Decatur County, Tennessee

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

County Seat: Decaturville
Year Organized: 1845
Square Miles: 334

Court House:

22 West Main Street

P.O. Box 488
County Courthouse
Decaturville, TN 38329-0488

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Named in honor of Stephen Decatur (1779-1820), American naval officer who won fame in the War with Tripoli in 1804, in the War of 1812, and in the Algerine War in 1815 for his daring exploits.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History of Decatur County

Created 1845 from Perry County; named in honor of Stephen Decatur (1779-1820), American naval officer who won fame in the War with Tripoli in 1804, in the War of 1812, and in the Algerine War in 1815 for his daring exploits.

Decatur County was formed in 1845 from Perry County (Acts of Tennessee 1845-46, Chapter 7).

There were fires at the Decatur County courthouse in 1869 and 1927.

Decatur County borders the Tennessee River in West Tennessee and was established in 1845. Its name honors Commodore Stephen Decatur, naval hero of the War of 1812. Carved from land originally claimed by the Chickasaws, the area was part of the Jackson Purchase of 1818. Decatur County was initially part of Perry County, which is on the east shore of the river, but citizens on the western side petitioned the general assembly for a new county in 1845. In 1849 Decatur County gained an additional three-mile strip from Hardin County, making its total area 346 square miles. According to the 2000 census, 11,731 people live in the county.

Largely rural in nature, Decatur County contains several small towns and communities. Decaturville, established in 1847 near the center of the county, serves as the county seat. The county's largest town, Parsons, like many nineteenth-century communities in West Tennessee, developed around newly laid railroad tracks. In 1889 local entrepreneur Henry Myracle encouraged area settlement by donating 143 acres to the Tennessee Midland Railroad Company. Initially called Parsons Flat after Myracle's son-in-law Dock Parsons, the town gained its charter in 1913.

Morer at DECATUR COUNTY

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 345 square miles (893 km²), of which, 334 square miles (865 km²) of it is land and 11 square miles (29 km²) of it (3.19%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Benton County (north)
Perry County (east)
Wayne County (southeast)
Hardin County (south)
Henderson County (west)
Carroll County (northwest)

Cities and Towns:

- Decaturville (County Seat)	town	Incorporated Area
- Parsons	city	Incorporated Area
- Scotts Hill	town	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."

Penn Foster High School

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