Early Businesses in Wilson County
The first store in the county was kept
by John Herrod in 1800, but the location of his store cannot be
learned. It was a small mercantile establishment indeed, the
stock consisting of a few standard articles of staple groceries,
ammunition, nails, tobacco and wheat, all of which were brought
from the older States on pack mules or horses. Salt sold Horn $8
to $10 per bushel; nails at 25 cents per pound, and everything
else in proportion.
Herrod also kept tavern at his store,
they both being at his dwelling-house. A short time afterward
George C. Hodge and Solomon George opened similar stores, or
ordinaries as they were then called, in the neighborhood of
Smith Fork. Other early store-keepers were John Gibson, Samuel
Tillman, Huldah Sherrill, Richard Bryan, William C. Mitchell,
George Cummings, John Lumpkins, John Brown, Isham Davis, George
Jarrett, Carter White, William Stewart, Elisha Dismukes, Higdon
Harrington and David Martin, all of whose stores were located in
various portions of the county outside of the county seat.
So far as known, the oldest house now
standing in the county was built by Samuel Sherrill, on Barton
Creek, about two miles southwest of Lebanon. It was built
sometime in 1800, of hewn cedar logs, the doors and shutters
being made of split boards, smoothed with the drawing-knife, and
fastened together with nails made by hand in house is strong and
still serviceable.
Josiah S. McClaim, who was county clerk
for a period of over forty years, now dead, is said to have been
the first male white child born in the county, he having been
born in January, 1797.
Chancery Court of Wilson County
Lunsford M.
Bramlett, 1836-40
Bromfield L. Ridley, 1840-61
John P. Steele, 1865-70
Charles G. Smith, 1870-75 |
Horace Lurton, 1875-77
B. J. Tarver, 1877-78
George E. Seay. 1878-86 |
Clerk and
Masters
John H. Dew,
1836-38
James B. Rutland, 1838-50
John K. Howard, 1850-61
Orville Greene, 1865-70 |
Haywood Y. Riddle,
1870-76
R. P. McClain, 1876-83
R. C. Sanders, 1883-86 |
Wilson County has furnished more than
her quota of public men to the State and county. Among the more
prominent was Hon. James C. Jones, who served as governor of the
State from 1841 to 1845, and as United States senator from 1852
to 1858.
Congressmen
Samuel Hogg
Robert L. Caruthers
Robert Hatton |
W. B. Campbell
Edward I. Golladay
H. Y. Riddle |
Members of the
Bar
Robert Cantrell
E. P. Thompson
W. H. Williamson
B. J. Tarver
P. K. Williamson
R. C. Sanders
R. P. McClain
E. E. Beard
Lillard Thompson
J. S. Gribble |
W. R. Chambers
J. T. Lane
J. P. Eastman
J. C. Sanders
Samuel Gallaway
Robinson McMillin
Sam Houston
Alexander Campbell
Abraham Caruthers |
Wilson County |
AHGP Tennessee
Source: History of Tennessee, Goodspeed
Publishing Company, 1886
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