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Blount County, Tennessee

Blount Co., TN

Blount County, TN


History

Blount County was for many thousands of years Indian territory, passed down to the Cherokee tribe that claimed the land upon the arrival of white settlers in the late 18th century. Shortly thereafter, on July 11, 1795, Blount County became the tenth county established in Tennessee, when the Territorial Legislature voted to split adjacent Knox and Jefferson counties. The new county was named for the governor of the Southwest Territory, William Blount, and its county seat, Maryville, was named for his wife Mary Grainger Blount. This establishment, however, did little to settle the differences between white immigrants and Cherokee natives, which was, for the most part, not accomplished until an 1819 treaty.

White settlers arrived in the mid-1780s and established a permanent settlement at Houston's Station in 1786. Smaller rural settlements were scattered throughout the county and in 1796 a settlement of Quakers from North Carolina established Friendsville.

Sam Houston, future president of the Republic of Texas, moved there with his family from Virginia in 1807. In 1812 Houston taught school in a one-room schoolhouse.
Sources: Wikipedia and Tennessee Encyclopedia

Modern Day Adjacent Counties

Blount County is bordered by Knox, Sevier, Monroe and Loudon counties as well as the North Carolina counties of Swain and Graham.

Gleanings from




Contributors to this page: Beverly .
Page last modified on Monday 05 of November, 2018 08:01:42 CST by Beverly.