Giles County Bicentennial - Pulaski, TN - Community Commemoration on Waymarking.com

County of stone: Giles County
Locaation of display: W. Madison St. side, courthouse lawn, Pulaski
Erected: 2010

No text on this large marble map of the county....except the committee names. The map shows the county as it was, before Interstates, but after the U.S. Highway system was in place.

The outlying panels are pavers, or paid donation bricks of flat markble.

Text:

"The Tennessee General Assembly created Giles County in 1809 from land once part of North Carolina. Andrew Jackson suggested the name "Giles" to the legislature in recognition of the strong support Congressman William Branch Giles had given to Tennessee in the successful bid for statehood in 1796. Since Indian treaties had not been finalized, settlers were not permitted to move onto their land until 1806.

"Both Elkton and Prospect claim the designation of first settlement in the county; they were followed by Lynn Creek, Campbellsville, Pulaski, Bodenham, Crosswater, Aspen Hill, and Blooming Grove. Of these, Pulaski and Lynnville exist today as incorporated towns. Other incorporated towns are Minor Hill and Ardmore.

"Pulaski was designated the county seat and a courthouse erected on a square in the center of the county in 1811. The present neoclassical beauty, erected in 1909, has been placed in the National Register of Historic Places. Busts of three natives who served as governors of the state, Aaron V. Brown, Neill Smith Brown, and John C. Brown, were placed in the foyer as a bicentennial project.

"Aaron V. Brown (1795-1859) served in both houses of the Tennessee General Assembly and the U.S. House of Representatives before becoming governor of Tennessee (1845-47). In 1847 Brown, a Democrat, was defeated in the gubernatorial race by a fellow Giles Countian, Neill S. Brown, a Whig. Aaron Brown's political activities focused on national issues, particularly slavery, and he is credited with authorship of the "Tennessee Platform" in defense of national unity presented to the Nashville Convention of 1850.

"The location of Giles County on the Nashville and Decatur Railroad made it a center of activity during the Civil War. Though no major battle was fought within its boundaries, the county fell into Federal hands after the battle of Fort Donelson and was occupied by Union troops for several years. Grenville Dodge was in command in 1863 when Sam Davis, a young Confederate soldier and member of Coleman's Scouts, was condemned and executed for spying. A statue of Davis stands on the south side of the town square, a monument to the twenty-one-year-old soldier whose last words were immortalized by Confederate veterans: "If I had a thousand lives, I would lose them all here before I would betray my friend or the confidence of my informer." The county contributed four generals to the Confederate cause: John C. Brown, G. W. Gordon, John Adams, and Preston Smith. More than two thousand soldiers from Giles County filled the Southern ranks.

"Pulaski was the birthplace of the Ku Klux Klan. Organized shortly after the war by John C. Lester, James R. Crowe, John Kennedy, Calvin Jones, Richard R. Reed, and Frank O. McCord, the secret society spread across the state as its reputation for violence and intimidation evolved. In recent years attempts to stage Klan activities in Pulaski have met stiff resistance from the community." ~ Tennessee Encyclopedia

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