The second oldest county in Tennessee, Sumner County was formed by an act of the General Assembly of the State of North Carolina in November 1786. Sumner County was named for Revolutionary War soldier Colonel Jethro Sumner. The city of Gallatin was established in 1802 as the permanent county seat of Sumner County. The city was named after Albert Gallatin, Secretary of Treasury to two presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.
First Residents of Gallatin TN
President Andrew Jackson became one of the first to purchase a lot when the town was surveyed and platted in 1803. Andrew Jackson also founded the first general store in Gallatin TN. In the same year, the first courthouse and jail were built on the Gallatin TN square. In 1815, Gallatin TN was first incorporated and would later function under a Charter established by a 1953 Private Act of the TN State Legislature. Gallatin TN was built around an open square.
Civil War In Gallatin TN
At the beginning of the Civil War in Gallatin TN, the citizens were mostly opposed to secession from the Union. Eventually though, the citizens of Gallatin TN placed their nearly unanimous support in the Confederacy. When fighting began in April 1861, soldiers from Gallatin TN in Sumner County began joining ranks.
The Union Army first captured Gallatin TN in February 1862. The city of Gallatin TN was an important location because the railroad and Cumberland River were significant transportation routes which the Union Army wanted to control. In July of 1862, General John Hunt Morgan recaptured Gallatin TN and held it until Confederate forces fell back into Chattanooga TN. So many slaves went to Union lines that the Union established a contraband camp in Gallatin TN to house the slaves. They were fed with Union troop food, and worked for pay for the Union Army.
In November 1862 Union General Eleazar A. Paine took over Gallatin TN again and Union troops occupied it throughout the remainder of the Civil War. General Paine was cruel and was replaced in command before the end of the Civil War. In a diary, a Gallatin TN 16-year-old girl Alice Williamson told about General Paine's execution of suspected spies on the town square. The long occupation of Gallatin TN drained the area of its' resources, as Union troops lived off the land, and confiscated livestock and crops from Gallatin TN farms. By the end of the Civil War, there was social and economic breakdown and dislocation in Gallatin TN, as could be seen by a rise in crime rates, and the neglect and deterioration of fences. Occupational forces of the Union army stayed in Gallatin TN after the war.
As in many other areas of Sumner County, in the aftermath of fighting, freed people migrated from farms into Gallatin TN to gather in community and escape control of white people. At the same time, many whites moved from the town of Gallatin TN out to farms for a while. The formerly prosperous area that had mixed farming and livestock raising in Gallatin TN needed years to get reestablished.
Cholera Epidemic In Gallatin TN
In the summer of 1873 in Gallatin TN was devastated by an epidemic of cholera. In the month of June, 68 people died from cholera, including numerous children. While in Gallatin TN suffered cholera outbreaks before, 1873 had the highest number of fatalities. Cholera swept through the South from foreigners' arriving from Europe in New Orleans, and cholera contaminated travelers' carrying the disease with them by steamboat and railroads. Nashville TN had 603 fatal cases of cholera from June 7th-29th, with 72 people dying on one day.
Growth In Gallatin TN
Gradually through the 19th century Gallatin TN and the surroundings regained some steady growth. Gallatin TN was primarily agricultural until the mid 20th century. By 1970, industrialization resulted in only half of Sumner County population being considered rural. In 1992, Gallatin TN was surpassed by Hendersonville TN as the largest town in Sumner County, though Gallatin TN remains the county seat. Today Gallatin TN serves in part as a suburb of Nashville.
Tornado In Gallatin TN
On April 7 of 2006, a F4 tornado struck Gallatin TN, killing nine people and injuring 150. Volunteer State Community College in Gallatin TN sustained major damage. The tornado that struck Gallatin TN was part of the April 6th-8th, tornado outbreak of 2006.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|