Greene County Genealogy
- Formed 1783
- Parent county / earlier Washington District era
- County seat Greeneville
Greene County, Tennessee — formed 1783. Research hub notes below; verify at Tennessee State Library and Archives (TSLA).
In-depth topics
- Getting started in Greene
- Land & deeds research notes
- Probate & estates research notes
- Newspapers & obituaries
- Churches & cemeteries
- Tax lists & local assessments — Greene
- Military service & pensions — Greene
- Migration & neighbor counties — Greene
- African American research notes — Greene
- Repositories & film strategy — Greene
- Quick research checklist — Greene
- Churches & registers — Greene
- Newspapers & legal notices — Greene
- Cemeteries & burial evidence — Greene
- City & business directories — Greene
- Maps, plats & boundaries — Greene
History notes
Greene County, Tennessee. Greene County (seat Greeneville) early East Tennessee. Parent/neighbor work with Washington, Hawkins, Cocke is routine.
Verify series at Tennessee State Library and Archives (TSLA). Neighbor FAN work: abstract witnesses and adjoining owners.
Historical markers in Greene County
- 1C 6 Greene-Washington Co. Line
Marks the line between Washington County (formed 1777) and Greene County (formed 1783), named for George Washington and Gen. Nathanael Greene. Useful for dating records: land and court entries for this area before 1783 were kept under Washington County.
- 1C 24 Henderson’s Station
About a mile north, at present-day Afton, Anthony Moore settled on Sinking Creek in 1778 and Daniel Kennedy, a King's Mountain veteran, arrived in 1779 and became Greene County's first court clerk. A settlers' fort, later Henderson's Mill, stood nearby, so early Afton families may appear in the county's first court minutes.
- 1C 25 Carter’s Station
John Carter came from Surry County, North Carolina, in 1783 and set up a camp for settlers half a mile south, at a fortified Indian village. The marker notes that many settlers and their descendants are buried in the cemetery near the fort site, a lead for families who trace back to Surry County.
- 1C 27 Ebenezer Society
An early Methodist society was organized 1.5 miles south in 1790; the family of Henry Earnest, settled here in 1779, made up four fifths of its members. The Western Conference met here in 1795. A strong lead for Earnest descendants and for early Methodist records near Chuckey and Stone Dam Campground.
- 1C 28 Tusculum College
Rev. Samuel Witherspoon Doak founded Tusculum Academy in 1818, helped by his father, and in 1868 it merged with Greeneville College (chartered 1794). Student and faculty records of both schools can place young men from the region in Greene County in the early 1800s.
- 1C 29 Robert Kerr
Robert Kerr's house stood on this Greeneville site and hosted the upper house of the State of Franklin and the first sessions of the Greene County court. Researchers looking for the county's earliest court minutes should start with these sessions held at Kerr's house.
- 1C 46 David Crockett
A limestone slab said to be the doorstone of the original cabin marks David Crockett's birthplace. He went on to be a soldier, trapper, state legislator and three-term congressman before dying at the Alamo in 1836. A starting point for the Crockett family in Greene County.
- 1C 48 Bright Hope Industries
About a mile north on Furnace Creek, the Bright Hope Iron Works (about 1830) grew into an early industrial complex with a paper mill, pottery and other shops, believed to have failed after the panic of 1837. The place names Furnace Creek and Ore Bank recall it, which helps when a deed or census entry uses those names.
- 1C 50 Andrew Johnson National Historic Site
Three miles west is the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site: his tailor shop, his 1838 to 1851 home, the later homestead where he lived until 1875, and the cemetery where he is buried. Johnson served as alderman, mayor, governor, congressman, senator, vice-president and president.
- 1C 51 Death of John Morgan September 4, 1864
Gen. John Hunt Morgan was surprised and killed in the garden of the Williams house here on September 4, 1864, when Federal troops under Gen. Alvan C. Gillem surrounded it and captured his staff. Useful context for Civil War service records of men in either army around Greeneville in 1864.
- 1C 52 Old Harmony Graveyard
This graveyard, begun in 1791 with Harmony Presbyterian Church, holds the Scotch-Irish Covenanters who founded Greeneville in 1783. Named burials include Dr. Hezekiah Balch, Dr. Charles Coffin, William Dickson, Mordecai Lincoln and Valentine Sevier, a key cemetery for founding families.
- 1C 53 Benjamin Lundy
From 1822 to 1824 the Quaker Benjamin Lundy published the antislavery Genius of Universal Emancipation here, along with the weekly Economist and Political Recorder. Surviving issues of these Greeneville papers are a possible source for local notices from those years.
- 1C 54 Greeneville Union Convention
On June 17, 1861, delegates from every East Tennessee county except Rhea met here for four days to try to keep the region in the Union. Leaders named include Andrew Johnson, William G. Brownlow, Horace Maynard and Thomas A. R. Nelson. Background for the divided loyalties found in East Tennessee families and claims records.
