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The present Greene County, Tennessee, was organized in 1783. Eleven years earlier, Jacob Brown, a merchant, with several families from North Carolina, tentatively settled on the banks of the Nolachuckey River. He secured a lease on a large tract of land from the Cherokees. Three years later, in March, 1775, an indenture was signed between Jacob Brown and the Cherokee chiefs which gave Brown title to some of the best lands on both sides of the river.
In 1776, the settlers of Watauga and Nolachucky petitioned the protection of North Carolina. The area then became The District of Washington. A year later, the District became Washington County, essentially the entire state of Tennessee.
In 1778, the first Washington County Court was convened. Between 1778 and 1783, a number of settlers came into the area.
Greene County and Greeneville were named in honor of General Nathanael Greene, a Rhode Islander who was credited with outstanding military ability. He played an important role in the American victory over the British in the South during the Revolutionary War. After the war, in 1785, the state of North Carolina granted General Greene a 25,000 acre land grant which encompassed a part of Greene County. That grant is the first recorded deed in the County.
In 1784, North Carolina ceded western lands to the Federal Government. The State of Franklin was organized, with John Sevier as the Governor, and the following year Greeneville became the capital of this short lived political entity. Four years later, the State of Franklin collapsed, and Greene County once again became a part of North Carolina.
The following year, 1789, North Carolina again ceded western lands, and in 1790 Greene County became a part of the Territory of the United States South of the Ohio River.
Taken from: Historic Greene County, Tennessee,
and It's People: 1783-1992
Greene County is nestled in the foothills of the Great Smokey Mountains in the Eastern Region of Tennessee. Ranked 6th largest county in the state, Greene covers 624 square miles with an average elevation of 1,320 feet above sea level. Of this 624 sq. miles, more than 230,000 acres are under cultivation by Greene County's nearly 3,400 farm families.
If you have any suggestions and/or additions to these pages,
please feel free to pass them on to:
Bridgett Schneider
bridgett@maddoc.net
I am open to suggestions !
Please note: I do not live in Greene County, and can not answer your personal research questions, nor can I do any research for you.
Happy Hunting
The Greene County genealogy site makes no claims or estimates of the validity of the information submitted and reminds you that each new piece of information must be researched and proved or disproved by weight of evidence. Also here you will find copies of copyright-expired texts pertaining to the history of Tennessee. These must be considered in the era that they were written.
You are welcome to copy information found at the Greene County Genealogy site for personal use and to share information with other researchers or genealogical organizations, but this information may not be sold or used in a commercial project without expressed permission.
This page last updated Friday, 05-Jan-2007 02:23:51 CST
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