Jackson Purchase Historical Society

The podcast features our Summer Meeting speaker, Dieter Ullrich.   Mr. Ullrich holds a Masters in Science in Library/Archival Science and a Masters in Arts in History.  He is currently the Special Collections Librarian/Archivist of the Pogue Library at Murray State University.  Among other publications, Mr. Ullrich has written “They Met At Lochridge Mills” (West Tennessee Historical Society, Vol. 51, 1998 Annual Issue, pages 1-20) and spoken about this battle before other historical groups.

UPDATE: You can now listen to the podcast here on the site or via your subscription in iTunes.

Weakley County was created October 23, 1823 and named for Robert Weakley III, 1764-1845) Speaker of the Tennessee Senate. It is located in west Tennessee bounded on the north by Fulton and Graves counties in Kentucky, on the east by Henry County, on the south by Carroll and Gibson counties, and on the west by Obion County.

The act which created the county specified that the judicial courts were to be held in the home of John Terrell, an early settler, until a court house could be built. The courts were held in Terrell’s house and that of Benjamin Bondurant until April 1828.

Dresden, incorporated in 1827, is the county seat. Martin, the county’s largest city, was incorporated in 1874 and is the home of the University of Tennessee at Martin.

Among its famous citizens are former Tennessee Governor Ned Ray McWherter and Mike Snider, county humorist, singer, Grand Old Opry member and star of the television series, Hee Haw.

(This posting created from the online Tennessee Encyclopedia and the Jackson Purchase Historical Society Sesquicentennial Publication, 1969)

Obion County is one of 95 in Tennessee created in 1823 and included was is now Lake County until 1870.  It is bounded on the north by Fulton County Kentucky, on the west by Lake County Tennessee, on the east by Weakley County Tennessee and on the south by both Dyer and Gibson Counties Tennessee.   It is generally considered to be named after the Obion River; Obion thought to be an Indian word meaning “many forks”.

Troy was the first county seat and the first incorporated town (March 1, 1843) in the county.   Davy Crockett was there when Troy was laid out as county seat.  Crockett would go on to represent Obion County in the U. S. House of Representatives.  Crockett’s fame as a bear killer (his record was 103) was made in Obion County.

Union City is now the county seat.  Laid out in 1854 on land owned by General George Gibbs, Union City came by its name because it was where the Nashville and Northwest Railroad and the Mobile and Ohio Railroad met.

(This posting created from the online Tennessee Encyclopedia and the Jackson Purchase Historical Society Sesquicentennial Publication, 1969)