- 1C 58 Greeneville Cumberland Presbyterian Church
Rev. Isaac S. Bonham founded this congregation with thirty charter members in 1841, and the church begun in 1860 stands on land bought from Andrew Johnson. It was shelled on September 4, 1864. The American Presbyterian, a Cumberland Presbyterian paper, was published here in the 1850s, a possible source for church news.
- 1C 59 First Presbyterian Church
Founded in 1780 by Rev. Samuel Doak at the Big Spring as Mount Bethel Presbyterian Church, it had Rev. Hezekiah Balch as first settled pastor in 1783 and was renamed Harmony Church fifteen years later. Look under all three names (Mount Bethel, Harmony, First Presbyterian) when searching session records.
- 1C 60 Samuel Doak House
Begun by Rev. Samuel Witherspoon Doak and home to the elder Rev. Samuel Doak until his death in 1829, the house stayed in the Doak family until Tusculum College acquired it. A family landmark for Doak researchers and for the Tusculum and Greeneville College story.
- 1C 61 Harmony House
Dr. and Mrs. William Andrew Harmon built this Greeneville house in 1851; during the Civil War it was a refuge, and soldiers of both armies camped in the back yard. A lead for Harmon family research.
- 1C 62 Cabin of Three States
The Couch cabin, half a mile west, sat in Spencer County, State of Franklin, then Hawkins County, North Carolina, and was moved across the 1786 line; Tennessee was created from this territory in 1796. A reminder that a single farm here can show up under several jurisdictions in early records.
- 1C 63 The Big Spring
The Big Spring, at the junction of two Indian trails, was the reason Scotch-Irish settlers founded Greeneville here in 1783, and Rev. Samuel Doak preached at the spot as early as 1780. Helpful for placing the town's founding families.
- 1C 65 Valentine Sevier House
Built about 1795 by Valentine Sevier, this is Greeneville's oldest standing house; Andrew Johnson later owned it. After the Civil War it was home to the Marshall, Arnold, O'Keefe and Susong families, including newspaper women Quincy Marshall O'Keefe and her daughter Edith O'Keefe Susong.
- 1C 68 Olde Greene County Gaol
A county jail has stood on this site since 1806; the 1882 building by Turner and Lane reused stone and iron from an earlier jail built with enslaved labor, which followed a 1794 log jail with stocks. Background when an ancestor turns up in county court or jail records.
- 1C 70 Capitol of State of Franklin
A replica of the building believed to have been the State of Franklin capitol from 1785 to 1788. The Franklin legislature levied taxes, raised a militia, set up courts, authorized marriages and opened a land office here, so some early Greene County marriages and land claims may trace to Franklin authority rather than North Carolina.
- 1C 71 Sgt. Elbert L. Kinser
Sgt. Elbert L. Kinser, a Greene County native, received the Medal of Honor posthumously for throwing himself on a grenade on Okinawa on May 4, 1945, to save his platoon. The marker notes he is buried in the Solomon Lutheran Church Cemetery in Greene County.
- 1C 72 Battle of Blue Springs
The Battle of Blue Springs, fought here October 10, 1863, for control of the East Tennessee Railroad, saw Federal troops under Gen. A. E. Burnside defeat Confederate Gen. J. S. Williams, whose force lost 66 killed and wounded and 150 prisoners. Context for Civil War service and casualty records around Mosheim.
- 1C 74 The Old Brick Church
On August 12, 1797, land for a Methodist meeting house was deeded to trustees Seth Babb, John Carter, John Weems, Claudius Bailey, Thomas Babb, William Crumley, Stephen Babb, Thomas Bailey and Thomas Doan of Wesley's Chapel on Lick Creek. A named list of early settlers, and a pointer to the 1797 deed itself.
- 1C 75 Execution of the "Bridge-Burners"
In late 1861 five pro-Union men from the Pottertown community were hanged by Confederate authorities after the Lick Creek railroad bridge was burned: Henry Fry and Jacob M. Hinshaw at Greeneville, and Jacob and Henry Harmon (father and son) and C. A. Haun at Knoxville. A lead for these families and for Unionist claims records.
- 1C 76 Dickson-Williams Mansion
Greeneville's first postmaster, William Dickson, had this house built (1815 to 1821) by Irish craftsmen Thomas Battersby and John Hoy for his daughter Catharine, Mrs. Alexander Williams. It housed officers of both armies, and Gen. John Hunt Morgan spent his last night here in 1864.
- 1C 77 General Morgan Inn
Built from 1887 to 1890 as the Grand Central, a railroad hotel, it ran as the Hotel Brumley from 1908 to 1981 and reopened in 1996 as the General Morgan Inn. Useful for dating a hotel name seen in letters, directories or postcards.
- 1C 78 McKee Street "Flagship of Greeneville Mayoralty"
Eleven Greeneville mayors lived in the 100 block of McKee Street while in office between 1873 and 1972. The marker names Robert M. McKee, N. T. Howard, Tom T. Adams, H. E. Holland, John S. Bernard, J. Ross Reed, Earl Smith and James N. Hardin.
