xt72jm23f539 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt72jm23f539/data/mets.xml Sullivan County, Tennessee Tennessee Historical Records Survey 1940 Prepared by the Tennessee Historical Records Survey, Division of Professional and Service Projects, Work Projects Administration; Tennessee State Library, Sponsor; Co-sponsored by the Government of Sullivan County; Other contributors include: United States Work Projects Administration, Division of Professional and Service Projects, Tennessee State Library; 19 leaves, 28 cm; Includes bibliographical references; UK holds archival copy for ASERL Collaborative Federal Depository Program libraries; Call number FW 4.14:T 256/no.4 books English Nashville, Tennessee: Tennessee Historical Records Survey This digital resource may be freely searched and displayed in accordance with U. S. copyright laws. Tennessee Works Progress Administration Publications A Summary of Special Legislation Relating to the Government of Sullivan County, Special Publications Series, Number 4 text A Summary of Special Legislation Relating to the Government of Sullivan County, Special Publications Series, Number 4 1940 1940 2015 true xt72jm23f539 section xt72jm23f539 Tauuénw;MTusmT•T•HTETT mTmuon
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E /;\ SL1!"\!"T/\RY OE SPECIAL LEGTSLATTON
1 E T RELr\T|NG TO THE GOVERNMENT OE SULLiVr\N COUNTY
E SPEOAE PUBLIC/“\T|ONS SERIES
  NO. 4
T THE TENNESSEE ET!STORlC%\!_ RECQRDS SUR`-../EY PROJECT
L  _  \A/QRK PRQJECJTS P~\D!"\INlST%€%\T1ON
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IMS A SUMMARY OF SPECIAL LEGISLATION
` RELATING TO THE GOVLRNHEHT OP SULLIVAN COUNTY
Special Publication Series
No, 4
Co-sponsored by the Government of Sullivan County
Prepared by f
+ ,V . I , I . g
E#· The Tennessee nistorieal necords Survey lrogect
Division of Professional and Service Projects
Work Projects Administration
.0
Tennessee State Library, Sponsor
The Tennessee Historical Records Survey Pr0j€Ct
Yashville, Tennessee
Warch IQQO
¢“‘ `S _ ‘ .1
-I

 The Historical Records Survey Program 6 I _
l r
Luther H. Evans, Director
Dan Lacy, Regional Supervisor
Madison Bratton, Acting State Supervisor
Division of Professional and Service Projects
Florence Kerr, Assistant Commissioner
Blanche M. Ralston, Chief Regional Supervisor l
Betty Hunt Luck, State Director
Work Projects Administration
F•C• Harrington, Commissioner
Malcolm J. Hiller, Regional Director
_ Harry S. Berry, State Administrator ~`$
L ·"

 5 . PREFACE
~ Although the Historical Records Survey Project has as its chief
purposes the preparation and publication of guides to and inventories'of
" public archives, church records, early American imprints, manuscripts,
and manuscript depositories and collections, it has accumulated, as
by-products, a considerable amount of material and prepared numerous
memoranda in the course of routine editorial work which, under original
plans, would not be made available generally.
Since publication, from time to time, of various parts of this
udscellaneous material will not interfere unduly with the regular
program of publication and since some of it may be of general interest
and value, the Survey has decided to institute a series of special
publications, making this material available in substantially the same
form as it appears in our files.
This publication, tracing the course of important local legislation
affecting the government of Sullivan County, was prepared from a
memorandum addressed to the editors in the State Office of the Survey
Project and the field workers in the county, as a guide in interpreting
records not explained by the code or general law, in the inventory of
the archives of Sullivan County. The editors and field workers were
already informed of the records requirements and the structure of the
county government under the_general law, but because Sullivan County has,
A for peculiar reasons of population and geography, been the subject of
much significant local legislation, particularly that establishing an
unusually large number of special courts, a careful examination of the
statutes was necessary before an intelligent inventory of the archives of
the county could be made. For example, the county is the only one in the
State with three independent chancery courts and three hardly less in-
I dependent circuit courts with jurisdiction at law.
— It is, further, a real pleasure for the Survey Project to issue
A this publication, for it offers the first opportunity to acknowledge
publicly the real and substantial cooperation the Project has received
from.County Judge T. R. Bandy and the other county officials. Sullivan
County is and has been an active co-sponsor of the project. The
enlightened interest shown by the county in preserving its records and
_ providing adequate housing facilities for them should be a source of
particular gratification to archivists, attorneys, and research workers
generally.
Only the statutes were drawn on in the preparation of Legal
Memorandum No. Zh, from.which this article was prepared, and, although
no attempt was made to state the effect of judicial interpretation,
it appears from the records and from information received from the county
that all the more important acts went into effect as scheduled.
The abbreviation "P·As" means Public Acts of the General Assembly
of Tennessee; "Pr.A.,"PFivate Acts; 'L.N.CT,"laws of*horth Carolina; '

