The Jackson Purchase, also known as the Purchase Region or simply the Purchase, is a

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...

in the U.S. state of

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

bounded by the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest Drainage system (geomorphology), drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson B ...

to the west, the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of ...

to the north, and the

Tennessee River The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other name ...

to the east. Jackson's Purchase also included all of

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 36th-largest by ...

west of the Tennessee River. However, in modern usage the term refers only to the Kentucky portion of the Jackson Purchase. The southern portion is simply called

West Tennessee West Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of the U.S. state of Tennessee that roughly comprises the western quarter of the state. The region includes 21 counties between the Tennessee and Mississippi rivers, delineated by state law. Its ...

Geography

The Purchase comprised what is now eight counties, with a combined land area of 3,394.8 square miles (6,202.5 km²), about 6.03 percent of Kentucky's land area. Its 2010 census population was 196,365 inhabitants, equal to 4.53 percent of the state's population. Paducah, the largest city and main economic center, has just over 25,000 residents. The region's other two largest cities,

Murray Murray may refer to: Businesses * Murray (bicycle company), an American manufacturer of low-cost bicycles * Murrays, an Australian bus company * Murray International Trust, a Scottish investment trust * D. & W. Murray Limited, an Australian who ...

and Mayfield, have about 18,000 and 10,000 residents respectively. The main educational institution is

Murray State University Murray State University (MSU) is a public university in Murray, Kentucky. In addition to the main campus in Calloway County in southwestern Kentucky, Murray State operates extended campuses offering upper level and graduate courses in Paducah, ...

Counties

* Ballard County * Calloway County * Carlisle County * Fulton County *

Graves County Graves County is a county located on the southwest border of the U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 36,649. Its county seat is Mayfield. The county was formed in 1824 and was named for Major Benjamin ...

* Hickman County * Marshall County *

McCracken County McCracken County is a county located in the far western portion of U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 67,875. The county seat and only municipality is Paducah. McCracken County was the 78th county formed in the ...

Economy

Though chiefly an agricultural economy, tourism is an important industry in the Purchase, focused chiefly on water-related activities at the TVA-created Kentucky Lake. Together with the portion of the Tennessee River north of Kentucky Dam, it forms the eastern border of the Purchase.

History

TENNESSEE map - Indian land cessions in the United States

Although claimed as part of Kentucky at its statehood in 1792, the land did not come under definitive U.S. control until 1818, when General

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...

and ex-Kentucky governor Isaac Shelby, representing the United States federal government, purchased it from the

Chickasaw The Chickasaw ( ) are an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands. Their traditional territory was in the Southeastern United States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee as well in southwestern Kentucky. Their language is classif ...

Indians through several treaties, including the Treaty of Tuscaloosa.''Treaties''
Tennessee Encyclopedia, online; accessed December 2022
"United States Serial Set, Number 4015 : Schedule of Indian Land Cessions " via US Government; I C Web; accessed December 2022 Historically, this region has been considered the most "Southern" of Kentucky; having an agricultural economy tied to cotton plantations and the use of enslaved labor before the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...

, the Purchase in the years after the war voted as the most staunchly Democratic region in Kentucky. For well over a century, it provided such overwhelming margins for Democratic candidates that Kentucky Democrats routinely called it the "Gibraltar of Democracy". The most widely circulated newspaper and media outlet in the Purchase, '' The Paducah Sun'', was once named the ''Paducah Sun-Democrat'' (see

WPSD-TV WPSD-TV (channel 6) is a television station licensed to Paducah, Kentucky, United States, serving as the NBC affiliate for Western Kentucky's Jackson Purchase region, Southern Illinois, the Missouri Bootheel, and northwest Tennessee. Own ...

). Due to changing demographics, most counties in the Purchase in the early 21st century have populations that are overwhelmingly white. Many African Americans left the area after the Civil War and in the Great Migration of the 20th century. During the Civil War, the Purchase was the area of strongest support for the Confederate cause. On May 29, 1861, a group of Southern sympathizers from Kentucky and Tennessee met at the

Courthouse in Mayfield to discuss the possibility of aligning the Purchase with West Tennessee. Most records of the event were lost, possibly in an 1864 fire that destroyed the courthouse. After the War the region heightened its sense of being "Southern".Patricia Hoskins, "'The Old First is With the South:' The Civil War, Reconstruction, and Memory in the Jackson Purchase Region of Kentucky." (PhD Auburn University 2009
online
pp 296-315. In 1907, Fulton County judge Herbert Carr declared in a speech that the Mayfield Convention adopted a resolution for secession, and a historical marker in front of the courthouse also proclaims this as fact. But, the surviving records of the meeting, authored by a Union sympathizer, make no mention of this resolution. Historian Berry Craig states that the convention believed the whole of Kentucky would eventually secede and make unnecessary a separate resolution for the Purchase to break away. Records do show that the convention adopted resolutions condemning President Abraham Lincoln for "waging a bloody and cruel war" against the South, urging Governor Beriah Magoffin to resist Union forces and praising him for refusing to answer Lincoln's call for soldiers, and condemning the provision of "Lincoln guns" to Union sympathizers in Kentucky. The convention nominated Henry Burnett to represent Kentucky's First District in