- 1C 79 Edward Chalmers Huffaker July 16,1865-January 3, 1936
Edward C. Huffaker (1865 to 1936), born near Sevierville, experimented with gliders between 1890 and 1892 and identified how a curved wing produces lift. He worked with Samuel Langley at the Smithsonian, with the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk, and with Octave Chanute here at Chuckey.
- 1C 84 John Gloucester
Gideon Blackburn bought and sought freedom for an enslaved man named Jack, who was freed by the Blount County Court in 1807 as John Gloucester. Educated at Greeneville College, he became the first African American ordained a Presbyterian minister and a pastor in Philadelphia; his four sons also became ministers. Blount County court records hold the freedom action.
- 1C 85 George Clem School 1887-1965
Founded in 1887 with AME Zion support as Greeneville College, this school was leased in 1932 for public education of Black students, renamed for principal George Clem in 1939, and closed with desegregation in 1965. The renamings (Greeneville College, Greeneville College High School, George Clem School) help when reading school and census records for Black families.
- 1C 91 Andrew Johnson/Champion of Tennessee History
As legislator and governor, Andrew Johnson pushed public money for common schools for boys and girls, and a school tax passed in February 1854. As president he gave land for a church and freedmen's school in Greeneville and, on March 2, 1867, signed the bill establishing Howard University.
- 1C 92 Baileyton/Oakland Seminary
Settled around 1780 as Laurel Gap, the community was renamed Baileyton in 1892 and incorporated in 1915. Oakland Seminary, a Methodist-affiliated coeducational academy, was chartered here in 1883, joined the county high school system about 1913 and became Baileyton High School about 1917. Look under Laurel Gap for earlier records.
- 1C 93 Ellen “Nelly” VanVactor Free Black Female Landowner
Ellen "Nelly" VanVactor, born enslaved in Virginia in 1780, came to Greeneville in 1818, inherited Benjamin VanVactor's estate in 1822 and owned six town lots by 1837. Her daughter Erie and Erie's two sons were emancipated in 1822, and her son Alfred VanVactor Thompson, born free in 1818, trained as a tailor under Andrew Johnson and went to Liberia in 1842. A rich lead into deed, estate and emancipation records.
- 1C 95 Blue Springs Church and Cemetery
Blue Springs Lutheran Church, once Patterson's Church, served Greene County's German settlers from before 1811. Its building was a hospital during the 1863 Battle of Blue Springs, and the cemetery holds 32 known Civil War soldiers' graves. Try both church names in Lutheran records.
- 1C 96 The Crockett's Home/John Crockett: Frontier Doctor
John Crockett's family lived on his 1780 claim here around 1792 to 1794 before moving to Cove Creek. The second side tells how John treated neighbor Absolam Stonecipher after a hunting accident; Stonecipher recovered at Samuel Humberd's home and in 1796 married Humberd's daughter Sarah, and they had ten children. Names, dates and a marriage for Crockett, Stonecipher and Humberd researchers.
- 1C 97 Crockett’s Cove Creek Disaster
In the fall of 1794 the Crockett family moved to the mouth of Cove Creek, where John Crockett and Thomas Galbreath built a mill that a flood washed away. Afterwards the family moved to a rented tavern site near Morristown, which explains a Crockett move between counties in the mid-1790s.
Newspapers
Structured transcriptions
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Greene County finding-aid batch (parity expansion)
Grantor Grantee Year Book:page Grantor01, Example Grantee01, Example 1760 A:5 Grantor02, Example Grantee02, Example 1768 B:9 Grantor03, Example Grantee03, Example 1776 C:13 Grantor04, Example Grantee04, Example 1784 — Grantor05, Example 1792 — Grantor06, Example Grantee06, Example 1800 F:25 -
Greene County, Tennessee Deed volunteer abstracts (USGenWeb Archives)
Grantor Grantee Year Book:page Marshal H. and Elisabeth Matthews G.F. Kimery Giles Parman Senr Emanuel Parman Leonard C. and Unice Shoemaker Giles Parman Richard White William S Richard White William S. White - 1839 Richard White William S. White
Cemeteries & burial research
- Greene County cemeteries & churchyards
Societies & repositories
- Greene County public library / local history desk
- Greene County historical / genealogical societies
- Tennessee State Library & Archives (TSLA)
- Tennessee State Library and Archives (TSLA)
- Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture
- TeVA Digital Collections
- Chronicling America / TN newspaper research
- Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture
Vital records
Pre-statewide registration: multi-source identity.
Census
Federal census; tax lists.
Courthouse & contacts
Greene County courthouse, Greeneville.
If not found here, try…
- Formed 1783
- Parent / earlier jurisdiction Washington District era — check district-era records before this county existed (districts guide).
Sources & further reading
- Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture
- County formation & boundaries
- Place-names & communities
- Tennessee State Library and Archives (TSLA)
- Chronicling America / TN newspaper research
- Chronicling America (Library of Congress)
- FamilySearch Wiki · TNGenWeb