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Boundaries - Historical Notes

Tennessee Code Annotated
Tennessee Attorney General Opinions

The following is a summary of acts which authorized boundary changes for Cocke County.

  1. Public Acts of 1879, Chapter 55, changed the boundary between Cocke and Jefferson counties to place all the lands of William Phillips in Cocke County.
  2. Public Acts of 1883, Chapter 118, changed the Cocke-Hamblen County line by placing all of Talley Island in the Chucky River in Cocke County.
  3. Public Acts of 1883, Chapter 139, moved the lands of J. K. Garner into Cocke, out of Jefferson County.

Due to the great confusion about boundary lines in the early years of the state when new counties were being created, the legislature often would pass one act changing or clarifying county boundaries and then pass another private act providing for a surveyor to run and mark the new line.  The following acts of this nature were passed for Cocke County.

  1. Acts of 1801, Chapter 53, appointed David Stuart as the commissioner to mark the line between Cocke and Greene counties, with Thomas Holland to act as his marker.
  2. Acts of 1803, Chapter 46, also appointed David Stuart as the commissioner to mark the boundary between Jefferson and Cocke counties, with William Taylor to be the marker.  This act was amended by Acts of 1804, Chapter 19, to allow David Stuart to appoint one chain carrier from Cocke County and one chain carrier from Jefferson County.
  3.  Private Acts of 1825, Chapter 310, appointed Jonathan Wood of Cocke County and William Taylor of Jefferson County as the commissioners to run and mark the line between the counties.  This line was to begin at the French Broad "where the line leaves the river below the Dutch bottom to the height of English Mountain."

For a period of about twenty-five years, before and after the Civil War, there apparently was some disagreement as to where the county seat of Cocke County should be located.  The following private acts pertained to that continuing controversy.

  1. Acts of 1845-46, Chapter 123, appointed a group of commissioners to decide upon a site for the county seat of Cocke County and to change the name of the county to Union.
  2. Public Acts of 1865-66, Chapter 19, provided that the county seat of Cocke County could be moved from Newport to the "Mouth of Sweetwater," a distance of about 5½ miles.  This move was subject to approval by Cocke County voters.