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The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture © Tennessee Historical Society
The Tennessee General Assembly created Wilson County on October 26, 1799. Its prehistoric heritage is rich. The Sellars temple mound on Spring Creek, for example, yielded an outstanding piece of pre-Columbian sculpture that has been the emblem of the Tennessee Archaeological Society. Europeans explored the land long before settlement: French trappers arrived as early as 1760, and the hunting party of Henry Scraggins passed through the area in 1765. John B. Walker led the first permanent settlers to Hickory Ridge, west of the present site of Lebanon, in 1794.
The county was named for Major David Wilson, a North Carolina hero of the American Revolution. Lebanon was named for the impressive stands of red cedar trees (actually Virginia juniper) that are characteristic of the region. In the late 1930s Tennessee and the federal government created the Cedars of Lebanon State Park in recognition of this botanical feature. Lebanon was chosen as the county seat in 1801, largely because of a large spring (still flowing) on what became the public square. The county has had five courthouses; the building of 1848-81 was designed by the noted architect William Strickland. Other towns and villages include Watertown, Green Hill, Mt. Juliet, Statesville, Gladesville, Baird's Mill, Norene, Cherry Valley, Shop Springs, Tucker's Cross Roads, Leeville, Martha, Bellwood, Commerce, Taylorsville, Centreville, Oakland, LaGuardo, and Maple Hill.
Although there were textile and flour mills and even a paper mill by the 1830s, the county remained predominantly agricultural. By 1875 most Wilson County farmers owned farms smaller than one hundred acres, but their county ranked first in the state in the production of wheat, sorghum, butter, and horses and second in cedar, lumber for export, grass seed, hay, barley, clover, hogs, sheep, and mules. When rail transportation came to the county in 1869, it increased the dollar value of exported forest products ten times. William Haskell Neal developed Neal's Paymaster corn in Wilson County, button clover was discovered here, and Major M. B. Kittrell's Tom Hal was a foundation sire of the Tennessee Walking Horse.
By 1908 industrial development reached Wilson County with the production of woolen blankets, cedar slats for pencils, denim clothing, and eventually shirts and men's socks. In 1996 Hartmann Luggage Company, TRW (Commercial Steering Division), Texas Boot, Wynn's Precision Rubber (O rings), Toshiba America, Georgia Pacific, and Bradley Candy accounted for the county's industrial growth. Cracker Barrel Restaurants and K. O. Lester (Pocahontas) food distributors originated in Wilson County, where they maintain their corporate headquarters. Cracker Barrel represents a unique Tennessee contribution to the national tradition of roadside architecture and roadside food service. Health care (University Medical Center) provides another major economic interest.
The county emerged as a center of education in 1842, when the Cumberland Presbyterian Church established Cumberland University. The four-year institution now includes a school of nursing and a graduate school. Friendship Christian School is an expanding secondary school. In the early twentieth century, Lebanon became known as the "Little Athens of the South" because of the location there of Cumberland University, Castle Heights Military Academy, and Lebanon College for Young Ladies. From 1873 to 1939 the city was particularly well known for the one-year law course offered by Cumberland University which attracted students of law from every state and many foreign countries.
Major historical events in the county have included the start of Sam Houston's political career as well as his disastrous courtship, which began at a ball at a house west of Lebanon; the "stump speaking" gubernatorial debates between James C. "Lean Jimmy" Jones and James K. Polk; and a Civil War cavalry engagement between General John Hunt Morgan's Confederates and Union troops. Mussolini sent a contingent of Fascist cadets to Castle Heights in 1931. The Second Army Maneuvers director headquarters were located in Wilson County, from which eight hundred thousand troops were supervised during the Tennessee Maneuvers (1942-44) in preparation for service in Europe during World War II. Finally, the trial of Charles Sullins and Harry Kirkendoll for the shooting of Ed Collier was the first in the state to be televised (1953).
