Wilson County, Tennessee

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

County Seat: Lebanon
Year Organized: 1799
Square Miles: 571

Court House:

228 East Main Street
County Courthouse
Lebanon, TN 37087-2888

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Named in honor of David Wilson (1752-1804?), Revolutionary War soldier, member of the North Carolina legislature and the legislature of the Territory South of the River Ohio (later Tennessee).

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History of Wilson County

Created 1799 from Sumner County; named in honor of David Wilson (1752-1804?), Revolutionary War soldier, member of the North Carolina legislature and the legislature of the Territory South of the River Ohio (later Tennessee).

Wilson County was formed in 1799 from Sumner County. (Acts of Tennessee 1799, Chapter 2).

There was a fire at the Wilson County courthouse in 1881.

The Tennessee General Assembly created Wilson County on October 26, 1799. Its prehistoric heritage is rich. The Sellars temple mound on Spring Creek, for example, yielded an outstanding piece of pre-Columbian sculpture that has been the emblem of the Tennessee Archaeological Society. Europeans explored the land long before settlement: French trappers arrived as early as 1760, and the hunting party of Henry Scraggins passed through the area in 1765. John B. Walker led the first permanent settlers to Hickory Ridge, west of the present site of Lebanon, in 1794.

The county was named for Major David Wilson, a North Carolina hero of the American Revolution. Lebanon was named for the impressive stands of red cedar trees (actually Virginia juniper) that are characteristic of the region. In the late 1930s Tennessee and the federal government created the Cedars of Lebanon State Park in recognition of this botanical feature. Lebanon was chosen as the county seat in 1801, largely because of a large spring (still flowing) on what became the public square. The county has had five courthouses; the building of 1848-81 was designed by the noted architect William Strickland. Other towns and villages include Watertown, Green Hill, Mt. Juliet, Statesville, Gladesville, Baird's Mill, Norene, Cherry Valley, Shop Springs, Tucker's Cross Roads, Leeville, Martha, Bellwood, Commerce, Taylorsville, Centreville, Oakland, LaGuardo, and Maple Hill.

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

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 583 square miles (1,510 km²), of which, 571 square miles (1,478 km²) of it is land and 13 square miles (33 km²) of it (2.17%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Trousdale County (north)
Smith County (northeast)
DeKalb County (east)
Cannon County (southeast)
Rutherford County (south)
Davidson County (west)
Sumner County (northwest)

Cities and Towns:

- Lebanon (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Mount Juliet	city	Incorporated Area
- Watertown	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."