Obion County, Tennessee

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

County Seat: Union City
Year Organized: 1823
Square Miles: 545

Court House:

Court Square
County Courthouse
Union City, TN 38261-0000

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Named for the Obion River, chief watercourse of the area, the origin of the name of which is obscure: possibly an Indian word meaning "many prongs" or the name of a French-Irish explorer.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History of Obion County

Created 1823 from Indian lands; named for the Obion River, chief watercourse of the area, the origin of the name of which is obscure: possibly an Indian word meaning "many prongs" or the name of a French-Irish explorer.

Obion County was formed in 1823 from Indian lands (Acts of Tennessee 1823, Chapter 114).

There was an earthquake at the Obion County courthouse in 1842.

Created on October 24, 1823, and organized on January 19, 1824, Obion County included what is now Lake County until 1870. The county took its name from the Obion River; the word Obion is thought to be an Indian word meaning "many forks." Situated in the rolling hills of northwest Tennessee, Obion County has earned the nickname "Land of Green Pastures."

Many early settlers were Scots-Irish from the Carolinas and Virginia. The first known white settler was Elisha Parker, who arrived in the area in 1819. In 1820 Colonel W. M. Wilson settled three miles southwest of the future town of Troy; organization of Obion County took place in his cabin. Davy Crockett was among those present on March 16, 1825, when the county seat of Troy was laid out. Crockett's association with the history of Obion County is well known; he served the area in the U.S. House of Representatives, and his claim of a record kill of 103 bears was made in Obion County.

The history of Union City, the present county seat, was tied to the railroads. Laid out in 1854 by General George Gibbs on land he received in 1829, the town derived its name from the intersection of the Nashville and Northwestern Railroad with the Mobile and Ohio Railroad.

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

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 555 square miles (1,438 km²), of which, 545 square miles (1,411 km²) of it is land and 10 square miles (27 km²) of it (1.88%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Fulton County, Kentucky (north)
Weakley County (east)
Gibson County (southeast)
Dyer County (southwest)
Lake County (west)

Cities and Towns:

- Hornbeak	town	Incorporated Area
- Obion	town	Incorporated Area
- Rives	town	Incorporated Area
- Samburg	town	Incorporated Area
- South Fulton	city	Incorporated Area
- Troy	town	Incorporated Area
- Union City (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Woodland Mills	city	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."