 c_ -2-
L ~ VS.R.N.C.," State Records of North Carolina; "ex.," extra; "ses.,"
` session? and "Const., H Constitutiddr
The Sullivan County memorandum was written during the administra-
tion of T. Marshall Jones as State Supervisor of the Survey Project be-
, fore he resigned to become State Supervisor of the Research and Records
Section of the Division of Professional and Service Projects in February
l9hO. It was prepared under the supervision of William L. Iiller, super-
visor of the legal research unit. The application of the statutes was
checked locally by Harry F. Remsen, supervisor of the Survey Project in
Sullivan County. The bulletin in manuscript form was edited by Mabel S.
Brodie, Assistant Archivist in charge of public records inventories, of
the staff of the Library of Congress project in the District of Columbia.
The Librarian of Congress recommended that this bulletin be approved
for publication.
Madison Bratton, Acting State Supervisor
The Tennessee Historical Records Survey Project
Nashville
L March ll, l9LO

 , * A SUMMARY OF SPECIAL IEGISLATION RELATING TO THE `
\ GOVERNMENT Of SULLIVAN COUNTY
" Creation apd Organization
Sullivan County was created in l779,(1) the second North Carolina
county west of the mountains,(2) and was organized during that year or
, the next.
County Seat
Blountville has apparently been the county seat since 1795, when it
was established as the permanent seat of government,(5) although several
acts contemplated its remova1.(4) An act of 1850 named eight com-
missioners to select an appropriate place for the county seat, this choice
to be subject to ratification by the voters who were to decide whether the
seat was to be removed from Rlountvil1e.(5) The proposition to move the,
seat of government from Blountville apparently was defeated at the polls,
for an act of 1851, creatine the Sullivan County chanoery court, directed
that the court meet at B1ountvi11e.(6) An act passed December 5, l8C5,pro-
vided for the transfer of the county seat from Blountville to Bristo1.(7)
The act, further, provided for the building of a jail and courthouse and
the establishment of a common law, crhninal, and chancery court at
Kingsport.(8) There is no evidence in immediately subsequent acts that
the act of 1865 ever became effective.(9) An aet of 1919
1. L.N.C. 1779, Oct. ses., ch. 29, in State Records of North Carolina,
xxiv, E§¤Taé`b¤rO, 1905, p, Boi. ` —
2. Washington county, out of which Sullivan was formed, had been created
two years earlier, (L,N,C, 1777, Nov. ses., ch, 51, in S.R.N.C., XXIV,
pp.’1¢11,142) "" "" `_"" _
' 3, Acts 1795, ch. 9, `
4. Acts 1849-50, ch. 80; P.A. 1805-68, ch. 12, sec, 1. Blountville is
1 ‘ an unincorporated community Eirapproximately three hundred inhabitants.
(Roster of County and Municipal Officials in Tennessee, Nashville, 1938,
P. 5) Sullivan County, with a 1930 populatien7of 51,087, is Tennessee's
fifth largest county. (Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1950, Ill,
Population, part ii, Washington, 1952, p. 895)
5. Acts 1849-50, ch. 80.
· 2 6. Acts 1851-52, ch, 5.
7. P.A. 1865-GG, 2nd ses., ch. 12, sec. 1.
8, Ibid., secs., 5,.12. V
9. Blountville remains the county seat probably because it is roughly
equi-distant from Bristol and Kingsport and because neither Bristol with
a population of 12,005 (Fifteenth Census, III, Population, part ii, p.
890) nor Kingsport with a population of 11,914 (Ibid.) tpuld likely be
able to marshal the required approval of two-thirds of the qualified
voters of the county in order to become the county seat. (Const. 1870,
art, 10, sec. 4) The presence of the two sizeable cities of Kinrsport
and Bristol is, of course, responsible for the fact that a number of

