Gibson County, Tennessee

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

County Seat: Trenton
Year Organized: 1823
Square Miles: 603:

Court House:

One Court Square
County Courthouse
Trenton, TN 38382-0000

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Named in honor of John H. Gibson (? - 1823), who served with distinction under Andrew Jackson in the Natchez Expedition (1812-1813) and in the Creek Wars.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History of Gibson County

Created 1823 from Indian lands; named in honor of John H. Gibson (? - 1823), who served with distinction under Andrew Jackson in the Natchez Expedition (1812-1813) and in the Creek Wars.

Gibson County was formed in 1823 from Indian lands (Private Acts of Tennessee 1823, Chapter 111).

There was a fire at the Gibson County courthouse in 1941.

The Tennessee General Assembly created Gibson County on October 21, 1823, out of lands ceded by the Chickasaws in the Jackson Purchase. It was named in honor of Colonel John H. Gibson, who served under Andrew Jackson in the Natchez campaign, the Creek Wars, and the New Orleans campaign.

In 1819 Thomas Fite built the first cabin in Gibson County, which was then part of Carroll County. Luke Biggs, Davy Crockett, and others followed. Settlement progressed rapidly, and residents soon petitioned the general assembly for the formation of a new county, citing the difficulty of getting to the courts of Carroll County.

Commissioners appointed by the general assembly selected a county seat site near the center of the county where Thomas Gibson, a brother of John Gibson, operated a trading post. Initially called Gibson-Port, the name was soon changed to Trenton. County government was organized in January 1824, when the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions met at Biggs's residence. Following terms of the court met in the residence of William C. Love until April 1825, when the first term of court met in a temporary courthouse made of hewn logs.

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

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 604 square miles (1,563 km²), of which, 603 square miles (1,561 km²) of it is land and 1 square miles (2 km²) of it (0.15%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Weakley County (northeast)
Carroll County (east)
Madison County (south)
Crockett County (southwest)
Dyer County (west)
Obion County (northwest)

Cities and Towns:

- Bradford	town	Incorporated Area
- Dyer	city	Incorporated Area
- Gibson	town	Incorporated Area
- Humboldt	city	Incorporated Area
- Kenton	town	Incorporated Area
- Medina	city	Incorporated Area
- Milan	city	Incorporated Area
- Rutherford	town	Incorporated Area
- Trenton (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Yorkville	city	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

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."