Noteworthy citizens of Wilson County who left their mark on the state and the nation include Governors Houston, Jones, William B. Campbell (the Mexican War hero for whom Fort Campbell was named), Robert L. Caruthers (judge, legal educator, Congressman, Confederate governor-elect), and Frank Clement. Layula, a Lumbee and wife of Lebanon's first settler, Ned Jacobs, walked the Trail of Tears after her husband died. Alexander P. Stewart and Robert Hatton were Confederate generals. W. E. B. Du Bois, African American leader and writer, began his teaching career in rural Wilson County. Maggie Porter Cole and Thomas Rutling were original Fisk Jubilee singers. George Wharton Winston, named captain of the 366th Infantry in 1918, was one of the first African American officers in the U.S. Army. Dixon Lanier Merritt, author of "The Pelican" limerick, was a noted journalist.
The county's 2000 population was 88,809, representing a 31 percent increase since 1990. Two recent major developments in the county include the Dell Computer facility (1999), which has fourteen hundred employees, and the Nashville Super Speedway (2001), the largest racetrack in Middle Tennessee and the second largest in the state. It hosts such NASCAR events as the Busch Grand National series and the Craftsman Truck series.
The Goodspeed Publishing Co., History of Tennessee, 1887
WILSON is one of a group of counties which form the bottom of the great Silurian basin of Middle Tennessee. The surface of the land is rolling and varied with plateaus, hills and valleys, and is often picturesque. The surface is on an average elevation of between 500 and 600 feet above the level of the sea, while Jenning's Knob, six miles southeast of Lebanon is the highest elevation in the county, rising to a height of 1,221 feet above the sea level. The lands are based generally on limestones which occur in successive layers nearly horizontal in position, and have a vertical thickness, from the lowest exposed to the highest in the hills, inclusive of about 900 feet. A number of high hills and ridges in the eastern and southeastern part of the county are capped with a stratum of flinty material beneath which is a layer of slate. The limestones belong to the group of formations known to geologists as lower Silurian, the upper part embracing some 500 feet of layers pertaining to the Nashville formation (Cincinnati) and the lower part to the Lebanon (Trenton); as the town of Lebanon rests upon some of its layers. The rocks of the former division are seen on the slopes of the hills and ridges, while those of the latter outcrop on lower grounds and in the valleys. There is an abundance of rocks in the county consisting of varieties of blue limestone and sandstone, much of which is suitable for building purposes.
The supply of timber in the county is abundant, all species of trees growing in the forests, such as oak, hickory, ash, gum, cedar, elm, maple, poplar, cherry, chestnut, mulberry, beech, sycamore, dogwood, walnut, cotton-wood, box elder, sassafras, iron-wood, persimmon and willow. The soils may be divided into four classes: First. the river and creek bottoms, which are alluvial and of great fertility, and upon which may be grown all kinds of crops. Second, the dark soil peculiar to the cedar flats and glades, which is very poor and unproductive, and is the least desirable. Third, that found on the hills, ridges and plateaus of the northwestern and middle portion of the county, and on the slopes of the hills in the eastern and southeastern portion, which is a sandy-mulatto color, loose soil. Fourth, that found in the valleys and lower parts of the county, which is also of a mulatto color, but is more compact and clayey. All the different cereals, such as corn, wheat, oats, potatoes and all fruits and cotton grow well in the county. The Cumberland River washes the northern boundary of the county for a distance of twenty-five miles, and besides the numerous springs all over the county there are the following important creeks: Cedar Lick, Spring, Cedar, Barton, Spencer, empty into the Cumberland; Sugg, Stoner, Hurricane and Fall empty into Stone River; Smith Fork, Round Lick, Spring and Fall Creeks have their source near each other in a group of hills in the southeastern part of the county, while the other creeks head in the numerous valleys.
