Knox County was established in 1792 and named in honor of Maj. Gen. Henry Knox, Washington's chief of artillery in the Revolutionary War, Secretary of War in Washington's Cabinet, and one of the founders and first secretary of the Society of the Cincinnati. Blount County was established in 1795 and named in honor of William Blount, a member of the North Carolina Legislature, twice a member of the Continental Congress, Governor of the Territory South of the River Ohio from 1790 to 1796, founder of the city of Knoxville, U.S. Senator from Tennessee from 1796 to 1797, and speaker of the State Senate in 1798.