Tennessee Grows:
1780s to 1940
Middle Tennessee
While still part of North Carolina, settlers began streaming into northern Middle Tennessee by the 1780s. Many families came along the trail blazed by Daniel Boone and other longhunters crossing the Cumberland Gap into the new western wilderness.
The Robertson and Donelson parties made their way by land and by river to a point on the Cumberland River called Cedar Bluff. French trapper Timothy Demonbreum (Anglicized name) lived nearby in a cave on the bluff. Fort Nashborough (Fort Bluff, Fort French Lick, Fort Cedar Bluff) was built and established a settlement.
In stages, various pioneer settler families made their homes in northern middle TN - Sumner, Robertson and Montgomery counties - and filtered down to the fertile lands in Davidson, Williamson, Maury, Wilson, Rutherford counties.
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In doing research, it has been fascinating to understand how much travel was done by these settlers and later residents within middle TN and within the Southeast in general. Quite a few families had properties across the state as well as in Arkansas and Louisiana.
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Homes are grouped according to the era in which they were built and by county.
Please see Blog section for the story of a home, its owners and its history.
West Tennessee
West Tennessee was founded by means both piecemeal and intention. Fayette, Tipton, and Madison Counties were established by families growing their settlements; whereas Shelby Co. and Memphis had its founding fathers : Judge John Overton, Marcus Winchester, General and President Andrew Jackson, J. H. Goodlett, and Wilson Sanderlin. They planned the town and beat out settlements to the north and south to achieve supremacy.
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The area - along with much of West Tennessee - was part of the Jackson Purchase of 1819/ Chickasaw Treaty where the U.S. government purchased the vast lands from the Chickasaw tribes. In 1819, Shelby County was formed. It is named for Revolutionary War hero and the first Kentucky governor Isaac Shelby. The county seat is Memphis.
Several times in the 1800s - especially 1873 and 1878 - Yellow Fever epidemics caused great casualties in Memphis. For several years, after 1878, Memphis suffered so badly that it was reduced to a "taxing district" until the population recovered.
The primary cities are Memphis, Bartlett, Germantown, Lakeland, Millington, Arlington, and Collierville.