So we've been doing all this talking of Weakley County, I thought maybe we ought to slow down and give a bit of context, even above and beyond the maps I showed earlier.
| Founded | October 21, 1823 |
|---|---|
| Named for | Robert Weakley[1] |
| Seat | Dresden |
| Largest city | Martin |
| Area | |
| • Total | 582 sq mi (1,507 km2) |
| • Land | 580 sq mi (1,503 km2) |
| • Water | 1.4 sq mi (4 km2), .28% |
| Population | |
| • (2010) | 35,021 |
| • Density | 60/sq mi (23/km²) |
From the demographics section on Wikipedia, it looks like the county grew from about 5,000 in 1830 steadily to 32,000 in 1900, and has been pretty much holding steady since then. The towns Dukedom, Latham, and Palmersville are all unincorporated, so they were more of a gathering place for the local farmers than any sort of town. This gives a bit of context to some of the travel decisions and other documentation coming out of Dresden for these ancestors.
 |
| Allen Shanklin bought in District 4. Sarah Young's father Harrison Young was farming in District 13. James A. Maxey was born and raised in District 4 (Edward Maxey and Mahala Morgan). Alfred Byars was farming in District 5 when his daughter Mary M Byars was born. The Breedens were in Houston/Stewart county, but when Jesse moved in with James Priestley, he was in District 17. Joseph Washington Reed in Civil District 17. Matilda Chambers was raised in Civitl District 17. Map From. |
I read somewhere that in the 1800s, West Tennessee was the primary grower of corn in the early United States. It's the original Nebraska/Iowa! Then it added tobacco and soybeans.
If you are interested in reading some various Weakley County Biographies, look no further than The History of Weakley County, Tennessee, published by Goodspeed Publishing in 1887.
If you want an excellent Portal on Weakley County, MaryCarol is the person to introduce you. She introduced me to this excellent compilation of Weakley County Cemeteries.
Mormons preach in Weakley County in 1836 next to Thompson Creek Baptist Church. The story about that even follows through the discussion of the Murphy Family who were members of the Donner Party.
Just another collection of Weakley County notes, from the folks at Genealogy Trails.
Landing page from the State of Tennessee on Weakley County.
Apparently, there was a fire at the Weakley County courthouse in 1948, so some of the records are getting crowd-sourced!
Sorry for such a hodge-podge, but you've got to start somewhere!
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