ROBERTSON COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — If there is one person who knows Robertson County history like the back of her hand, it's Greenbrier native and County Historian Yolanda Reid.

"I was surrounded by farmland, and we went on hikes and I swam across the pond on the grapevine and tried to miss the cow pies," Reid recalled about her childhood.

Her lineage in Robertson County dates back generations and generations on both sides of her family.

"On my mother's side, they were in what is today Robertson County in 1788, old Patrick Martin was his name, and he was wounded by Native Americans. He helped set up Samuel Crockett's fort," Reid explained.

A decade prior, Robertson County's first settler, Thomas Kilgore, arrived after walking from North Carolina. The county was officially established in 1796. It was an attractive place for early farmers.

"This is a very good, rich agricultural soil in Robertson County, we've always been an agricultural county," Reid said. "We had tobacco growing in 1792."

Tobacco became a major cash crop for Robertson County and for Wessyngton plantation in particular.

"Wessyngton was the largest tobacco plantation in the United States at one time," Reid said.

It was established near Cedar Hill in 1796 by Virgina native, Joseph Washington, a second cousin of President George Washington. The family owned hundreds of slaves who worked in the tobacco fields.

"Descendants who came from there became teachers, lawyers, professors, of all kinds great contributors to America," Reid said.

The mansion is on the National Register of Historic Places. It's now being restored by private owners. Beyond Wessyngton, Robertson County became renowned for its tobacco.

"People here took great pride in the quality of it. In the 1920s they had a huge, huge crop of high quality (tobacco); this county was designated as the world's finest dark fire tobacco," Reid said.

Some of the finest whiskey came out of Robertson County, too.

"With the whiskey industry here, it was not your Hollywood moonshine movie situation. It was very high quality. We found the documentation where it was shipped overseas," Reid said.

Two of the biggest distillers, Pitt Brothers and Nelson's Green Brier operated until prohibition. Buildings belonging to both of those distilleries are still standing and are on the National Register of Historic Places. About 10 years ago, Nelson's Green Brier Distillery was revived in Nashville by the great-great-great-grandsons of Charles Nelson.

"They visited our county archives, where I was at the Greenbrier Museum, and we shared lots and lots of info on it," Reid said.

Sharing that history with the new generation is what keeps Reid going. She hopes to pass on the values she grew up with in Robertson County, too.

"God, home, the kindness, the sharing. We need more of it today," Reid said.

News Source : https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/on-tour-middle-tn/tobacco-whiskey-and-agriculture-make-up-robertson-countys-rich-history/