Franklin County is a county in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is located on the eastern boundary of Middle Tennessee in the southern part of the state. As of the 2010 census, the population was 41,052. Its county seat is

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

. Franklin County is part of the Tullahoma- Manchester, TN Micropolitan Statistical Area.

History

White settlement began around 1800, and the county was formally organized in 1807 and named for Benjamin Franklin.John Abernathy Smith,
Franklin County
" ''Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture''. Retrieved: 28 June 2013. During the next several decades, the size of the county was reduced several times by reorganizations which created the neighboring counties of Coffee County, Moore County, and Grundy County. One of the most notable early settlers was frontiersman

Davy Crockett David Crockett (August 17, 1786 – March 6, 1836) was an American folk hero, frontiersman, soldier, and politician. He is often referred to in popular culture as the "King of the Wild Frontier". He represented Tennessee in the U.S. House of Re ...

, who came about 1812 but is not thought to have remained long. The University of the South, founded by the Episcopal Church, was organized just before the Civil War. It began full operations shortly after hostilities ceased. It encompasses a full university and theological seminary. The University of Tennessee Space Institute is also located in the county. The area became strongly secessionist before the war. Franklin County formally threatened to secede from Tennessee and join Alabama if Tennessee did not leave the union, which the state did when forced to take sides by Abraham Lincoln. This contrasted sharply with the situation in not distant Winston County, Alabama, which was largely pro-Union and provided more volunteers for the Union than the Confederacy. During 1863, the Army of Tennessee retreated through the county, leaving it more or less under Union control for the rest of the war, although some guerrilla warfare still took place.

Isham G. Harris Isham Green Harris (February 10, 1818July 8, 1897) was an American politician who served as the 16th governor of Tennessee from 1857 to 1862, and as a U.S. senator from 1877 until his death. He was the state's first governor from West Tennessee. ...

, the Confederate governor of Tennessee, was from Franklin County. After having his political rights restored after the war, he was chosen to represent the state in the United States Senate. During the temperance (anti-liquor) agitations of the late 19th century, residents discovered that by a quirk of state law, liquor could be sold only in incorporated towns. As a result, all of the county's towns abolished their charters in order to prohibit the sale of alcohol. In the 20th century, Franklin County benefited from the flood control and power generation activities of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), built by the President Franklin D. Roosevelt administration during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. The TVA helped bring new industry to the area. It also created opportunities for water recreation by making new lakes, but at the same time also displaced many county residents from their soon to be submerged homes. The establishment of the federal Arnold Engineering Development Center, which is partly within the county, helped spur economic growth and technical development. The

interstate highway The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. Th ...

system barely touched the county, but it did provide valuable access on Interstate 24 to nearby

Chattanooga Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, ...

. Two notable figures who were born in the county early in the twentieth century were singer/entertainer Dinah Shore and entrepreneur/philanthropist John Templeton. He later became a British subject and was awarded a knighthood. During the last decades of the 19th and the first of the 20th, Tennessee, like other southern states, passed laws and constitutional amendments establishing

Jim Crow The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...

: racial segregation in public facilities, restrictions of voting for blacks, and similar measures. There were few violent disturbances in Franklin County compared to many other localities, but it was not until a decade after the historic '' Brown v. Board of Education'' court decision that the county's schools were desegregated in 1964 when a lawsuit was won in Sewanee, Tennessee. Considerable industrial growth occurred in the county in the last decades of the 20th century, including the construction of a large automobile engine plant by the

Nissan , trade name, trading as Nissan Motor Corporation and often shortened to Nissan, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. The company sells ...

corporation in Decherd. An emphasis on tourism also developed, based on Civil War history and local scenic attractions such as the dogwood forests, for which an annual festival is held.

Geography

According to the

U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (3.7%) is water. Franklin is one of Tennessee's southern tier of counties and abuts the Alabama border. It has a varied geography, extending from the southeast corner of the Nashville Basin over the

Highland Rim The Highland Rim is a geographic term for the area in Tennessee surrounding the Central Basin. Nashville is largely surrounded by higher terrain in all directions. Geologically, the Central Basin is a dome. The Highland Rim is a cuesta surround ...

and up onto the

Cumberland Plateau The Cumberland Plateau is the southern part of the Appalachian Plateau in the Appalachian Mountains of the United States. It includes much of eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, and portions of northern Alabama and northwest Georgia. The terms "Alle ...

, for a difference in elevation of about . The county is well watered and forested, and except for the steeper areas of the plateau is well suited for agriculture, having a long growing season and mild winters. Sewanee Natural Bridge is a high natural sandstone arch with a span of . Lost Cove Cave, located near Sherwood, is in the Carter State Natural Area. One of its entrances is known as the Buggytop Cave Entrance and another entrance is known as the Peter Cave Entrance. The Buggytop Entrance is wide and high and opens at the base of an overhanging bluff high. The cave stream cascades down from the mouth and drops in less than .

Adjacent counties

* Coffee County (north) * Grundy County (northeast) * Marion County (east) * Jackson County, Alabama (south) * Madison County, Alabama (southwest) * Lincoln County (west) * Moore County (northwest)

State protected areas

*Bear Hollow Wildlife Management Area *Carter State Natural Area *

Franklin State Forest Franklin may refer to: People * Franklin (given name) * Franklin (surname) * Franklin (class), a member of a historical English social class Places Australia * Franklin, Tasmania, a township * Division of Franklin, federal electoral divi ...

