McNairy County, Tennessee

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

County Seat: Selmer
Year Organized: 1823
Square Miles: 560

Court House:

Court Avenue
County Courthouse
Selmer, TN 38375-0000

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Named in honor of John McNairy (1762-1837), North Carolina Superior Court judge for Mero District, 1796 Constitutional Convention delegate, US district judge for Tennessee, Davidson Academy trustee.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History of McNairy County

Created 1823 from Hardin County; named in honor of John McNairy (1762-1837), North Carolina Superior Court judge for Mero District, 1796 Constitutional Convention delegate, US district judge for Tennessee, Davidson Academy trustee.

McNairy County was formed in 1823 from Hardin County (Private Acts of Tennessee 1823, Chapter 96).

Created on October 8, 1823, McNairy County was formed from a part of Hardin County and named in honor of John McNairy, whom President George Washington had appointed as one of the three judges of the Southwest Territory. The first courts were held in the home of Abel V. Maury until a log courthouse could be constructed. The first county seat was named Purdy in honor of John Purdy, the government surveyor who laid out the town lots. Located on the stage road that ran from Nashville to Mississippi, Purdy developed a reputation as a beautiful town. Benjamin Wright, a veteran of the Creek Indian Wars, soon emerged as the driving force behind the economic development of Purdy. In 1831 the county built a new courthouse, where both Davy Crockett and James K. Polk made political speeches.

In 1855 the citizens of Purdy refused to raise the one hundred thousand dollars in subscriptions for the Mobile and Ohio Railroad to route its line through the town. The decision resulted in the gradual decline of Purdy, and in 1870 an effort began to move the county seat to a location near the rail line. In 1890, when P. H. Thrasher, an Alabama investor, built a courthouse and donated it to the county at Selmer, voters agreed to move the county seat to the railroad town, where it remains. In addition to Purdy and Selmer, McNairy County has eight other incorporated towns: Adamsville, Bethel Springs, Michie, Milledgeville, Finger, Ramer, Eastview, Stantonville, and Guys.

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

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 561 square miles (1,453 km²), of which, 560 square miles (1,450 km²) of it is land and 1 square miles (2 km²) of it (0.14%) is water.

The major highways U.S. Route 64 (east-west), and U.S. Route 45 (north-south) intersect in McNairy County and mutually bisect it into four parts. McNairy County's position on Route 64 places it on the historic Lee Highway, which stretches from New York to San Francisco.

Neighboring Counties:

Chester County (north)
Hardin County (east)
Alcorn County, Mississippi (south)
Hardeman County (west)

Cities and Towns:

- Adamsville	town	Incorporated Area
- Bethel Springs	town	Incorporated Area
- Eastview	town	Incorporated Area
- Finger	city	Incorporated Area
- Guys	town	Incorporated Area
- Michie	town	Incorporated Area
- Milledgeville	town	Incorporated Area
- Ramer	city	Incorporated Area
- Selmer (County Seat)	town	Incorporated Area
- Stantonville	town	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."