 I
- Q -
’ authorized the quarterly county court to issue bonds up to 950,009 for
5 . the building of a courthouse at Blountvil1e,(lO)
County Judge `
By an act passed on February 25, 1868, the voters of Sullivan
County were, on the second Saturday of March 1868, to elect a county
* judge for a term of eijht years,(ll) To be qualified to hold the office
of county judge, a person had to have been a citizen of Sullivan County
for three years and always to have been “an unconditional Union Man."(l2}
By an act passed on November 1, 1869, and effective after the first Mon-
day in January 1870, the office of county judge was abolished.(15)
An act passed on Harsh 17, 1921, designated the chairman of the
county court as county judge to serve until September 1, 1922, when a
judge elected by popular vote was to take office and serve until September
l, 1926, at which time a county judge elected for the regular term of
eight years at the preceding August election was to take office,(1d)
The county judge was to be under a bond of Y5,000;(15) his salary was
to be $$1,800 a year,(]6)
Two acts passed on March 27, 1955, abolished the office of county
judge and ordered the quarterly court to elect a chairman at its regular
3,, term in April l93E.(17)
A An act passed on January 15, 1955, abolished the office of chairman
’ and appointed one of the members of the quarterly court to serve as county
judge until September 1, 1956, when his successor, elected by popular
vote, was to take office and serve until September 1, 19&2, when a county
judge, elected by popular vote, is to take office for the rciular term of
eight years.(1G) According to the act, he is under a bond of ?l0,000
~ and receives an annual salary of 9l,200.(19) An act passed on April 17,
1955, requires all officers and officials to obtain the approval of the
_ · county judge or chairman before making a purchase to be paid for out of
county funds.(20) However, the act excmpts purchases up to 5199 made by
the highway department from th*s requirement,(21)
county offices and courts are permanently located in t cse places al-
- though the legal seat of jovernment remains at Flountville.
10. Pr,A, 1919, ch, 425.
ll, ?:AT`l8G7-G5, ch. Q7, sec, 1C. ln all probability Sullivan County
had a cb-uHty for twenty·-one months under the ,ien·i·ra1`l&w of 1855,
_ (Acts 1855-56, ch. 255; P.L. 1857-55, oh, 5)
  12. al. issues, ern"47,  
15. _§.A} l8C9—70, lst ses,, eh. 7.
N 14. ?%Th, 1921, ch. 575.
15. lbidl, sec. 6,
16, Ibid,
‘ 17, Pr,A. 1955, chs. 195, 195,
A 18, 5;,A] 1955, ch, 15.
19, lbidl, secs. 7,9,
29, Pr,A, 1955, ch, 599,
21, ERE., see. z.

 - 5 -
\ County Court Clerk
Since about 1900 there has been a deputy county court clerk at
Bristol and since 1922 there has been a deputy at Kingsport, These
t deputies are appointed by and serve at the will of the county court
clerk at Blountville, They are concerned chiefly with the sale of
• merchants*, automobile, driversl, fishing and hunting, marriage,
A beverage, and other licenses,
County Attorney
An act of April 18, 1955, created the office of county attorney of
Sullivan County, naming the officer to serve until his successor, to be
named in the August 1956 election for the full term of two years, should
take office,(22) This official is required to give a bond of $5,ooo
and to take an oath of office,(25) Both the bond and the oath arc to
be filed with the county court clerk and written on the minutes of the
quarterly court,(24) The county attorney is, according to the act, paid
on a fee basis with a ceiling at jl,200 a year,(25)
The duties of this official consist of representing the county in
all suits brought by the county and against it, serving as back tax
ji attorney, and, by and with the consent of the county judge, conducting,
before a committee of three justices of the peace, an investigation of
the unlawful expenditure of funds by any county official,(26) All com-
¢ promises made by the attorney must be authorized by the quarterly court
before they are legally binding,(27)
Register
An act of 1899 a arentlv still in force re uires the reiister to
» PP r , .
have a deputy at Bristol,(28)
Circuit, Criminal, Chancery, and Special Courts
When Sullivan County was organized, cases not heard by the court of
pleas and quarter sessions or by justices of the peace were tried boforc
the superior court of law held at Salisbury, North Car0lina.(E9) In 1782
Sullivan County was made part of the newly created Horgan bistrict. At
the same time, because criminals frequently found "mcans to break custody
' and escape" while being transferred from Sullivan and Washin ton Counties
across the mountains to Burke County, and in order that offenders might
 
