Acts of 1821 Chapter 204

SECTION 1. That it shall be the duty of the justices of the peace in each captain's company, to open and hold an election at the place of holding company musters in the county of McMinn on the first Saturday in May next, for the purpose of electing a fit and proper person from each of said captains companies as a commissioner to fix upon a suitable site for said seat of justice in said county of McMinn, to superintend the laying out of the same into convenient streets and alleys and the erection of the public buildings, for said county.

SECTION 2. That all free white male citizens of said county above the age of twentyone years, shall be entitled to vote for said commissioner; PROVIDED, that they shall vote within the captain's company where such persons may reside, and the person getting the highest number of votes in each company aforesaid shall be a commissioner for the purpose aforesaid.  

SECTION 3. That said commissioners thus appointed shall appear at the next court of pleas and quarter sessions for said county, and there in open court each of them shall give bond with approved securities to the chairman of said county court and his successors in office, in the penalty of a thousand dollars, conditioned for the due and faithful discharge of the duties devolving upon each of them as commissioner as aforesaid, which said bond shall be filed in the clerk's office of said court.

SECTION 4. That the aforesaid commissioners or a majority of them are hereby authorized and required as soon as may be after said court, to hold a meeting and settle upon a place for the permanent seat of justice for said county of McMinn, which said site shall be fixed at a place in said county to be most permanently advantageous to said county, without regard to any other considerations and after a majority of them shall have agreed upon the places of fixing the seat of justice, shall make such agreement with the owner of the land, whereon they may wish to fix said seat of justice as to them shall seem right and just, and for the lowest price the same can be procured, for any quantity not less than forty, nor more than sixty acres, and shall take a title from the owner of said land to themselves and their successors in office as commissioners of said county town, and in the event the said commissioners shall deem it right to establish the town of Calhoun as the permanent seat of justice for said county, they shall before they establish the same receive a title to themselves and their successors in fee simple, for at least fifty acres of land, adjoining said town in an oblong square, commencing on the river Hiwassee, on the south eastern boundary of said town, and running northwardly along the length of said town, from the owner of the land surrounding said town, without giving any compensation therefor; and in the event said commissioners shall fix upon the town of Columbus as the seat of justice for said county, then and in that case said commissioners shall receive a title from the owner of the land lying immediately below said town in fee simple for the quantity of fifty acres of land commencing on the Hiwassee river, and on the western boundary of said town to run in an oblong square the whole length of said town, and in either case the said commissioner shall lay off the same into convenient lots, streets and alleys, and that the public buildings shall be built upon or near to the boundary line between the old and new town as near the center of the old and new town as a convenient site may be procured, which said lots shall be sold for the use of said town, as hereinafter provided for; but should said commissioners pitch upon another place in said county, they shall lay off the tract of land procured by the commissioners into a public square, lots, streets, and alleys of convenient size, which said town shall be known by the name of _________________.

SECTION 5. That said commissioner shall sell the lots in the town laid out in said county in either the ways by this act directed to the highest bidder, upon a credit of twelve months, the sales whereof shall be advertised in the Knoxville Register at least thirty days before said sales.

SECTION 6. That it shall be the duty of said commissioners to contract with suitable workmen to build a courthouse, prison and stocks; the court house and stocks to be placed on the public square, but said commissioners may build said prison upon some other lot in said town as to them shall seem right.

SECTION 7. That said commissioners shall appropriate the money arising from the sale of the town lots aforesaid to the payment of the lands, if they shall be compelled to purchase a site, and the public buildings. If there should be a surplus in their hands after said buildings are finished, after the manner prescribed by said commissioner, (It) shall be deposited in the treasury of said county, and to remain there for the use of said town, subject to the disposition of the county court of said county.

SECTION 8. That the seat of justice shall remain in the town of Calhoun until the public buildings for said county shall be finished and reported by said commissioners to the court of said county, that the same are finished in the manner contemplated by the original plan for the establishment of said buildings.

SECTION 9. That when said commissioners have finished said buildings, and reported the same as by this act required, the court may make any allowance to said commissioners not exceeding one dollar and fifty cents per day.

SECTION 10. That it shall be the duty of the courts of pleas and quarter sessions for the counties of McMinn and Monroe at their first sessions after the first day of January next, to appoint a fit and suitable person on part of each county to run and mark the line dividing said counties, beginning where the same commences on Roane county line, running thence to the Indian boundary to a point in said line that shall be six miles north east of the residence of Caleb Starr, and that the said line shall be run and marked by said persons on or before the June term of McMinn county court, and a fair plat thereof returned to the courts of said county, and when that shall have been done the expense of the same shall be paid at the mutual expense of said counties, not exceeding five dollars a day for each day both said persons may be engaged in running the same.

Passed: November 16, 1821.