Meigs County, Tennessee

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

County Seat: Decatur
Year Organized: 1836
Square Miles: 195

Court House:

P.O. Box 156
County Courthouse
Decatur, TN 37322-0156

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Named in honor of Return Jonathan Meigs (1740-1823), Tennessee country pioneer, American Revolutionary officer who distinguished himself at Sag Harbor and Stony Point, and longtime Indian agent.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History of Meigs County

Created 1836 from Rhea County; named in honor of Return Jonathan Meigs (1740-1823), Tennessee country pioneer, American Revolutionary officer who distinguished himself at Sag Harbor and Stony Point, and longtime Indian agent.

Meigs County was formed in 1836 from Rhea County (Acts of Tennessee 1835-36, Chapter 96).

There were fires at the Meigs County courthouse in 1904 and 1964.

Created in 1836 from Rhea County, Meigs County is named for Return Jonathan Meigs (1740-1823), a colonel in the American Revolutionary War and later an Indian agent from 1801 until his death in 1823. The county encompasses 195 square miles and is bounded on the west by the Tennessee River. The lower Hiwassee River crosses through the southern portion of the county, where it enters the Tennessee. The county contains fertile bottom land and ample timber, as well as a vein of iron ore.

The Tennessee River Valley was first inhabited by generations of Native Americans, and Meigs County contains many prehistoric and Cherokee sites. Hiwassee Island, at the mouth of the Hiwassee River, is the site of a large Mississippian Period town dating from the eleventh century A.D. and includes several temple mounds surrounding a plaza. The Cherokees later occupied the island. In 1809-10 Sam Houston lived with Oolootek (John Jolly), leader of three hundred Cherokees living on Hiwassee Island, also called Jolly's Island. Today the area is Hiwassee Island Wildlife Refuge, noted for its use by migrating sand hill cranes.

In the Hiwassee Treaty of 1817 and the Calhoun Agreement of 1819, the Cherokees ceded the land on the east bank of the Tennessee River north of the Hiwassee to Tennessee. The first settlements in the Meigs County area were in the Ten Mile Valley in the north, while later families settled near the site of Decatur. The territory south of the Hiwassee remained in the Ocoee District of the Cherokee nation and was not opened to white settlement until 1836. Most of the Cherokee residents were removed as part of the Trail of Tears in 1838, crossing the Tennessee in Meigs County at Blythe's Ferry. A few Cherokee residents remained, notably John Miller, Richard Taylor, Colonel Gideon Morgan, and John Jolly. The Meigs County government, Tennessee Valley Authority, National Park Service, and Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency have planned a monument near the Hiwassee inscribed with names of the Cherokees removed in 1838, as well as a walking trail along part of a removal route. Construction of the memorial and surrounding park at the former site of Blythe Ferry began in 1998, and parts of the park are already open to the public.

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

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 217 square miles (561 km²), of which, 195 square miles (505 km²) of it is land and 22 square miles (57 km²) of it (10.11%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Roane County, Tennessee (North)
McMinn County, Tennessee (East)
Bradley County, Tennessee (Southeast)
Hamilton County, Tennessee (South)
Rhea County, Tennessee (West)

Cities and Towns:

- Decatur (County Seat)

town

Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

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."

Penn Foster High School

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