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[[Image:Pumping water in Wilder, Fentress County TN 1942.gif|thumb|right|250px|Pumping water by hand in 1942 from the sole water supply in this section of Wilder, Tennessee in Fentress County]]
Fentress County was formed on November 28, 1823, from portions of [[Morgan County, Tennessee|Morgan]], [[Overton County, Tennessee|Overton]] and [[White County, Tennessee|White]] counties.<ref name="sostn"/> The resulting county was named for [[James Fentress]]<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ|title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States|publisher=Govt. Print. Off.|author=Gannett, Henry|year=1905|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n124 125]}}</ref> (1763–1843), who served as speaker of the state house, chairman of [[Montgomery County, Tennessee|Montgomery County]] Court, and commissioner to select seats for [[Haywood County, Tennessee|Haywood]], [[Carroll County, Tennessee|Carroll]], [[Gibson County, Tennessee|Gibson]] and [[Weakley County, Tennessee|Weakley]] counties in [[West Tennessee]].<ref name=tehc/>
Fentress County was the site of several [[saltpeter]] mines. Saltpeter is the main ingredient of gunpowder and was obtained by leaching the earth from local caves. The largest mine was in York Cave, near the Wolf River Post Office. At one time, twenty-five large leaching vats were in operation in this cave. According to Barr (1961) this cave was mined during the Civil War. Buffalo Cave near Jamestown was also a major mine with twelve leaching vats. Manson Saltpeter Cave in Big Indian Creek Valley was a smaller operation with four leaching vats. These caves may also have been mined during the [[War of 1812]], as saltpeter mining was widespread in Kentucky and Tennessee during that era.<ref>Thomas C. Barr, Jr., "Caves of Tennessee", Bulletin 64 of the Tennessee Division of Geology, 1961.</ref>
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