Surgoinsville was incorporated in 1815, and was named for its founder, Major James Surguine, who was a French Huguenot.

[6] Surgoinsville is located just northeast of the geographic center of Hawkins County, which is on the north side of the Holston River.

Tennessee State Route 346 is Surgoinville's Main Street that forms a business loop with US 11W.

Located just east of Surgoinsville is Fudge Farm, a historical farmhouse dating back to circa 1815.

A campus of Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology is located in the Phipps Bend Industrial Park in the eastern portion of the city.

Interested citizens in the early decades of the 20th century restarted the municipality, which is governed by a board of mayor and aldermen.

[citation needed] Surgoinsville throughout history until the mid-2010s was among few of incorporated municipalities in Tennessee without access to public sewer.