who is knoxville named afterwho is knoxville named after

), "The Library Movement After the Civil War,", Paul Kelley, Lucile Deaderick (ed. [31]:60 In Knoxville, 77% voted against this measure, affirming the city's allegiance to the Union. [15], Following the sale of lots, Knoxville's leaders set about constructing a courthouse and jail. Knoxville was named after Henry Knox, President Washington's War Secretary. Knoxville's Community Development Corporation (KCDC) was founded in 1936 as Knoxville Housing Authority (KHA). [44]:169170, The second Testerman administration stabilized the city's finances, initiated urban renewal projects in Mechanicsville and East Knoxville, and consolidated Knoxville City and Knox County schools. [31]:56 Those who favored secession, such as J.G.M. Known as the "Great Western Line," the route ran westward from Raleigh, North Carolina, over the mountains to Knoxville, and then continued west to Nashville. It was, as Knoxville civic leader Mrs. W.C. Ross told the News Sentinel, a fitting move. [65]:169 City Hall, then located on Market Square, was filthy, noisy and disorganized. [37]:213, In April 1864, the East Tennessee Union Convention reconvened in Knoxville, and while its delegates were badly divided, several, including Brownlow and Maynard, supported a resolution recognizing the Emancipation Proclamation. After around a dozen years of marriage, Knoxville and Cates divorced. In 1854, land speculators Joseph Mabry and William Swan donated land for the creation of Market Square, creating a venue for farmers from the surrounding region to sell their produce. [23]:104, As Knoxville grew, the city's boosters continuously touted the city as an industrial boom town in an attempt to lure major companies. In January 1796, delegates from across Tennessee, including Blount, Sevier, and Andrew Jackson, convened in Knoxville to draw up a constitution for the new state, which was admitted to the Union on June 1, 1796. [44]:18, The railroad also led to a boom in the quarrying and production of Tennessee marble, a type of crystalline limestone found in abundance in the ridges surrounding Knoxville. [19]:789 The city was home to a chapter of the American Colonization Society,[31]:34 led by St. John's Episcopal Church rector Thomas William Humes. [1], While a Southern city, Knoxville was home to a strong pro-Union element during the secession crisis of the early 1860s, and remained bitterly divided throughout the Civil War. [15] Lots were set aside for a church and cemetery, a courthouse, a jail, and a college. Political factioning hampered revitalization efforts throughout much of the 20th century, though the creation of federal entities such as the Tennessee Valley Authority in the 1930s and the ten-fold expansion of the University of Tennessee helped keep the economy stable. [36]:437441 For nearly two years, however, Union generals in Kentucky consistently ignored orders to march on Knoxville, and instead focused on Middle Tennessee. In 1910 and 1911, two major national fairs, the Appalachian Expositions, were held at Chilhowee Park. [13]:56 In the Summer of 1791, he met with forty-one Cherokee chiefs at the mouth of First Creek to negotiate the Treaty of Holston, which was signed on July 2 of that year. [18] A census that year showed that Tennessee had a large enough population to apply for statehood. [44]:75, Knoxville's economy continued to struggle following World War II. Philip John Clapp, better known by his professional name Johnny Knoxville, is an American actor, comedian, film producer, screenwriter, stunt performer, and wrestler. [44]:389 In 1923, the city voted to replace the commissioners with a city manager-council form of government, which involved the election of a city council, who would then hire a city manager to oversee the city's business affairs. [44]:182 [33]:290, Following the nationwide collapse of the Whig Party in 1854, many of Knoxville's Whigs, including Brownlow, were unwilling to support the new Republican Party formed by northern Whigs, and instead aligned themselves with the anti-immigrant American Party (commonly called the "Know Nothings"). [42]:208210 The following year, Charles McClung McGhee and several investors purchased the city's two major railroads and merged them into the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railway, which would eventually control over 2,500 miles (4,000km) of tracks in five states. Crozier and William Churchwell, to flee town. Women's suffragist Lizzie Crozier French was delivering speeches on Market Square as early as the 1880s. [13]:4 Following ratification, North Carolina ceded control of its Tennessee territory to the federal government. John Wooldridge, George Mellen, William Rule (ed. [55] During this same period, the Lamar House Hotel, located across the street from the theater, was a popular gathering place for the city's elite. [44]:71 A nationwide survey ranked the Mountain View area of East Knoxville 20,875 out of 20,915 urban neighborhoods in terms of housing stock, and President Lyndon Johnson referred