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

. The Mayfield Convention was a precursor to the later Russellville Convention, that formed the provisional Confederate government of Kentucky. Since the late 20th century, the Purchase has voted for Republicans in national elections while giving higher percentages to candidates of the Democratic Party in state and local elections. This trend is similar to realignment among white conservatives in other parts of the South. , however, the region's delegation in the Kentucky General Assembly included both Republican Party and Democratic Party representatives. For the first time in history, that year the region elected Republicans for both of its two state senators. The Purchase is within Kentucky's 1st congressional district. , 67% of all Purchase voters are registered Democrats and 27% of Purchase voters are registered Republicans. In keeping with the South generally, Purchase Democrats are more conservative than many in the national party. (see also

Blue Dog Democrats The Blue Dog Coalition (commonly known as the Blue Dogs or Blue Dog Democrats) is a caucus in the United States House of Representatives comprising centrist members from the Democratic Party. The caucus was founded as a group of conservative De ...

Notable people

Notable people from the region include: *

Alben W. Barkley Alben William Barkley (; November 24, 1877 – April 30, 1956) was an American lawyer and politician from Kentucky who served in both houses of Congress and as the 35th vice president of the United States from 1949 to 1953 under Presiden ...

Vice President of the United States The vice president of the United States (VPOTUS) is the second-highest officer in the executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States, and ranks first in the presidential line of succession. The vice p ...

, 1949-1953, United States Senate Majority Leader, represented Kentucky in the U.S. Senate, 1927-1949 and 1955-1956, represented the First District in the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

, 1913-1927 * Julian Carroll, Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky, 1971-1974, and 54th

Governor of Kentucky The governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky is the head of government of Kentucky. Sixty-two men and one woman have served as governor of Kentucky. The governor's term is four years in length; since 1992, incumbents have been able to seek re-e ...

, 1974-1979 * Steven Curtis Chapman, Christian music artist *

Irvin Cobb Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb (June 23, 1876 – March 11, 1944) was an American author, humorist, editor and columnist from Paducah, Kentucky, who relocated to New York in 1904, living there for the remainder of his life. He wrote for the ''New York Worl ...

, humorist and author *

Jackie DeShannon Jackie DeShannon (born Sharon Lee Myers, August 21, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter and radio broadcaster with a string of hit song credits from the 1960s onwards, as both singer and composer. She was one of the first female singer-songw ...

, singer/songwriter * Steve Finley, major league baseball player, 1989-2007 * Joe Fulks, basketball player *

Noble Jones Gregory Noble Jones Gregory (August 30, 1897 – September 26, 1971) was a Democrat, who represented Kentucky for eleven terms in the United States House of Representatives, from 1937 to 1959. Biography Gregory was born and raised in Mayfield, Kent ...

, represented the First District in the

, 1937-1958 *

William Voris Gregory William Voris Gregory (October 21, 1877 – October 10, 1936) was an attorney and politician, serving as a United States representative from Kentucky from 1927 to his death in office. He was a member of the Democratic Party. Biography Gregory w ...

, represented the First District in the

, 1927-1936 *

Robert H. Grubbs Robert Howard Grubbs ForMemRS (February 27, 1942 – December 19, 2021) was an American chemist and the Victor and Elizabeth Atkins Professor of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. He was a co-recipient ...

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

winner in Chemistry, 2005 * Carroll Hubbard, represented the First District in the

, 1975-1992 *

Frank Stubblefield Frank Albert Stubblefield (April 5, 1907 – October 14, 1977), a Democrat, represented Kentucky in the United States House of Representatives. Stubblefield was born and schooled in Kentucky and attended the University of Arizona for one yea ...

, represented the First District in the

, 1959-1974 *

Lloyd Tilghman Lloyd Tilghman (January 26, 1816 – May 16, 1863) was a Confederate general in the American Civil War. A railroad construction engineer by background, he was selected by the Confederate government to build two forts to defend the Tennesse ...

, Confederate general * Harry Lee Waterfield,

Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky The lieutenant governor of Kentucky was created under the state's second constitution, which was ratified in 1799. The inaugural officeholder was Alexander Scott Bullitt, who took office in 1800 following his election to serve under James Garra ...

, 1955–1959 and 1963–1967

References

External links

Jackson Purchase Historical Society
{{Coord, 36.86, -88.76, dim:80000_region:US-KY, display=title Regions of Kentucky History of Kentucky History of United States expansionism Andrew Jackson 1818 in the United States 1818 in Kentucky

Geography

Counties

Economy

History

Notable people

References

Further reading

External links