Obion County in West Tennessee one of the state’s three “grand divisions” was created in 1823 from the Chickasaw Indian Cession named for the Obion River, chief watercourse of the area, the origin of the name of which is obscure: possibly an Indian word meaning “many prongs” or the name of a French-Irish explorer.

The first county seat was Troy, first incorporated town in Obion County on March 1, 1843.  Aldermen: James W. PORTER, Lysander ADAMS, Horace HEAD, Charles McALISTER, Alfred ROSS, J. A. McBEAN and Jerome MILLER who was elected mayor. (see Goodspeed History for more details).

As the years went on, Union City citizens desperately wanted the county seat moved there. To overcome the problem of Union City not being in the center of the county — the panhandle was taken from Weakley and added in 1870 at the same time Lake County was created from Obion County.   And there were a few other little pieces moved back and forth between Weakley and Obion County because Obion River separated the people from the county seat. And one man on the Weakley line had his store put in one county or the other.

So the push was on. And Union City built itself a court house. Suits and injunctions and the final verdict was that the county seat should stay where it was. Now this was before instant communication, and what the judge didn’t know is that Union City stole the court house records. He thought they were still in Troy when he handed down his decision.

And this is the way it seemed to be.

Although under an injunction, at 3 A.M. July 9, 1890 shotgun blast alerted one hundred prominent Union City citizens who gathered at First and Church Streets with wagons and guns to go to Troy. Joe TEMPLE climbed a telephone pole and called officials in Troy to notify them they were coming. They then moved quickly into Troy. The courthouse door was unlocked but the county records were in a locked room. Mr. JOHNSON volunteered to break down the door if someone would lend him a horse to get away. Bud ADAMS donated his, the act was done, and JOHNSON sped to Union City, changed horses and went to Kentucky to avoid prosecution.

The upright citizens of Union City brought the big county record books, put them in the wagons and returned to Union City. There is no record of confrontations. When Chancery Court met, the injunction was annulled, since it is said to have read that the records should remain “where they are now.” WHERE THEY ARE NOW meant Troy and show the duplicity of those who found it imperative to steal the records before the injunction was read.

Those involved that night and year and time with the moving of the courthouse have long been dead, but the issue lingers as bitter wisp of smoke in the hearts of many.

From Lynn Maloney (January 24, 2000) — Earl Kersey told me this story:

“When the court house was stolen the road to union city took a different route than even the old 51.  Some of it can still be identified.  But back to the story … the wagon and team got stuck crossing the creek on the Phebus farm that daddy once owned.  Paul Thorns daddy lived there at the time.  The men woke him up and not knowing what was on the wagon, he harnessed his team and pulled them out.  Had he not,  the records might have been recovered.   Did you know that some of the old pilings from the rail road to Troy can still be found on the Wheatly farm of Thunder Road?”

Troy Businesses in 1940-41

• Mayor and Aldermen: B. B. Maxwell, D. H. Burnett, A. H. Overall; Wilford Morris, Paul Thorn, Dodds Griggs
• Town Marshall: Oscar Wilkerson
• Barbers: Jimerson & Paschall
• Cotton Gin: Kelly White
• Dentist: Dr. J. H. Meeks
• Drug Store: E. A. McAdoo
• Filling Stations: Troy Service, Paul Thorn; City Service, Charley Bailey; Pan-Am; Paul Thorn & Reynolds Bros; Standard Oil, Austin Dickey; Pure Oil, Obe Kincaid.
• Furniture: White-Mahon (had funeral home, too. It was common for furniture stores to be funeral parlors, think about it.
• Grocers: Stanley Roberts, A. H. Overall, Spurlock Griffith
• Lumber Yard: H. M. Sharp
• Merchantile: Hall Mercantile Company owned by heirs of Walter Forrester and managed by Robert Jones
• Physicians: Dr. E. A. Boswell; Dr. W. F. Roberts
• Postmaster, Jno. O. Bennett
• Produce: Mike Bright Co
• Restaurant: R. W. Harrigan’s & Troy Cafe
• TVA Substation

In 1959, The Union City Jaycees and Troy Lions Club initiated a project to re-re-create the event by returning the county records to Troy and almost got lynched in the process.   Ok, maybe not lynched, but certainly not well received.   My cousin Rick remembers the the returning some original papers and burying them in a cylinder in the square. Well, before the cement was dry – as the story goes – folks dug them up and took them back to Union City and threw them in the courthouse door. Now Rick wasn’t very old at the time, but this is what he remembers.

And here’s excerpts from the “Union City Messenger”

July 29, 1959.  “About 20 men hit the courthouse in Union City about 9 am and made off with a number of record books of the county, transported them to Troy, and sealed them in the ground on the site of the first courthouse in Obion County.
“Tom Elam, prominent Union City attorney and well-known public speaker, took the microphone in Troy to explain the motives behind this morning’s ‘raid.'”

July 30, 1959   Troy Rejects Monument
“A monument, designed to promote harmony and understanding between the Union city and Troy communities, was ripped from its concrete base about 8 last night and returned to Union City, and dumped unceremoniously on the steps of the courthouse here.
“Also returned with the monument were a number of ‘record books’ which had been buried in the concrete that formed the base for the monument.
“The crowd that returned the items were orderly … it was more than two hours, however before the last of the group left.
“The program was based on the episode in 1890 when a band of Union Citians and other Obion Countians raided the counthouse then located in Troy, and removed the records to Union city which became the county seat.”

The Second County Seat, Union City, stands on part of the 5000 acre grant extending from Grove Creek east of Houser Creek on a North Carolina conveyed Grant No.68 to Martin ARMSTRONG in the early 1800’s.  Joel S. ENLOE, sheriff of Obion County, sold this track on January 20, 1830 on an execution of judgment rendered in a Nashville court against the heirs of Mr. Armstrong. George W. GIBBS purchased the property.

With the advent of railroads – Mobile and Ohio, Nashville and Northwestern, Hickman and Obion – General Gibbs determined to lay out a town at the crossing on his farm.  In 1854 he asked W. M. JOHNSON, civil engineer on the Hickman and Obion Railroad to make the plan and survey.

The first charter of incorporation was received in 1861 with Thomas RAY serving as mayor. A post office was established in 1857 with Charles N. GIBBS as postmaster. From a bare railroad crossing, Union City soon had several grocery and general stores, a hotel, blacksmith shop, sawmill, and grist mill.  Churches included Methodist and Christian and a before 1856 a school was conducted in a private home and Gibbs law office.

By the mid 1880’s Union City was larger than the county seat of Troy. Citizens raised $30,000.00 to build a “fine brick courthouse.” After two referendums and numerous “legal maneuvers” by both factions, the records of the county were removed from Troy to Union City and county court met on August 4, 1890 in the new courthouse. This courthouse was the scene of the famous Night Rider trials in 1908-1909. That building was razed and the present court house constructed in 1939-1940.

More on Union City:
Union City 1876 Business Directory
Union City Places, 1888
Union City Roads and Subdivisions

More on Troy:
Troy 1876 Business Directory
Troy, 1904
Troy Mineral Wells, 1904
Troy Tornado 1949