The history of the Board of County Commissioners of Sumner County, Tennessee, dates from the formation of Sumner County, which was created by an act of the General Assembly of North Carolina in 1786, ten years before Tennessee became the sixteenth state of the United States.
Tennessee's county legislative bodies were first known as Courts of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, after the practice in England. Their members were called Justices of the Peace. Later, the term Quarterly County Court came into use; hence "Quarterly County Court of Sumner County," or as the body was popularly called, the "Sumner County Court." During the era of the Quarterly Court, the county's legislative body met four times a year, setting the county's property tax rate and budget at its July meeting.
By Public Acts of Tennessee, 1978, Chapter 934 (Tennessee Code Annotated Section 5-5-101 et seq.), the Quarterly County Court was replaced by the Board of County Commissioners; hence, the Board of County Commissioners of Sumner County, or as it is usually called, the "Sumner County Commission." The County Commission now meets monthly on the third Monday at the Sumner County Administrative Building, 355 North Belvedere Drive, Gallatin, Tennessee.