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Area History

• Putnam County

Putnam County TN was created in 1842 from portions of White, Overton, Jackson, Smith, and DeKalb counties, and named in honor of General Israel Putnam of the Revolutionary War. In 1844, a court injunction charged that the county was improperly established. But in 1854, the county was re-established by the court and Cookeville TN was named the county seat. Walton Road was the principal east-west route at the time, and it completely traversed the county. Putnam County's cities are Algood, Baxter, Cookeville and Monterey.

• City of Cookeville TN

Location has always favored Cookeville TN. Chosen for its two springs and its central spot in the new county of Putnam, it was chartered in 1856 as the county seat and named for Richard Fielding Cooke, the state senator instrumental in founding the county in 1854. The town grew but the Civil War cut short its development.

The routing of the Nashville TN and Knoxville RR (later the Tennessee Central) through Cookeville in 1890 greatly stimulated its prosperity. The rails carried out products of its farms and forests and brought in manufactured goods. After the TC built a depot west of the square, businesses and residences sprang up nearby, giving Cookeville TN two commercial districts, Westside and the Square.

Cookeville TN was in the right place when U.S. Highway 70 N in the 1930s, Interstate 40 in the 1960s, and U.S. Highway 111 in the 1990s were routed through or near it. The superhighways spelled the demise of the rails but put Cookeville TN on the map as a commercial center. The community began attracting light industries in the 1960s, bringing about a healthy diversification of the economy and ensuring Cookeville TN’s position as the industrial center of the region.

Education was important to Cookevillians early. Isaac and Jonathan Buck opened Monticello Academy (later Buck College) in 1852. After the Civil War, the two-story brick Washington Academy drew high school students from all over the county. Tennessee Polytechnic Institute located to Cookeville in 1915, and later became known as Tennessee Technological University in 1965.

• City of Algood TN

Until rails reached the area around 1891, Algood TN was farmland – much of it owned by Joel Algood, and known as “Algood Oldfields.”

The Nashville TN and Knoxville  TN RR bought land from him for a depot and called it “Algood,” thus naming the community which grew up around the station.

Algood TN incorporated in 1891 and grew rapidly. The rails carried out agricultural products, notably poultry and eggs. (The town once called itself the “Chicken Capital of the World.”)

Algood TN also was the terminus for a 22-mile Tennessee, Kentucky and Northern RR spur line from Livingston in Overton County. A quaint gasoline-powered trolley rolled along these rails in the early 1900s.

• City of Baxter TN

Baxter TN has borne various names. Before the railroad, a post office there was called “Ai,” a name borrowed from a Biblical city of Canaanites. When the Nashville TN and Knoxville TN  RR built a depot there, it was called “Mine Lick.”

To avoid confusion, in 1902 the community, post office, and depot were named “Baxter” in honor of Jere Baxter, president of the Tennessee Central.

The new town grew rapidly and farmers prospered as the rails brought distant markets within reach of their agricultural products. Baxter sawmills marketed railroad ties and other wood products.

Baxter TN made a unique contribution to the county’s education. Because there was no secondary school in the western portion of Putnam County TN in the early 1900s, with the help of local leaders and public funds, the Methodist Episcopal Church established and operated Baxter Seminary from 1910 to 1959.

• City of Monterey TN

Monterey TN was once the pioneer settlement “Standing Stone,” so named for a large boulder on the historic Walton Road nearby. Many believe the monolith was an Indian marker of religious significance. When the railroad reached Standing Stone in 1893, officers and stockholders of the Cumberland Coal Company founded a new town and named it “Monterey,” Spanish for “king of the mountain.”

Monterey TN was Putnam County’s true railroad town. The Tennessee Central eventually moved its dinner stop, servicing facilities and crew change point to the mountain town. Until the 1940s, when the best veins were depleted, thousands of cars of coal mined in Monterey TN and neighboring towns rolled off to distant markets.

With its cool climate and mountain scenery, Monterey TN became a summer resort in the early 1900s. At least eight hotels catered to “summer people.” The automobile, however, brought the demise of the resort era. Only the Imperial Hotel remains to bear witness.

Licensed Tennessee General Contractor  in residential home building and commercial building serving Cumberland Cove, Fairfield Glade, Lake Tansi, in Crossville TN,  and all Cumberland County and Cumberland Plateau area in surrounding Counties, Cookeville, Knoxville, Nashville, Pikeville Tennessee.

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