History of Moore County Tennessee United States of America

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Moore County was erected on December 14, 1871, 'out of portions of Lincoln, Franklin, Coffee and Bedford counties, to be called the county of Moore, in honor of the late Gen. Wm. Moore,' who was one of the early settlers of Lincoln County, a soldier of the War of 1812, and a member for several terms of the General Assembly.

This county was established in violation of a provision of the constitution which requires that each county shall have not less than 275 square miles. The reason was that one of its lines was laid out less than eleven miles from the courthouse of Lincoln County, which promptly demanded enough of the territory of the new county to place the boundary line at the proper distance thus reducing the area of Moore County to 160 square miles.

The first settlements were made about 1800, by pioneers from North Carolina and Georgia. David Crockett, attracted by the game, once lived here, on the head waters of East Mulberry Creek. Thos. Roundtree, one of the first settlers, owned the land on which Lynchburg is situated. He laid off the town about 1820 and it was incorporated in 1841.

Moses Crawford, one of the first settlers, is authority for the statement that there was in the early days a den of thieves near Lynchburg and that 'stealing was as common as going to church.' It became necessary, therefore, to have a vigilance committee to maintain law and order. Offenses were punished at the whipping post. A small, weakly man named Lynch, who was living there, was so frequently chosen to wield the lash that in time the place was called Lynchburg, so tradition says.

The first County Court met at the house of Tolley and Eaton, in Lynchburg, in June, 1873, and in the same year Lynchburg was selected as the county seat.

In the early days camp meetings were held at the camp grounds. Enoch's camp ground, four miles northeast of Lynchburg, was a famous meeting place of the Methodists in those times.

Statistics of Moore County: Population, 1920, 4,491. Assessed valuation of taxable property, 1921, $1,900,629. Area, 170 square miles. Number of farms, 846. Railway mileage, none. It is drained by Elk River and its surface is hilly and partly covered with timber. Soil fertile and principal products are corn, wheat, oats and live stock. Lynchburg, county seat, has a population of 365, good schools and churches, a weekly newspaper, two banks, and flourishing business establishments. It is noted as a mule market. Scholastic population of county, 1,600; high schools, one; elementary schools, twenty.

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

History of Moore County Tennessee

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