Mount Vernon

Pert is a rural community in northeastern Anderson County twelve miles northeast of Palestine at the intersection of State Highway 155 and Farm Road 2267. An early name for the area was Mount Vernon, but a post office named Pert operated there from 1899 to 1905. Storekeeper W. J. Dennis served as postmaster. After the post office closed the building was used as a church and school. In 1913 a new church named Mount Vernon was built. Pert was a thriving sawmill town with an estimated population of 200 in 1915. In the early 1920s the town had a store, a gristmill, a cotton gin, and a school. Sometime thereafter the lumber industry declined, and by 1939 Pert was a crossroads community with one business and about twenty inhabitants. In 1985 it had two churches and a business establishment, and in 1992 Pert had an estimated thirty-five inhabitants. In 1986 the Mount Vernon United Methodist church received a historical marker. By 2000 the population was twenty.