The History of Hamilton County And Chattanooga Tennessee, Vol. 1

 Zella Armstrong

Foreword: "No section of our country can claim more interesting history than the story of Hamilton County and Chattanooga unfolds. Yet there has been no adequate written history of the Country or city. The desire to fill this lack has animated the author for a long time, although the task of securing information concerning the early years has been peculiarly difficult. The County records passed through a devastating war and two fires, and they were moved seven times. Municipal records suffered an even worse fate, for minute books covering many years were destroyed or lost during military occupation. Early newspaper files were also destroyed and that invaluable source of references completely closed. It would be difficult, however, to embody every detail of fact in the passing of 400 years (1540-1931) even if all the facts could be obtained.

The history of that part of the County which lies south of the Tennessee River, including Chattanooga, is particularly interesting although it lacks the romantic luster of the age-old columned houses so typical of the South. The explanation is not often given. Because another people lived in the shadow of Lookout Mountain and loved the land as we do now Chattanooga was last of the Tennessee towns to be settled by the white man. The section, beloved by the Cherokees was the last Eastern home of that unhappy people. Having ceded their country, mile by mile, vast domain by vast domain, they gathered in the one place which they loved best. West and East and North and South, they had yielded all save this and here they made their last sad struggle for possession of the region which is now Chattanooga and the territory continguous to it. In 1838, they were forced to yield this also and in that year Chattanooga was born in the travail of a Nation.

This book is intended to be a book of reference and its content is confined to information assembled from authentic sources...... Zella Armstrong, Chattanooga, Tennessee, February 1, 1931."

Table of Contents:

• The Genesis of Hamilton County

• De Soto

• Archaelogy (Compiled by J.P. Brown)

• The Cherokee and Chickamauga Indians

• Chief John Ross

• Brainerd Mission

• The Beginning of Settlement

• Hamilton County, 1819-1840

• Hamilton County, 1840-1861

• Chattanooga, From Ross' Landing To The War Between The States

• Military History, 1779-1861

• Soldiers of Early Wars - Revolution, Indian Campaigns, War of 1812, Creek War, First Seminole War, Second Seminole War, Cherokee War, Mexican War

• Heroes of the Revolution and 1812 -- Sketches and Pension Statements

• Early Marriage Records

• Courts and Courthouses

• Churches Organized Before 1861

• Cemeteries

• Sequatchie Valley -- Sequatchie County, Bledsoe County, Marion County

• Origin of Names

• The Commissioners of Ross' Landing and Chattanooga and Some of the Fifty-Three First Citizens

• The Early Mayors, 1840-1863

• Some Pioneers

•  Citizens of Today

• Many Have Passed

• Appendix

• chronology 1540-1861

•  Index

Copyright 1931 by The Lookout Publishing Company; Reprinted 1993. This is a brand-new, hard cover book with 543 pages.   It contains many black and white portraits of Chattanoogans.

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