Marshall County was created in 1836 from parts of Giles, Bedford, Lincoln, and Maury counties. Marshall County was originally going to be named Cannon County however, due to a clerical error at the time of formation in 1836, the names of Marshall and Cannon Counties, were accidentally swapped and never corrected. It was named after the American jurist, John Marshall who was Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. The county has a total area of 376 square miles with a population count of 33,683 residents.
The county was formed in 1807 from Williamson County and Indian lands. Maury County was named in honor of Major Abram Poindexter Maury of Williamson County, who was a member of the Tennessee legislature. While being known for its thriving agriculture since the 19th century, the county today has a total area of 616 square miles and a population count of 96,387 residents.
McMinn County was created in 1819 from Indian lands and was named in honor of Joseph McMinn who lived from 1758 to 1824. McMinn was a militia commander during the Revolutionary War, a member of the territorial legislature, speaker of the state senate, and eventually governor of the state of Tennessee. The county has a total area of 432 square miles with a population count of 52,266 residents.
Monroe County was established in 1819 after the signing of the Calhoun Treaty, in which the Cherokee ceded claims to lands stretching from the Little Tennessee River south to the Hiwassee River. The county was named for President James Monroe. The county has a total area of 653 square miles with a population count of46,357 residents.
Authorized on 9 April 1796, when the western portion of Tennessee County became part of the new state of Tennessee. The county was named for John Montgomery who was a soldier in the American Revolutionary War and an early settler who founded the city of Clarksville. When Montgomery County was formed, it was combined with land taken from Sumner County to form Robertson County. Later acts of the Tennessee General Assembly had further reduced Montgomery County by 1871 to its current size and boundaries. The county today has a total area of 544 square miles and a population count of 208,993 residents.
Morgan County was formed in 1817 from portions of Anderson and Roane counties. It was named in honor of Daniel Morgan who lived from 1736 to 1802. Morgan was an American Revolutionary War officer who commanded the troops that defeated the British at the Battle of Cowpens, and who later served as a U.S. congressman from Virginia. The original county seat was Montgomery until 1870 when it moved to Wartburg. The county has a population count of 21,579 residents calling the 522 square mileage county home.
Obion was later established in 1824 and organized the following year. It was named for the Obion River, which flows through the county and is a tributary of the nearby Mississippi River. The word “Obion” is believed to be derived from a Native American word meaning “many forks,” or from an Irish trapper named O’Brien. The original finding of the county was due to the expansion of railroads coming through the south. Today, the county has a total area of 556 square miles with a population count of 30,267 residents.
Polk County was created by an act of the Tennessee General Assembly on November 23, 1839. The location for the county seat of Benton was chosen in an election held on February 4, 1840. The county is named James K. Polk who was the eleventh president of the United States from 1845 to 1849. The county has a total area of 442 square miles with a population count of 16,898 residents.
Putnam County is named in honor of Israel Putnam, who was a hero in the French and Indian War and a general in the American Revolutionary War. The county was initially established on February 2, 1842, when the Twenty-fourth Tennessee General Assembly enacted a measure creating the county from portions of Jackson, Overton, Fentress, and White counties. The county has a total area of 403 square miles with a population count of 80,245 residents.
Rhea County is named for the Tennessee politician and Revolutionary War veteran John Rhea. A portion of the Trail of Tears ran through the county as part of the United States government’s removal of the Cherokee in the 1830s. During the American Civil War, Rhea County was one of the few counties in East Tennessee that was heavily sympathetic to the cause of the Confederate States of America. The county today has a population count of 33,040 residents calling the 336 square mileage county home.
