Smith County, Tennessee

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

County Seat: Carthage
Year Organized: 1799
Square Miles: 314

Court House:

207 Main Street
County Courthouse
Carthage, TN 37030

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Named in honor of Daniel Smith (1748-1818), surveyor, Revolutionary War officer, secretary of the Territory South of the River Ohio (later Tennessee), maker of the first map of the state, US senator.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History of Smith County

Created 1799 from Sumner County and Indian lands; named in honor of Daniel Smith (1748-1818), surveyor, Revolutionary War officer, secretary of the Territory South of the River Ohio (later Tennessee), maker of the first map of the state, US senator.

Smith County was formed in 1799 from Sumner County and Indian lands. (Acts of Tennessee 1799, Chapter 2).

Created by the Tennessee General Assembly on October 26, 1799, Smith County was named in honor of General Daniel Smith. Carved out of Sumner County, the new county covered a large territory of 314 square miles. Immigrants of Scots-Irish, English, and German descent established thriving towns and productive farms along the courses of the two rivers and abundant streams that flow through the fertile bottom lands. The majority of the settlers, many of whom held land warrants for Revolutionary War service, came from North Carolina. Once the pioneers cleared land, planted a crop, and built a shelter, churches and schools soon followed. The Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists all had active congregations. Clinton College at New Middleton, Geneva Academy at Carthage, Shady Grove Academy at Gordonsville were among the early schools.

In 1804 a heated election was held for selection of a permanent county seat. The contest raged between proponents (the polecats) of Bledsoesborough, a site on the Cumberland near Dixon Springs, and supporters (the moccasin gang) of William Walton, whose land grant was situated at the confluence of the Cumberland and Caney Fork Rivers. Walton, a Revolutionary veteran, operated a ferry and tavern at the site. An abundance of refreshments, including a full supply of whiskey furnished by Colonel Walton, may have influenced the victory claimed by the moccasins, who determined Carthage, destined to become one of the most important towns in Middle Tennessee during the steamboat era, as the county seat. Throughout the winter of 1805 the town was laid out and public buildings were constructed. By 1879 a new courthouse building, "the handsomest in the State," was erected and continues to grace the town square. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

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

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 325 square miles (843 km²), of which, 314 square miles (814 km²) of it is land and 11 square miles (28 km²) of it (3.36%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Macon County (north)
Jackson County (northeast)
Putnam County (east)
DeKalb County (southeast)
Wilson County (west)
Trousdale County (northwest)

Cities and Towns:

- Carthage (County Seat)	town	Incorporated Area
- Gordonsville	town	Incorporated Area
- South Carthage	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."