Lawrence County Government
The information above was copied from the Web site named Lawrence County Genealogical Society. The site was maintained by Kathy Niedergeses, but she has retired. We are unsure of the site’s future. Original Lawrence County TNGenWeb Coordinator Reita Jones Burress posted shared content with the LCGS site over the course of 27 years. Therefore, we decided to incorporate the content here. No copyright infringement is intended by providing this information for the benefit of researchers.
Source URL: http://home.lorettotel.net/~lcarchives/earlyhistlawco.htm
Birth of a County and Its Government
After the signing of the 1816 treaties with the Cherokee and the Chickasaw Indians, the legislature passed the Private Act of 1817, thereby creating a county from a portion of Hickman, Giles and Maury Counties to be called Lawrence County in honor of Captain James Lawrence, hero of the War of 1812. This same act established a Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, which became the governing body of the county with authority for the making and carrying out of laws, overseeing court related issues, setting tax rates and fees, issuing fines and other matters.
Private Acts of 1817, 1819 and 1822 state that the boundaries of the county were the southwest corner of Giles County, running west with the Alabama state line, then north to the Duck River Ridge, then east southeast with the top of said ridge to the northwest corner of Giles County. Summertown sits on the Duck River Ridge, with all waters north of this ridge running into Duck River and all waters south running into the Buffalo River. This ridge runs west northwest of Summertown to Grinder’s old stand (where Meriwether Lewis lost his life) from there to about Hohenwald. Highway 20 runs this same ridge starting north of Summertown where Highway 20 crosses over into Lewis County. Thus Lawrence County’s northwest boundary, from about Summertown westward, originally extended much farther into what is now Lewis County, going up to Grinder’s Stand on the Old Natchez Trace Road from the south and Hickman extended to the stand on the north. 1836 calls of civil district eleven also show this.
The boundaries between counties were constantly changing. A person living in Lawrence County would request that his land be included in the surrounding county he was closest to; or request to be included in Lawrence County. The most drastic change occurred in the county’s northern border in 1843, when Lewis County was created and the section in Lawrence County from just above Napier northward to the Duck River Ridge was included in Lewis. In 1885, part of Napier was annexed into Lewis County and the rest of the Napier area in 1889.
Lawrenceburg was the name chosen by the General Assembly to become the county seat. The selection of a site for this town was another matter. There were five commissioners appointed by the governor, Josephus Irvine, David Crockett, Maximillian H. Buchanan, Enoch Tucker and Henry Phoenix. Three of the commissioners wanted the town to be at its present location, but the other two insisted the town should be placed in the exact geographical center of the county, close to where Gandy Community southwest of Lawrenceburg is today. Of course, it had nothing to do with the fact that the first three men had property at their choice location and the last two had property at the Gandy location.
After a long and heated battle, with various petitions being signed by residents and forwarded to the legislature, the present location was chosen. There were two important considerations in this decision: 1) the location was bounded on the east by Andrew Jackson’s newly constructed highway (a major thoroughfare from Nashville to New Orleans) which would provide a mode of transportation, playing a significant role in the economic development of the county; 2) Shoal Creek (originally Sycamore River) with its three tributaries, Crowson, Simonton/Middle Fork (originally Indian Creek) and Beeler’s Fork; and also Spout Springs, bounded the favored site and would provide an abundant supply of water for its residence and industries. During this time, David Crockett resigned his commission and was replaced by Martin Prewitt.
The commissioners were granted 400 acres by the State of Tennessee January 16, 1823. M.H. Buchanan surveyed the lots and laid out the town of Lawrenceburg. The commissioners proceeded to sell lots to various individuals for business and residences, with the proceeds to be used to construct a courthouse, jail and stockades on the square. The town began to bustle with the construction of buildings to house hotels, lawyers and doctor’s offices, blacksmiths and merchants.
Court was first held in the house of Joseph Farmer, occupied by Josephus Irvine at the time, presumed to be just past Ethridge. A temporary courthouse, ready for use in 1821, was used before the David Crockett courthouse was erected.
In its earliest days, court dealt mostly with appointing jurors and a few other items of business. From the first transactions of the court, we see that tax has always been on the top of the list for governments. The very first item of business in the court was to set the tavern rates on the selling of “spirits” at 50 cents per half pint. This resulted in the issuing of license to numerous individuals for “houses of public entertainment” or to “keep a house of ordinary” (inns, taverns, stagecoach stands). The second item was to set the tax rate for the county.
Next in line of importance was transportation. This included ordering jury of views to establish roads or determine the best route for a road to be changed to and appointing overseers and hands to layout and do upkeep on these roads. Certifying wolf scalps brought in by individuals was also usually on the agenda. Settlers were given credit on their taxes for wolf scalps (later wildcats scalps), thus encouraging the eradication of these animals that were in abundance.
Updated 24 November 2012