 The existing settlement was named for a Confederate soldier, William Hamilton Hargrave, who along with his wife Amelia Cecilia Strange-Hargrave owned most of the land in the area.The couple was well known in the 19th century to travellers heading to Ross's Landing on the Tennessee River from LaFayette, Georgia.William Hargrave and other landowners in the area were forced to sell their property to the Army to be used as a base for the 6th Cavalry.