Counties of Tennessee
by Austin P. Foster, A.M.
Assistant State Librarian and Archivist
TIPTON COUNTY was erected on October 29, 1823, from the Western District and named “in memory of Capt. Jacob Tipton, who fell at St. Clair’s defeat.” By the act which created this county provision was made that the county and circuit court should meet at the house of Nathan Hartfield, until otherwise provided for by law. Among the early pioneers were Gen. Jacob Tipton, son of Capt. Jacob Tipton, Dr. Hold, Captain Scurry, Major Lauderdale, George W. Frazier, K. H. Douglass, and Jesse Benton, brother of Senator Thomas H. Benton. Jesse Benton lived at Randolph and was very active in promoting the interests of that place with posed as a rival to Memphis, and which became a very important center of trade for all the western section except the counties of Shelby and Fayette.
Covington was selected as the county seat, which was located on land donated by John C. McLemore and Tyree Rhodes. In 1852, an effort was made to remove the county seat from Covington to Randolph, but it failed by a small vote.
Statistics of Tipton County: population, 1920, 30,258. Assessed valuation of taxable property, 1921, %12,074,391. Area, 400 square miles. Number of farms, 5,271. Railway mileage, 27. Bounded on the west by the Mississippi River. The soil is fertile and surface level except for a range of hills near the river. Well timbered and watered by running streams and artesian wells. Cotton, corn, wheat, oats, fruits, vegetables, and live stock are staple products. Traversed by the L. & N. and the Illinois Central Railroads. Covington, the county seat, has a population of 3,410 and has fine churches and schools, a weekly newspaper, three banks, electric light plant and water works, cotton mills, cottonseed oil mill and other manufacturing enterprises, and is a flourishing town. Brighton, Atoka, and Tipton are other towns. Scholastic population of county, 10,703; high schools, 11; elementary schools, 78.