Greeneville, Tennessee

 town, county seat

Town with a population of 15,198 at the 2000 census. County seat of Greene County. The area was claimed by the Cherokee in the late 18th century. In 1772 Europeans began permanently settling the area. The city was named for Nathanael Greene after the Revolutionary War. When North Carolina ceded its western lands to the federal government in 1784, settlers here declared the extra-legal state of Franklin, and Greeneville was eventually established as its permanent capital. In 1788 the state was dissolved.

In the mid-1820s, Andrew Johnson was working here as a tailor. He formed a debating society in the city that helped launch his political career, beginning with election to the city council in 1829. After Tennessee's secession, Greeneville was the site of the anti-Confederate East Tennessee Convention, the existence of which attracted Confederate army occupation in 1861.
www.greeneville.com