Williamson County Real Estate

Click on the Williamson County map below for more information on the various cities in Williamson County

Demographics

Williamson County is not only one hundred years younger, it's a few short miles from Nashville. Offering the best of both worlds, with small town charm and big city elegance Williamson is a popular place to move in the Nashville-Davidson area. Williamson is a veritable smorgasbord of opportunity with a peaceful living environment, shopping, big city life, and stable population growth. One of the largest cities in Williamson, Franklin, is also the county seat. Williamson County encompasses a 583 square mile area and has a population of approximately 133,825 (U.S. Census 2000).

Geography

Williamson County is located in the center of the Nashville-Davidson area. Williamson County has many activities for families of all sizes. It also has a historical foundation, that handles all the historical tours in the area. There is quite a bit of historic land to explore in Williamson County. It borders Davidson County and Cheatham County to the south, Marshall and Maury Counties to the North, Dickson County to the east, and Rutherford County to the West.

Municipalities in Williamson County

• Arrington
• Brentwood
• College Grove
• Fairview
• Franklin
• Nolensville
• Thompson Station

History

Williamson County was named in honor of Hugh Williamson (1735-1819), surgeon-general of North Carolina troops in the American Revolution (1779-1782), North Carolina legislator, member of the Continental Congress (1782-1785, 1787, and 1788), delegate to the convention which framed the Federal Constitution in 1787, a member of the State convention which adopted it in 1789, and elected as a Federalist to the First & Second U.S. Congresses (March 4, 1789-March 3, 1793).

Mid-day of Wednesday November 30, 1864, a 31,000 strong Confederate force under Gen. John Bell Hood finally cornered the 26,000 man Federal Army of Gen. John M. Schofield at Franklin, Tennessee. Late that afternoon, 100 regiments of the South's best soldiers, numbering 20,000, deployed along a two mile wide front and began a spectacular converging assault upon 17,000 Federals strongly entrenched on the south edge of the town. In the early evening as the battle waged nearby.

Franklin residents, John and Carrie McGavock and other members of their family were preparing for what was to come. Soon they would witness to the carnage of war as the doors of their home would be opened to provide shelter for injured and dying Confederate soldiers seeking medical assistance. One soldier wrote, "the wounded, in hundreds, were brought to [the house] during the battle, and all the night after. And when the noble old house could hold no more, the yard was appropriated until the wound and dead filled that as well.

Not only was Historic Carnton Plantation a field hospital during the Battle of Franklin, but it was also a profitable, large-scale farming operation established in 1826 by Randal McGavock, a former mayor of Nashville. The plantation was the home to several generations of the McGavock family and the African-American families who lived as slaves on the property

What then occurred in the next five hours at Franklin was one the the great cataclysmic tragedies of the American Civil War. For the size of the forces engaged and the short duration of the fighting, this battle at Franklin ranks among the great blood baths of the Civil War, or of any of the American wars for that matter.

This horrific battering of Hood's army at Franklin and its final disintegration two weeks later after the Battle of Nashville essentially ended the war in the western theater.

Yet there is no National Cemetery at Franklin. There is no National Battlefield Park at Franklin. Instead, almost all of the 1864 trench-line of that battle has become suburban neighborhoods and small business establishments.

Few Americans realize that more Civil War battles, engagements, and skirmishes occurred in Tennessee than any other state, excepting Virginia. And precious few of these Tennessee sites have been saved for the education and reflection of future generations. Williamson County is hoping to change that, and the Williamson Historic Society is trying to preserve as much of this beautiful land as they can for future generations to see.