Obion County Beginnings

Year	Obion County Historical Dates
1819	Elisha PARKER, recorded as the first settler in Obion County, arrived in early 1819. He ran unsuccessfully as the first sheriff. Other Northeast settlers: Benjamin TOTTEN, who put up the first store and kept the post office at Totten's Wells. Others included Jethro L. BYRD, John HARPOLE, Thomas SAYLES, Reuben JACKSON and Isham CONNER. Wyatt BETTIS erected the first "horse mill' to grind Indian corn in this area which became District One.
1820	CENTRAL SECTION: In 1820, Colonel William M. WILSON settled and built a cabin about 3 miles southwest of the future Troy. He remained a short time, moved to Jackson and returned the next year with his family. In 1823 he built the second "horse mill" in the county. Col. Wilson's settlement was in the wooded area of the ridge of the present day location of Campground cemetery, a little southwest of Troy.
1821	William Nelms located two miles west of Rives.
1824	Benjamin Totten settled at Totten Wells, midway on the stagecoach line from Dresden to Hickman, Kentucky. Joel S. Enloe settled three miles west of Rives.
1824	First Circuit Court held on May 10, home of W. M. Wilson.
1825	Troy located as county seat on March 16.
1825	First dwelling in Troy, a double log house, built by Rice Williams. He kept a tavern until his death in 1829.
1845	Organization of the Reelfoot Baptist Church by Rev. David Halliburton in Clayton Community.
1852	In Elbridge, five acres deeded to Methodist Church by J. C. Davidson.
1857	Glass Community, known as Palestine, had a schoolhouse.
1859	Post Office -- established May 27, 1852, in Gibson County -- moved to Kenton in Obion County.
1859	Rives, five miles south of Union City, began; a railroad stop known as East Troy.
1861	Railroad ran from Paducah, Kentucky through Obion County and connected into the line from Memphis to Louisville. Stations: Paducah Junction (Gibbs), Troy Station (Rives), East Troy (Polk Station).
1865	Hornbeak, known as Wilsonville, was settled soon after the Civil War.
1868	Woodland Mills, located on the Hickman & Obion Railroad, which became the N.C.St.L. Railroad.
1872	The town of Obion laid out on the banks of the Obion River when the Memphis & Paducah railroad was being constructed.
1890	County Seat Removal. Court met for the last time in Troy on the first Monday in July, 1890. The first session held in Union City was August 11, 1890. By a special act of the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, Obion and Cocke Counties were exempted from the two-thirds qualified voters rule, and the County Court of Obion County ordered an election on May 18, 1889, for the purpose of deciding for or against the removal of the county seat from Troy to Union City. Election results were 3455 in favor of removal, and 1906 against. An injunction to prevent the removal was filed in Chancery Court and was heard before Chancellor H. J. Livingston to prevent the removal. All suits were dismissed, and injunctions were annulled. Oral history says that folks came to Troy in the dead of night, loaded the records in their wagons, and carried them to Union City. A few years back, a group trying a re-enactment of this event was not warmly greeted.
1905	Land beneath Reelfoot Lake was transferred from the original landowners or their heirs to the West Tennessee Land Company.

NORTH OF TROY: John PARR opened a farm five miles north of Troy. He also built and owned the first cotton gin located four miles northwest of Troy.

EAST OF TROY: William and John CARTER settled in District Seven (east of Troy bordering Weakley). Somewhere east of Troy on Davidson Creek, Thomas McDONALD built the first water mill to grind corn in 1826. It was later run by James and John BLAINE, and still later by Joel ENLOE.

SOUTHWEST OF TROY: Alexander STARETT located about a mile south of Glass (Palestine, southwest of Troy).

WEST OF TROY: William HUTCHINSON settled about nine miles west of Troy. George DAVIDSON settled twelve miles west on the Dyersburg road.

WEST OF UNION CITY: Settlers in this area included Willis and James CALDWELL; John KILLION, John Y. BROWN and Henry MAUPIN in the vicinity of Protemus.