History

Before European settlement, the Cookeville area was dominated by the Cherokee tribe since the Paleo-Original American era. The Cherokee used the region as hunting grounds. Cherokee claims to the land in the Cumberland Plateau ended after the Treaty of Tellico was signed in October 1805. The area surrounding Cookeville and Putnam County was first reported to be settled by Virginia and North Carolina longhunters in the late 1700s to early 1800s, most of whom were of English and Scotch-Irish descent.
 
Settlers arrived by Avery’s Trace, which was known as the Walton Road in the area of present-day Cookeville. Development of the area was slow, as Putnam County was not established until 1842, formed from parts of White, Overton, Jackson, Smith, and DeKalb Counties after the population increased sufficiently, straining those counties’ abilities to support services to the isolated residents. Moving into the 19th century, the area was dominated economically by the increase of agriculture, logging, and timber production. Putnam County reestablished itself in 1854, with the establishment of a county seat required by a new Tennessee state law. In the same year, land purchased by Charles Crook became the area where the new county seat was established since it has access to natural springs able to support a town. The city was named Cookeville for Richard Fielding Cooke, a pioneer who settled in the area in 1810, and Tennessee Senator who was active in the formation of the county. . Cooke was twice elected to the state senate, and was influential in reestablishing Putnam County in 1854.
 
Why was Putnam County reestablished?
 
After its original formation in 1842 was declared unconstitutional, Putnam County was firmly established February 11, 1854 when Richard Fielding Cooke’s bill, with amendments, cleared the Tennessee House. Putnam County was again a reality. It was named in honor of General Israel Putnam, who rose to prominence in the American Revolutionary War and fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775.

The 1854 act reestablishing Putnam County was passed after Representative Henderson M. Clements of Jackson County assured his colleagues that a new survey showed that there was sufficient area to form the county. The act specified the the “county town” be named “Cookeville” in honor of Richard F. Cooke, who served in the Tennessee Senate from 1851-1854, representing at various times Jackson, Fentress, Macon, Overton and White Counties. The act authorized Joshua R. Stone and Green Baker from White County, William Davis and Isaiah Warton from Overton County, John Brown and Austin Morgan from Jackson County, William B. Stokes and Bird S. Rhea from DeKalb County, and Benjamin A. Vaden and Nathan Ward from Smith County to study the Conner survey and select a spot, not more than two and one-half miles from the center of the county, for the courthouse. The first County Court chose a hilly tract of land then owned by Charles Crook for the site.