Jackson County, Tennessee

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

County Seat: Gainesboro
Year Organized: 1801
Square Miles: 309

Court House:

P.O. Box 716
County Courthouse
Gainesboro, TN 38562-0716

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Named in honor of Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), US congressman and senator, Tennessee Supreme Court judge, troop commander at the Battle of New Orleans, seventh US president.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History of Jackson County

Created 1801 from Smith County and Indian lands; named in honor of Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), US congressman and senator, Tennessee Supreme Court judge, troop commander at the Battle of New Orleans, seventh US president.

Jackson County was formed in 1801 from Smith County and Indian lands. (Acts of Tennessee 1801, Chapter 48).

There were fires at the Jackson County courthouse in 1872 and 1926.

Located in the picturesque foothills of the Cumberland Mountains, Jackson County is known as the "Switzerland of the Cumberlands." Although the western part of Jackson County lies within the Nashville Basin, most of the eastern part of the county is situated within the Highland Rim physiographic province at the foot of the Higher Cumberland Plateau to the east and is part of the Interior Low Plateau. There is much rolling land between sharply incised stream valleys.

Jackson County, named in honor of Andrew Jackson, was created by the Tennessee legislature in November 1801. It is the second oldest of the twenty-three counties named for Jackson in the United States; only Jackson County in Georgia is older. Temporary county seats were used until about the year 1806, when Williamsburg, named for Sampson Williams, an early pioneer in the area, was named as the county seat.

In 1817 Gainesboro was designated as the permanent county seat and was incorporated in 1820. The land was donated by David Cox. Gainesborough, as it was then spelled, is one of the oldest towns in the state and was named for General Edmund Pendleton Gaines, who fought with Jackson at the battle of New Orleans. The Gainesboro Historic District, which includes the town square and the 1927 Jackson County Courthouse, is listed 0n the National Register of Historic Places.

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

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 320 square miles (828 km²), of which, 309 square miles (800 km²) of it is land and 11 square miles (28 km²) of it (3.34%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Clay County (north)
Overton County (east)
Putnam County (south)
Smith County (southwest)
Macon County (northwest)

Cities and Towns:

- Gainesboro (County Seat)

town

Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

Online High Schools

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."

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