Putnam County, Tennessee

Putnam County, Tennessee
Putnam County Courthouse in Cookeville
Location in the U.S. state of Tennessee
Tennessee's location in the U.S.
Founded	February 11, 1854
Named for	Israel Putnam
Seat	Cookeville
Largest city	Cookeville
Area
• Total	403 sq mi (1,044 km2)
• Land	401 sq mi (1,039 km2)
• Water	1.5 sq mi (4 km2), 0.4%
Population
• (2010)	72,321
• Density	180/sq mi (69/km²)
Congressional district	6th
Time zone	Central: UTC-6/-5
Website	putnamcountytn.gov

Putnam County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2010 census, the population was 72,321. Its county seat is Cookeville.

Putnam County is part of the Cookeville, TN Micropolitan Statistical Area.

Putnam County is named in honor of Israel Putnam, who was a hero in the French and Indian War and a general in the American Revolutionary War. The county was initially established on February 2, 1842, when the Twenty-fourth Tennessee General Assembly enacted a measure creating the county from portions of Jackson, Overton, Fentress, and White counties.

After the survey was completed by Mounce Gore, the Assembly instructed the commissioners to locate the county seat, to be called "Monticello," near the center of the county. Contending, however, that the formation of Putnam was illegal because it reduced their areas below constitutional limits, Overton and Jackson counties secured an injunction against its continued operation. Putnam officials failed to reply to the complaint, and in the March 1845 term of the Chancery Court at Livingston, Chancellor Bromfield L. Ridley declared Putnam unconstitutionally established and therefore dissolved. The 1854 act reestablishing Putnam was passed after Representative Henderson M. Clements of Jackson County assured his colleagues that a new survey showed that there was sufficient area to form the county. White Plains, near modern Algood, acted as a temporary county seat.