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Lynchburg, Tennessee

Lynchburg is a city in the south-central region of the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is governed by a consolidated city-county government unit whose boundaries coincide with those of Moore County. Lynchburg is best known as the location of Jack Daniel's distillery, whose famous Tennessee whiskey is marketed worldwide as the product of a city with only one traffic light. Despite the operational distillery, which is a major tourist attraction, Lynchburg's home county of Moore is a dry county. Sampling whiskey is permitted in the distillery, however. The population was 6,461 at the 2020 census.

Lynchburg, Tennessee

1841[1]

130 sq mi (338 km2)

129 sq mi (335 km2)

1 sq mi (3 km2)

804 ft (245 m)

6,461

44/sq mi (17/km2)

UTC−05:00 (CDT)

37352

47-44380[2]

1292342[3]

Lynchburg's connection to Jack Daniel's is spoofed in a 2018 national television commercial in which the city is nominated for an NBA franchise.[4]


Lynchburg is part of the Tullahoma–Manchester micropolitan area.


The downtown area is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Lynchburg Historic District.

History[edit]

Settlers first arrived in the Lynchburg area around 1801. Main Street was originally the main road, and roughly followed the route of East Fork Mulberry Creek. Residences were generally located in the western half of Lynchburg, while industries were situated along the creek in the eastern half. One early settler, Thomas Roundtree, established a cotton mill along the creek in the vicinity of the modern Jack Daniel's Distillery. By the 1830s, another settler, William P. Long, was operating a gristmill and cotton gin. Early Lynchburg was also home to a large tannery.[5]


The origin of the city's name is unclear. An article in an 1876 issue of the Lynchburg Sentinel suggests an early settler named the city after his native Lynchburg, Virginia.[6] The WPA Guide to Tennessee (1939) states the city was named after an early resident named Tom Lynch.[7] An article by Jeanne Ridgway Bigger in the spring 1972 issue of the Tennessee Historical Quarterly states that the city was named after a "Judge Lynch", who presided over a vigilante committee that met in the city sometime after the War of 1812.[8]


During the Civil War, residents of Lynchburg generally supported the Confederacy.[5] Company E of the Confederate Army's 1st Tennessee Cavalry consisted primarily of Lynchburg residents.[8] A monument to the area's Confederate soldiers stands on the lawn of the Moore County Courthouse.


In 1871, Moore County was created from parts of Lincoln, Bedford, Coffee, and Franklin counties (Lynchburg had been part of Lincoln). In June 1873, Lynchburg was chosen as the county seat of Moore, due in part to its central location within the new county's boundaries.[5] The county commissioners established a courthouse square along Main Street, the pattern of which was influenced by the square in nearby Shelbyville.[5] Two schools, the Lynchburg Male and Female Institute and the Lynchburg Normal School, were established during this period, and several church congregations built elaborate new churches.[5]


During the 1870s, Lynchburg was situated at the center of an agrarian economic triangle consisting of Tullahoma to the northeast, Shelbyville to the northwest, and Fayetteville to the south. As such, the city developed into an important mule trading center. The city also had a rising number of distilleries. By the 1880s, fifteen registered distilleries were operating in Moore County, with the most productive being Tom Eaton's Distillery, and the second-most productive being the now-famous Jack Daniel's.[5] The distilleries provided a convenient market for local corn growers, and the leftover corn slop (after the alcohol was extracted) was used as feed for hogs and cattle.[6]


On December 4, 1883, a fire destroyed nearly half of Lynchburg, including the courthouse and much of the courthouse square. A new courthouse (the present building) was completed in 1885. A separate jail (now a museum) was erected across the street in 1893.[5] The rise of automobile traffic and the establishment of a state highway system in the early 20th century led to a commercial boom in Lynchburg, and many of the buildings on the courthouse square were built during this period. By 1920, Lynchburg had several schools and churches, a weekly newspaper, two banks, and several "flourishing business establishments".[5]


The passage of a state law barring the manufacture of liquor in 1909 effectively shut down the city's distilleries. Although prohibition was repealed at the federal level in 1933, it remained in effect in Tennessee. Lem Motlow (1869–1947), a state senator and nephew of Jack Daniel, led efforts to repeal the state's prohibition laws. In 1937, the state repealed the law barring the manufacture of alcoholic beverages, and Motlow reopened the Jack Daniel's Distillery. In 1939, the state passed a "local option" law, allowing each county to choose (via referendum) whether or not to allow the sale of alcoholic beverages.[9]


Motlow State Community College opened its campus in 1969 on 187 acres of land donated by Reagor Motlow and family in the northern part of Moore County in what is today part of Lynchburg.

Government[edit]

In 1988, the Metropolitan Government of Lynchburg, Moore County, Tennessee was voted into law as the governing body of Moore County, including Lynchburg. This helped reduce costs and duplicate roles.[15]

Lynchburg Elementary - grades PreK–6

- grades 7–12

Moore County High School

Schools in Lynchburg are a part of Lynchburg-Moore County Schools:

(1940–2009), sixth master distiller at Jack Daniel's.[16]

Jimmy Bedford

(1786–1836), American frontiersman, who lived in what is now Lynchburg from 1811 to 1813.

Davy Crockett

(born 1940), angler and host of Bill Dance Outdoors, who resided in Lynchburg during the summers of his childhood and learned to fish in Lynchburg's Mulberry Creek.

Bill Dance

Jasper Newton Daniel, aka (1846–1911), founder of Jack Daniel's Distillery. [17]

Jack Daniel

(c.1820–?), former slave, a distiller who trained and worked with Jack Daniel's.[18]

Nathan "Nearest" Green

(1932–2020), American rock and roll artist, resided in Lynchburg.[19]

Little Richard

(born 1949), Tennessee Volunteers and NFL football player

Bobby Majors

(born 1935), College Football Hall of Fame, All-American tailback at the University of Tennessee and head coach of the Iowa State Cyclones from 1968 to 1972, Pittsburgh Panthers 1973–76, 1993–96, and the Tennessee Volunteers 1977–1992.

Johnny Majors

(1913–1981), patriarch of the Majors football family and former head coach at Sewanee: The University of the South from 1957 to 1977.

Shirley Majors

(1869–1947), nephew of Jack Daniel and second owner of Jack Daniel's Distillery, who also served in the Tennessee House of Representatives and the Tennessee Senate.

Lem Motlow

(1898–1978), great-nephew of Jack Daniel and co-owner with his siblings of Jack Daniel's Distillery. Motlow also served in the Tennessee House of Representatives and the Tennessee Senate.

Reagor Motlow

(born 1870), American attorney born in Lynchburg and studied law under Judge Samuel A. Billingsley, moved to Oklahoma and became a Justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

F. E. Riddle

Lynchburg History

Lynchburg-Moore County Chamber of Commerce