Bradley County, Tennessee

Bradley County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Cleveland
Year Organized: 1836
Square Miles: 329

Court House:

355 Ocoee Street
County Courthouse
Cleveland, TN 37311

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Named in honor of Edward Bradley (? - 1829), Tennessee militia officer, colonel of First Regiment, Tennessee Infantry in the War of 1812, member of the Tennessee state house and the Shelby County court.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History of Bradley County

Created 1836 from Indian lands; named in honor of Edward Bradley (? - 1829), Tennessee militia officer, colonel of First Regiment, Tennessee Infantry in the War of 1812, member of the Tennessee state house and the Shelby County court.

Bradley County was formed in 1836 from Indian lands (Local Acts of 1836, Chapter 12).

Located in southeast Tennessee, Bradley County was carved out of the Ocoee District, which had been part of the Cherokee Nation. Today, one of the top tourist sites in Tennessee is Red Clay State Historical Area, an interpretative center for the Cherokee removal known as the Trail of Tears. The Cherokees consider the park, located on the southern end of Bradley County, sacred ground. In the 1830s Red Clay became the last capital of the Cherokees as they fought removal by appealing to the U.S. president and Congress and bringing suits in the federal courts. Further north is Rattlesnake Springs, the gathering point for the Cherokees as they left on their journey to Oklahoma. The Cleveland Public Library Historical Branch contains a collection of material on the Cherokee Indians.

The Tennessee General Assembly created Bradley County in February 1836. Its name honored Colonel Edward Bradley, a Revolutionary War veteran who served with Andrew Jackson during the War of 1812. Cleveland was designated the county seat and named for Colonel Benjamin Cleveland, a Revolutionary War hero from North Carolina who received recognition for his exploits at the battle of Kings Mountain. Today, Cleveland ranks eleventh in size among cities and towns in Tennessee.

Find more from the Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture: BRADLEY COUNTY

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 332 square miles (859 km²), of which, 329 square miles (851 km²) of it is land and 3 square miles (7 km²) of it (0.84%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Meigs County (north)
McMinn County (northeast)
Polk County (east)
Murray County, Georgia (southeast)
Whitfield County, Georgia (south)
Hamilton County (west)

Cities and Towns:

- Charleston	city	Incorporated Area
- Cleveland (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resource Guide

Counties: US Map

The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of our country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."

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