cocke
county,
tennessee
 French Broad River at Del Rio, TN (photo courtesy of Brian Stansberry, Wikipedia Commons)  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. |
From Ramsey's Annals of Tennessee, 1853, regarding the county's founder:
"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."
ANNOUNCEMENTS!
QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR ANCESTORS? Please do a search from the box below to locate surnames you are interested in throughout the documents on our site. Other helpful resources are found listed below in the Queries, Lists and Message Boards section of this page, and the link there to others researching particular surnames. And be sure to check the Stokely Memorial Library pages here for files they may have on your families of interest and their research assistance. Website hosts are not able to assist with research inquiries, but we hope these suggestions can help you on your searching. And as always, we welcome your contributions.
****NEW!!****
MAY 2013: This time around we have several new submissions: Bruce Price has contributed the latest in the land deed records, Volume 17, abstracted from the Tennessee State Archives, and Lori Baxter has contributed photos of pages from the early Acts of Tennessee collection there listing a number of Cocke Countians. We also wish to thank Jerry Lynn for contributing ancestors to our page on pre-1876 county marriages. Finally, we're glad to pass along a new link to her pages by Carolyn Whitaker, an addition to her Civil War research pages involving Tennessee and her Cocke County folks that has expanded into a look at events from the Revolutionary War days that, she argues, may have brought that sad time to our country. She calls the new page What About Benedict Arnold? and offers food for thought through her research. Thank you all for sharing.
MARCH 2013: NEW SUBMISSIONS TO THE PRE-1876 MARRIAGE LIST! Thanks for the most recent contributions from Bruce Price and Lori Baxter. Please let us know if your ancestors marriages fit this early list - Civil War and Revolutionary War Pension records are especially helpful in finding these, since county records before 1876 were destroyed by fire.
NOVEMBER 2012: A huge thank-you to Marvin and Samme Templin for their contributions to the Find-A-Grave section for Cocke County, most recently the addition of Union Cemetery and the thousands of graves they documented there. Please visit to search for your relations there, at Union Cemetery, Cocke County, TN. We appreciate your many many hours of dedicated service to the genealogy community, Samme and Marvin.
JUNE 2012: Several additions and updates this spring, courtesy of our generous contributors. Once again, Carolyn Whitaker has our thanks for letting us know about her wonderful new page on the 26TH TN INFANTRY REG, CO C. CSA, from our county. From our CIVIL WAR ANCESTORS pages, Paul L Kelley has submitted information on his ancestor JOSEPH KELLY/KELLEY. And John O'Neal submitted some considerable new information on his ancestor HENRY O'NEIL, SR. Finally, our thanks to Becki Ryan, another descendant of Henry O'Neil/O'Neal and Lucinda Gooch, who contributed their marriage information for our new collection of PRE-1876 FIRE MARRIAGES.
MARCH 2012: SAM MCGINTY'S STORE LEDGER. We are extremely proud to announce a wonderful contribution to our site by Jacky Witt, who has preserved this rare family heirloom record and wishes to share it. The ledger contains a wealth of Cocke County surnames but it is also a glimpse of history as lived out in the day-to-day activity of county residents and visitors, especially those in the Wilsonville area. The LEDGER BOOK FROM SAMUEL MCGINTY'S STORE AND INN runs from the years 1860 to 1869. As it covers 120 pages total and transcription is ongoing, we are beginning in consecutive order, with additions as transcriptions are completed. The first fifteen pages include taxes Sam McGinty collected as authorized by the county. You may open the page from the above links, and it is also listed on the RECORDS page and can be reached from our HISTORY section below. And don't fail to let Jacky know if you have additional information about her ancestors and about the store and inn. Thank you so much, Jacky!
We are also proud to add three new listings to our CIVIL WAR ANCESTORS page, thanks to Lori Baxter for submitting several members of her BAXTER family. Please help us honor your own soldiers by contributing--from the basic facts to more detailed information if you have it. Many thanks, Lori, for your submission!
CIVIL WAR UPDATES: Lori Baxter has provided some additional information on her ancestors, HOLLOWAY BAXTER AND REUBEN JUSTUS. And we have another new addition, submitted by Karen Lewis Dougherty, for JAMES NEWELL. Carolyn Whitaker has also added another page to her wonderful website, detailing a good deal of history involving the COCKE COUNTY UNION HOME GUARDS, including lists of men organized by Captain Jefferson Denton to protect their homes and families. As Carolyn explains, "There had been much raiding, pillaging, assaulting, and killing amongst the Confederates and Unionists in the neighborhoods south of Newport, where many of our families lived on Bogard Creek and the Cosby area. The heartbreak and devastation done by each other's families, brother to brother, father to son, son to father, and the poor widow's and children, who were left without fathers, was almost too much for them to bear." Visit her page to learn more, and perhaps locate some ancestors of your own who were part of this company.