22, Pr,A. 1955, ch. 609.
L 25, Ibid., scc, 1,
24, Ibid, '
25, lhid,, sec, 5, `
26, lbid,, sec, 2,
27, lbid,, sec, 4,
26. Acts 1899, ch, 242,
29- L.Z.C. 1779, 9ct. ses., ch. 29, sec, 6, in S,;,!,C,,XflY, p, 301,

 _ - 4 -
'Ewre easily and certainly be brought to justice," one of the judges of
E the superior court was directed to hold a court of oyer and terminer
· twice annually at the courthouse in Washington County for a trial of
` criminals arraigned in Sullivan and Washington Counties.(50) In
1784 Washington, Sullivan, Davidson, and Greene Counties were con-
stituted the Washington District and provision was made for holding
a superior court of law and equity, successor to the superior court
, * of law, for the district at the Washington County courthouse,(51)
Cases arisini in Sullivan County that were not tried by the court of
pleas and quarter sessions or by justices of the peace continued to be
tried before the superior court in tushinqten County until the circuit
court, organized in 1810, replaced the superior court of law and
equity.(52)
A circuit court should have been first held in Sullivan County in
1810 and thereafter until the present time under the jeneral laws of
ieee, issc, and isvo,(sz)
From 1822 through 1835 a chancery court for Sullivan and a number
of other counties was held at loicrsville, ir Iawkins County.(54)
An act passed on December 22, 1855, constituted Carter, Sullivan,
and uashingtcn Counties the first district of the eastern chancory divi-
Y; sion, with courts to be held twice a year at Jonesborouvh, or Jonesboro,
in Washington County,(55) ·
1 ' An act of December 9, 1851, made Sullivan County a separate chancery
district and created the present chanccry court which is held at Ulount-
ville .(56) An act of February 28, 1852, permitted the chancellor,
upon application of the complainant and with the consent of the respond-
ent, to transfer cases from Jonesborough to E1ountvi11c.(57)
‘ An act of December 5, 1865, along with providing for the transfer
of the county scat from Blountville to Bristol, provided for the orjani—
C ` Zation of the "Common law Criminal and Chancery Court of Yinisport."(3B)
By the creation of this court, the circuit and chanccry courts of the
county were to be divcsted of jurisdiction in the seventh, tenth,
eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth civil districts,
(59) The circuit judge of the first judicial circuit was to be judge
BO. l.I.C. 1752, April ses., ch, 22, in S,Y,j,C., ITIV, pp. 450-52.
B1.   iii, occ, Sago, en, ze, in wT,'fiT<·T, ‘/._r ·;ir¤r, pp, ccayise.
_, 32. §g§§ij§_§fC;;¤. s, is; Acts ieee, :;??p¥T.‘s?T¤,, C21.  
4 55. Acts 18CQ, Sept, ses., ch, @9; T.A, 1C55-ZC, ch. 5; lets 1EQQ-70,
End sesT,_chT—5l] -——- —__J__*- __*-_
L 3%. Eph, ligg, ex, ses., ch, 15, sec, 1; ibid 1824, ex. ses., ch. 14,
sec. 8; ?.A. lC27, ch, 88, sec, 5,
55. Iii? 1D55i5G, ch. G, sec. Q.
ZG, legs litiiii, ch, 5,
· 27.  
_ sa. Tjii was-cer, me ses., C1;. 12, sec. 2.
59. EpiE,,-secs, 4-5,22.,

