Perry County Timeline

Perry County History

  • 14 Nov 1819 – Perry County was created by an act of the Tennessee General Assembly on November 14, 1819 from  Hickman and Humphrey Counties.  Perry County was named for Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, a naval officer and hero of the War of 1812. The first quarterly sessions and circuit courts were held at the home of James Yates on Toms Creek
  • 1821 – the county seat was established at Perryville, on the west bank of the Tennessee River, where it remained until 1846
  • 1846 – the county was divided.  The portion west of the Tennessee River became Decatur County.  The portion east of the Tennessee River remained Perry County;
  • 1846 – the new Perry County seat was located at Harrisburg
  • 1848 – the Perry County seat was moved to Linden
  • 1863 – Courthouse fire
  • 1928 – the Perry County courthouse, a colonial revival design by Nashville architect C.K. Colley was completed.  It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places
  • 1928 – Courthouse fire

If you have a transcription of a record source about the history of Perry County that you would like to share (where the person was born from 1930 or before), please contact Jerry L Butler, your Perry County TNGenWeb coordinator.  Please remember that due to copyright laws, we are not permitted to post anything with a publish date later than 1923.

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