Prior to 1780, the land that is now the Historic Lebanon Town Square was claimed by William Gosney. It was part of 640 acres surrounding the gushing spring, and here he built a cabin. After his death, the land was sold in 1793 by his heirs to James Menees.
In 1801 the Tennessee State Legislature appointed five commissioners to determine the site for a County Seat for Wilson County. They chose this site around the spring and cabin. When Lebanon was founded and lots were sold on August 16, 1802, there was one family living in a cabin near the spring around which the town was laid out. Edward (Neddy) Jacobs and his Lumbee Indian wife had moved into the cabin in 1800. Neddy, and Irishman who had shipwrecked off the coast of North Carolina, was taken in by the Lumbee Indians. There he met his wife, Layula, before moving westward to Tennessee.
Neddy later built a new cabin for his family, but after his death, Layula left and moved west with a band of Cherokee who passed through Lebanon on the Trail of Tears.
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