Warren County is a
county
A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...
located on the Cumberland Plateau in Middle Tennessee, one of the three Grand Divisions of the
U.S. state of
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 ...
. As of the
2020 census, the population was 40,953. Its
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 ...
is
McMinnville.
Warren County comprises the McMinnville, TN
Micropolitan Statistical Area.
History
Warren County was created in 1807 from a portion of
White County, and named for
Joseph Warren
Joseph Warren (June 11, 1741 – June 17, 1775), a Founding Father of the United States, was an American physician who was one of the most important figures in the Patriot (American Revolution), Patriot movement in Boston, Massachusetts, Bos ...
(1741–1775), a militiaman and major general in the American Revolution.
The revised
Tennessee State Constitution of 1834 stated that no new county could be within of the county seat of the county from which it was formed. The boundaries of five counties formed from Warren—
Grundy,
Van Buren,
Cannon
A cannon is a large-caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder during th ...
,
Coffee
Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...
and
DeKalb— were exactly 12 miles from Warren's county seat, McMinnville, giving the county its distinctive round shape.
Warren County was the site of several
saltpeter mines. Saltpeter is the main ingredient of gunpowder and was obtained by leaching the earth from several local caves. Hubbards Cave, near Camp Woodlee, was a major operation. Henshaw Cave on Cardwell Mountain (now part of Cumberland Caverns) and Solomon Saltpeter Cave on Ben Lomond Mountain were relatively small mining operations. Most saltpeter mining occurred during the War of 1812 and in the Civil War.
The county was largely developed for farming of such crops as tobacco and hemp. While numerous families held enslaved African Americans as workers, they were a minority of the population. Warren County citizens voted to secede from the Union before the American War Between the States in February 1861 in a state referendum. Voters in Tennessee overall decided to remain in the Union in that time. When President
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...
demanded that Tennessee provide troops to fight against the Southern states in April 1861, it was viewed as a violation of Article 3, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution. At a new referendum in June 1861, Warren County again, along with a majority of Tennessee's counties, voted for secession. Unlike in some states, slavery was not listed as one of the reasons in Tennessee's secession proclamation.
Men from Warren County and surrounding upper Cumberland region formed and served in many units in Tennessee's defense, including the 16th Tennessee Infantry led by McMinnville resident Col.
John Houston Savage. The Confederate monument next to the county courthouse is dedicated in the memory of the men who served and died in the 16th and lists their names.
Men from Warren County and upper Cumberland area joined the 16th TN Infantry Regiment, among others. Their flag is on display at the Texas 'Civil War' Museum in Fort Worth TX.
Geography
According to the
U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (0.3%) is water.
The county lies long the Eastern
Highland Rim, near the Cumberland Plateau.
The
Caney Fork forms part of the county's borders with White and DeKalb counties to the north. The
Rocky River, a tributary of the Caney Fork, forms part of the county's eastern border with Van Buren County. The
Collins River, also a tributary of the Caney Fork, flows through the county, and the
Barren Fork, a tributary of the Collins, flows through McMinnville.
Cardwell Mountain is an imposing natural feature located five miles due east of McMinnville. It is an erosional remnant of the nearby
Cumberland Plateau. Cardwell Mountain is noted for
Cumberland Caverns, an exceptionally long cave which lies underneath the mountain.
Adjacent counties
*
DeKalb County (north)
*
White County (northeast)
*
Van Buren County (east)
*
Sequatchie County (southeast)
*
Grundy County (south)
*
Coffee County (southwest)
*
Cannon County (northwest)
Major highways
*
U.S. Route 70S
*
State Route 8
*
State Route 30
*
State Route 55
*
State Route 56
*
State Route 108
*
State Route 136
State protected areas
*
Hubbard's Cave State Natural Area
* Morrison Meadow State Natural Area
*
Rock Island State Park (part)
Demographics
2020 census
As of the
2020 United States census, there were 40,953 people, 15,727 households, and 10,167 families residing in the county.
2000 census
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 38,276 people, 15,181 households, and 10,824 families residing in the county. The
population density
Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...
was . There were 16,689 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 91.66%
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 ...
, 3.16%
Black
Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...
or
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 ...
, 0.21%
Native American, 0.42%
Asian, 0.05%
Pacific Islander
Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...
, 3.56% from
other races, and 0.94% from two or more races. 4.92% of the population were
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.
There were 15,181 households, out of which 31.90% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.20% 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, 11.20% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28.70% were non-families. 25.00% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.50% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.47 and the average family size was 2.93.
In the county, the population was spread out, with 24.20% under the age of 18, 9.10% from 18 to 24, 29.40% from 25 to 44, 23.40% from 45 to 64, and 13.90% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 96.50 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.70 males.
The median income for a household in the county was $30,920, and the median income for a family was $37,835. Males had a median income of $28,409 versus $20,863 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 county was $15,759. About 13.00% of families and 16.60% 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 20.40% of those under age 18 and 17.20% of those age 65 or over.
Recreation
Rock Island State Park is located on the northeastern border with
White County. This park is the site of the
Tennessee Valley Authority's
Great Falls Dam, includes many
hiking trails, and offers
whitewater rafting.
Cumberland Caverns, located east of McMinnville under Cardwell Mountain, is Tennessee's largest
show cave. It is the second longest mapped cave in Tennessee with of passages, and displays some of the largest
cave
Caves or caverns are natural voids under the Earth's Planetary surface, surface. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. Exogene caves are smaller openings that extend a relatively short distance undergrou ...
rooms in eastern North America. Cumberland Caverns is the 15th longest cave in the United States.
Hubbard's Cave, the largest
gray bat hibernaculum in Tennessee, with over 100,000 bats, is located in the county. The cave is owned by the
Nature Conservancy and it is securely gated to protect the bats, which are an Endangered Species.
Falcon Rest, an 1896
Victorian mansion in McMinnville built by local manufacturer
Clay Faulkner, is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
(NRHP). It is open to the public as a historic house museum. His father's mansion in the same city,
Falconhurst, is also on the NRHP.
Communities
City
*
McMinnville (county seat)
Towns
*
Centertown
*
Morrison
*
Viola
Unincorporated communities
*
Berea
*
Bratchers Crossroads
*
Campaign
*
Daylight
Daylight is the combination of all direct and indirect sunlight during the daytime. This includes direct sunlight, diffuse sky radiation, and (often) both of these reflected by Earth and terrestrial objects, like landforms and buildings. Sunlig ...
*
Irving College
*
Midway
*
Rock Island
*
Shady Rest
*
Shellsford
*
Smartt
*
Spring Creek
A spring creek is a type of free flowing river whose name derives from its origin: an underground Spring (hydrology), spring or set of springs which produces sufficient water to consistently feed a unique river. The water flowing in a spring cree ...
*
Stewart Chapel
Politics
Warren County was a Democratic stronghold for most of the 20th century. The last Democrat to win Warren County was Al Gore in 2000. After the 2000 election, Warren County began to trend Republican, with each passing election having an increasing margin for the Republican candidate. Donald Trump won Warren county in 2016 by 42%, compared to Mitt Romney's margin of 25% in 2012.
See also
*
National Register of Historic Places listings in Warren County, Tennessee
References
External links
Warren CountyGovernment
Warren CountyChamber of Commerce
Historical Markers
Warren CountyTNGenWeb
{{authority control
1807 establishments in Tennessee
Populated places established in 1807
Middle Tennessee