County’s original documents displayed at fair

Thanks to the members of the Bicentennial Steering Committee, and County Executive John Pelham, the actual documents that legally established Warren County as a Tennessee county 200 years ago will be on display this week at the Warren County A&L Fair.

The papers will be housed in the Heritage Alliance Cabin in Fairfield Village beginning Monday night.

Also on display at the Heritage Alliance Cabin will be the official Bicentennial Medallion. The medallion features a number of Warren County landmarks, including the courthouse, Birthing Tree and Magness Library, among others.

This coin will be available for purchase for $40 each, and is offered in a strictly limited and numbered run of 500 ‘ with no further production. Those who are interested in obtaining this piece of bicentennial memorabilia should be sure to get one early, since organizers feel they will go quickly.

Pelham explained how these rare and historically important papers were obtained at a meeting of the Steering Committee Friday, attended by members including county historian James A. Dillon, McMinnville Alderman Jimmy Haley, and local resident Larry Flatt.

‘These documents have been housed at the state archives building in Nashville,’ Pelham said. ‘We made contact with Wayne Moore, the state archivist, and because this is our bicentennial, we were able to sign these out. I had to sign an agreement with them for one year. We are responsible for the care of these documents until they are returned to the facility in Nashville.’

Dillon talked about what these papers represent in the county’s history.

‘These are the petitions to form Warren County,’ Dillon said, ‘and the legislative act that actually created it. So here we have the request to do it, along with the action by the state which followed that.’

Dillon, Flatt and Haley pointed out the obvious importance of these documents to the county.

‘That’s our birthright,’ Dillon said.

‘Our birth certificate,’ added Flatt.

As he perused the centuries-old papers, Haley explained what having the documents here means to him personally.

‘I’ve heard about these forever,’ Haley said. ‘I’ve never seen them, I’ve never touched them. All I’ve ever seen is facsimiles of them, or excerpts of them in various ways. It feels kind of special to touch something that’s 200 years old. It represents, as I said, the very acts that created us as a county. It just seems really special to know that Henry J. Hill, William Cheek Smartt and all these people actually touched these documents.’

Flatt pointed out the how miraculous it is the documents have been preserved.

‘I’m amazed that they even exist 200 years later, and knowing that Tennessee was kind of a pivotal part of the War Between the States, and the amount of destruction that went on then,’ Flatt said. ‘So, as I said, I’m amazed they exist. I’m also fascinated by the number of last names that still exist in our county that are on this petition. Northcutts, Smartts, Coopers, it just goes on and on, of the people we know that still live here and claim Warren County as their home. I think it speaks well of how deep our roots run, with the people who founded this, of the people that continue to want to live in Warren County.’

In addition to the inaugural display of the documents at the fair, they will be on display during a variety of other events during the Bicentennial Celebration.