Beyond an occasional migratory and venturesome hunter, trapper or scout, who passed through the vast forests and canebrakes in quest of the abundant game or in pursuit of marauding bands of Indians, the presence of white man was unknown in Wilson County previous to l790. At the close of the Continental war the State of .North Carolina made grants of large bodies of land to her soldiers in pay for gallant service in time of battle. The land so granted was situated in Tennessee, then a portion of North Carolina, and it was by the owners of the land that Wilson (then Sumner) County was settled. The following are the names of the parties to whom land was granted in Wilson County during the years between 1780 and 1790: William Ray. 1,000 acres; Isadore Skerett, 640 acres; James Kennedy, 640 acres; Cornelius Dabney, 640 acres; John Burton, 1,168 acres; John Williams, 640 acres; John Conroe, 640 acres; Hardy Murfree, 1,000 acres; Nicholas Conroe, 640 acres; Thomas Evans, 640 acres; John Davidson, 274 acres; Stephen Merritt, 640 acres; James C. Montflorence, 1,000 acres; John Kain, 571 acres; Walter Allen, 912 acres; Redmond T. Barry, 640 acres; William Hogan, 500 acres; and Andrew Bostane, 220 acres. Between 1790 and 1800: Robert Stewart, Jonathan Green, John Boyd, Philip Shackler, John Haywood, William Lytle, Alexander Mebane, Jeremiah Hendricks, James Rodgers, John Brown, William Fleming, Bennett Searcy, Ambrose Jones, Edward Harris, Henry Barnes, George Kennedy, Jacob Patton, Reeves Porter, James Menees, Thomas Evans, Gideon Pillow, Delilah Roberts, David Douglas, Johnson Hadley, Joseph Cloud, Daniel Wilbourn, James Barron, Vachel Clark, Jesse Cobb, Samuel Churchhill, Boyd Castleman, Ephraim Payton, and Alexander Denny, 640 acres each; William Hogan, 500 acres; Willie Cherry, 228 acres; Archibald Lytle, 1,000 acres; Lazarus James, 337 acres; John Wright, 2,000 acres; Henry Ross, 274 acres; John Dabney, 228 acres; William Martin, 1,280 acres; David Gibson, 1,000 acres; Thedford and George Brewer, 1,000 acres; John Boyd, Jr., 228 acres; Samuel Barton, 1,000 acres; and Absolom Tatum, 300 acres.
Many of the above never became settlers of the county and numbers of the pioneers of Wilson County purchased of them the lands on which they settled. The first settlement of Wilson County was made in the year 1797 at Drake's Lick, near the mouth of Spencer Lick Creek on Cumberland River, which was afterward the northeast corner of Davidson County, by William McClain and John Foster. Two years later John Foster, William Donnell and Alexander Barkley made a settlement of Spring Creek, seven miles southeast of the present town of Lebanon. During the same year settlements were made on Hickory Ridge, five miles west of Lebanon, by John K. Wynn and Charles Kavanaugh, both of whom came from North Carolina, and on the waters of Round Lick Creek, by William Harris and William McSpadden, of North Carolina, and James Wrather and Samuel King, of Virginia, and also on the waters of Spring Creek, about eight miles south of Lebanon, by John Doak. John Foster, David Magathey, Alexander Braden, the Donnells, and probably others. At the time of these settlements the land was covered with vast forests and thick canebrakes, and game of every specie from the bear, panther and deer down to the squirrel and rabbit existed in abundance. Several years before, however, the Indians as a tribe had been driven back. and only friendly ones as a class were met with by the settlers.
From 1799 the settlement of the county was rapid. The lands lying on the waters of the various creeks being the richer and easier of cultivation were naturally the first settled, and hence in giving the following list of names of the early settlers, they have been grouped into creek neighborhoods. On Barton Creek: Charles Blaylock, Elijah Trewitt, Levi Holloway, Henry Shannon, Snowdon Hickman, William Eddings, Thomas Mass, Eleazer Provine, John Lane, Byrd Wall, William Thomas, Samuel Wilson, George Swingler, John Goldston, Benjamin Esken, Jeremiah Still, Thomas Sypert, George Wynn, Benjamin Wineford, William Peace, James Mayes, John Cage, Alexander Chance, Josiah Martin, Henry Reed, William Elkins, James Menees, John Allcorn, Thomas Congers and
probably others.
