Crockett County, Tennessee

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

County Seat: Alamo
Year Organized: 1871
Square Miles: 265

Court House:

1 South Bells Street
County Courthouse
Alamo, TN 38001-1734

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Named in honor of David Crockett (1786-1836), frontier humorist, author, soldier, state legislator, US congressman, defender and a casualty of the Alamo in the Texas war for independence.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History of Crockett County

Created 1871 from Haywood, Madison, Dyer and Gibson counties; named in honor of David Crockett (1786-1836), frontier humorist, author, soldier, state legislator, US congressman, defender and a casualty of the Alamo in the Texas war for independence.

Crockett County was formed in 1871 from Dyer, Gibson, Haywood and Madison counties. (Acts of Tennessee 1845-46, Chapter 25).

The desire for more convenient access to county government brought together the citizens of the outlying regions of Dyer, Gibson, Haywood, and Madison Counties to petition the Tennessee General Assembly for the formation of a new county first in 1832 and again, thirteen years later, in 1845. Both petitions were unsuccessful. In November 1871, though, the legislature finally provided relief for the isolated farmers by enacting legislation to form Crockett County, named for the famous Tennessean Davy Crockett. Appropriately, the county seat was named Alamo, after the historic mission in San Antonio, Texas, where Crockett died in 1836. Two commissioners from each county from which land was taken met to establish county government. The county courthouse, which was completed in 1874, continues to serve local needs.

The 265 square miles of Crockett County lying in the Mississippi River drainage area are covered with fertile farm land that has few hilly sections. Since no town has a population of over 2,500, the entire county is classified as rural. When the Tennessee Department of Agriculture established its Century Farms program in 1976, it identified eleven historic family farms, the oldest of which was the Frog Jump Farm that Dr. Samuel Oldham Sr. established with 1,500 acres in 1830. Cotton was Oldham's primary crop, but other nineteenth-century farmers in Crockett County produced wheat, small grains, corn, and livestock. In the twentieth century several families turned to specialized cash crops. At the Hillcrest Farm, for instance, Columbus H. Conley managed fruit orchards, strawberry patches, and a honey bee yard while operating a sorghum mill. He also established the Bank of Alamo, and its classical-style brick building in the county seat has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

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

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 265 square miles (688 km²), of which, 265 square miles (687 km²) of it is land and 0 square miles (1 km²) of it (0.08%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Gibson County (northeast)
Madison County (southeast)
Haywood County (south)
Lauderdale County (west)
Dyer County (northwest)

Cities and Towns:

- Alamo (County Seat)	town	Incorporated Area
- Bells	city	Incorporated Area
- Friendship	city	Incorporated Area
- Gadsden	town	Incorporated Area
- Maury City	town	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."