Sequatchie County, Tennessee

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

County Seat: Dunlap
Year Organized: 1857
Square Miles: 266

Court House:

P.O. Box 595
County Courthouse
Dunlap, TN 37327-0595

Etymology - Origin of County Name

The name linked with a Cherokee word "sequachee," probably meaning "opossum, he grins or runs," also the name of a Cherokee chief for whom the Sequatchie Valley is named.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History of Sequatchie County

Created 1857 from Hamilton, Marion and Warren counties, the name linked with a Cherokee word "sequachee," probably meaning "opossum, he grins or runs," also the name of a Cherokee chief for whom the Sequatchie Valley is named.

Sequatchie County was formed in 1857 from Hamilton, Marion and Warren counties. Public Acts of Tennessee 1857-58, Chapter 11).

On December 9, 1857, the Tennessee General Assembly created Sequatchie County from a section of Hamilton County and named Dunlap as the county seat. Europeans first settled in the area in 1806. The land in the Sequatchie Valley was highly attractive for agricultural purposes.

Throughout most of the nineteenth century, inhabitants of the county practiced subsistence agriculture, and there were a few prosperous farms located within the valley. The small farmers produced corn and raised livestock such as cattle, sheep, hogs, and poultry for themselves and the local market. Few opportunities existed to expand to a larger agricultural market until a road, Anderson Pike, was built in 1852 connecting the Sequatchie Valley to the newly constructed Western and Atlantic Railroad in Georgia. Anderson Pike was used mainly by farmers to transport their livestock out of the valley and to larger markets throughout the South. During the Civil War, in October 1863, Confederate Major General Joseph Wheeler led a cavalry raid against a Union supply train on Anderson Pike that was attempting to relieve besieged Federal troops at Chattanooga. Wheeler burned an estimated eight hundred to one thousand wagons and captured livestock.

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

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 266 square miles (689 km²), of which, 266 square miles (689 km²) of it is land and 0 square miles (0 km²) of it (0.07%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Van Buren County (north)
Bledsoe County (northeast)
Hamilton County (southeast)
Marion County (southwest)
Grundy County (west)
Warren County (northwest)

Cities and Towns:

- Dunlap (County Seat)

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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