BEDFORD COUNTY TN - CIVIL WAR

Our Wheeler Ancestors arrived in Bedford County TN about 1830.  Jesse Wheeler and Sarah Oslin migrated there from Granville County NC.  Several of Jesse's cousins also made the journey.  Our cousin present day John Wheeler visited the current Bedford County Court house this year and was unable to find anything of note for our historical ancestry search for the Wheelers living there during the 1830 - 1855 time frame. Most all documents were destroyed in fire 1863 (see below). 

Once the state’s largest and most populous county, Bedford County has progressively reduced in size since 1809.  The county residents took a pro-Confederate stance during our country’s divisive and tumultuous civil war but the citizens in the city of Shelbyville were mostly loyal to the Union.

The first court house was erected in 1810 or 1811. The building was of frame, very small, and stood on the northwest corner of the Public Square. A second building, this time of brick, was erected in a few years, and stood in the center of the Square. This building was destroyed by a tornado in 1830. In its stead was soon afterward erected a large brick court house on the site of the one destroyed, which stood until 1863, when it was destroyed by fire, together with a large portion of the county records. A party of Confederate soldiers had taken quarters in the court house, and through their carelessness the building was set fire to and entirely destroyed. Upon the reopening of the courts after the war they were held in various buildings, principally in a hotel which stood on the south side of the Square, and in 1869 the erection of the present court house was begun, but was not completed until 1873.