History of Coffee County Tennessee United States of America

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COFFEE, a county in the S. E. central part of Tennessee, has an area of about 220 square miles. It is drained by the head streams of Duck river. The surface is diversified and elevated, the county occupying the lower plateau of Cumberland mountain.

The soil is fertile. Indian corn, wheat, oats, sweet potatoes, cattle, and butter are the staples. In 1850 the county produced 433,215 bushels of corn; 5112 of wheat; 70,305 of oats, and 44,668 pounds of butter. It contained 21 churches; 900 pupils attending public schools, and 60 attending academies or other schools. It is intersected by the Nashville and Chattanooga railroad, and by the turnpike leading from Fayetteville to Warren county. Capital, Manchester. Population, 8351, of whom 7084 were free, and 1267, slaves.

Coffee County was organized on May 2, 1846, and was originally composed of Warren, Franklin and Bedford. It was named in honor of Gen. John Coffee. By act of the Legislature passed on January 8, 1836, the following named commissioners were appointed to run the boundary lines of the new county and to locate the county seat, viz.: Hugh Davidson, Alexander Blakely, David Hickerson, Thomas Powers, Wm. Bradshaw and Lecil Bobo. They selected a site on the lands of James Evans and Andrew Haynes, who, on March 1, 1836, donated two hundred acres to the county for this purpose. In March, 1836, also, the following named men were elected magistrates from the ten civil districts into which the county had been divided, viz.: Adam Rayburn, John G. Walker, Alfred Ashley, John Lusk, Larkin Burnham, Robert S. Rayburn, Alexander Downey, James Yell, Gabriel Jones, William Hodge, Johnson Garrett, Josiah Berry, John Charles, Wm. Montgomery, Wade Stroud, Lecil Bobo, John W. Camden, Jesse Wooten, Jas. M. Arnold, and Wm. Holmes.

Their first session was on May 2, 1836, at the Baptist meeting house on the site of Manchester. John W. Camden was made chairman and the following officers qualified: Daniel McLean, county court clerk; John Bell, sheriff; James A. Brantley, register; Moses F. White, trustee; and Wm. P. Harris, coroner.

The sessions of the county court were held in the log house used by the Baptists as a church until 1837, when a courthouse was erected.

The circuit court was organized in June, 1836, with Samuel Anderson as a judge and James Whiteside, attorney general. Its sessions were held in the log house of a private citizen.

It is said that Manchester, the county seat, was named for Manchester, England, because it was thought that the Coffee County capital would, in time, be famed like its imagined prototype, for its iron manufactures.

Near Manchester, in the forks of Duck River, is what is known as Stone Fort, evidently a fortification of some prehistoric race. It encloses an area of thirty-seven acres and from its walls of loose stones covered with earth have grown trees of great age.

Statistics of Coffee County: Population, 1920, 17,344. Assessed valuation of taxable property, 1921, $9,405,734. Area, about 350 square miles. Number of farms, 2,314. Railway mileage, 29. This county is situated at the western base of the Cumberland Mountains, and is traversed by the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway. The soil is a mixture of loam and sand, with a good clay subsoil, and is easily worked. Fruits and vegetables can be produced in great abundance. Tobacco cultivation is becoming extensive. Staple products are wheat, corn, oats, tobacco, live stock. The county is drained by Duck River and tributaries. Manchester, the county seat, has a population of 1,114, is on the north fork of Duck River and on the N. C. & St. L. Railway. It has churches, schools, banks, two weekly newspapers, waterworks, and many prosperous business establishments. Tullahoma, on the main line of the N. C. & St. L. Railway, has a population of 3,479, has fine schools and churches, banks, a weekly newspaper, an electric light plant, and numerous manufacturing establishments and prosperous stores. Scholastic population of county, 5,812; high schools, 3; elementary schools, 61.

From: Moore, John Trotwood. Tennessee, The Volunteer State, 1769-1923. Vol. 1. Chicago, IL, USA: S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1923.

Biographies:

James M. Carlisle, educator, was born in Coffee county, Tenn., May 11, 1851, son of James M. and May (Bird) Carlisle. He was educated at Cumberland university; graduated at Beech Grove college, Tennessee, A.B., 1876, and was professor of mathematics in that institution, 1876-78. He had charge of an academy in Lincoln county, Tenn., for a short time and then removed to Texas, where he became principal of a private normal school at Whitesboro. He occupied this position for more than seven years, and in 1887 was elected superintendent of the Corsicana city schools. He was elected in 1890 superintendent of Fort Worth city schools and in 1891 was chosen superintendent of public instruction for the state of Texas, and successively re-elected by popular vote to that position.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Coffee County Tennessee

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