Timeline of Perry County, Tennessee history

This article is a timeline of Perry County, Tennessee history.

1800s

 * 1806 January 7 – Cherokee cede the land that would later become Perry County to the United States in the Treaty of Washington.

1810s

 * c.1810-1812 – The first gristmill in the area is established on Cane Creek.
 * 1818 – The first known person of European descent in the area that would become Perry County is born.
 * 1819 – Perry County is established by the Tennessee General Assembly.

1820s

 * 1820 – The first court in the county is held in a house on Toms Creek.
 * 1821 – The county seat is established in Perryville.
 * 1825 – A county militia is formed as the 68th Regiment, 11th Brigade, Tennessee Militia.

1830s

 * 1830 – The village of Beardstown is established.
 * 1832-1834 – The Cedar Grove Iron Furnace is constructed.

1840s

 * 1843 July 10 – The courthouse at Perryville burns.
 * 1845 November – Decatur County is formed from the portion of Perry County west of the Tennessee River, the county seat is moved to a village near the new geographic center of the county.
 * 1848 – The town of Linden is established as the county seat.

1850s

 * 1850 – Harper's Statistical Gazetteer reports 10 grist mills, a saw mill, a furnace, two tanneries, 21 churches, and 23 schools enrolling 685 students in the county.
 * 1854 – Lobelville is established.
 * 1856 Spring – Between 10 and 15 enslaved Black people are murdered by vigilantes following allegations of the plotting of a slave revolt.

1860s

 * 1861 June – Perry County votes in favor of secession.
 * 1862 February – Cedar Grove Iron Furnace is destroyed by naval gunfire from a flotilla of Union gunboats.
 * 1862 April 27 – The body of Governor Louis P. Harvey of Wisconsin is found on the banks of the Tennessee River.
 * 1863 May 12 – Union cavalry forces land on the east bank of the Tennessee River and conduct a raid on Linden, burning the courthouse and capturing Confederate personnel and equipment.
 * 1864 September 27–30 – Confederate and Union forces skirmish near Lobelville and Beardstown.
 * 1865 April – Martial law is lifted and civil courts resume following the Civil War.
 * 1868 – A new courthouse is constructed in Linden to replace the one destroyed during the war.
 * 1869 – Two Black men are removed from the local jail by a mob and lynched.

1870s

 * 1871 – The Craig Farm is established on Lick Creek.

1880s

 * 1880-1884 – The first regular newspaper is published in the county.

1890s

 * 1890 – The first known bank in the county, Linden Bank and Trust, is established.
 * 1897 – Thetus W. Sims, a Linden lawyer, is elected to the United States House of Representatives.

1900s

 * 1900 – Bell Telephone Company establishes the first telephone service in the county.
 * 1907 Summer – Due to a legislative error, Perry County is briefly left without a county government.
 * 1907 – Linden-born professional baseball player Clyde Milan plays his first season with the Washington Senators.

1910s

 * 1910 – The population of the county peaks at 8,815.
 * 1917 May 27 – A tornado strikes the county, killing five and injuring 67.

1920s

 * 1928 January – The courthouse burns while undergoing renovations. A new, larger building is built on the same site that year.

1930s

 * 1930 July 5 – Governor Henry Horton opens the first bridge across the Tennessee River in the county. The bridge, named after Alvin C. York, connects the Nashville-Memphis Highway between Linden and Perryville.

1940s

 * 1941-1944 – Perry County is included in the area covered by the Tennessee Maneuver Area during World War 2, though the extent of training activity in the county is unclear.
 * 1944 – Kentucky Dam is completed, impounding Kentucky Lake and inundating small portions of county along the Tennessee River.
 * 1949 – The Tennessee Game and Fish Commission begins a whitetail deer reintroduction program in the county.

1950s

 * 1955 – Linden High School begins a three-year winning streak at the state high school boys' basketball championships.
 * 1957 – The movie Natchez Trace is filmed in the county.
 * 1958 – Interstate 40 opens, bypassing the county. Larger businesses begin to leave, setting the stage for long term economic stagnation.

1960s

 * 1962 – Perry County Airport opens near Linden.
 * 1967 January – Site studies begin for a new State Park on the banks of the Tennessee River in the county.

1970s

 * 1971 – An Old Order Mennonite community is established near Lobelville.
 * 1979 – Construction begins on Mousetail Landing State Park.

1980s

 * 1986 – The Alvin C. York Bridge across the Tennessee River is demolished and replaced by a modern structure.

1990s

 * 1992 – The county is featured in an episode of Unsolved Mysteries examining the case of a man who went missing in the area in 1985.

2000s

 * 2009 – Unemployment figures reach 29%, the second-highest unemployment rate of any county in the United States.

2010s

 * 2011 – Unemployment lowers to 14% following a subsidized employment program.

2020s

 * 2020 April – Unemployment peaks again at 24% during the COVID-19 pandemic.
 * 2020 November – The county's sole hospital closes.