History of Henry County Tennessee United States of America

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Henry County was erected on November 7, 1821, from the Western District and named in honor of Patrick Henry.

John B. House was the first settler in 1819. Other early settlers were: Joel and Willis Hagler, Jas. Williams, William Wyatt, Rev. Benjamin Peoples, Rev. John Manly, Abraham and William Walters, James Hicks, Wm. Jones, Johannon Smith, Henry Wall, Reuben Bomar, Wm. Porter, Thomas Grey, Jesse Paschal, James and R. D. Caldwell, Samuel Rogers, Adam Rome, Henry Humphreys, Louis and Samuel McCorkle, Alex Harmon, Col. Richard Porter, Hugh W. Dunlap, John Brown, John Young, James and David D. Greer, and Dr. Jacob Brazwell.

The first session of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions was held at the house of Peter Wall on the first Monday in December, 1821.

Paris was laid out early in 1823 by commissioners appointed by the Legislature on lands secured from Joseph Blythe and Peter Ruff. The first court****house was built of logs.

The bench and bar of Henry County have included many distinguished men, among them Joshua Haskell, Wm. R. Harris, L. N. Hawkins, Jas. D. Porter, Andrew McCampbell, A. G. Hawkins, H. W. Dunlap, Wm. Arnold, Isham G. Harris, Will C. Dunlap, Sol C. Brazwell, Edwin Fitzgerald and Tom C. Rye. Other distinguished citizens are: John W. Crockett, eldest son of David Crockett, a member of Congress 1837-1841.

Howell E. Jackson, justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

John D. C. Atkins, congressman of the United States in 1837, and also of the Confederate States and again, after the war, congressman of the U. S. for five consecutive terms.

Dr. E. W. Grove, the millionaire medicine manufacturer.

Rev. Irl R. Hicks, the ?storm prophet? of St. Louis.

Porter Dunlap, state treasurer, 1815-1819, and now a member of the State Utilities Commission.

Statistics of Henry County: Population, 1920, 27,151. Assessed valuation of taxable property, 1921, $16,555,918. Area, 580 square miles. Number of farms, 4,286. Railway mileage, 60. County borders on Kentucky and is bounded on the east by the Tennessee River. Surface generally level and well timbered in some portions. Staple products are cotton, corn, wheat, tobacco, peanuts and oats. Well adapted to truck growing which is a profitable industry. Poultry business is profitable. Intersected by the L. & N. and the N. C. & St. L. railways. Paris, the county seat, has a population of 4,730. Fine public and private schools, good churches, two weekly newspapers, three banks, manufacturing establishments and prosperous stores. Has electric light plant and waterworks. Other towns are Henry, Springville, Puryear and Whitlock. Scholastic population of county, 9,005; high schools, 10; elementary schools, 100.

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

History of Henry County Tennessee

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