Israel Putnam 1717 - 1790

The county's namesake rose from a Connecticut farm and a tavern. In the French and Indian War he served in Rogers' Rangers and was captured by Mohawk warriors, who were about to burn him when a French captain intervened. Folk legends of his exploits, including a wolf killed in its den, spread his fame across the colonies. The line on the marker is disputed: it is debated whether Putnam or William Prescott said it first at Bunker Hill. In Connecticut, Putnam also bought enslaved Black people to work his land.

What the plaque says

Israel Putnam 1717 - 1790 Putnam County, created in 1842 and re-established in 1854, was named for Major General Israel Putnam, who was commissioned on June 19, 1775 by the Continental Congress. A popular hero of the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War. Gen. Putnam became famous for saying, " Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes," at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Cookeville Depot Museum — 0.5 mi
  The 1909 Tennessee Central Railroad depot in Cookeville's west side, now a museum with a model of the town in 1955 and a steam engine in the yard.
• Cummins Falls State Park — 7.3 mi
  A 75-foot waterfall and swimming hole on the Blackburn Fork, saved from a housing development in 2011 and opened as Tennessee's 54th state park.
• Burgess Falls State Park — 9.9 mi
  A day-use park on the Falling Water River, where a short trail passes three smaller falls on its way to a drop of more than 130 feet into a limestone gorge.
• Muddy Pond Mennonite Community — 22 mi
  A Mennonite farming community in Overton County near Monterey, known for sorghum syrup pressed and boiled each fall and for the farm stores along its roads.

More markers nearby

• Town Spring — steps away
• Capshaw School — 0.4 mi
• Putnam County's Only Public Execution — 0.5 mi
• Darwin School — 1.2 mi