15 E Main St, PO Box 449
Brownsville, TN 38012
731-772-1212
brownsvilletn.gov/West Tenne
Brownsville is located in central Haywood County. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 10.2 square miles (26.4 km2), all land. U.S. Routes 70 and 79 form a bypass around the southern and eastern sides of the city. US 79 leads northeast 25 miles (40 km) to Humboldt, while US 70 leads east 26 miles (42 km) to Jackson. The two highways together leads southwest 57 miles (92 km) to Memphis. Interstate 40 passes south of Brownsville, coming closest at exits 56 and 60, where it is 4 miles (6 km) south of downtown.
Brownsville is situated on the southeastern edge of the New Madrid Seismic Zone, an area with a high earthquake risk.
The Hatchie River passes south of Brownsville. It is the longest free-flowing tributary of the lower Mississippi, and contains the largest forested floodplain in Tennessee. The river is home to hundreds of species of fish, including 11 species of catfish, and the alligator snapping turtle. The Hatchie River was named by the Nature Conservancy as one of the “great places” to save. The Hatchie is designated as a “scenic river” under the Tennessee Wild and Scenic Rivers Act
West Tennessee. Calls and visitors come from different locations depending on the nature of the calls and the purpose of the visit.
Brownsville was a trading center that developed in association with cotton plantations and commodity agriculture in the lowlying Delta of the Mississippi River around Memphis, Tennessee and West Tennessee. It is located north of the Hatchie River, a tributary of the Mississippi, which originally served as the main transportation routes to markets for cotton. The land was developed by planters for cotton plantations, and worked by large numbers of enslaved persons of African ancestry who made up a majority of the town and county population.
Early history and settlers
Brownsville was designated the county seat of Haywood County by the legislature on October, 16, 1824, and the town was legally incorporated in 1826. The town was named for General Jacob Jennings Brown due to a local legend that he has established a trading post just southeast of what is now the town square prior to the treaty with the Chickasaw people allowing settlement in Western Tennessee. Fifty acres of land were deeded for Brownsville on December, 14 1825 for a sum of one dollar and the choice of lots. By 1832, Brownsville had grown to a population of 400. The town continued to flourish until the major financial depression of 1837. Only two of the town’s ten stores survived this period. During this time, the area was also struck with repeated flooding and a number of earthquakes.
Bradford’s Landing was founded in 1824 by brothers Hiram and Miles Bradford. Hiram would later establish the first cotton gin and store in Brownsville in 1825. This storefront was later purchased by early Jewish settler Emil Tamm, and operated as Emil Tamm & Sons Department Store for 96 years.
The Tabernacle Campground was founded in 1826 by Reverend Howell Lewis Taylor and his five sons. This settlement contained Haywood County’s first schoolhouse. It now serves as the site of an annual camp meeting for over 700 descendants of Taylor.
James Bond arrived in Brownsville in 1836 and acted as a benefactor for many of the city’s institutions. Bond owned in excess of 17,000 acres in Haywood County alone and owned as many as 600 slaves. He provided the land for the establishment of both Brownsville Baptist Female College in 1850 and Brownsville Baptist Church in 1870. He also invested heavily in various mercantile ventures in Brownsville and the Memphis and Ohio Railroad which would connect Haywood County to Memphis upon its completion. During the Union occupation of Haywood County in June 1862, Bond swore loyalty to the Union
15 E Main St, PO Box 449
Brownsville, TN 38012
731-772-1212
brownsvilletn.gov/West Tenne