On Spring Creek: James Cannon, Soloman Marshall, James Chappell, Walter Carrouth, Martin Talley, George Alexander, Joseph Moxley, Hugh Morris, Bartlett Graves, Spencer Talley, John Forbes, William Bartlett, William Sherrill, John Steinbridge, Josiah Smith, Alligood Wallard, Thomas Williams, Purnell Hearn, John Jones, John Walsh, Samuel Elliott, Benjamin Mottley, Richard Hawkins, Gregory Johnson, William Steele, Henry Chandler, Arthur Dew, Daniel Cherry, Adam Harpole, and others.
On Cedar Creek: Hugh Roane, John Provine, Alex Aston, Samuel Calhoun, Perry Taylor, John L. Davis, Mathew Figures, David Billings, Irwin Tomlinson, Joseph Trout, Hooker Reeves, Nathan Cartwright, Lewis Chambers, Andrew Swan, William Harris, William Wilson and Joseph Weir.
On Spencer Creek: John Walker, William White, Brittain Drake, Lewis Kirby, William Gray, Joel Echols, Robert Mitchell, Philip Koonce, James McFarland, Moore Stevenson, Jere Hendricks and Richard Drake.
On Cedar Lick Creek: Theophilus Bass, Clement Jennings, John Everett, John Gleaves, Reuben Searcy, Joshua Kelley, James Everett, James H. Davis, Thomas Davis, Howell Wren, William Ross, Edmund Vaughn, George Smith, Harmon Hays and Daniel Spicer.
On Cumberland River: Edward Mitchell, Elijah Moore, William Sanders, Caleb Taylor, Bartholomew Brett, William Johnson, Josiah Woods, W. T. Cole, Joseph Kirkpatrick, Henry Davis, James Tipton, Thomas Ray, Reuben Slaughter, Daniel Glenn, James Hunter, Ransom King, Henry Locke, Ephraim Beasley, Sterling Tarpley and William Putway.
On Stoner Lick Creek: Blake Rutland, Zebulon Baird, John Graves, Benjamin Graves, Thomas Watson, John Wilson, John Williamson, Henry Thompson, Thomas Gleaves, Ezekial Cloyd, Anderson Tate, Jacob Woodrum, Ezekial Clampet, Andrew Wilson, James Cathom and James Kendall.
On Suggs Creek: Benjamin Hooker, Acquilla Suggs, William Warnick, William Rice, Benjamin Dobson, Hugh Gwynn, Jenkin Sullivan, John Roach, James Hannah, Hugh Telford, Green Barr, Peter Devault, John Curry, Thomas Drennon, Joseph Hamilton and Joseph Castlemen.
On Pond Lick Creek: Robin Shannon, John Ozment, Lee Harralson, John Spinks and John Rice.
On Sinking Creek: Thompson Clemmons, William Bacchus, David Fields, Lewis Merritt, Frank Ricketts, Fletcher Sullivan, James Richmond, Robert Jarmon, John Winsett, Jesse Sullivan, William Paisley, John Billingsley, Seldon Baird, Dawson Hancock and Jonathan Ozment.
On Hurricane Creek: William Teague, John Gibson, William Hudson. Nicholas Quesenbury, Charles Warren, Jacob Bennett, Elisha Bond, Robert Edwards, John Edwards, Bradford Howard, George Cummings, John Merritt, Joseph Stacey, Frank Young, Henry Mosier, Charles Cummings, John Woolen, Absalom Knight, Thomas Miles, Peter Leath and Gideon Harrison.
On Fall Creek: William Warren, Samuel Copeland, Joseph Williams, Jacob Jennings, William Allison, Hardy Penuel, Joseph Sharp, Sampson Smith, Frank Puckett, James Quarles, Roger Quarles, Mathew Sims, Shadrack Smith, James Smith, Charles Smith, Aaron Edwards, Hugh Cummings, Isaac Winston, William Wortham, Burrell Patterson, Absalom Losater, John Alsup, Lard Sellars, Joseph Carson, Charles Gillem, Arthur Harris, Walter Clapton, William Smith, John Donnell, Adney Donnell and William Lester.
