County History

AN OVERVIEW OF GREENE COUNTY HISTORY

A History Of Greene County

Greeneville and Greene County are both named in honor of General Nathanael Greene, a Rhode Island Quaker who joined the revolutionary army under General George Washington.

Greene, a protégé of Washington and one of his most trusted offi cers, became an outstanding American general who led in the defeat of British forces in the South. After the Revolutionary War, Greene died at age 45. He never visited this area.

Water from the spring that brought settlers to this area still runs quietly into Richland Creek, behind the Greeneville-Greene County Public Library on North Main Street.

Before the settlers came to what is now Greene County, the Big Spring was a water source for Native Americans who lived in the area.

The spring continued to serve as the leading local water source for more than 150 years after the Town of Greeneville was established in the early 1780s.

DATES FROM EARLY 1780S

What initially began as a tiny frontier village on a 300-acre tract of land thought to have been a Revolutionary War grant to Robert Kerr, Greeneville has grown into a modern, thriving community of approximately 15,000 residents.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau estimates, Greene County had 69,069 inhabitants in 2019.

The approximate founding date for Greene County is 1783 — the year the Greene County Court, predecessor of today’s Greene County Commission, fi rst met in Kerr’s home, which stood near the Big Spring.

According to the book “Greeneville: One Hundred Year Portrait, 1775-1875,” authored by the late Richard Harrison Doughty, Greeneville is believed to have become the county seat (instead of other Greene County communities such as Rheatown or

THE GREENEVILLE SUN This photo of the corner of Main and Depot Street, featuring the General Morgan Inn, is the background of the virtual tour page of the State Department of Tourism’s website.

Warrensburg) because Kerr offered to grant property for use as a seat of the county government.

The formal layout plans for Greeneville were created in 1786, according to Doughty’s book. The town was incorporated in 1796, when Tennessee became the 16th state, and was reincorporated in 1817, according to the late Tom Siler’s book, “Tennessee Towns: From Adams to Yorkville.”

Greeneville also served as the capital of the short-lived state of Franklin from 1785 until 1788. The “Lost State of Franklin” fell just short of congressional approval for statehood.

CROCKETT, JOHNSON

David “Davy” Crockett, frontiersman, congressman and folk hero, was born in the Limestone area of eastern Greene County in 1786. He died in Texas in 1836 among fellow defenders of the Alamo during the war for Texas independence from Mexico.

Andrew Johnson, 17th president of the United States, was born in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1808, but he called Greeneville his home from 1826 until his death in 1875. Johnson and his family are buried in the Andrew Johnson National Cemetery in Greeneville. The location is also referred to as Monument Hill.

Johnson’s South Main Street home and his downtown tailor shop, the latter of which became an informal center for political debates in Greeneville during Johnson’s time, are open to the public and maintained as a National Historic Site by the National Park Service. Furniture from the period is displayed in the home’s interior. The tailor shop is enclosed within the site’s Visitor Center and Museum.

Another historic site pertaining to Johnson is his earlier Greeneville residence, located across College Street from the Visitor Center and tailor shop. This “Early Home,” as it is called, is also now open for public view.

A replica of the house in Raleigh in which Andrew Johnson was born sits directly across the street from the 1830s home.

GENERAL JOHN HUNT MORGAN

During the Civil War, Greeneville changed hands numerous times between Union and Confederate forces.

Although the state as a whole had voted to secede from the Union, East Tennessee was an island of predominantly Unionist sentiment within the South.

At times during the war years, colorful but controversial Confederate cavalry leader General John Hunt Morgan was an overnight guest of Dr. and Mrs. Alexander Williams, of Greeneville.

Admirers often referred to General Morgan as “The Thunderbolt of the Confederacy,” a reference to his lightning-fast raids deep into Union-dominated territory. His men were known as “Morgan’s Raiders.”

On the morning of Sept. 4, 1864, Morgan was shot to death on the grounds of the Williams home during a surprise attack by federal troops. He had spent the previous night at the Williams home.

The brick residence, a famed showplace home from the early 1820s through the Civil War, has been restored as a house museum and now is called the Dickson-Williams Mansion. (Daily 90-minute tours start at 1 p.m. from the lobby of The General Morgan Inn.)

The present-day General Morgan Inn, a one-time railroad hotel formerly named Grand Central Hotel and then Hotel Brumley, which closed in 1981, stands not far from the site where Morgan was shot.

The century-old hotel was renovated in the 1990s and re-named in the slain Confederate general’s memory.

The hotel was the key element of a $15 million public-private downtown revitalization project known as Morgan Square. The new General Morgan Inn opened in 1996. Further renovations occurred in 2007.

BOTH SIDES HONORED

Greeneville is thought to be one of the few towns that honor both Union and Confederate forces on government property.

Two monuments relating to the Civil War period stand on the lawn of the Greene County Courthouse.

One, a statue of a standing Union soldier, is dedicated to local troops who served in the Grand Army of the Republic (Union army).

The other, a granite slab with engraved text dealing with General Morgan’s life and death, memorializes the fallen Confederate cavalry leader who died only a block away.