Editing Williamson County, Tennessee (section)

==History==

===Pre-Civil War===
The [[Tennessee General Assembly]] created Williamson County on October 26, 1799, from a portion of [[Davidson County, Tennessee|Davidson County]]. This territory had long been inhabited by at least five Native American cultures, including the [[Cherokee]], [[Chickasaw]], [[Choctaw]], [[Muscogee people|Creek]], and [[Shawnee]]. It is home to two [[Mississippian culture|Mississippian-period]] mound complexes, the [[Fewkes Group Archaeological Site|Fewkes site]] and the [[Old Town (Franklin, Tennessee)|Old Town site]], built by people of a culture dated to about 1000 CE, which preceded such historic tribes.

European-American settlers arrived in the area by 1798, after the Revolutionary War. Fur traders had preceded them. Scots traders had intermarried with Native American women and had families with them. Both sides thought these relationships could benefit them. Most of the settlers were migrants from Virginia and North Carolina, part of a western movement across the Appalachian Mountains after the American Revolutionary War. Others came after living for a generation in Kentucky. Many brought slaves with them to cultivate the labor-intensive tobacco crops, as well as to care for livestock

In 1800, Abram Maury laid out Franklin, the county seat, which was carved out of a land grant he had purchased from Major Anthony Sharp.<ref name=tehc/> "The county was named in honor of Dr. Hugh Williamson of North Carolina, who had been a colonel in the North Carolina militia and had served three terms in the Continental Congress."<ref name=mraWilliamson>{{cite web|url={{NRHP url|id=64500624}} |title=Historic Resources of Williamson County (Partial Inventory of Historic and Architectural Properties), National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination |author=Thomason Associates and Tennessee Historical Commission |date=February 1988 |publisher=[[National Park Service]]}}</ref>

Many of the county's early inhabitants were veterans who had been paid in land grants after the Revolutionary War. Many veterans chose not to settle in the area and sold large sections of their land grants to speculators. These in turn subdivided the land and sold off smaller lots. In the antebellum years, the county was the second-wealthiest in the state. As part of the [[Middle Tennessee]] region, it had resources of rich soil, which planters developed with slaves for a diversity of crops including rye, corn, oats, tobacco, hemp, potatoes, wheat, peas, barley, and hay. This diversity, plus timber resources, helped create a stable economy, as opposed to reliance on one cash crop.<ref name=mraWilliamson/> Slavery was an integral part of the local economy. By 1850, planters and smaller slaveholders in the county held 13,000 enslaved African Americans, who made up nearly half the population of more than 27,000 (see table below).<ref name="simpson1">{{cite book|last1=Simpson|first1=John A.|title=Edith D. Pope and Her Nashville Friends: Guards of the Lost Cause in the Confederate Veteran|date=2003|publisher=University of Tennessee Press|location=Knoxville, Tennessee|isbn=9781572332119|oclc=428118511|page=4}}</ref>

===Civil War===
Williamson County was severely affected by the war. Three battles were fought in the county: the [[Battle of Brentwood]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nps.gov/hps/abpp/battles/tn015.htm |title=Battle Summary: Brentwood, TN |publisher=Nps.gov |access-date=July 29, 2010}}</ref> the [[Battle of Thompson's Station]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nps.gov/hps/abpp/battles/tn013.htm |title=Battle Summary: Thompson's Station, TN |publisher=Nps.gov |access-date=July 29, 2010}}</ref> and the [[Battle of Franklin II|Battle of Franklin]], which had some of the highest fatalities of the war.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nps.gov/hps/abpp/battles/tn036.htm |title=Battle Summary: Franklin, TN |publisher=Nps.gov |access-date=July 29, 2010}}</ref> The large plantations that were part of the county's economic foundation were ravaged, and many of the county's youth were killed.<ref name=mraWilliamson/> Many Confederate casualties of the Battle of Franklin were buried in the [[McGavock Confederate Cemetery]] near the [[Carnton]] plantation house. Containing the bodies of 1,481 soldiers, it is the largest private Confederate cemetery in America.<ref name=tehc />

===Post-Reconstruction to present===
The county continued to be agricultural and rural into the early 1900s. "Most residents were farmers who raised corn, wheat, cotton and livestock."<ref name=mraWilliamson/>

In the post-Reconstruction era and the early 20th century, white violence against African Americans increased in an effort to assert dominance. Five African Americans were [[Lynching in the United States|lynched by white mobs]] in Williamson County.<ref name="supp">[https://eji.org/sites/default/files/lynching-in-america-third-edition-summary.pdf ''Lynching in America/ Supplement: Lynchings by County''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171023063004/https://eji.org/sites/default/files/lynching-in-america-third-edition-summary.pdf |date=October 23, 2017 }}, Equal Justice Initiative, 2017, 3rd edition, p. 6</ref> Among them was [[Lynching of Amos Miller|Amos Miller]], a 23-year-old black man taken from the courtroom during his 1888 trial as a suspect in a sexual assault case, and hanged from the balcony of the county courthouse. The sexual assault victim was a 50-year-old woman.<ref>[https://visitfranklin.com/see-and-do/old-williamson-county-courthouse-public-square "Old Williamson County Courthouse - Public Square"], Visit Franklin website</ref> In 1924, 15-year-old [[Lynching of Samuel Smith|Samuel Smith]] was lynched in Nolensville for shooting and wounding a white grocer. He was taken from a Nashville hospital by a mob and brought back to the town to be murdered. He was the last recorded lynching victim in the Nashville area.<ref name="deane">{{cite web|last1=Deane|first1=Natasha|title=Memorial Marker for Lynching Victims|url=http://stanselmsnashville.org/memorial-lynching-victims/|website=St Anselm Episcopal Church|access-date=April 27, 2018|date=June 5, 2017}}</ref>

Numerous blacks left Williamson County from 1880 through 1950 as part of the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]] to industrial cities in the North and Midwest for work and to escape [[Jim Crow]] oppression and violence. County population did not surpass its 1880 level until 1970, when it began to develop suburban housing in response to growth in Nashville.

One of the first major manufacturers to establish operations in the county was the Dortch Stove works, which opened a factory in Franklin. The factory was later developed as a [[Magic Chef]] factory, producing electric and gas ranges. (Magic Chef was prominent in the Midwest from 1929.) When the factory was closed due to extensive restructuring in the industry, the structure fell into disuse. The factory complex was restored in the late 1990s in an adaptation for offices, restaurants, retail and event spaces. It is considered a "model historic preservation adaptive reuse project."<ref name=tehc />

The completion of the [[Interstate Highway System]] contributed to Nashville's rapid expansion in the mid-20th century, stimulating tremendous population growth in Williamson County. As residential suburban population has increased, the formerly rural county has invested in infrastructure and schools, and its character is rapidly changing. Between 1990 and 2000, the county's population increased 56.3 percent, mostly in the northern part, including [[Franklin, Tennessee|Franklin]] and [[Brentwood, Tennessee|Brentwood]]. As of census estimates in 2012, Franklin has more than 66,000 residents (a five-fold increase since 1980), and is the eighth-largest city in the state. Its residents are affluent, with a high median income. The southern part of the county is still primarily rural and used for agriculture. [[Spring Hill, Tennessee|Spring Hill]] is a growing city in this area.<ref name=tehc /> In addition, Williamson County's overall affluence is also due to an abundance of musicians and celebrities with part-time or full-time residences in it.