The land on which the original town of Celina is situated was established as a town site in 1832 and was incorporated on Feb. 2, 1848. Celina received its name in honor of the daughter of Moses Fiske, a prominent educator in the area.
The Union Army burned the old town of Celina during the Civil War, leaving only four houses remaining as survivors of the attack.
The new town of Celina was built in 1870 and was designated the county seat of Clay County, formed in 1870 from Overton and Jackson counties.
After 1863, the “Old Town” of Celina functioned primarily as a business district.
Celina was an important town in the region. Located in the midst of the region’s timber forests, it was closely identified with logging and with rafting during the period 1870 to 1930.
As noted Upper Cumberland folklorist William Lynwood Montell states, “Celina, Gainesboro, and Carthage in particular were the big regional rafting centers, as each received logs from the Obey-Wolf, Roaring and Caney Fork hinterlands respectively and conveyed them on to Nashville in large log flotillas.”