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Archiver > KYALLEN > 2001-10 > 1002619222
From:
Subject: Re: [KYALLEN] Allen County versus Sumner County?
Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2001 05:20:22 EDT
In a message dated 10/8/01 10:38:37 PM Central Daylight Time,
writes:
> So what is it about Sumner County versus Allen County? Anything remarkable
> about 1832, when my people went from the one to the other? Would love to
> hear from anyone who has any ideas or knowledge of the history of this area.
>
>
Nothing terribly remarkable about Allen Co KY & Sumner Co TN, except they are
border counties, and the state line moved a couple of times. To put the
situation into a nutshell: When KY was surveyed for the boundary prior to
becoming a state, a surveyor named Thomas Walker and his crew did the
survey's. Prior to TN becoming a state, the line was resurveyed and found
that Walker's work was faulty. It appears he and his men had been doing a
lot of drinking and took inaccurate measurements. Therefore the boundary line
between several of the KY/TN border counties from middle TN/KY to western
TN/KY changed a few times until the two states came to a verbal agreement
about 1820.
Even today the boundary is not definite. When Ft. Campbell was established
in Clarksville TN, the issue came up because of the tax situation. I don't
remember the details, but part of the agreement was that Ft. Campbell was
given a KY address, irregardless of whether the people on base live on the KY
or TN side of the military establishment, and there was something about
taxes, but I'm not sure what the specifics are.
You will also find that a lot of Allen Countians married/eloped in Sumner and
Macon Co TN when the marriage laws were slightly different.
Sharon
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