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Robert Smith and Lucy Gordon were the first couple married in Smith county, and Richard Hodges and Delilah
Risen the second. The latter were married by Arthur S. Hogan, Esq, in 1803.
Large tracts of the best land in the country were entered by surviving soldiers of the war of the Revolution, or by
their assignees, by locating the land warrants granted to said soldiers by the State of North Carolina. These tracts
ranged from 640 to several thousand acres. The early settlers of Smith County were mostly from North Carolina,
Virginia, and East Tennessee, and after erecting their rude log cabins, they began the clearing of their lands, and the
raising of the cereals. Subsequently, and for many years, including the decade of the twenties, they raised cotton to a
considerable extent, and afterward abandoned its cultivation. The cultivation of tobacco was early introduced and this
crop has always been, and still continues to be, a staple production of the county, which ranks as the sixth county in
the State in the amount of that article produced. The cultivation of blue-grass, and the raising of fine breeds of cattle
were introduced into the county in 1836, by Dr. F. H. Gordon, who was then a teacher in Clinton College. He went to
Kentucky and on his return, brought to the farm on which the college is located, a herd of Durham cattle, and began to
sow blue-grass for pasture. Since that time considerable attention has been given to the raising of fine breeds of stock
of all kinds, and to the cultivation of the grasses. The cereal, and other productions of Smith County, according to the
census of 1880, were as follows: Indian corn, 1,071,050 bushels; oats, 47,240 bushels; rye, 3,228 bushels; wheat, 104,945
bushels; orchard products, $11,927; hay, 2,730 tons; Irish potatoes, 13, 817 bushels; sweet potatoes, 29,335 bushels;
tobacco, 1,799,981 pounds; live stock and its production?horses, 5,112; mules and asses, 1,973; cattle, 8,623; sheep,
10,234; hogs, 31,871; wool 40,393 pounds; butter, 221,381 pounds. The population of Smith County in 1860, including
that part which has since been attached to Trousdale County, was a follows: White, 12,015; colored, 4,342; nearly all of
the latter were then slaves, and in 1880 it was?white, 14,215; colored, 3,578. Notwithstanding the reduction of the
territory, and the ravages of civil war, the white population of the county increased 2,200 in the twenty years following
1860, while the colored population decreased 764 during the same period. The transportation of produce and
merchandise to and from Smith County has always been by way of the Cumberland River. But the citizens are now
anticipating the early completion of the Middle & East Tennessee Central Railroad, and also the Nashville & Knoxville
Railroad through the county by way of Carthage. These railroads when completed will be of great advantage to the
county, in hastening its future development.
Extract of Gordons in Smith County from Goodspeed's History of Tennessee
Smith County History
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