to the residents of Mountain View as "people as poverty-ridden as I have seen in any part of the United States. It lies at an elevation of 1322 feet . [37]:1269 General Sanders was mortally wounded on November 18 executing a critical delaying action along Kingston Pike. History On August 1, 1930, the original McGhee Tyson airport opened, named for Charles McGhee Tyson. Is Knoxville named after Henry Knox? [13]:67 James White set aside land for a new town, which initially consisted of the area now bounded by Church Avenue, Walnut Street, First Creek, and the river, in what is now Downtown Knoxville. Nashville Tennessean. In the late 1920s, General Lawrence Tyson donated land off Kingston Pike for McGhee Tyson Airport, named for his son, World War I aviator Charles McGhee Tyson (the airport has since moved to Blount County). Brownlow's editorial style, which often involved vicious personal attacks, intensified the already-sharp political divisions within the city. [44]:1256 This action prompted downtown department stores to desegregate, and by the end of the decade, most other downtown businesses had followed suit. ), "Knoxville's History: An Interpretation,", Stanley Folmsbee and Lucile Deaderick, "The Founding of Knoxville," East Tennessee Historical Society, C. E. Allred, et al., "Farming From the Beginning to 1860,". [23]:104 Lonsdale, a factory village northwest of the city, and Mountain View, located south of Park City, incorporated that same year. Knox County and Knoxville, Tenn., has the largest populations. [23]:76 In January 1816, Knoxville's newly elected Board of Aldermen chose Judge Thomas Emmerson (17731837) as the city's first mayor. It was built on 60 acres in West Knoxville where West High School is now located. "[44]:72,133, Beginning in the 1950s, Knoxville made serious efforts to reinvigorate the downtown area. [31]:81 McKenzie points out, however, that 436 Confederate soldiers from outside Knox County were stationed in Knoxville at the time and were allowed to vote. On September 1, the vanguard of Union general Ambrose Burnside entered the city to great fanfare (the unit briefly chased future mayor Peter Staub through the streets). [13]:56, While Blount initially sought to place the territorial capital at the confluence of the Clinch and Tennessee rivers (near modern Kingston), where he had land claims, he was unable to convince the Cherokee to completely relinquish this area, and thus settled on White's Fort as the capital. [31]:198201, Acts of Civil War-related violence occurred in Knoxville for years after the war. [15] Taking advantage of Blount's land-grab act, White took out a claim for the site shortly afterward. [32]:49 Brownlow's attacks drove Whig-turned-Democrat John Hervey Crozier from public life,[33]:289290 and forced two directors of the failed Bank of East Tennessee, A.R. [13]:2 North Carolina made plans to cede its Trans-Appalachian territory to the federal government, but decided to open up the lands to settlement first. [54], Swiss immigrant Peter Staub built Knoxville's first opera house, Staub's Theatre, on Gay Street in 1872. "[13]:1 Throughout the first half of the 19th century, Knoxville's economic growth was stunted by its isolation. Rural merchants from across East Tennessee purchased goods for their general stores from Knoxville wholesalers. [23]:75 This remained Knoxville's style of government until the early 20th century, though the city's charter was amended in 1838 to allow for popular election of mayor as well. William Blount selected the name for the City of Knoxville. William Blount selected the name for the City of Knoxville. In 1935, the city purchased 351 acres in Blount County for the current airport. [31]:81 Following the vote, the East Tennessee Union Convention petitioned the state legislature, asking that East Tennessee be allowed to form a separate, Union-aligned state. [31]:35, While Knoxville was far less dependent on slavery than the rest of the South, most of the city's leaders, even those who opposed secession, were pro-slavery at the onset of the Civil War. [13]:613, Kingston Pike saw a boom in tourism in the 1930s and 1940s as it lay along a merged stretch of two cross-country tourism routes, the Dixie Highway and the Lee Highway. [31]:35 However, numerous prominent Knoxvillians, including Brownlow, Oliver Perry Temple, and Horace Maynard, had been pro-emancipation in the 1830s, but, for reasons not fully understood, were pro-slavery by the 1850s. Historian William MacArthur once described Knoxville as a "product and prisoner of its environment. McKenzie (p. 36) notes that Ramsey called for the reopening of the Atlantic slave trade. Now, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is searching for the killer of 23-year-old Michelle . [31]:72 Following the attack on Fort Sumter in April, Governor Isham Harris made moves to align the state with the Confederacy, prompting the region's Unionists to form the East Tennessee Convention, which met at Knoxville on May 30, 1861. James Strange, "An Unusual Late Prehistoric Pipe from Post