Boundaries - Historical Notes

The private act has often been used as a means for transferring parcels of land from one county to another, often because the boundary lines would bisect an individual landowner's property, placing the landowner under the jurisdiction of two counties.  This type of boundary change was often very general in its description of the land transferred, without any metes and bounds description.  The following is a summary of acts which authorized boundary changes for Bledsoe County.

1. Acts of 1817, Chapter 109, created Marion County and used the Bledsoe County line as part of the description of Marion County.  A careful analysis of the description of Marion County does not indicate that any land area was taken from Bledsoe County by this act.
2. Private Acts of 1832, Chapter 46, Section 3, established the true dividing line between the counties of Bledsoe and Marion which left the residence of John Heard and John and William Henson in Bledsoe County.  This act was repealed by Private Acts of 1835-36, Chapter 66 and re-established the line between Bledsoe and Marion counties to its condition before the passage of Private Acts of 1832, Chapter 46.
3. Acts of 1837-38, Chapter 65, changed the lines between Bledsoe and White counties so as to leave the line dividing the two counties at the point where it crosses the Big Laurel Creek running down the creek to form a parallel line with the county line, thence to Bee Creek, and down to the mouth of Glade Creek, thence up Glade Creek to the county line, which would include the farms of Thomas F. Barnett, Jonothan Acuff, William Campbell, George Gregory, and William Graham in Bledsoe County, and the plantation belonging to John Mitchell in White County.
4. Private Acts of 1857-58, Chapter 129, Section 7, changed all the lines between Van Buren and Bledsoe County so as to include the residence and farm belonging to Hiram Walden wholly within Bledsoe County.
5. Public Acts of 1857-58, Chapter 83, Section 3, provided that a line be established between Rhea and Bledsoe counties which would begin at Pole Bridge Creek and run southwest so as to include B. F. Bridgeman's farm, and to intersect the established line at a white oak, a black oak, and a hickory now known at the old corner of Rhea, Hamilton and Bledsoe counties.  Section 4 of this act transferred the properties of Mark Stephens and William Moss out of Cumberland County and into Bledsoe County.
6. Private Acts of 1859-60, Chapter 211, Section 6, moved all the land belonging to James Seats, Junior, out of Bledsoe County and into Van Buren County.
7. Public Acts of 1868-69, Chapter 21, Section 3, transferred the tenth civil district of Bledsoe County over to Sequatchie County beginning at the last corner of the original line with the ninth and tenth civil district's line of the Bledsoe and Hamilton County lines, running west with the old seat line to Bush Creek on the top of the Cumberland Mountain so as to include all of the territory contained in the original tenth civil district of Bledsoe County in Sequatchie County.
8. Public Acts of 1879, Chapter 137, Section 2, detached the lands of Mark Stephens, E. F. Patton, and the lands adjoining the Bledsoe County line which belonged to J. M. Thorn and the Stephens heirs from Cumberland County and attached all of the properties mentioned to Bledsoe County, but nothing in this act was to prevent Cumberland County from collecting the revenues due them.  Section 4 of this same act transferred the property of Jesse Wallings out of Bledsoe County and into Van Buren County.
9. Public Acts of 1883, Chapter 58, amended Public Acts of 1879, Chapter 137, above, so as to correct an error in the name listed as J. M. Thorin, changing it to the correct name of J. M. Thurman, repealing that part of the act.
10. Public Acts of 1889, Chapter 25, removed all of the lands of Oxshee John Thurman from Rhea County and placed them all in Bledsoe County.
11. Private Acts of 1897, Chapter 149, changed the boundary lines between Bledsoe County and Cumberland County so that the home and properties of E. T. Patton was included wholly in Bledsoe County giving a general description of the area involved.
12. Acts of 1903, Chapter 41, detached that part of the farm which J. R. Swafford owned lying partly in the tenth civil district of Bledsoe County, and partly within the eleventh civil district of Rhea County, from Rhea County and included the whole of it in Bledsoe County.
13. Acts of 1903, Chapter 54, was identical to Private Acts of 1903, Chapter 41.
14. Acts of 1903, Chapter 562, moved all the lands known as the Mount Airy Farm, now owned by W. B. Pope, out of Sequatchie County into Bledsoe County.