Robert Houston (1765-1834) moved to the Territory of the United States of America South of the River Ohio from the upstate of South Carolina in the 1790s, settling in what would become Knox County, Tenn. During the territorial period, Governor William Blount appointed him to a number of offices, including sheriff of the county (1793-1795) and collector of county and public taxes (1795-1796). After the admission of Tennessee into the Union in 1796, he continued to be active politically on the county level, serving at various times as sheriff, tax assessor, county trustee, and justice of the peace. From 1807-1811, he served as Secretary of State for Tennessee. In 1819, he was appointed by President James Monroe to run survey lines of tracts of land reserved to the Cherokee Nation in Tennessee, North Carolina, and Alabama. In addition to his political work, Houston also served as president of the Knoxville branch of the Bank of Tennessee and was a charter trustee of Knoxville's Blount College and Hampdon-Sidney Academy as well as the Knoxville Female Academy.

James L. Armstrong was one of the earliest settlers of Rutherford County in Middle Tennessee. He was also one of the first trained doctors in the area. Having studied in Lexington, Ky., Armstrong began practicing medicine in Murfreesboro in 1809. He served as a surgeon in the War of 1812 and played an active role in fighting a cholera epidemic in Murfreesboro in the 1830s.