Cannon County
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Information on this page courtesy of Jess Lewis , Cannon Co TNGenWeb county host.
Cannon County lies almost exactly in the center of Tennessee,
approximately half way between Chattanooga and Nashville. It contains
an area of some 270 square miles and was created on January 31, 1836,
from parts of Rutherford, Smith, and Warren Counties. The original
bill (as drafted) named the County, "Marshall", after Chief
Justice John Marshall, but before its passage, the word "Marshall"
was penned out and the word "Cannon" was inserted, for
Newton Cannon, the governor of Tennessee. In 1837, a portion of
Northeastern Cannon Co. was used in the forming of the new Dekalb Co.,
and in 1838 a portion of Wilson County containing the area around
Auburntown was added to Cannon. The County is bounded on the west by
Rutherford County, the north by Wilson and DeKalb Counties, on the
east by Warren County, and on the south by Coffee County.
A section of H.S. Tanner's 1834 Map of Tennessee, showing the area that
became Cannon and Coffee Counties, in 1836. Around 1806, when settlers
first came to the area along the Stones River that later became
Woodbury, the tiny settlement had no name. It was finally named "Woodville"
in 1815. On February 25, 1827, the name was changed to "Danville".
Then, in 1836, it was chosen as the County Seat for the new county and
was renamed Woodbury, in honor of Levi Woodbury, the Secretary of the
Treasury under President Andrew Jackson. In 1836, the town had a
population of probably no more than 100. Notes from "History of
Woodbury and Cannon Co." by Sterling S. Brown, 1936.