(part) *Hawkins Cove State Natural Area *Mingo Swamp Wildlife Management Area *Natural Bridge State Natural Area *Owl Hollow Mill Wildlife Management Area *

South Cumberland State Park South Cumberland State Park is a state park in the middle and southeast portions of Tennessee on the Cumberland Plateau. The park is one of Tennessee's newer state parks, established in 1978. It is a collection of nine discrete tracts scattered ...

(part) *

Tims Ford State Park Tims Ford State Park, also known as Tims Ford State Rustic Park, is a state park in Franklin County, in the U.S. state of Tennessee. The state park is situated on the north shore of Tims Ford Lake near the north escarpment of the Cumberland Plat ...

*Walls of Jericho State Natural Area

Other protected areas

Tims Ford Lake Tims Ford Lake is a reservoir run by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in southern middle Tennessee. The lake encompasses 10,700 acres (16.7 square miles) and approximately 250 miles of shoreline. The Tims Ford Dam was named from an early ...

Woods Reservoir Woods Reservoir is a 3,600 acre reservoir created by the United States Army Corps of Engineers for use as a cooling system for the United States Air Force's Arnold Engineering Development Center. The US Air Force and Arnold Engineering Development ...

Demographics

2020 census

As of the

2020 United States census The United States census of 2020 was the twenty-fourth decennial United States census. Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2020. Other than a pilot study during the 2000 census, this was the first U.S. census to of ...

, there were 42,774 people, 16,326 households, and 11,197 families residing in the county.

2000 census

As of the census of 2000, there were 39,270 people, 15,003 households, and 11,162 families residing in the county. The population density was . There were 16,813 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 92.20% White or

European American European Americans (also referred to as Euro-Americans) are Americans of European ancestry. This term includes people who are descended from the first European settlers in the United States as well as people who are descended from more recent Eu ...

, 5.49% Black or African American, 0.20% Native American, 0.41%

Asian Asian may refer to: * Items from or related to the continent of Asia: ** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia ** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia ** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...

, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.60% from other races, and 1.06% from two or more races. 1.58% of the population were Hispanic or

Latino Latino or Latinos most often refers to: * Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America * Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States * The people or cultures of Latin America; ** Latin A ...

of any race. In the county, the population was spread out, with 23.00% under the age of 18, 10.90% from 18 to 24, 26.40% from 25 to 44, 24.40% from 45 to 64, and 15.20% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 94.80 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.80 males. The median income for a household in the county was $36,044, and the median income for a family was $42,279. Males had a median income of $31,506 versus $21,479 for females. The per capita income for the county was $17,987. About 9.60% of families and 13.20% of the population were below the poverty line, including 17.00% of those under age 18 and 13.00% of those age 65 or over.

Communities

Cities

Cowan Cowan or Cowans may refer to: Places Australia * Cowan, New South Wales * Cowan Creek, a waterway to the north of Sydney, Australia * Division of Cowan, a federal division of the Australian House of Representatives, in Western Australia * Hundr ...

* Decherd * Tullahoma (partial) *

(county seat)

Towns

* Estill Springs * Huntland * Monteagle (also in Marion and Grundy Counties)

Census-designated place

Sewanee Sewanee may refer to: * Sewanee, Tennessee * Sewanee: The University of the South * ''The Sewanee Review'', an American literary magazine established in 1892 * Sewanee Natural Bridge * Saint Andrews-Sewanee School See also * Suwanee (disambiguati ...

Unincorporated communities

* Alto * Asia * Beech Hill * Belvidere * Broadview * Midway * Shady Grove *

Sherwood Sherwood may refer to: Places Australia *Sherwood, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane *Sherwood, South Australia, a locality *Shire of Sherwood, a former local government area of Queensland *Electoral district of Sherwood, an electoral district from ...

Notable people

* Stephen Adams (1807–1857), United States Senator and Representative * James Patton Anderson, (1822–1873), born in Franklin County,

Confederate Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...

general *

Jimmy Bedford James Howard Bedford (January 30, 1940 – August 7, 2009) was responsible for overseeing the production of Jack Daniel's Tennessee whiskey and ensuring the consistent flavor of the product in his 20 years serving as the distillery's sixth mas ...

(1940–2009), sixth master distiller at Jack Daniel's.Hevesi, Dennis
"Jimmy Bedford, Guardian of Jack Daniel’s, Dies at 69"
'' The New York Times'', August 10, 2009. Accessed August 11, 2009. *

Phillip Fulmer Phillip Edward Fulmer Sr. (born September 1, 1950) is a former American football player, coach, and athletic director at the University of Tennessee. He served as head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers football team from 1992 to 2008, compiling ...

(b. 1950), former head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers football team *

Bernie Moore Bernie Hawthorne Moore (April 30, 1895 – November 6, 1967) was an American college football, basketball, track and field coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Mercer University (1926–1928) and Louisi ...

(1895–1967), commissioner of the Southeastern Conference * Dinah Shore (1916–1994), singer, actress, and television celebrity * John Templeton (1912–2008), investor and philanthropist

Politics

Franklin County has become a Republican stronghold in recent years. The last Democrat to carry this county was

Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic Part ...

in 2000. Prior to 2004, the only Republican to win the county in a 20th-century presidential election was Richard Nixon in 1972.

References

External links

Official site

Franklin County Chamber of Commerce

Franklin County Schools

Franklin County, TNGenWeb
– genealogy resources
History of Franklin County
transcribed from ''Goodspeed's History of Tennessee'' (1886–1887)
Franklin County Landforms
* {{Coord, 35, 09, N, 086, 06, W, type:adm2nd_region:US-TN, display=title 1807 establishments in Tennessee Populated places established in 1807 Tullahoma, Tennessee micropolitan area Middle Tennessee Counties of Appalachia