Greene County: First County of the Frontier

Greene County was established in seventeen eighty-three by the North Carolina General Assembly, one of the first counties organized west of the Appalachians. It was named for General Nathanael Greene, the Rhode Island-born commander who rebuilt the Continental Army's southern campaign after the disasters of seventeen eighty and maneuvered the British into a position they could not sustain.

The Nolichucky River runs through the county, and the farmland along its banks drew early Scots-Irish and German settlers who arrived in the seventeen seventies. Greeneville became the county seat and later served briefly as the capital of the State of Franklin in the seventeen eighties. The county is best known today as the home of Andrew Johnson, the seventeenth President of the United States, whose tailor shop and homes are preserved in Greeneville as a national historic site.