History of Haywood County Tennessee United States of America

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Local History Notes:

Haywood County was erected on November 3, 1823, from the Western District, and was named in honor of Judge John Haywood.

The first settler was Col. Richard Nixon, who came from North Carolina in 1821. His grandson, Richard J. Nixon, was the first white child born in the county. Between 1821 and 1826 the following settled in the Nixon neighborhood: Gen. Wm. Conner, Jesse Mauldin, John Saunderlin, and Nicholas T. Perkins. Colonel Nixon's father, a Revolutionary soldier, received for his services a grant of 3,600 acres in Haywood County. He located his home on Nixon Creek, four miles east of Brownsville.

Such was Nixon's prominence that his house is mentioned in the act creating the county as the place of meeting of the courts until provision otherwise should be made by law. Here, on March 8, 1824, was organized the first Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions with the following magistrates in attendance: Richard Nixon, Clarence McGuire, Nicholas T. Perkins, Jonathan T. Jaycocks, Willie Dodd, B. H. Sanders, David Jeffries, Blackman Coleman. Richard Nixon was elected chairman; B. H. Sanders, clerk; John G. Caruthers, sheriff; William H. Henderson, register; Richard Nixon, trustee; Jonathan T. Jaycocks, ranger; and Julius Sanders, coroner.

The commissioners "to select and set apart a site for the seat of justice" were James Fentress, Benjamin Reynolds, and Robert Jetton. To them Thomas M. Johnson deeded fifty acres on December 14, 1824, for the county site which was named Brownsville. The first courthouse built in 1824-1825 was of logs and once imprisoned the notorious John A. Murrell, who escaped from it. It was succeeded by one of brick in 1845.

Statistics of Haywood County: Population, 1920, 25,386. Assessed valuation of taxable property, 1921, $10,816,331. Area, 570 square miles. Number of farms, 4,359. Railway mileage, 29. Drained by the Hatchie and Forked Deer rivers. Surface nearly level, with an abundant supply of timber. Soil fertile and capable of great diversification of crops. Fruit growing is a profitable business. Staple products are cotton, corn, fruit, grass and live stock. The L. & N. Railroad passes through the county. Brownsville, the county seat, has a population of 3,062 and is on the L. & N. Railroad. It has good schools and churches, manufacturing establishments, a weekly newspaper, two banks and is an important shipping point for cotton. Scholastic population of county, 9,332; high schools, 17; elementary schools, 76.

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

Biographies:

David Alexander Nunn, representative, was born in Haywood county, Tenn., July 26, 1833; son of David and Alice (Koonce) Nunn, both natives of North Carolina. David A. Nunn was a student at the College of West Tennessee, Jackson; was graduated from the Lebanon Law school in 1853, and began practice at Brownsville, Tenn. He was married in 1853 to Mary. E. Thompson, who died in 1873, and secondly, in 1875, to Tennessee Whitehead of Haywood county. He was a member of the Whig and Republican party, and was a presidential elector on the Bell and Everett ticket in 1860, and on the Lincoln and Johnson ticket in 1864. Immediately after the war he was elected state senator. He represented Haywood county in the state legislature, 1866-67; was the Republican representative from the Memphis district in the 40th congress, 1868-69; was defeated for the 41st congress in 1868, and represented the ninth district of Tennessee in the 43d congress, 1873-75. He was appointed by President Grant U.S. minister resident to Equador in 1875. He was secretary of the state of Tennessee, 1881-85, and collector of internal revenue for the fifth district of Tennessee, 1889-93 and 1897-1901. He resigned in 1901, after the death of President McKinley, and resumed the practice of law at Brownsville, Tenn.

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

History of Haywood County Tennessee

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