Madison County, Tennessee

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

County Seat: Jackson
Year Organized: 1821
Square Miles: 557

Court House:

100 E. Main Street
County Courthouse
Jackson, TN 38301-6208

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Named in honor of James Madison (1751-1836), member of the Continental Congress, the 1787 Constitutional Convention and the US Congress, US secretary of state and fourth US president.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History of Madison County

Created 1821 from Indian lands; named in honor of James Madison (1751-1836), member of the Continental Congress, the 1787 Constitutional Convention and the US Congress, US secretary of state and fourth US president.

Madison County was formed in 1821 from Indian lands
(Public Acts of Tennessee 1821, Chapter 32).

Before statehood, West Tennessee was occupied by prehistoric Native Americans who camped and hunted there as early as 9,000 B.C., as well as much later historic tribes such as the Choctaws and Chickasaws. Woodland Culture peoples developed the large mound village site now protected by the Pinson Mounds State Archaeological Park, the site of three separate mound groups. First discovered in 1820 by surveyor Joel Pinson, the mounds remained of local interest until the 1880s, when a Smithsonian Institution archaeologist, William E. Myer, surveyed and mapped the site. Pinson Mounds is the largest Middle Woodland Period mound group in the United States and includes one mound measuring seventy-two feet, the second tallest mound in the country.

Twenty years after Tennessee statehood, the Chickasaws signed the 1818 treaty that secured the area for settlement. The first farm families came to Madison County in 1819 and settled east of Jackson in Cotton Gin Grove. In the following year, additional pioneers settled further west on the banks of the Forked Deer River in a community they named Alexandria. In 1822 Alexandria changed its name to Jackson in honor of Andrew Jackson. Jackson's sister-in-law Jane Hayes lived in the city, and Jackson played an important role in the early history of Madison County

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

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 559 square miles (1,447 km²), of which, 557 square miles (1,443 km²) of it is land and 2 square miles (4 km²) of it (0.29%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Gibson County (north)
Carroll County (northeast)
Henderson County (east)
Chester County (southeast)
Hardeman County (south)
Haywood County (west)
Crockett County (northwest)

Cities and Towns:

- Jackson (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Medon	city	Incorporated Area
- Three Way	city	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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