Franklin County, Tennessee

Franklin County Education, Geography, and History

Franklin County is a county located in the state of Tennessee. Based on the 2010 census, the population was 41,052. Its county seat is Winchester.

Franklin County is part of the Tullahoma-Manchester, TN Micropolitan Statistical Area.

Etymology - Origin of Franklin County Name

Named in honor of Benjamin Franklin (1706- 1790), American printer, diplomat, author, philosopher, scientist, statesman and member of the committee to draft the Declaration of Independence.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: CensusBureau Quick Facts

History of Franklin County

Created 1807 from Rutherford County and Indian lands; named in honor of Benjamin Franklin (1706- 1790), American printer, diplomat, author, philosopher, scientist, statesman and member of the committee to draft the Declaration of Independence.

Franklin County was formed in 1807 from Rutherford County and Indian lands. (Acts of Tennessee 1807, Chapter 72).

Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture
The Tennessee General Assembly established Franklin County in 1807, following the extinction of Cherokee claims west of the Cumberland Plateau between the Duck and Tennessee Rivers. Mountain lands were added after Native American claims ended in 1819. Franklin County was named for Benjamin Franklin, whose name had already been borrowed in 1784 for East Tennessee's abortive state. The county seat was named for General James Winchester. The county?#8364;™s population totaled 39,270 in 2000.

Whites and blacks had visited the area, notably during the 1794 Nickajack expedition, and speculators had claimed large tracts still in Native American hands, but creation of the county opened the way for settlers, mostly from East Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia. Among the first settlers were William Russell on Boiling Fork near Cowan and Jesse Bean in the southwest part of the county. Russell's house served as the courthouse until Winchester was laid out in 1810. Davy Crockett made his home near Bean between 1813 and 1817. By the time of the War of 1812, Franklin County had enough settlers to answer Andrew Jackson's call for volunteers to oppose the Creek uprising in Alabama. Find more from the Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture: FRANKLIN COUNTY

Geography: Land and Water

Franklin is one of Tennessee's southern tier of counties and abuts the Alabama border. It has a varied geography, extending from the southeast corner of the Nashville Basin over the Highland Rim and up onto the Cumberland Plateau, for a difference in elevation of about 1300 ft. The county is well watered and forested, and except for the steeper areas of the plateau is well suited for agriculture, having a long growing season and mild winters.

As reported by the Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 576 square miles (1,491 km²), of which, 555 square miles (1,436 km²) of it is land and 21 square miles (55 km²) of it (3.69%) is water.

Neighboring Counties

Bordering counties are as follows:

• Coffee County (north)
• Grundy County (northeast)
• Marion County (east)
• Jackson County, Alabama (south)
• Madison County, Alabama (southwest)
• Lincoln County (west)
• Moore County (northwest)

Education

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