Giles County, Tennessee

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

County Seat: Pulaski
Year Organized: 1809
Square Miles: 611

Court House:

P.O. Box 678
County Courthouse
Pulaski, TN 38478-0678

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Named in honor of William B. Giles (1762-1830), Virginia state legislator, US congressman and senator from Virginia who advocated admission of Tennessee into the Union in 1796, governor of Virginia.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History of Giles County

Created 1809 from Indian lands; named in honor of William B. Giles (1762-1830), Virginia state legislator, US congressman and senator from Virginia who advocated admission of Tennessee into the Union in 1796, governor of Virginia.

Giles County was formed in 1809 from Indian lands (Private Acts of Tennessee 1809, Chapter 55).

There were fires at the Giles County courthouse in 1813, 1857 and 1907.

The Tennessee General Assembly created Giles County in 1809 from land once part of North Carolina. Andrew Jackson suggested the name "Giles" to the legislature in recognition of the strong support Congressman William Branch Giles had given to Tennessee in the successful bid for statehood in 1796. Since Indian treaties had not been finalized, settlers were not permitted to move onto their land until 1806.

Both Elkton and Prospect claim the designation of first settlement in the county; they were followed by Lynn Creek, Campbellsville, Pulaski, Bodenham, Crosswater, Aspen Hill, and Blooming Grove. Of these, Pulaski and Lynnville exist today as incorporated towns. Other incorporated towns are Minor Hill and Ardmore.

Pulaski was designated the county seat and a courthouse erected on a square in the center of the county in 1811. The present neoclassical beauty, erected in 1909, has been placed in the National Register of Historic Places. Busts of three natives who served as governors of the state, Aaron V. Brown, Neill Smith Brown, and John C. Brown, were placed in the foyer as a bicentennial project.

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

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 611 square miles (1,583 km²), of which, 611 square miles (1,582 km²) of it is land and 0 square miles (1 km²) of it (0.04%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Maury County (north)
Marshall County (northeast)
Lincoln County (east)
Limestone County, Alabama (south)
Lawrence County (west)

Cities and Towns:

- Ardmore	city	Incorporated Area
- Elkton	city	Incorporated Area
- Lynnville	town	Incorporated Area
- Minor Hill	city	Incorporated Area
- Pulaski (County Seat)	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."