History
Nashville- Gateway To The South
Nashville was founded on Christmas Day, 1779, when James Robertson and a small group of men crossed the Cumberland River and camped on a bluff overlooking the frozen river.
But Nashville as a city had its origins when the North Carolina legislature established the village with a 640- acre tract as its westernmost territory in what is now Nashville. The original city was designed by surveyor Thomas Malloy, whose city was framed by Jo Johnston Street to the north, Broadway to the south, Ninth Avenue to the west, and the Cumberland River to the east.
Several important events in 1780 contributed to the foundation of the city. On may, 1, 1780, middle Tennessee's first government was established with a document known as Cumberland Compact, an agreement signed by over two hundred of the areas first settlers. The compact provided for the punishment of crime, administration of justice, government and the promotion of the general welfare of the people.
While there are conflicting theories and different interpretations of available information, it appears that the land Nashville now occupies had originally been intended by the state of North Carolina to serve as land for veterans of the Revolutionary War. This area was known at that time as the Cumberland Settlements. The Petition of the Inhabitants of the Cumberland River, April 29, 1782, to the General Assembly of North Carolina indicates that those submitting the petition considered themselves to be under the jurisdiction of North Carolina at the time. The area then known as French Lick was vacant, possesses good water, was located on a river, and was an ideal site for a town.
An advance party set out to survey the land, did so, planted corn for the following settlers, and would follow and sought through petition to establish their rights to the land they intended to settle.
Finally statehood was achieved for Tennessee on June 1, 1796, when President George Washington signed a bill making it the sixteenth state in the new Union.
