By the late 1840s the political pressure to have a county seat where residents could vote and conduct business without having to make an overnight trip was sufficiently strong enough that an Act of the Tennessee legislature was drafted to form a new county from portions of the five surrounding counties–Anderson, Campbell, Claiborne, Grainger and Knox Counties. On January 13, 1850 the Act to establish Union County was passed. There was haggling over boundary lines and some lines were redrawn. Nonetheless, Knox County was not happy about losing so much of its tax base and filed a lawsuit ...