Pocket field guides · Preview
From Cannonsburgh to Murfreesboro: A Pocket History
The name, the square, and the living-history village you can visit today
4 pages · $8 · Independent Just Duck It PDF
Watermarked cover preview. The full PDF is delivered after purchase.
A short, sourced account of how Rutherford County’s seat was named, and how Cannonsburgh Village relates to that story. Two public sources tell the founding story a little differently; both are cited. Independent Just Duck It publication — not affiliated with the City of Murfreesboro or the National Park Service.
Buy for $8After payment you will be sent to a private download page. This preview does not include the full guide.
What’s in the guide
- How to use this guide
- 1. What the city’s official history says
- 2. What the Rutherford County Historical Society adds
- 3. How to talk about this without overstating it
- 4. Cannonsburgh Village today
- 5. A later chapter, if you walk a little farther
- Sources
A short sample
From the opening pages — not the full chapter
This is a pocket history, not a city brochure. Two careful public sources tell the founding story a little differently. Both are cited. The point is not to flatten them into a punchy hook. The point is to know what the records actually say before you walk the square or the village.
The City of Murfreesboro’s “History of Murfreesboro” page states that in 1811 the Tennessee legislature appointed a committee to select a new site for the Rutherford County seat, and that the site chosen was 60 acres belonging to Captain William Lytle. It says the General Assembly named the new town Cannonsburgh, honoring Newton Cannon, a young politician in Williamson County, then, at Lytle’s request, changed the name to Murfreesboro one month later in memory of Lytle’s friend Colonel Hardy Murfree.
Sources cited in the PDF
Every historical claim in the paid guide is tied to a source. The list below is the same source list printed at the back of the PDF.
- •City of Murfreesboro, “History of Murfreesboro” (read 14 November 2026)
- •Greg Tucker, “Newton Cannon and a Cannonsburgh Fish Tale,” Rutherford County Historical Society (read 14 November 2026)
- •Rutherford County Historical Society, “Murfreesboro Founding Time Line” (access date 14 November 2026)
- •City of Murfreesboro, “Cannonsburgh Village” (read 14 November 2026)
- •National Park Service, Stones River National Battlefield (cited 14 November 2026)
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4 pages, sources cited, delivered as a PDF after checkout.