Greene County, Tennessee

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

County Seat: Greeneville
Year Organized: 1783
Square Miles: 622

Court House:

101 South Main Street
County Courthouse
Greeneville, TN 37743-4945

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Named in honor of Nathanael Greene (1742-1786), Revolutionary War commander at Trenton who succeeded Horatio Gates in command of the Army of the South and forced the British out of Georgia and the Carolinas.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History of Greene County

Created 1783 from Washington County; named in honor of Nathanael Greene (1742-1786), Revolutionary War commander at Trenton who succeeded Horatio Gates in command of the Army of the South and forced the British out of Georgia and the Carolinas.

Greene County was formed in 1783 from Washington County
(Acts of North Carolina 1783, Chapter 51).

Greene County lies in the Great Valley of Tennessee in the northeast corner of the state. Its valleys are enriched by the disintegrated limestone that lies below them. Bays Mountain, one of the three sets of high ridges that run through the valley, is located on the north side of the county and is drained by Lick Creek. The Unaka, or Great Smoky, Mountains to the east slope down to the Nolichucky River. The resources of Greene County, including the creeks and rivers, plentiful game, and good bottomlands, attracted generations of Native Americans. Places like the Camp Creek site, along the banks of the Nolichucky River, document Native American activities during the Woodland Period.

Settlement began about 1772 when Jacob Brown and a couple of families from North Carolina moved to a camp on the banks of the Nolichucky, the first in its valley. In 1775 Brown leased from the Cherokees a large tract of land which was titled to him as part of the Washington District of North Carolina. In 1777 Henry Earnest, a Swiss immigrant, established Elmwood Farm along the Nolichucky River. It is the oldest Tennessee Century Farm. A great influx of settlers between 1778 and 1783 made residents of the area anxious for separate government, which was achieved through the efforts of Daniel Kennedy and Waightstill Avery. Greene County, part of North Carolina, was established in 1783 and named in honor of General Nathanael Greene of Rhode Island, under whom many settlers had fought during the Revolutionary War. Greene County participated in the State of Franklin movement along with fellow upper East Tennessee counties Sullivan and Washington. The split that precipitated the end of the State of Franklin occurred during the 1785 constitutional convention held at Greeneville.

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

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 624 square miles (1,616 km²), of which, 622 square miles (1,610 km²) of it is land and 2 square miles (6 km²) of it is water. The total area is 0.39% water.

Neighboring Counties:

Hawkins County (north)
Washington County (east)
Unicoi County (southeast)
Madison County, North Carolina (south)
Cocke County (southwest)
Hamblen County (west)

Cities and Towns:

- Baileyton	town	Incorporated Area
- Greeneville (County Seat)	town	Incorporated Area
- Mosheim	town	Incorporated Area
- Tusculum	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."