Commission History
| I've always had questions
about how county commission was structured the way it is and how it came
to be. Reading through lots and lots of the old commission meeting
minutes and old news papers, I think I've about pieced it together, at
least since 1971. I've even been able to list the commissioners names
since 1971. I started at 1971 because that's how far back the old
minutes are available online. I'll work back further in the future. Loudon County currently has 10 commissioners representing 7 legislative districts that serve four year terms.
Up to and through
August 1978, Tennessee county governments were known as
the County Quarterly Court, court members/commissioners
were known as Squires and the leader of the court was
known as the County Judge. Squires were sometimes also
referred to as magistrates or justice of the peace.
In The 1978
Tennessee legislative session, the state changed those
titles to the County Legislative Body, County
Commissioners and the County Executive.
Loudon County began using those titles in September 1978. Then in 2006, the state changed the title of county executive to county mayor.
Up until 1969, Loudon County
had 14 squires/county commissioners representing 5 districts, they
served 6 year terms. In 1968, a federal judge ruled that county
squires/commissions had to have equal representation of the
population. It was called the one man one vote representation.
Meaning, each commissioner had to represent a substantially equal
number of citizens in each district. We still operate under that
system to today.
After the federal ruling, the
Loudon County quarterly court was very slow in making any change to
their apportionment. Ultimately, Lenoir City sued the county in
federal court for violating the new ruling. The matter went to court
and several different plans were proposed. There was a 9, 15, 16 and
17 member court proposed. Ultimately, the judge ruled that Loudon
County would have a 9 member court, four year terms, with four
districts.
The 1st and 4th districts were
combined as the 1st district which included all the area south of
the Tennessee River, Loudon and Philadelphia. The 2nd district was
all of the Lenoir City area to the Knox County line. The third
district was Greenback and Glendale area and also included a large
area north of the Tennessee River to include the Dunn Ridge and
Beals Chapel area. The 5th district was the Eatons Cross Roads area
to the Clinch River, Roane County line.
In the April 1969 court
ordered special election, the first for the 9 member court, those
elected were, 1st/4th district J J Blair and Roy Bledsoe and Jack
Lefler. All had already been serving on the 14 member court. 2nd
district, Curtis Williams, James Hartsook, Henry Foster and I D,
Babe, Conner. The 3rd district was J G Hudson. The 5th district was
R P Hamilton.
This districting stayed in place until the 1982 reapportionment when the 6th district was formed which much of the upper Martel community was included. Al Bryant was the first commissioner elected to the new 6th district in 1982. Then in the 1991 reapportionment the 1st and 4th districts were once again split into separate districts. In 2000, the 7th district was formed that included all of Tellico Village. The first commissioner was Don Miller. Thus far, it appears that
Roy Bledsoe was the longest serving commissioner having held the
office for 48 years. 1966-2014.
There have been four
commissioners who died while in office.
In the table below,
I have tried to identify all the squires/commissioners who
have served since 1971. I haven't really been able to
exactly identify the commissioners by district but I think
it's pretty close. I don't know if anybody else has any
interest in all this information, but as one who has a great
interest in local history, I enjoyed the research.
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1/6/25