennessee 1786-1833 (Marsh, 2003)
Index to Original Records Collection, Deeds, 1786 to 1914 (Patton, 1997)
Land, Slaves, and Other Courthouse Transactions, 1808-1863 : Abstracts of Sumner County, Tennesse (Patton, 2005)
Maple Hill Cemetery : An Indexed Guide to the Location of Graves by Section Including a Short History of the Cemetery (1995)
Marriages of Sumner County, Tennessee, 1787-1838 (Whitley, 1981)
Red River Settlers : Records of the Settlers of Northern Montgomery, Robertson, and Sumner Counties, Tennessee (Whitley, 1980)
Sumner County Miscellaneous Records (Bowen, 1997)
Sumner County, Tennessee : Abstracts of Will Books 1 and 2 (1788-1842) (Whitley, 1999)
Sumner County, Tennessee : Index to the Loose Records, 1786 to 1930 (Wilson, 1988)
Sumner County, Tennessee, 1850 census (Porch, 1972)
Sumner County, Tennessee, Bible Records (Bowen, 1997)
Sumner County, Tennessee, Bible, Family, and Tombstone Records (WPA, 1936)
Sumner County, Tennessee Bond Book, 1787-1835 (Wilson, 1994)
Sumner County, Tennessee, Cemetery Records (Snider & Yorgason, 1981)
Sumner County, Tennessee, Court Minutes, 1787-1805 and 1808-1810 (Wells, 1995)
Sumner County, Tennessee, Deed Abstracts, 1793-1805 (Murray, 1988)
Sumner County, Tennessee, Deed Abstracts, 1806-1817 (Murray, 1989)
Sumner County, Tennessee, Inventories, Settlements, and Guardian Accounts, Volume A, March 1808-February 1821 (Bamman & Spero, 1984)
Sumner County, Tennessee, Marriage Records, 1787-1838 (Porch, 197?)
Sumner County, Tennessee, Marriages, 1839-1875 (Stinson & Spurlock, 1985)
Sumner County, Tennessee, Minutes of Beech Cumberland Presbyterian Church, vol. 2, 1869-1899 (WPA, 1938)
Sumner County, Tennessee, Miscellaneous Church Records (WPA, 1938)
Sumner County, Tennessee Newspapers, Vol. 1, 1820-1907 (Shrum, 2004)
Sumner County, Tennessee, Population Schedules of the United States Census of 1820 (Presley, 1970?)
Sumner County, Tennessee, Probate Data 1787-1808 (Bamman & Spero, 1984)
Sumner County, Tennessee, Tax List, 1787-1794 (WPA, 1936)
Sumner County, Tennessee, Will Abstracts, 1788-1882 (Wilson, 1987)
Tennessee, Sumner County, Marriage Records, 1787-1838 (WPA, 1939)
Will Book, 1789-1842 [Vol. 1 1789-1822; Vol. 2 1823-1842] (WPA, 1936)

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