In November 1809, Giles County was created by an act of the Tennessee General Assembly from a portion of a Cherokee Indian grant. It was General Andrew Jackson who suggested that the county be named Giles, in honor of the Congressman, Senator, and Governor of Virginia, William Branch Giles, who 12 years earlier, sponsored the admission of Tennessee as the 16th state in the Union. The same bill that created the County also named a five-man Commission, which was given instructions to establish the county seat on Richland Creek, as near the center of the County as practicable; and to sell lots, reserving a Public Square of two acres, on which should be erected a Courthouse, and stocks for the punishment of criminals. Hacking away 18-foot tall cane breaks from the shores of Richland Creek, early settlers established the town of Pulaski, which was incorporated in 1810. The first courthouse (destroyed by fire) was built on the present site in 1811.
|