Stewart County, Tennessee: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 12:24, 28 February 2025

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Stewart County is a county located on the northwestern corner of Middle Tennessee, in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 13,657.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Its county seat is Dover.<ref name="GR6">Template:Cite web</ref> Stewart County is part of the Clarksville Metropolitan Statistical Area.

History

Stewart County was created by European Americans in 1803 from a portion of Montgomery County, and was named for Duncan Stewart, an early settler and state legislator.<ref name=tehc /> The first County Court met in March 1804. According to Goodspeed's history of Stewart County, "Stewart County was settled principally by North Carolinians, the first of whom came some time about 1795, that State having issued military grants to survivors of the Continental war, which called for large tracts of land lying in this county".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It was settled during the early migration of pioneers from Virginia to the west after the American Revolutionary War. They pushed Native American peoples, such as the Cherokee, out of the area.

During the American Civil War, the Battle of Fort Donelson took place in February 1862. Union forces took control of the state, occupying several strategic areas. In August 1862 their forces partially burned the county seat, Dover, to prevent its re-capture by Confederate Lt. Col. Thomas G. Woodward.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A second battle in the area, commonly called the Battle of Dover, took place in February 1863.

Tobaccoport Saltpeter Cave was intensely mined for saltpeter, possibly during the War of 1812 but more likely not until the Civil War. Saltpeter is the main ingredient of gunpowder and was obtained by leaching the earth from the cave. The Union took control of Tennessee and this area in February 1862, early in the Civil War. It seems unlikely that mining could have happened before that.<ref>Thomas C. Barr, Jr., "Caves of Tennessee", Bulletin 64 of the Tennessee Division of Geology, 1961, 568 pages.</ref>

Geography

File:Cumberland Fossil Plant-7 (4405089158).jpg

Cumberland Power Plant

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of Template:Convert, of which Template:Convert is land and Template:Convert (6.8%) is water.<ref name="GR1">Template:Cite web</ref> The county lies in a rugged section of the northwestern Highland Rim. The Cumberland River (part of Lake Barkley) traverses the county. The Tennessee River (part of Kentucky Lake) provides the county's border with Henry County to the west.

Federal and state agencies control nearly 44% of the land in the county.<ref name=tehc />

Adjacent counties

National protected areas

State protected areas

Barkley Wildlife Management Area
Stewart State Forest

Demographics

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2020 census

Stewart County racial composition<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Race	Number	Percentage
White (non-Hispanic)	12,321	90.22%
Black or African American (non-Hispanic)	171	1.25%
Native American	74	0.54%
Asian	76	0.56%
Pacific Islander	2	0.01%
Other/Mixed	677	4.96%
Hispanic or Latino	336	2.46%

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 13,657 people, 5,178 households, and 3,355 families residing in the county.

2000 census

As of the census<ref name="GR8">Template:Cite web</ref> of 2000, there were 12,370 people, 4,930 households, and 3,653 families residing in the county. The population density was Template:Convert. There were 5,977 housing units at an average density of Template:Convert. The racial makeup of the county was 95.27% White, 1.29% Black or African American, 0.61% Native American, 1.46% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 0.23% from other races, and 1.10% from two or more races. 1.00% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 4,930 households, out of which 31.50% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 62.30% were married couples living together, 8.10% had a female householder with no husband present, and 25.90% were non-families. 23.10% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.80% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.49 and the average family size was 2.91.

In the county, the population was spread out, with 23.90% under the age of 18, 7.50% from 18 to 24, 28.40% from 25 to 44, 25.40% from 45 to 64, and 14.90% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females, there were 99.10 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.50 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $32,316, and the median income for a family was $38,655. Males had a median income of $31,106 versus $21,985 for females. The per capita income for the county was $16,302. About 10.60% of families and 12.40% of the population were below the poverty line, including 12.90% of those under age 18 and 15.60% of those age 65 or over.

Politics

The county is part of Tennessee's 7th congressional district. From the antebellum period, conservative whites historically voted Democratic, adding to the Southern Block. Residents of eastern Tennessee had been Unionist and supported the Republican Party.

In the late 20th century realignment of political parties, many white conservatives shifted into the Republican Party. Before Richard Nixon's campaign in 1972, no Republican had ever won as much as thirty percent of Stewart County's vote, but he won by a landslide in the South. Until 2000, Richard Nixon was the only GOP presidential candidate to gain forty percent of the vote in the country.

Before 2000, the Democratic presidential candidate lost Stewart County only in 1968, when segregationist George Wallace ran for the American Independent Party. After that Stewart County was one of only six Wallace countiesTemplate:Efn to support Democratic candidate George McGovern.

Since the turn of the 21st century, Stewart County's voters have increasingly supported Republican candidates in recent presidential elections. In the 2008 presidential election, John McCain received approximately 53.7% of the vote;<ref>2008 electoral map, New York Times, December 9, 2008. Retrieved: April 7, 2013.</ref> he was the first Republican to carry the county. For 100 years before that, Stewart County was the sole county in Tennessee that had never voted in majority for a Republican presidential candidate.<ref>David Leip, "Presidential General Election Map Comparison (Tennessee)," Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved: April 7, 2013.</ref> In 2016, Republican Donald Trump gained a proportion of votes here that was only marginally less than that of the GOP gained in the historically Unionist counties of East Tennessee and the Highland Rim; by 2024 he achieved an eye-popping 81% of the vote, making Kamala Harris's performance the worst ever of all time by a Democrat and the first one to not even hit 19% of Stewart's vote.