McMinn County, Tennessee

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

County Seat: Athens
Year Organized: 1819
Square Miles: 430

Court House:

6 East Madison Avenue
County Courthouse
Athens, TN 37303-3697

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Named in honor of Joseph McMinn (1758-1824), militia commander, member of territorial legislature, speaker of the state senate, governor of Tennessee, and superintendent of the Cherokee Agency.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History of McMinn County

Created 1819 from Indian lands; named in honor of Joseph McMinn (1758-1824), militia commander, member of territorial legislature, speaker of the state senate, governor of Tennessee, and superintendent of the Cherokee Agency.

McMinn County was formed in 1819 from Indian lands. (Acts of Tennessee 1819, Chapter 7).

McMinn County, located in southeast Tennessee, was established by the Tennessee General Assembly in 1819. Named for Governor Joseph McMinn, the county was created from lands ceded by the Cherokees in the Hiwassee Purchase.

Calhoun, the first town and county seat, was established in 1820 across the Hiwassee River from the Cherokee Indian Agency. The need for a more centrally located seat of government led to the county seat's removal in 1823 to Athens, fifteen miles north. Athens was chartered in 1822. By 1830 McMinn County had a population of over 14,000, including 1,250 slaves.

The Hiwassee Railroad began construction of one of Tennessee's first railroads in McMinn County in 1837. Plans called for a line from Dalton, Georgia, through McMinn County to Knoxville, a distance of ninety-eight miles. Financial problems and a general economic depression statewide halted construction in 1839 after the completion of sixty-six miles of graded roadbed and a bridge at Calhoun. Work was resumed in 1849 by the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad. Athens served as the railroad's headquarters until 1855, when the central office was moved to Knoxville.

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

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 432 square miles (1,119 km²), of which, 430 square miles (1,114 km²) of it is land and 2 square miles (5 km²) of it (0.45%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Roane County (north)
Loudon County (northeast)
Monroe County (east)
Polk County (southeast)
Bradley County (southwest)
Meigs County (west)

Cities and Towns:

- Athens (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Calhoun	town	Incorporated Area
- Englewood	town	Incorporated Area
- Etowah	city	Incorporated Area
- Niota	city	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resource Guide

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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