FEBRUARY 2012: We're rolling out some additions to our collection of materials here. Bruce Price has provided juicy genealogical abstracts to flesh out his previous submission of the Civil War Claims Index for Cocke County. Take a look at it HERE, and another link is found on the Military section of our RECORDS page. We have also been working to extract and collect PRE-1876 FIRE MARRIAGES from all the submissions on our site. If you have any you'd like to contribute, just drop us an email with the specifics. Marriages in this collection may not have occurred here, but the couples listed stayed in the county for a significant amount of time. To visit the page, click the hotlink above or find it on our RECORDS page in the Marriages section. We have also fixed some broken links, removed some dead ones and added new surname researchers. Finally, we encourage you to view a fascinating ongoing collection of old newspaper articles added to monthly by Phillip Walker on his blog, Cocke County Connections.
"Take off your shoes and sit a spell!! Come on in and meet the REAL CHARACTERS in the book "CHRISTY" by Catherine Marshall, and join me in a journey through the lives of my Click cousins and their friends and neighbors, as they raised their families in an incredible true story that took place in the beautiful Smokey Mountains of Cocke County, Tennessee in the early 1900's." Carolyn Whitaker invites visitors to her web page that backgrounds this well-known and much loved book, Christy, set in the beautiful area of Del Rio in Cocke County, which is pictured in our photograph above. Visit the site HERE and enjoy! Added 11/12/2011.
Carolyn Whitaker shares a reminder to us all: "Since 2011 marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the War between the States, I think it is important for us to understand what turmoil existed in our families and the states where they resided." Visit her new web page for a poignant glimpse of her Yett and Faubion forbears from Cocke County, as they and our own ancestors navigated this harrowing time in our history. Hamilton Yett and Sarah Ann Faubion link. Added 5/31/2011.
UPDATES: For the convenience of our site visitors, contributions to our record and family surname/histories will now show their submission dates. Undated items are either original files, very early contributions or outside links. We welcome any suggestions for improving your visit to Cocke County TNGenWeb, and your contributions are always appreciated. Check back often for new additions!
The United States Reference Unit at the Family History Library has launched a research guide for Cocke County, Tennessee in the new FamilySearch Wiki format. Anyone who wishes to can register and add material or make changes.
Leslie Husky Cozart of Friends of the Stokely Memorial Library informs us that Duay O’Neal has finished a compilation of Cocke County Cemeteries, two big volumes. They are available through the Library. See the library's page for details.
Carole Thomason, the Hamblen Co. TNGenWeb coordinator, is a descendant of William Cocke. Please visit the Cocke page she has created to learn more about William Cocke, his contributions to Tennessee history, and the family line.
We are in need of documents collected from outside Cocke County pertaining to the area before the 1879 courthouse fire which destroyed all county records.
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 |
Cocke
County Museum
|
1821 Tennessee Map |
|
Cocke County Connections Old Newspaper Articles A Blog by Phillip Walker |
The
McGinty Store Ledger |
Early Cocke County Officials |
| National Register of Historical
Places Cocke County |
The Lost State of Franklin History Petition |
History of Cocke County from Chamber of Commerce online |
| American
Local History Network |
American
History and Genealogy Project |
Tennessee
Special History Projects |
| Smokey
Mountain Historical Society |
Cocke Co. History & Genealogy TSLA Fact Sheet |
East
Tennessee Historical Society |
| WPA
Guide to TN History |
East
Tennessee Roots Newsletter |
|
|
COCKE
COUNTY RECORDS Includes data collected before the 1876 courthouse fire |
|
FAMILY
HISTORIES
Cocke County Families Submit yours! |
| GENERAL LINKS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
TN
State Webring Other TN Counties |
US Gen Web | US Gen Net |
Cocke
County Chamber of Commerce |
| Joining TNGenNet |
Tennessee
Genealogical Society |
Cyndi's List for Cocke County and TN |
Cocke County Dept. of Tourism |
|
TNGenWeb Records Repository |
USGenWeb
Archives Digital Library |
Stokely
Memorial Library Research and contact information including Surname Files Index |
Sevier
County History Center Includes old Cocke County records |
|
Newport,
TN at Wikipedia |
Tennessee State Library and Archives |
Southern
Folk History and Genealogy |
Cocke
County Images at Wikipedia Commons |
Family Search Research Guide for Cocke County |
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| QUERIES, LISTS AND MESSAGE BOARDS | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Cocke
County Query Board REQUIRES FREE REGISTRATION |
Cocke County Mailing List |
Cocke
Message Board Genforum |
|
Lookup
and
Research Help |
Rootsweb Mailing lists | |
|
Cocke County Queries 1996 to 2000 Indexed by dates and names |
Individuals
researching Cocke County Surnames A to L M to Z |
SUBMIT
YOUR SURNAMES OF INTEREST AND CONNECT WITH OTHER RESEARCHERS |
Thanks for dropping by and come back soon!
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 site last updated on 5/19/13.
