Meigs County, Tennessee: History
Before 1819, the area that is now Meigs County was part of the Cherokee nation. It had been inhabited for thousands of years by succeeding cultures of indigenous peoples. European trades had interacted with the Cherokee since the late 17th century, coming from colonial settlements in Virginia and South Carolina.
Following the American Revolutionary War, American settlers began to enter the territory in greater numbers. They established ferries across the Tennessee River from Rhea County as early as 1807. Colonel Return J. Meigs, a Revolutionary veteran and namesake for the county, was appointed as the United States Indian agent, based in Rhea County until 1817. He supervised trade with the Cherokee. That year, the agency was moved to an area in what is now Meigs County.
In 1819, the US made what is known as the Calhoun Treaty with the Cherokee, forcing them to cede lands north of the Hiwassee River for settlement. Meigs County was formed by the Tennessee legislature in 1836 from parts of Rhea County.
In 1830, the United States Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, forcibly removing the “Five Civilized Tribes” from the Southeast. The Cherokee were the last to go. They were gathered in internment camps in Tennessee and Alabama before being forced on the long overland journey to Indian Territory (modern day Oklahoma), in a 19th-century event known as the "Trail of Tears." Many crossed the Tennessee River at Blythe Ferry, in the southwestern part of Meigs County.
In June 1861, at the outbreak of the Civil War, the residents of Meigs County were among the few in East Tennessee to vote in favor of Tennessee's Ordinance of Secession. The county voted 481 to 267 in favor of the Ordinance, which severed the state's ties to the Union. Earlier in February 1861, Meigs County was alongside Sullivan County one of only two counties in East Tennessee voting to support a secession convention, which it did by a vote of 338 to 323. The county provided troops for both sides during the course of the war. …