On Statehood Day, We Highlight Some of Our Oldest Tennessee Materials

On this date in 1796, Tennessee was admitted to the Union as the 16th state. For those who would like to know more about Tennessee's early history, pre- and post-statehood, documents from Washington County may be particularly helpful.

Washington County was the state's first county - and it actually existed as part of North Carolina prior to Tennessee's acceptance as a state. The Tennessee State Library & Archives holds many of Washington County's early documents, including land claims, tax assessments, will probates and road construction plans. Some of the paperwork even details acts of bribery. We also have a receipt issued when Andrew Jackson paid for his law license, pictured below...

The records from the Cumberland frontier are also very useful to researchers. These records include committee meetings of what was once called North Carolina's "Cumberland District." Among the people who attended one of those meetings included a man named Thomas Molloy, a surveyor who would later to draw the lines that formed the city limits of Nashville.

To read more about these historical resources available at the Library & Archives, visit: http://share.tn.gov/tsla/history/manuscripts/findingaids/ths25.pdf.

The Tennessee State Library and Archives is a division of the Tennessee Department of State and Tre Hargett, Secretary of State