Anderson County, named in honor of Judge Joseph Anderson, was created by an Act of the General Assembly on November 6, 1801, formed from parts of Knox and Grainger Counties. The Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions was organized on December 15, 1801, at the house of John Denham, Sr. with Hugh Montgomery, William Underwood, Frederick Miller, James Grant, John Kirby, William McKamy, Joseph Sinclair, James Butler, William Standifer and Solomon Massingale as the justice of the peace. These Court Minutes are the first for the County and represent the best history of the early days for the area. These minutes are the day to day activities for the county and its people. It is a record of the land transactions, wills, road orders, orphan records and in many cases naturalization records. This is a true reference book for those who will be researching this area of Tennessee.
Example of some of the entries:
September sessions 1803: Freeman Stilt comes into open court and enters into bond in the sum of five hundred dollars and give Robert Sinclair & John Baker securities to keep the county of Anderson indemnified from the maintance [sic] of a child by him begotten on the body of Jemma Sterman alias Thacker.
March 1808: A deed from Benjamin C. Parker to Frederick Sadler for sixty acres of land was acknowledged in open court and ordered to be registered.
WPA Records
paper, 328 pp.
101-TN1123
