Overview
On Jan. 16, 1784, John Montgomery and Martin Armstrong filed notice establishing the town of Clarksville, Tennessee, along the Cumberland River. The community was named for George Rogers Clark, the Revolutionary War military leader and frontiersman.
Montgomery had identified the need for a town downstream from Nashville, and he and Armstrong surveyed 640 acres south of the Red River. Armstrong laid out 200 acres of the tract for the new community. A fort or blockhouse was later constructed near a spring at what became Spring and Commerce streets, an important early water source known as the town spring.
Settlement continued later in 1784 when George Bell established Bell’s Station opposite the mouth of the West Fork. According to Hugh Bell, it was the first station in Clarksville, with the nearest neighbors about 18 miles away on Sulphur Fork.
Quick Facts
- Date
- Jan. 16, 1784
Attraction
John Montgomery Statue
A statue honoring John Montgomery, the namesake of Montgomery County, was erected in 2002.
