Page "Calfkiller River" Paragraph 6

According to Goodspeed's History of White County, the Calfkiller River is likely named after a Cherokee chief who lived in the valley when the first white settlers arrived in the area around 1800.

Throughout the early 19th century, the river was harnessed to power numerous small gristmills.

In the years before the Civil War, an iron works and a cotton mill operated along the banks of the river in the vicinity of the TN-111 bridge.