Morristown, Tennessee

The story

About Morristown

Before settlers came, the Morristown area was mostly Cherokee land, crossed by an east to west route that became the Great Stage Road and by a north to south route called Buffalo Trail, named for a legend that herds of buffalo made it. Gideon Morris, a farmer who had fought alongside John Sevier in 1776 and at the Battle of Kings Mountain, arrived with his brothers Daniel and Absalom from the Watauga Settlement. In 1787 North Carolina gave the brothers land grants covering today's Hamblen and Jefferson counties, and the settlement took the name Morristown.

From 1792 to 1793 the main street was linked to a major stagecoach road that connected the community with Knoxville and Abingdon, Virginia. In 1794 John Crockett and his son Davy, then seven years old, settled east of the Morris home, and Davy lived in Morristown until 1809. The Crockett Tavern Museum stands near the old tavern site and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Today Morristown is the county seat of Hamblen County and the center of the Morristown metropolitan area, along Cherokee Lake on the Holston River. About 30,400 people lived here at the 2020 census.

Source: Wikipedia, Morristown, Tennessee.