RUTHERFORD COUNTY

County Seat: Murfreesboro
Let's talk about something big that happened in Rutherford County, followed by something big that nearly happened in Rutherford County. First of all, in 1980, after months of looking at sites all over the country, Nissan announced that it was building an automobile assembly plant in Smyrna. It was the first foreign-owned car assembly plant in the South, and one of the greatest industrial recruitments of all time for Tennessee. The early success of the Nissan plant also helped the state recruit General Motors’ Saturn plant to Maury County a few years later.

Rutherford County also nearly became Tennessee's permanent capital. Here's the story:

For the first few decades of Tennessee's existence, the legislature couldn't agree on a permanent capital. Knoxville was the first seat of government in 1796, followed by Nashville in 1812, Knoxville again four years later, Murfreesboro in 1819, and Nashville seven years later.

When the legislature met at the Davidson County Courthouse in October 1843, it spent the first week arguing where to put the capital. House and Senate members took turns espousing the virtues of their hometown, asking that the seat of government be placed there. Then the vote would be taken, the measure would fail, and another representative or senator would stand up and espouse the virtues of his hometown.

It went on and on. Over the course of the week, just about every organized community in Tennessee got its chance, and lost. During one Senate debate on October 4, Kingston, Hamilton, Sparta, Knoxville, Clarksville, McMinnville, Shelbyville, Murfreesboro, Chattanooga, Franklin, Harrison, and Woodbury were all considered. Every town put up for a vote in the Senate that day got between 7 and 13 votes –short of the 17 needed for passage. 

After several days, it came down to Nashville and Murfreesboro, and the debate got interesting. Several legislators said Nashville was the logical choice. After all, the legislature was used to meeting there; it had better road and water connections; and it contained institutions (such as the prison) that the legislature needed to watch over. The city of Nashville was also offering the state a free piece of land on which to build a Capitol building. Several of Nashville’s wealthiest citizens promised to buy Campbell’s Hill for $30,000 to donate it to the state.

Lawmakers advocating Murfreesboro did not go down easily. They pointed out that Murfreesboro, not Nashville, was the geographic center of the state. They also said that since the legislature moved to Nashville 17 years earlier, the government was spending more money than it did before it met in Nashville -- obviously the fault of the people of Nashville.

On Friday, October 6, 1843, the House voted 50-43 to make Nashville the state’s permanent capital. The next day the Senate concurred with 17 votes in the affirmative, making the state capital bill one of those rare pieces of legislation that passed both chambers without a single vote to spare.