The following is a list of the clerks, sheriffs and registers from the organization of the county to and including those now in office:

Clerks -- Joseph Terry, 1807-08; John M. Garrick, 1808-14; Jacob A. Lane, 1814-35; Nicholas Oldham, 1835-44; Wm. Little, 1844-48; G. G. Dibrell, 1848-60; John Voss, 1860-64; J. A. Pettit, 1865-69; F. A. Williams, 1869-73; F.M. Simms, 1873- 77; Wm. Dinges, 1877-81; Gardner Green, 1881-86; J. D. Goff, 1886, and present incumbent.

Sheriffs -- Wm. Phillips, 1807-12; Isaac Taylor, 1812-14; Isaac Taylor, Jr., 1814-16; Thomas Taylor, 1816-20; John Jett, 1820-35; D. L. Mitchell, 1835-40; Jonathan T. Bradley, 1840-44; Smith J. Walling, 1844-46; Joseph Herd, 1846-52; Charles Meeks, 1852-58; Andrew J. Gamble, 1858-64; Wm. F. Carter, 1865-66; F. S. Coatney, 1866-70; Samuel Snodgrass, 1870-74; S. V. McManus, 1874-76; Charles Smith, 1876-78; George Hill, 1878-82; T. L Lewis, 1882-86; J. M. Montgomery, 1886, and present incumbent.

Registers -- John Dergan, 1807-15; Turner Lane, 1815-35; Joseph W. Robertson, 1835-39; Charles McGuire, 1839-43; Robert H. Officer, 1843-45; Wm. H. Boyd, 1845-65; Thomas H. Fancher, 1865-69; Wm. Holter, 1869-73; Wm. G. Simms, 1873-86; John S. Cope, 1886 and present incumbent.

The circuit court of White County was organized also at Joseph Terry's house in 1807, by Judge Nathaniel Williams, who appointed as clerk of the court Archibald W. Overton. The early records of this court are also missing, having been destroyed during the late war. The judges and clerks of the court from its organization to the present have been as follows:

Judges -- Nathaniel Williams, Jacob C. Isaacs, Abraham Caruthers, Wm. B. Campbell, John L. Goodall, Samuel M. Fite, W. W. Goodpasture, W. W. McConnell and M.D. Smallman, the present incumbent.

Clerks -- Archibald W. Overton, 1807-14; Anthony Dibrell, 1814-35; Wm. G. Simms, 1835-47; Joseph Brown, 1847-55; H. L. Carrick, 1855-58; John J. Duncan, 1858-64; Anthony Dibrell, 1805-67; Wm. M. Russell, 1861-71; Waymond L. Woods, 1871-75; M. C. Dibrell, 1875-81; W. C. Smith, 1881-86; J. O. Snodgrass, 1886 and present incumbent.

The chancery court was organized at Sparta in 1842, under the provisions of the new constitution, by Judge B. L. Ridley, chancellor, who appointed B. S. Rhea clerk and master of the court. The chancellors and clerks and masters of this court have been as follows:

Chancellors -- B. L. Ridley, 1842-54; T. Nixon Van Dyke, 1854-60; B. L. Ridley, 1860-62; John P. Steele, 1865-67; B. M. Tulman, 1867-71; W. W. Goodpasture, 1871-72; W. G. Crowley, 1872-86; W. W. Wade 1886 and present incumbent.

Clerks and masters -- B. S. Rhea, 1842-45; W. E. Nelson, 1845-57; M. C. Dibrell, 1857-62; Peter Turney, 1865-71; W. L. Dibrell, 1871-76; John S. Rhea, 1876-82; A. E. Rhea, 1882-87 and present incumbent.

The supreme court of this State met at Rock Island, and later at Sparta, for several years, one of the presiding judges being Andrew Jackson. At the bar of this court all the leading attorneys of Tennessee would practice, and the old log courthouse was the scene of many able and eloquent discussions.

The early lawyers of Sparta were George W. Gibbs, John Catron, Nathaniel Haggard, Richard Nelson, David Ames, Alexander Lane, Samuel Turney, John H. Anderson and Hopkins L. Turney, all of whom practiced from the organization of the courts to about 1855. For several years after the close of the war the attorneys were John L. Goodall, S. H. Combs, Thomas B. Murray and D. L. Snodgrass. The lawyers of the present are C. Marchbanks, H. C. Snodgrass, M. A. Cummings, W. G. Smith, W. T. Smith, W. F. Story, E. Story, E. Jarvis, L. D. Hill, T. J. Bradford, S. E. Cunningham and James Cope. Of the above George W. Gibbs was a State senator and general in the war of 1812, was the first president of the Union Bank of Tennessee at Nashville and later founded Union City, Tenn. John Catron was appointed United States circuit judge by President Jackson and died in office; Hopkins L. Turney was a State senator and the father of Judge Peter Turney, of the supreme court of Tennessee; John L. Goodall occupied the circuit court bench; D. L. Snodgrass is a member of the present supreme court bench; L. D. Hill is State senator, and W. F. Story is county judge of the White County Court. Besides the above, White County has furnished the following public men: Thomas K. Harris was the first representative in Congress from White County and the district. In a subsequent canvass for the same office Harris was killed in a duel with Gen. John W. Simpson, also of White County, his opponent. The two met at Shell's Ford, on Caney Fork River. Both rode into the stream from opposite sides and stopped, facing each other, while their horses quenched their thirst. One of them, after a few words had been exchanged, proposed they settle their differences then and there. The proposition was accepted, and riding out together they dismounted, drew their pistols and began firing. Harris was mortally wounded, and his death served to defeat Simpson for the office he sought. Anthony Dibrell, father of Gen. G. G. Dibrell, was for years receiver of the land office at Sparta, was a director of the Bank of Tennessee, was for ten years State treasurer and for twenty-two years clerk of the White County Circuit Court. Gen. George G. Dibrell was clerk of White County for a number of years, was a member of the State Convention in 1861, being elected as a Union man; was a general of cavalry in the Confederate Army; was a member of the constitutional convention in 1869; represented his district in Congress from 1874 to 1884 continuously, retiring voluntarily from that body,and was one of the leading Democratic candidates for governor of Tennessee in 1886. Gov. Throckmorton, of Texas, was once a citizen of Sparta.