Hamblen County, Tennessee

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

County Seat: Morristown
Year Organized: 1870
Square Miles: 161

Court House:

511 West 2nd North Street
County Courthouse
Morristown, TN 37814-3933

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Named in honor of Hezekiah Hamblen (1775- 1854), early settler, landowner, attorney and member of the Hawkins County circuit and county courts for many years.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History of Hamblen County

Created 1870 from Jefferson, Grainger and Greene counties; named in honor of Hezekiah Hamblen (1775- 1854), early settler, landowner, attorney and member of the Hawkins County circuit and county courts for many years.

Hamblen County was formed in 1870 from Grainger, Hawkins and Jefferson counties. (Acts of Tennessee 1870 [Extra Session], Chapter 6).

The third smallest in area among the ninety-five Tennessee counties, Hamblen County is located between the Holston and the Nolichucky Rivers in a fertile, well-watered valley sheltered from the north winds by Clinch Mountain and from southern storms by the Smoky Mountains.

Hamblen County was formed in 1870 from parts of Jefferson, Grainger, and Hawkins Counties. After much controversy, the county was named for Hezekiah Hamblen, a lawyer in Hawkins County. Morristown, which was incorporated in 1855, was named county seat, but it would be four years before a county courthouse was constructed. This building, designed by architect A. C. Bruce, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Cherokees, Chickasaws, Creeks, and Shawnees roamed the East Tennessee hills and valleys in the days before settlement began in what would become Hamblen County. In 1783 Robert McFarland and Alexander Outlaw migrated from Virginia to claim land grants on the "Bend of Chucky." Gideon Morris and his brothers, Daniel and Absalom, were the next settlers, and they took land grants within the present city limits of Morristown, providing the community with its name. More settlers arrived when a road connecting the stage routes from Abingdon, Virginia, and Knoxville was constructed in 1792. William Chaney, Thomas Daggett, Richard Thomas, and John Crockett were among those who lived along the road. By 1800 several communities had been established, including Russellville, Whitesburg, Springvale, and Panther Springs.

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

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 176 square miles (455 km²), of which, 161 square miles (417 km²) of it is land and 15 square miles (38 km²) of it (8.39%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Hawkins County (northeast)
Greene County (east)
Cocke County (southeast)
Jefferson County (southwest)
Grainger County (west)

Cities and Towns:

- Morristown (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."