Hickory Withe, Tennessee

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Hickory Withe is a town in Fayette County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 2,574 at the 2000 census.

1 Geography
2 Demographics
3 History
4 External links

[edit] Geography

Hickory Withe is located at 35°13′25″N, 89°34′55″W (35.223636, -89.581927)^GR1.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 73.6 km² (28.4 mi²). 73.3 km² (28.3 mi²) of it is land and 0.3 km² (0.1 mi²) of it (0.39%) is water.

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^GR2 of 2000, there were 2,574 people, 980 households, and 803 families residing in the town. The population density was 35.1/km² (90.9/mi²). There were 1,016 housing units at an average density of 13.9/km² (35.9/mi²). The racial makeup of the town was 82.32% White, 16.24% African American, 0.08% Native American, 0.19% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 0.04% from other races, and 1.09% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.24% of the population.

There were 980 households out of which 26.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 73.1% were married couples living together, 6.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 18.0% were non-families. 14.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 4.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.63 and the average family size was 2.90.

In the town the population was spread out with 20.5% under the age of 18, 6.8% from 18 to 24, 27.5% from 25 to 44, 33.8% from 45 to 64, and 11.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 43 years. For every 100 females there were 101.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.9 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $57,292, and the median income for a family was $62,857. Males had a median income of $42,024 versus $28,550 for females. The per capita income for the town was $26,368. About 2.4% of families and 4.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 3.0% of those under age 18 and 12.4% of those age 65 or over.

[edit] History

The incorporation of Hickory Withe led to a reform of Tennessee laws regarding incorporation. In the mid-1990s supporters of the idea of incorporating Hickory Withe came to Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee John S. Wilder, who is from nearby Braden and has represented the area in the Tennessee State Senate since 1966, with the idea of sponsoring a bill which would allow Hickory Withe to incorporate, something which could not be accomplished under the then-existing law. Wilder learned that he could not introduce an act allowing only for the incorporation of Hickory Withe as this would be rejected by the courts as unconstitutional, so it was necessary for any act to help Hickory Withe to incorporate to be worded in a broad enough fashion to allow any similar area in Tennessee which also desired to incorporate to do so as well. The eventual bill which passed was drawn in such a way as to allow almost any previously-unincorporated area to incorporate, and several attempted to do so, including, famously, an apartment building in East Tennessee. The resulting legislation became known, somewhat derisively, as the "Tiny Towns Bill". Most of the towns which were set up, or were attempted to be set up under the act, seemed primarily to be efforts to prevent areas from being annexed by larger jurisdictions which charged property tax. The Tennessee Supreme Court struck down the new legislation on November 19, 1997, less than a year after it entered the books. Corrective legislation enacted since has required any new town being set up to have a property tax rate set as a condition of its incorporation (and that rate cannot be "zero"). Towns set up under the "Tiny Town" law, like Hickory Withe, were not automatically dissolved with the act's repeal, although some have susbsquently taken this step.

Hickory Withe, with a fairly large area relative to its population and an affluent tax base which can provide considerable revenue to the town at a still-low rate, seems unlikely to do so.