{"id":2453,"date":"2026-02-01T15:34:02","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T21:34:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/haywood\/?p=2453"},"modified":"2026-02-02T03:34:54","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T09:34:54","slug":"middle-tennessee-pre-1796","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tngenweb.org\/haywood\/middle-tennessee-pre-1796\/","title":{"rendered":"Middle Tennessee, Pre-1796"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Just what was Middle Tennessee before the 1796 statehood?<\/em><\/div>\n
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First, it was not named Tennessee back then. That name came with statehood. There was an earlier Tennessee County in what we now call Middle Tennessee, and of course there was the original – the Tennessee River.<\/div>\n
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Second, it was not called \u201cMiddle\u201d either. It was called \u201cWest,\u201d until the 1820s.<\/em><\/div>\n
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For our purposes, we start with the white European claims. North Carolina owned her Western Lands beyond the Great Smoky Mountains. She ceded her rights to her Western Lands in 1790, and in the same year, the United States Congress created the Territory of the US South of the River Ohio, or as it was more commonly know, the Southwest Territory. In 1796, those lands became the State of Tennessee.<\/div>\n
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Here we focus on the northern middle part of Tennessee, what we are calling Middle Tennessee, pre-1796.<\/div>\n
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The area of white habitation covered by our query page, was a much smaller area than that of today\u2019s Grand Division of Middle Tennessee. At the time of entry of the first white men into what we now call Middle Tennessee, the area was primarily Cherokee country. There were some Shawnee there, but generally, they were forced north of the Ohio River by a Cherokee and Chickasaw alliance.<\/div>\n
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The influx of settlers started as a trickle. At the end of the Revolutionary War, the spigot opened and more settlers poured in, mostly from southwest Virginia. While North Carolina owned the land, it was the Virginians who first settled in any numbers. At first, they created farmsteads and later little settlements. People also migrated from South Carolina.<\/div>\n
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Many people had come down the Holston River from southwest Virginia. They would enter East Tennessee, then go northwest through the Cumberland gap, follow the Wilderness Road northerly into central Kentucky. At Crow \u2019s Station, they would take the Kentucky Road westward.<\/div>\n
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They followed the road turned southward and they would finally arrive in the Cumberland Settlements. The end of the road was French Lick, latter Fort Nashborough (1780), or as we call it today, Nashville.<\/div>\n
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There was, early on, a few intrepid souls who managed to get to French Lick the hard way. From East Tennessee, they would float down the Tennessee River, around the \u201cBig Bend\u201d in today \u2019s Alabama, over Muscle Shoals, continuing downstream to the Ohio River. Then turning up the Ohio River to its confluence with the Cumberland River, then with Cumberland upstream to French Lick. But this route was deadly. The Cherokee made it so. They were not safe at their arrival either. That is why Fort Nashborough was built. In time, the white man pushed the Cherokee from Middle Tennessee and in 1836, the Cherokee relinquished the last of their Tennessee Lands.<\/div>\n
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In 1788, the Avery Trace was completed and it allowed travel across the Cumberland Plateau. The estimated populations of the Cumberland Settlements in 1790 is 7,000 souls.<\/div>\n
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Our Middle Tennessee, pre 1796<\/i>, query page encompasses a number of areas. These areas include: Davidson County (1783), Sumner (1786), Tennessee County (1788), Military Reservation or North Carolina Military Reservation, Cumberland Settlements, Washington County (1777), Mero District and the Mountain District.<\/div>\n
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Tennessee County<\/i> surrendered its name when the State of Tennessee was created in 1796. At that time, Tennessee County was divided into two new counties, Montgomery and Robertson.<\/div>\n
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Cumberland Settlements.<\/i> This refers to settlements along the Cumberland River.<\/div>\n
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Military Reservation<\/i>, or North Carolina Military Reservation<\/i>. Just following the Revolutionary War, North Carolina created this \u201cReservation\u201d to pay her veterans, or as she stated, was \u201cfor the relief of the officers and soldiers in the continental line.<\/i>\u201d The Cumberland Settlements would fit inside the Military Reservation, as would Davidson, Sumner, and Tennessee Counties.<\/div>\n
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Mero District.<\/i> The early name of the Judicial District that served the Cumberland Settlements.<\/div>\n
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Washington County<\/i>. Although this county originally covered all of Tennessee, this would not be an appropriate place to post an early Washington County query. Try our East Tennessee , pre 1796, query page.<\/div>\n
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 Mountain District.<\/i> This refers to the Cumberland Mountain or Plateau. Historically, North Carolina called this area, her \u201cMiddle District.\u201d This area was Cherokee country until 1806 and latter, queries for this area should be posted to an appropriate County Page.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just what was Middle Tennessee before the 1796 statehood?   First, it was not named Tennessee back then. That name came with statehood. There was an earlier Tennessee County in what we now call Middle Tennessee, and of course there was the original – the Tennessee River.   Second, it was not called \u201cMiddle\u201d either. It was called \u201cWest,\u201d until the 1820s.   For our purposes, we start with the white European claims. North Carolina owned her Western Lands beyond…<\/p>\n

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