Tiptonville is a town in and the
county seat
A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...
of
Lake County,
Tennessee
Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...
, United States.
Its population was 2,439 as of the 2000 census and 4,464 in 2010, showing an increase of 2,025. It is also home to the
Northwest Correctional Complex
The Northwest Correctional Complex is a state prison located in Tiptonville, Tennessee, Tiptonville, Lake County, Tennessee. It is owned and operated by the Tennessee Department of Correction. The facility can hold 2,391 inmates at a range of sec ...
, a maximum security prison, known for once housing mass murderer
Jessie Dotson.
History
Tiptonville was established in 1857, but was not incorporated until 1900. It was designated the county seat when Lake County was created in 1870.
American Civil War
Tiptonville was the scene of the surrender of
Confederate
A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...
forces at the end of the
1862
Battle of Island Number Ten in the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
. The monument for this battle is located on
State Route 22 approximately three miles north of Tiptonville, since the island itself, the focal point of the battle, has been eroded by the flow of the Mississippi River and no longer exists.
Early 1900's
On March 19, 1901, Tiptonville was destroyed by a fire three days after a mob of white townsmen had
lynched
Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged or convicted transgressor or to intimidate others. It can also be an extreme form of in ...
Ike Fitzgerald, a black man accused of raping a white woman. Whites speculated that the blaze, which burned 30 buildings and residences, including all of the stores on the main street, had been deliberately set by African Americans in reprisal for Fitzgerald's lynching.
In 1904, the Dyersburg Northern Railroad was chartered. This line connected Dyersburg to
Hickman, KY, via Tiptonville, and began operating in 1910. The company changed their name to the
Chicago, Memphis, & Gulf Railroad in 1909.
Geography
Tiptonville is located at (36.377610, −89.476022),
on a small rise known as the Tiptonville Dome
and within the
New Madrid Seismic Zone. The
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...
is to the west and north, the
Kentucky Bend
The Kentucky Bend, variously called the New Madrid Bend, Madrid Bend, Bessie Bend, or Bubbleland, is an exclave of Fulton County, Kentucky that is encircled by the states of Tennessee and Missouri. The exclave is a portion of a peninsula defin ...
is to the north, and
Reelfoot Lake is to the east.
According to the
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...
, the town has a total area of , all land.
Demographics
As of the
census
A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...
of 2000, there were 2,439 people, 918 households, and 570 families residing in the town. The population density was . There were 992 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 62.57%
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 36.16%
African American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
, 0.33%
Native American, 0.08%
Asian, 0.12% from
other races, and 0.74% from two or more races.
Hispanic
The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
or
Latino of any race were 0.82% of the population.
There were 918 households, out of which 26.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 38.5% were
married couples
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...
living together, 19.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.9% were non-families. 35.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 19.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.23 and the average family size was 2.87.
In the town, the population was spread out, with 20.7% under the age of 18, 9.4% from 18 to 24, 28.3% from 25 to 44, 23.2% from 45 to 64, and 18.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females, there were 102.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 103.9 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $19,475, and the median income for a family was $24,929. Males had a median income of $25,089 versus $18,333 for females. The
per capita income
Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year.
In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...
for the town was $11,843. About 21.1% of families and 26.5% of the population were below the
poverty line
The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...
, including 43.0% of those under age 18 and 28.7% of those age 65 or over.
Media
A local newspaper, ''The Lake County Banner'', is published in Tiptonville.
Tiptonville is located in the southernmost portion of the
Cape Girardeau–
Paducah–
Harrisburg
Harrisburg ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat, seat of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, Dauphin County. With a population of 50, ...
television market.
Union City based
Low-Power Class A television station
A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth's s ...
WUWT-CD (channel 26) serves
Obion, and
Lake
A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...
counties (and Tiptonville) with programming from
Retro TV
Retro TV (stylized as retrotv), formerly known as Retro Television Network, is an American terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by Get After It Media. The network mainly airs classic television sitcoms and drama series f ...
, supplemented with programming from
The Family Channel airing on its second
digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...
. The main television broadcast stations serving extreme northwest Tennessee are:
*
WSIL-TV
WSIL-TV (channel 3) and KPOB-TV (channel 15) are television stations licensed respectively to Harrisburg, Illinois, and Poplar Bluff, Missouri, United States, serving as the American Broadcasting Company, ABC affiliates for Southern Illinois, So ...
3 Harrisburg (
ABC)
*
WPSD-TV
WPSD-TV (channel 6) is a television station licensed to Paducah, Kentucky, United States, serving as the NBC affiliate for Western Kentucky's Jackson Purchase region, Southern Illinois, the Missouri Bootheel, and northwest Tennessee. Own ...
6 Paducah (
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
)
*
WLJT 11
Lexington, TN (
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
)
*
KFVS-TV
KFVS-TV (channel 12) is a television station licensed to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, United States, serving Southeastern Missouri, the Jackson Purchase, Purchase area of Western Kentucky, Southern Illinois, and West Tennessee, Northwest Tennessee ...
12 Cape Girardeau (
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
)
**KFVS-TV 12.2 Cape Girardeau (
The CW
The CW Network, LLC (commonly referred to as The CW or simply CW) is an American commercial broadcast television network which is controlled by Nexstar Media Group through a 75% ownership interest. The network's name is derived from the firs ...
)
*
KBSI
KBSI (channel 23) is a television station licensed to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, United States, serving as the Fox affiliate for Southeastern Missouri, the Purchase area of Western Kentucky, Southern Illinois, and Northwest Tennessee. It is ...
23 Cape Girardeau (
Fox)
*
WUWT-CD 26 Union City (
RTV)
*
WKPD 29 Paducah (
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
)
*
WDKA 49 Paducah (
MNTV)
Education
*
Lake County High School
Notable people
*
Clifton Cates (1893–1970),
19th Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps
*
Carl Perkins
Carl Lee Perkins (April 9, 1932 – January 19, 1998)#nytimesobit, Pareles. was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. A rockabilly great and pioneer of rock and roll, he began his recording career at the Sun Studio, in Memphis, Tennes ...
, musician
*
Jerry Reese, former general manager of the
New York Giants
The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The ...
See also
*
List of municipalities in Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state, state located in the Southern United States. There are 346 municipalities in the state of Tennessee. Municipality, Municipalities in the state are designated as "cities" or "towns". As of the 2010 U.S. Census, 3,564, ...
References
External links
*
Reelfoot Lake Area Chamber of Commerce
{{authority control
Towns in Lake County, Tennessee
Towns in Tennessee
Tennessee populated places on the Mississippi River
County seats in Tennessee