Histories

Cleveland was laid off and the streets surveyed by John C. Kennedy in 1836 upon land occupied by Andrew Taylor, who had come into the Nation sometime before, and married a Cherokee woman. His house stood about where Hartsell's store now is, on the west side of the public square. In 1837 the General Assembly passed an act establishing the town of Cleveland as the county seat and appointing the following commissioners: Levi Trewhitt, Nicholas Spring, P. J. G. Lea, James Berry, John C. Kennedy, Robert Swan, John Hardwick, Robert Bashears and Burrows Buckner, provided they agreed to the provisions of the act appointing them. Should they dissent, William Champion, Ezekiel Springgs, George Reed, Isaac Brazelton and John Hammon were to act as commissioners.

The provisions of the act referred to were that the two quarter sections upon which the town was located, except the part laid off into lots, should be sold to pay the State price for the land, and to raise a fund of $8,000 for the erection of a courthouse and jail; also, should there be a deficit, after selling the lands, an amount sufficient to supply it was to be levied upon the occupants of the lots in the town, each individual paying in proportion to the value of his property. These conditions were complied with, and, as has been stated, the county buildings were erected in 1839. The town was settled quite rapidly, and by 1840 the inhabitants numbered bout 500.

- Goodspeed's Bradley County, History of Tennessee, at http://www.tngenweb.org/bradley/gdsp.htm