 » of common law and criminal side of the court,(40) and the circuit
` 4 court clerk of Sullivan County was to be clerk of the common law and
, criminal side and either he or his deputy was to keep open an office
at Kingsport constant1y.(41) The chancellor of the first chancery
district was to hold the chanccry side of the court (42) and was to
appoint the clerk for this side of the court,(45) It may well be that
this court never convened, for it was ignored in subsequent legislation
‘ , and in the codes.(4¢2) e
An act of November 26, 1867, as amended by an act of February 25,
1868, made Johnson, Carter, Sullivan, Washington, Greene, Hawkins,
and Hancock Counties a judicial criminal district,(45) An election
to name a criminal judge was to be held in these counties on the third
Thursday in April 1868.(46) The court was to have jurisdiction over
all cases in which the State was party or all cases requiring the
services of an attorney-genera1,(47) The Sullivan County circuit court
clerk was to be clerk of this court in Sullivan County and was to keep
a separate docket of criminal cases.(48) This court was abolished by
an act of November 5, 1869, which returned criminal jurisdiction to the
circuit court.(49)
The present chancery court at Bristol stems from an act of March
18,ll879, which made the seventeenth civil district a separate chancery
a district and directed that the court be held twice a year by the chan-
1 oellor of the first district.(50) For this court, the chancellor
I appoints a clerk and master who must keep his office at Bristol,(51)
, Under the provisions of the 1879 act, as originally framed, all chanccry
casos brought against residents of the seventeenth civil district were
to be broueht before the court at Bristol except when the property in
question was located in some other civil district,(52) Residents of
the first, second, and nineteenth civil districts could bring suits in
, equity in this court or in the chancery court of Sullivan County aiainst
other residents of these districts but could not bring suits in equity
. in the court at Bristol against any person not a resident of any of these
40. P.A, 1865-66, 2nd ses., ch, 12, sec, 6,
41. Tb`ia,j"§E"s,
42, Ibid., sec, 9,
_ 45, Ibid., scc, 10.
44. Iii? 1865-66, 2nd ses., ch. 41; Acts 1869-70, End ses., chs, 31,32,
46; Code 1871,-YEYES, 115-117; §ggh;_18Q4, secs, 127, 129. The Code of 1871,
which lists in detail the special courts cxistlnj at that time, fails to
mention Sullivan County in this connection, (Code 1871, sec. 117)
`? 45. P,A . 1867-68, cha 49, sec. 90, ._¢___—“*—
46. lbid,, ch. 49, sec. 5.
_ 47. laid., ch, 90, sec. 5.
7 48, Ibid., sec, 8,
49. P,A, 1869-70, lst sos., ch, ll.
59, rats 1879, ch, 127, scc, 1.
51. Ibid., scc. 2,
52. Ibid,, scc. 7, _

  
. civil districts except when the property involved was in these districtsu
\ 4 · (55) In addition, any suits pending or brourht before the chancery
court at Blountville could, with the consent of the parties, be trans-
ferred to the court at Bristol,(54) Otherwise, suits in equity brought
by non—rcsidents of the first, second, and nineteenth civil districts
I " against residents were presumably to be tried before the chancery court
of Sullivan County, at Blountville,
1
In l89l the Bristol chaneery court's jurisdiction, similar to that
it held under the 1879 act in the first, second, and nineteenth civil
districts was extended to the third and sixteenth civil districts. Tersons
residing or doing business in the third or sixteenth civil districts were
authorized to bring suits in equity against other persons residinj or
doing business in these districts in either the chancery court at Bristol
or the chancery court of Sullivan County, but could not bring suits in
the court at Bristol against persons not residing or doing business in
these districts except when the subject of the suit was situated in these
civil districts.(55) Presumably equity suits brouiht by persons not re-
siding in or doing business in these districts against persons residing
or doing business there were to be brought before the dhancery court of
Sullivan County. _
In l895 the chancery court at Bristol was granted exclusive juris-
st diction over all equity cases in the first, second, and nineteenth civil
districts, aloni with exclusive jurisdiction over equity suits in the
seventeenth district, which it had previously held,(5G) In this way,
* the chanccry court of Sullivan County was divested of jurisdiction in
the first, second, and nineteenth civil districts, which, for the most
part, it had held concurrently with the court at Sristol, Further, by
the act of 1895, it appears that the chancery court at Bristol exercises
f concurrent jurisdiction with the chaneery court of Sullivan County over
equity suits brought by residents of the first, second, seventeenth, and
q nineteenth civil districts against residents of the third and sixteenth
· civil districts and over equity suits brought by persons residing or
doing business in the third and sixtornth civil districts a ainst other
persons residini or doing business in these districts.(57) Apparently
persons not residing or doing business in thc third or sixteenth civil
districts can not be sued in the court at Uristol exc