Lewis County / Perry County

Lewis County was established in 1843 and named in honor of Meriwether Lewis, a captain in the Army of the United States and one-time secretary to President Jefferson, who later served as co-commander of the Lewis and Clark Expedition to the Pacific Northwest and died violently in 1809 while en route to Washington at a spot on the Natchez Trace now marked by the national monument bearing his name. Perry County was established in 1819 and named in honor of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, who served in the naval war with Tripoli, built and commanded a fleet of gunboats in 1809, and in 1813 commanded the fleet he had built, recruited, and organized on Lake Erie in battle against a British fleet, producing his famous message, "We have met the enemy and they are ours."

Tennessee · United States