Hawkins County, Tennessee: History
The land was given to William Armstrong as a land grant in the 1780s. Armstrong built Stony Point. Armstrong's landholding was established as a county in 1787. It was named for Benjamin Hawkins, a U.S. Senator from North Carolina, the state which it was a part of at that time. In 1797, Louis Philippe (who would become King of the French in 1830) visited Armstrong's estate.
During the American Civil War, Hawkins County saw combat. The Battle of Rogersville took place on November 6, 1863.
Since the 1940s, a 1,900-2,200 acre area western Hawkins County was proposed and planned as state park to be known as Poor Valley State Park in order to promote economic development efforts in the upper East Tennessee region, the plan would stall in the 1970s.