On Smith Fork: Dennis Kelley, David Ireland, John Adams, David Wasson, John Armstrong. Isaac Witherspoon, John Allen, Richard Braddock, Edward Pickett, E!isha Hodge, Thomas Flood, James McAdoo, Samuel McAdoo, Abner Bone, Thomas Bone, William Richards, George L. Smith, Samuel Stewart, William Beagle, James Johnson, John Knox, William Knox, John Ward, Solomon George, Reason Byrne, .James Godfrey, Henry Payne, James Thompson, James Thomas, Thomas Word, James Ayers, William Jennings, Charles Rich, Abner Alexander, William Oakley and James Williams.
On Round Lick Creek, including Jennings Fork: John W. Peyton, Arthur Hankins, James Wrather, Samuel King, William Haines, John Bradley, William McSpaddin, William Coe, Abner Spring, William Harris, John Phillips, Benjamin Phillips, Edward G. Jacobs, John Green, Samuel Barton, Alexander Beard, Jordan Bass, Soloman Bass, John Lawrence, Evans Tracy, Joseph Barbee, Shelah Waters, George Clarke, James Shelton, William Neal, Joshua Taylor, Isaac Grandstaff, Daniel Smith, Jacob Vantrase, Duncan Johnson, Joseph Foust, James Hill, Joseph Carlin, George Hearn, John Patton, John Bradley, William New, Robert Branch, James Edwards, William Howard, Edmund Jennings, John White, John Swan, Thomas Byles, William Palmer, Park Goodall, Jerre Brown, Thomas B. Reece, James Scaby, James Hobbs, James Newbry and John Caplinger. The first corn-mill erected in the county was built by Samuel Caplinger some time in 1798. It was a small horse-power affair, the horse being hitched to a pole or shaft and driven around in a circle. The building was a small, unhewn-log house, and stood on the farm now owned by Roland Newby, in the Eighth Civil District. Very good corn meal is said to have been ground by this mill, and the patronage was drawn from a large scope of country. Subsequently the mill was removed to a site on Jennings Fork, and converted into a water-power. The first water-mill is supposed to have been built by Thomas Conger, some time in the same year, on Barton's Creek, about three miles northwest of Lebanon. A horse-power mill was also erected about that time by one of the Donnells, near Doak's Cross Roads, eight miles south of Lebanon.
Before these mills were erected the settlers went to Davidson County for their grinding, or converted the corn into meal by means of the old-fashioned mortar and pestle. In 1799 Mathew Figures built a water-power grist-mill on Cedar Creek, to which he afterward added a saw. In 1800 William Trigg and Joseph Hendricks built a water-power grist-mill on Spencer Creek. Other mills of the early days were those or Isham and Larkin Davis, on Cedar Creek; William Wilson's, on Spring Creek; Jesse Holt's, on Barton Creek; John Scott's on Spring Creek, and John T. Hays', on Smith Fork. Later on William Wharton built a water-mill on Spring Creek, in the Tenth District; Williams & Kirkpatrick built one on Spencer Creek, in the Fourth District; Alex Simmons built one on Fall Creek, in the Seventeenth District; James C. Winford built one on Spring Creek, in the Ninth District, and about the same time a paper-mill was built on the Cumberland River, twelve miles from Lebanon, at which a good article of paper, both news and commercial, was manufactured. The machinery was inadequate, however, and the enterprised was short lived.
