Editing Williamson County, Tennessee (section)

===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.