Cocke County TNGenWeb

Cocke County is located in East Tennessee, one of the state’s three “Grand Divisions.” Cocke County was formed in 1797 from part of Jefferson County. It is bordered by the following counties: Greene, Hamblen, Jefferson, Sevier, and Haywood Co., NC and Madison Co., NC. Newport is the county seat.

"Cocke county was named for Gen. William Cocke, a native of Virginia, and an emigrant to Holston. He has been repeatedly mentioned as having participated in the military, civil, legislative and Judiciary services of Virginia, North-Carolina, Franklin and Tennessee, where he was known as an efficient and zealous officer, from his debut at Long Island, to his seat in the United States Senate, which he held for twelve years. He will be seen, thereafter, as one of the Circuit Judges for Tennessee. A member of her Legislature at the commencement of the Creek war in September, 1813, after assisting to pass an act to authorize an augmentation of the forces to march against the Creeks, and to protect the defenseless settlers in the most exposed part of the Mississippi Territory, and repel invasion, he, at the rise of the Legislature, though above sixty years of age, and before visiting his home in East Tennessee, volunteered his service as a private in that war, and acted therein most bravely and usefully. He was afterwards appointed United States Agent to the Chickasaws. He afterwards settled in Mississippi, and represented his county in its legislature. In private life, he was most hospitable and benevolent."

On Dec 30, 1876, a fire destroyed the Cocke County courthouse, taking with it all the records. (All except old deed book #17, which a lawyer had taken home to work on a case.) With those records went much of the information that we researchers need to piece together our family trees.

But not all the information is lost. In addition to old deed book #17, there were records that did not belong to the county that survive. These include church records, military records, state records, and even records in other counties and state that refer to Cocke County.

The purpose of this page is to serve as a central repository for information from all sources about Cocke County and its people from before the courthouse fire. If you have information to contribute, please submit it to the site co-hosts with as much data as possible, including the document's date, names involved, and a brief abstract. This will help other researchers find their Cocke County roots “BEFORE THE FIRE”.

If you would like credit and are willing to share other data you might have concerning Cocke County, please submit your name, email address, and the type of data you have to:

COCKE COUNTY HISTORY
Goodspeed’s History of Cocke County	Goodspeed’s History of Cocke County Biographies	Cocke County History, Topography and Migrations Route
Ramsey's Annals of Tennessee Index and Appendix UPDATED!	Cocke County Museum NEW!	1821 Tennessee Map
Cocke County Connections Old Newspaper Articles A Blog by Phillip Walker NEW!	People and Places - A Scrapbook COMING SOON!	Early Cocke County Officials *NEW!*

GENERAL LINKS
TN State Webring Other TN Counties	US Gen Web	US Gen Net	Cocke County Chamber of Commerce
Joining TNGenNet	American Local History Network	American History and Genealogy Project	Tennessee Special History Projects
Stokely Memorial Library Research and contact information including Surname Files Index	USGenWeb Archives Digital Library Cocke County	Tombstone Project Cocke County	Cocke County Data at Sevier County Library
TNGenWeb Archives TN Records Repository	History of the Synod of TN Deaths Mentioned from 1817 to 1887	Literary Institutions of the TN Synod From History of the Synod of Tennessee 1890 with Institutions, Surnames and Histories	Tennessee State Library and Archives

QUERIES, LISTS AND MESSAGE BOARDS
Cocke County Query Board REQUIRES FREE REGISTRATION	Cocke County Mailing List	Cocke Message Board Genforum
Lookup and Research Help UPDATED!	Cocke Co TNGENWEB Query Board TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE	Rootsweb Mailing lists
Cocke County Queries 1996 to 2000 Indexed by dates and names UPDATED!	Individuals researching Cocke County Surnames A to L M to Z	SUBMIT YOUR SURNAMES OF INTEREST AND CONNECT WITH OTHER RESEARCHERS

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All Rights Reserved. The information contained within this web site may be used by individual researchers, libraries and genealogical societies, however, commercial or for-profit use of this information is strictly prohibited without prior permission. If copied, this copyright notice must appear with the information. The copyright of the actual information, documents or images contained here is held by the submitter.

This page last updated on 06/15/09 and has been visited times since August 2007.

cocke county, tennessee

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