With the increase in population there was an increase in the number and facilities of the mills in this county, and at the present W. P. M. Smith, C. H. Cook, J. N. Adams and J. W. Williamson & Bros. have steam saw and grist-mills; Jacob Earhart has a water- power grist-mill on Stone Creek, and W. C. Gillian has a water-power grist-mill on Cedar Creek, in the First Civil District; John Brown and William McFarland have steam saw and grist-mills, and Washington Moore has a water-power grist-mill on Spring Creek, in the Fifth District; B. D. Hager has a steam saw and grist-mill, and William Colquit and William Tomlinson have steam grist-mills, in the Seventh District; J. C. Logue has a steam grist-mill, and J. L. Hubbard a steam saw and grist-mill, in the Twenty-fourth District; Coon Lannon has a steam saw and grist-mill, and William Rice a water grist-mill on Sinking Creek, in the Twenty-third District; John D. Gains has a steam saw-mill, James Johnson a water-power grist, and W. D. S. Smith a steam and water-power saw and grist-mill on Cedar Creek, in the Sixth District; J. N. Cowen has a steam corn-mill and wool factory in the Twenty-second District; Mrs. Pendleton has a steam saw, grist and carding-mill in the Second District; Gains Leach and Hugh & David have water-power grist-mills on Sanders and Smith Forks, respectively, in the Fourteenth District; Dr. James McFarland has a steam saw and grist-mill in the Third District; J. B. Baird has a steam saw and grist-mill in the Twenty-first District; G. W. Wright has a steam saw and grist-mill in the Twenty-fifth District; __ Etherly has a steam saw and grist-mill, and Bailey Hall and William Barrow water-power grist-mills on Barton Creek, in the Fourth District; John Patterson and Patton & Harvey have water-power grist-mills on Smith Fork, in the Fifteenth District; Thomas Mitchell has a carding machine in the Ninth District; John Bryant has a steam saw-mill in the Nineteenth District; John W. Bennett and John Wynn have steam saw and grist-mills, and S. T. Aisup has a water-power saw and grist-mill on Falling Creek, in the Twentieth District; P. W. & T. R. Hearn have a water-power grist-mill on Falling Creek, in the Seventeenth District; John S. Belcher has a steam grist-mill in the Eighth District; Vick & Miller have a water-power grist-mill on Town Branch, and Bailey Peyton one on Spring Creek, in the Tenth District, and W. L. Waters has a steam-power flour, grist and saw-mill in the Sixteenth District.
Although still-houses were more numerous than schoolhouses in the early days of the county, yet the owner and location of the first one can not be learned. Isham Webb had a still in the Eleventh District at an early day, and later James Carrouth, John Forbs, Jerry Johnson, Bolin Wynn, Robert Thomas, Jack Cook and perhaps others, whose names could not be secured, operated stills in various parts of the county, all of which had capacities ranging from one-half to two barrels per day of mash. The old-fashioned worm was used, and the houses were small, unhewn-log buildings, and in some instances the still was located out of doors. These stills all disappeared several years before the late civil war.
Considerable cotton was grown in the county, and it is claimed that the first crop of this article grown west of the Cumberland Mountains was on the farm of John Donnelson, afterward the father-in-law of Andrew Johnson, in Clover Bottom, this county, some time about the organization of the county. As early as 1802 there were numerous cotton-gins in operation in the county: One by George Alexander, near Center Hill; one by John B. Walker, on Hickory Ridge; one by Moses Echols, on the waters of Spencer Creek; one by Daniel Trigg, and others by Alaman Trigg, Henry Betts, John Watson, Robert Goodloe, Seth P. Pool, Joseph Sharp, Joshua Kelley, Edward Bondward, Thomas Wilson and Thomas Green in various parts of the country, the exact location of which is unknown to the citizens of the present. These have all disappeared, as they ceased to be of use many years ago.
The first store in the county was kept by John Herrod in 1800, but the location of his store can not be learned. It was a small mercantile establishment indeed, the stock consisting of a few standard articles of staple groceries, ammunition, nails, tobacco and whisky, all of which were brought from the older States on pack mules or horses. Salt sold from $8 to $10 per bushel; nails at 25 cents per pound, and everything else in proportion. Herrod also kept tavern at his store, they both being at his dwelling-house. A short time afterward George C. Hodge and Solomon George opened similar stores, or ordinaries as they were then called, in the neighborhood of Smith Fork. Other early store-keepers were John Gibson, Samuel Tillman, Huldah Sherrill, Richard Bryan, William C. Mitchell, George Cummings, John Lumpkins, John Brown, Isham Davis, George Jarrett, Carter White, William Stewart, Elisha Dismukes, Higdon Harrington and David Martin, all of whose stores were located in various portions of the county outside of the county seat.
