County Districts

As is well known, the statutes require the division of the counties into districts according to the number of population, twenty-five being the maximum number. Under the first constitution, this division was not made on the population alone but upon the number belonging to the various militia companies; these of course to some extent represented the number of population.

Tax listers were chosen or elected, not for a certain district but for a certain captain’s company. The growth of population caused an increase in the number of companies. These were changed every two years. The first available, and possibly the first division made, was in 1809, the following being the heads of companies:

Captain William Polk, Captain Sellars, Captain Whitson, Captain Scott

Captains. James Isom, John Moorehead, Moses Smith, Eli Frierson, James Rutledge, George W. McGahey, William Daniels, Isaac Bills, Thomas Shannon, and Adongah Edwards; fourteen companies or districts.

In 1811 the following were the captains of companies: Captains. Scott. Whitson, Booker, Polk, Boyer, Davis, Kirkpatrick, Fitzpatrick, Daniels, Reynolds, Bills, Rutledge, McGahey, Jones, Smith, Gurley, Isom and Moorehead, seventeen in all.

In 1813 there were Capts. Looney, Gholson, Faruey, Reading, Hurt, May, Osburn, McIntyre, Young, Kirk, Summers, Stockard, Watkins, Kilpatrick, Campbell, Chisholm, McNiell, McLean, Mitchell, Hanks, McCarkin and Dickson.

In 1819 the number of divisions had increased to twenty-six, viz; Capts. Cockburn, Gholson, McNutt, Ewing, Dooley, Wilkes, Andreas, Cathel, Allen, Hanna, Crawford, McCarty, Kiley, Short, Torn, Campbell. Bavirey, Middleton, Powell, Polk, Hamlett, Seargrove, Mills, Cheairs, Gamon and Slierrod.

Just before the new constitution went into operation there were military districts of Capt. F. S. Alderson of the Columbia Company and Capts. Kerr, Woods, Gill, Edwards, Worthman, Kennedy, Chaffin, King, Martin, Steele, Garrit, Tollman, Dearens, Dyer, Foster and Mitchell of the Ninety-third Regiment.

The Mount Pleasant Company of Capt. B. Boyd and Capts. McKee, Cockrill, Oaks, Grimes, Craig, McMakin, Baxter, Graham, Frierson, Stringham and Sites of the Fifty-first; and Capts. Sparkman, Harbison, Cathey, Mitchell, Smith, Black, Oliphant, Kerford, Brown, Ledbetter, Jarrit, Laird and Crawford of the Forty-sixth Regiment.

Under the new constitution these divisions came to be known by the ordinal numbers. Various changes have been made in the county boundaries since the organization and much more numerous changes in the civil districts.

In February, 1853, Nathan B. Akin, Robert M. Cooper, James Farris, Alfred P. Buckner, C. Y. Hudson, were appointed commissioners to lay off that part of Lewis County which had been attached to Maury into districts. These districts at that time were Nos. 11, 12 and 13. The number of districts as now limited is twenty-five.

 Maury County | AHGP Tennessee

Source: History of Tennessee, Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1886