Jefferson County, Tennessee

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

County Seat: Dandridge
Year Organized: 1792
Square Miles: 274

Court House:

P. O. Box 710
County Courthouse
Dandridge, TN 37725-0710

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Named in honor of Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), member of the Virginia House of Burgesses and the Continental Congress, governor of Virginia, US secretary of state, third US president.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History of Jefferson County

Created 1792 from Greene and Hawkins counties; named in honor of Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), member of the Virginia House of Burgesses and the Continental Congress, governor of Virginia, US secretary of state, third US president.

Jefferson County was formed in 1792 from Greene and Hawkins counties. (Territorial Ordinance of June 11, 1792).

When Goodspeed published its well-known history of Tennessee in 1887, it concluded that "No Tennessee county has a more honorable record or a more interesting history than Jefferson." The second of twenty-six American counties so named, its early settlers were men of intelligence, education, and patriotism, whose influence is still felt seven generations later.

Geography influenced the development of this East Tennessee Valley county. From 1784 to 1788, under the government of the State of Franklin, this area was part of Caswell County. Jefferson County, as created by Territorial Governor William Blount on June 11, 1792, encompassed approximately 1,200 square miles. The Holston River formed its northern boundary, and the French Broad River bisected it. These two water highways, the result of the area's heavy rainfall, support a large variety of plants, animals, and freshwater fish. Early settlers used these rivers as their primary means of transportation to the new frontier of Tennessee. North Carolinians came down the French Broad, and Virginians arrived by way of the Holston River.

The first permanent settlement at Dandridge dates to 1783; the village became the county seat in 1793. One immigrant, Dr. William Moore, set up practice as the first physician in Dandridge. Dr. Moore's wife, Cassie Paxton Moore, was a lady of culture and kept a large library. Her first cousin, Sam Houston, spent weeks with the Moores, immersed in the books that would prepare him for later public service in Tennessee and Texas.

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

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 314 square miles (814 km²), of which, 274 square miles (709 km²) of it is land and 41 square miles (105 km²) of it (12.89%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Hamblen County (northeast)
Cocke County (east)
Sevier County (south)
Knox County (west)
Grainger County (northwest)

Cities and Towns:

- Baneberry	city	Incorporated Area
- Dandridge (County Seat)	town	Incorporated Area
- Jefferson City	city	Incorporated Area
- New Market	town	Incorporated Area
- White Pine	town	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

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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."