Rutherford County

Before the county existed, the ground was seasonal hunting and fishing land for Cherokee, Chickasaw, Shawnee, Creek and Choctaw people until 1794, and early maps show the Nickajack Trail and the Creek War Trace meeting near Murfreesboro. The legislature carved the county in 1803 from parts of Davidson, Wilson, Williamson and Sumner, and named it for Griffith Rutherford, an Irish immigrant on the Southwest Territory's council. Jefferson, the river town that first held the courthouse, now lies under Percy Priest Lake.

What the plaque says

Rutherford County Rutherford County: Established 1803; named in honor of Maj. Gen. Griffith Rutherford of the Revolutionary Army; appointed by President Washington as a Member of the Legislature for the Southwest Territory, which later became the State of Tennessee. Continued Murfreesboro: First settlers came in 1799; the settlement was first named Cannonsburg. It was actually founded in 1811, on land donated by Capt. William Lytle, who stipulated that the town should be named for Hardy Murfree, a Revolutionary veteran of Williamson County. From June, 1818 through April, 1826, it was the capital of the state.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Stones River National Battlefield — 7.0 mi
  The Murfreesboro battlefield of December 1862, with a national cemetery built by Black soldiers, a Trail of Tears route and the story of the freedmen's settlement called Cemetery.
• Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration — 20 mi
  The Shelbyville show grounds where the Tennessee Walking Horse has been crowned world grand champion each late summer since 1939, and where the practice of soring is part of the story.
• Henry Horton State Park — 21 mi
  A Duck River park on Governor Henry Horton's former farm in Marshall County, with a mill ruin from 1845, kayak floats and the grave of a governor the House declined to impeach.
• Old Stone Fort State Archaeological Park — 26 mi
  A 2,000-year-old enclosure of piled stone and earth on the bluffs above the forks of the Duck River, built by Native people between about 80 and 550 A.D., with a museum and waterfall trails.

More markers nearby

• George Smith Patton, Jr. — 1.9 mi
• Black Fox Camp Spring — 2.7 mi
• Army of the Cumberland, June 24-26, 1863 (Christiana) — 3.3 mi
• Murfreesboro — 3.4 mi