So far as known, the oldest house now standing in the county was built by Samuel Sherrill, on Barton Creek, about two miles southwest of Lebanon. It was built some time in 1800, of hewn cedar logs, the doors and shutters being made of split boards, smoothed with the drawing-knife, and fastened together with nails made by hand. The house is strong and still serviceable.
Josiah S. McClain, who was county clerk for a period of over forty years, now dead, is said to have been the first male white child born in the county, he having been born in January, 1797.
Wilson County was established by an act of the Third General Assembly of Tennessee, passed October 26, 1799, three years after the organization of the State. The act establishing the county is in substance as follows: "An act reducing the limits of Sumner County and establishing two new counties," etc., that part referring to Wilson County being in the following language: "Sec. 4, And be it enacted, that another new county be established by the name of Wilson, to be contained within the following described bounds: Beginning upon the south bank of the river Cumberland, at low water mark, at the mouth of Drake Lick Branch, the northeast corner of Davidson County; thence with the line of Davidson County to the Cherokee boundary, as run and marked agreeably to the treaty of Holston, and with the said boundary to the Caney Fork, and down the Caney Fork, according to its meanders, to the mouth thereof; thence down the meanders of the Cumberland River, by the south bank to the beginning."
Sections 15 and 16 provide for the holding of the courts of said county on the fourth Monday of December, March, June and September, and designate the house of John Harpole, as the place of holding the first sessions of the courts.
By an act passed by the General Assembly November 6,1801,a portion of Wilson County was annexed to Smith County, and the present bounds of this were established by an act passed November l3, 1801, as follows: "Beginning on the south bank of Cumberland River at the mouth of the Drake Lick Creek, it being the upper corner of Davidson County, running from thence up said river with the middle of the channel of the same to the Smith County line; thence south twenty-three degrees east along the said Smith County line to the Indian boundary line; thence westwardly with said Indian boundary line to the Davidson County line; thence northwardly along said Davidson County line to the beginning." This act also provides for the appointment of Christopher Cooper, Alanson Trigg, Mathew Figures, John Harpole and John Doak, as a commission to organize the new county, run the boundary lines and locate the county seat, purchasing forty acres for the latter purpose; the said land to be selected with due regard for good wood and water; to lay off the county seat into town lots, sell the same at public auction, reserving sufficient ground for a public square, and with the proceeds of such sales defray the expenses of erecting a court house and jail, and other necessary building for the use of the county.
In the latter part of 1799 the boundary lines were run in accordance with the provisions of the above act, and the county was duly organized. But it was not until in 1802 that the county seat was located, when the present Site of Lebanon was selected on account of its almost central location, and of the existence on the land of a large, never-failing spring of pure water, and which spring at the present time is as pure, fresh and strong as at that early day. The land selected was owned by one James Menees, who donated the necessary land.
Wilson County is bounded on the north by Sumner County, on the northeast and east by the counties of Trousdale, Smith and DeKalb, southeast by Cannon County, south by Rutherford County, and west by Davidson County, and has an area of 578 square miles. The county was named in honor of Maj. David Wilson, a native of Pennsylvania, who settled in Sumner County when Tennessee was a part of North Carolina.
Wilson County has a population of 28,747, of which number about 7,200 are voters, a large majority of whom vote the Democratic ticket. Previous to the late elections the county enjoyed the distinction of being the banner Democratic county of the State. Wilson ranks among the best counties in the State. Out of a total of 356,396 acres of land almost 200,000 are improved. In 1885 the cereal products of the county were 1,226 bushels of barley, 1,806,262 bushels of corn, 132,506 bushels of oats, 4,869 bushels of rye and 188,540 bushels of wheat. At the same time there were in the county l5,502 horses and mules, 16,285 c |
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