The First District of Rutherford County was called Sanders district in 1850. This district is no longer the first district on todays maps. For the boundries the old First district had Wilson and Davidson counties on the north and west. Spring creek and Stones River were the east and south boundry of the district. This publication is an attempt to cover one district as given on the 1878 De Beers map of Rutherford County with the census records, tax records, and maps.

The year 1850 brought a new kind of census. Not only was it the first regular US Census to name all people in a household, but this was the first time the Agricultural and Manufacturing Census was taken on a widespread basis. Although this second census