Winchester, Tennessee: Seat of Franklin County
Near Lynchburg, Tennessee
Winchester is the seat of Franklin County in south-central Tennessee, established by an act of the state legislature on November twenty-second, eighteen oh nine. Franklin County had been carved from the territory between the Duck and Tennessee Rivers two years earlier, after the Cherokee relinquished their claim to the land. The county was named for Benjamin Franklin.
The town was named for General James Winchester of Sumner County, a soldier in the American Revolution, the first Speaker of the Tennessee Legislature, and a brigadier general in the War of eighteen twelve, though he never actually lived in the town bearing his name. The first courthouse was finished around eighteen fourteen. Winchester was incorporated in eighteen twenty-one and grew steadily as a market town for the farming communities of the Cumberland foothills.
The surrounding countryside was known for fine Tennessee Walking Horses and later for its closeness to the Jack Daniel's distillery in Lynchburg.