Oak Island (40KN23)", William MacArthur, Lucile Deaderick (ed. [44]:157 Testerman and Tyree both embraced the fair, though the city council and Knoxvillians in general were initially lukewarm to the idea. Ramsey's son) for the 2nd district's congressional seat. He later became Hardin Valley Academy's secondary and strength coach from 2016-18 and held the same roles at Knoxville Central when it won a . [44]:123, In 1960, several Knoxville College students, led by Robert Booker and Avon Rollins, engaged in a series of sit-ins to protest segregation at lunch counters in Downtown Knoxville. See . [1], Following the war, business leaders, many from the North, established major iron and textile industries in Knoxville. In 1941, Cas Walker, the owner of a grocery store chain and host of a popular local radio (and later television) program, was elected to the city council. and closed permanently in 1912. [15] In 1794, Blount College, the forerunner of the University of Tennessee, was chartered, with Samuel Carrick as its first president. [37]:66, The divided 2nd District sent representatives to both the U.S. Congress (Horace Maynard) and the Confederate Congress (William G. Swan) in 1861. East Tennesseans felt the state had squandered the proceeds from the sale of land in the Hiwassee District (1819) on a failed state bank, rather than on badly needed internal improvements. Booker's The Heat of a Red Summer: Race Mixing, Race Rioting in 1919 Knoxville (2001) details the Riot of 1919. Knoxville and his wife Melanie Cates welcomed a daughter named Madison in 1996. [44]:36, Historian Bruce Wheeler suggests that the city's overly provincial economic "elite," which had long demonstrated a disdain for change, and the masses of new rural ("Appalachian") and African-American migrants, both of whom were suspicious of government, formed an odd alliance that consistently rejected major attempts at reform. [44]:578 African Americans were hit hardest, as business owners began hiring whites for jobs traditionally held by black workers, such as bakers, telephone workers, and road pavers. ), "Transportation Development,", C. P. White, Mary Rothrock (ed. [13]:3 James White supported the State of Franklin, and served as its Speaker of the Senate in 1786. The fort, which originally stood along modern State Street, consisted of four heavily timbered cabins connected by an 8-foot (2.4m) palisade, enclosing one-quarter acre of ground. [65]:180 While Brownlow had some initial success, his initiatives met staunch opposition from South Knoxville councilman Lee Monday, who according to Brownlow, was "representative of that top-of-the-voice screamology of East Tennessee mountain politics. But Knoxville administrators pointed to their 1929 agreement, and the name McGhee Tyson came with the airport. [16]:374 White also erected a mill for grinding grain on nearby First Creek. [15] The Cowan brothers, Nathaniel and Samuel, opened the city's first general store in August 1792, and John Chisholm's tavern was in operation by December 1792. Between 1945 and 1975, the University of Tennessee's student body grew from just under 3,000 to nearly 30,000. Turn-of-the-Century Life in Knoxville's Bowery, Regas Restaurant's Closing Stirs Memories, A Blood Feud in Nineteenth Century Knoxville, Tennessee, Preservation Works: Mayor's Task Force on Historic Preservation, Dewhirst Plans to Convert Downtown Building into Apartments, Retail Shops, Downtown Knoxville Redevelopment Strategy, Timeline of Knoxville, Tennessee Bibliography, Historical images of Knoxville, Tennessee, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_Knoxville,_Tennessee&oldid=1165830512, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0, This page was last edited on 17 July 2023, at 18:04. [18] With the exceptions of the years 1802, 1807, 1811 and 1812, Knoxville remained the capital of Tennessee until 1817 when the state legislature was moved to Murfreesboro. [15] The city's first newspaper, the Knoxville Gazette, was established by George Roulstone in November 1791. The name commemorates Ranar B. Knox, owner of a local mine and first post master. ), Edwin Patton, Lucile Deaderick (ed. Although the introduction of stagecoach service somewhat helped to break Knoxville's boundaries of isolation, the trips were often long and rough. KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - A woman who identified herself as 'Elizabeth from Knoxville' has gone viral on social media after she was captured on camera at the Capitol Wednesday, explaining that she was Maced after storming the Capitol with hundreds of other supporters of President Trump. [30]:31[39] Brownlow remained vengeful, however, seizing the property of Confederate leaders J.G.M. [62] In 1901, Kid Curry, a member of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch, shot and killed two police officers at Ike Jones's Bar on Central. [13]:613 During World War II, the construction of Manhattan Project facilities in nearby Oak Ridge brought thousands of federal workers to the area, and helped boost Knoxville's economy.