Cheatham County, Tennessee

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

County Seat: Ashland City
Year Organized: 1856
Square Miles: 303

Court House:

100 Public Square
County Courthouse
Ashland City, TN 37015-1793

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Named in honor of Edward Cheatham (1818-1878), member of Tennessee state house, member and speaker of the state senate, businessman and railroad president.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History of Cheatham County

Created 1856 from Davidson, Dickson, Montgomery and Robertson counties; named in honor of Edward Cheatham (1818-1878), member of Tennessee state house, member and speaker of the state senate, businessman and railroad president.

Cheatham County was formed in 1856 from Davidson, Dickson, Montgomery and Robertson counties. (Acts of Tennessee 1855-56, Chapter 122).

The Tennessee General Assembly created Cheatham County on February 28, 1856, from parts of Davidson, Robertson, Montgomery, and Dickson Counties. The county name honors Edward Saunders Cheatham, Speaker of the state Senate. At the first county court meeting at Sycamore in May 1856, the commissioners purchased fifty acres of land on the north side of the Cumberland River from James Lenox for the establishment of Ashland City. Proceeds from the sale of town lots financed the construction of a courthouse and jail. The courthouse, completed in 1858, was replaced by a larger, brick structure in 1869. In 1886 a brick jail supplanted the original log jail; following a fire in 1935, it was rebuilt, and a new jail was erected in 1986.

Several archaeological sites, including ones listed on the National Register of Historic Places, document activities by Native Americans who once lived in the county. Early white settlers in the county established settlements at Sycamore, Pleasant View, and Ashland City. To provide for the safety of the first settlers, a blockhouse was erected at the fork of Half Pone and Raccoon Creeks.

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

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 307 square miles (795 km²), of which, 303 square miles (784 km²) of it is land and 4 square miles (12 km²) of it (1.46%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Robertson County (northeast)
Davidson County (east)
Williamson County (south)
Dickson County (west)
Montgomery County (northwest)

Cities and Towns:

- Ashland City (County Seat)	town	Incorporated Area
- Kingston Springs	town	Incorporated Area
- Pegram	town	Incorporated Area
- Pleasant View	city	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

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County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this 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."