Follow
Follow Us
Like Us
Please add profiles of those who were born, lived or died in Blount County, Tennessee.
Official Website
History
What is today Blount County was for many thousands of years Indian territory, passed down to the Cherokee tribe that claimed the land upon the arrival of white settlers in the late 18th century. Shortly thereafter, on July 11, 1795, Blount County became the tenth county established in Tennessee, when the Territorial Legislature voted to split adjacent Knox and Jefferson counties. The new county was named for the governor of the Southwest Territory, William Blount, and its county seat, Maryville, was named for his wife Mary Grainger Blount. This establishment, however, did little to settle the differences between white immigrants and Cherokee natives, which was, for the most part, not accomplished until an 1819 treaty.
Like a majority of East Tennessee counties, Blount County was opposed to secession on the eve of the Civil War. In Tennessee's Ordinance of Secession referendum on June 8, 1861, Blount Countians voted against secession by a margin of 1,766 to 414. Residents of pro-Union Cades Cove and pro-Confederate Hazel Creek (on the other side of the mountains in North Carolina) regularly launched raids against one another during the war.
Throughout its history the boundaries of Blount County have been altered numerous times, most notably in 1870 when a large swath of western Blount was split into Loudon and portions of other counties. Also, the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1936, while not affecting the legal boundaries of Blount County, has significantly impacted the use of southeastern Blount County.
Adjacent Counties
Cities, Towns and Communities
- Alcoa
- Alnwick
- Armona
- Binfield
- Cades Cove (formerly)
- Calderwood (formerly)
- Clover Hill
- Cold Springs
- Disco
- Dry Valley
- Eagleton Village
- Fairfield
- Friendsville
- Happy Valley
- Kinzel Springs
- Laws Chapel
- Maryville (County Seat)
- Melrose
- Meltron
- Mentor
- Mint
- Old Glory
- Rockford
- Seymour (part)
- Six Mile
- Sunshine
- Tallassee
- Top of the World
- Townsend
- Tremont (formerly)
- Walland
- Wildwood
Links
Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center
The Appalachian Trail (part)
Great Smoky Mountains Nat'l Park (part)