Joseph Terry

The court that met at Terry's house in 1806 governed a county that did not stay whole for long. White County was created that year, and in November 1807 the legislature carved Warren out of its portion south of the Caney Fork, the thirtieth county in Tennessee. Warren was organized in 1808, and commissioners bought a seat site in 1810 to be called McMinnville. The 1834 state constitution then required new counties to sit twelve miles from the old county seat, and by 1844 five new counties had been cut from Warren.

What the plaque says

Joseph Terry An early settler in then White County, his home stood a few feet W. Its first county court met here, Oct. 13, 1806. Members were Robt. Armstrong, Thos. Bounds, John Bryan, John Durgan, H.J.A Hill, Thos. Matthews, David McDaniel & Benj. Weaver. Terry later build a log courthouse for which he was paid $25.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Rock Island State Park — 1.9 mi
  A park where the Collins, Rocky and Caney Fork rivers meet at the head of Center Hill Lake, with a gorge of waterfalls below a 1917 dam and the remains of a cotton-mill town.
• Fall Creek Falls State Park — 17 mi
  A New Deal park on the western edge of the Cumberland Plateau, where Cane Creek has cut a gorge and a 256-foot waterfall drops into it.
• Burgess Falls State Park — 17 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.
• Savage Gulf State Park — 24 mi
  Roughly 19,000 acres of gorge and sandstone bluff on the western edge of the Cumberland Plateau, a state park of its own since 2022, with the Stone Door and a National Natural Landmark.

More markers nearby

• Webb Hotel ca.1910 — 0.3 mi
• Great Falls HP-Spencer 46-kv Transmission Line — 1.5 mi
• Forrest's Bivouac July 11, 1862 — 5.2 mi
• Burritt College — 9.0 mi