As settlers rushed in to inhabit what is now Tennessee, farms were cleared
and communities were established. Soon the inhabitants needed protection
for life and property and other benefits of government - courts of law,
militia organizations, and legal titles to newly acquired land. Counties
were quickly organized once migration into the frontier region begun.
See if you can guess the names of the counties below by reading about
their origins. Use the map on the right to help locate the county name.
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Created 1795 from Knox County; named in honor of William Blount (1749-1800), member of the Continental Congress, governor of the Territory South of the River Ohio (later Tennessee), founder of Knoxville, U.S. senator, speaker of the state senate.
Created 1796 from Hawkins and Knox counties; named in honor of Mary Grainger (? - 1802), daughter of Kaleb Grainger of North Carolina, who married William Blount and became first lady of the Territory South of the River Ohio (later Tennessee).
Created 1792 from Greene and Hawkins counties; named in honor of Henry Knox (1750-1806), American Revolutionary War artillery commander, one of the founders of the Society of the Cincinnati and first U.S. secretary of war.
Created 1792 from Greene and Hawkins counties; named in honor of Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), member of the Virginia House of Burgesses and the Continental Congress, governor of Virginia, U.S. secretary of state, third U.S. president.
Created 1870 from Roane, Monroe, Blount and McMinn counties; named for Fort Loudoun, erected 1756 by the British and named in honor of the Earl of Loudoun, commander-in-chief of British and American forces in the French and Indian War.
Created 1801 from Knox County and Indian lands; named in honor of Archibald Roane (1760-1819), 1796 Constitutional Convention delegate, Superior Court of Law and Equity judge, Supreme Court judge, governor of Tennessee.
Created 1794 from Jefferson County; named in honor of John Sevier (1745-1815), governor of the State of Franklin, territorial militia officer, U. S. congressman from North Carolina and Tennessee, state senator and first governor of Tennessee.
Created 1801 from Knox and Grainger counties; named in honor of Joseph Anderson (1757-1847), U.S. senator, judge of the Superior Court of the Territory South of the River Ohio (later Tennessee) and U.S. comptroller of the treasury.
Created 1850 from Grainger, Claiborne, Campbell, Anderson and Knox counties; named possibly for the "union" of fragments of five counties, or for the strong feelings in eastern Tennessee for the preservation of the Federal Union.
and brought to you by the City of Knoxville.