Knox County TN Archives History - Books .....Natural Advantages - Chapter I 1900
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Book Title: Standard History Of Knoxville
CHAPTER I.
NATURAL ADVANTAGES.
Resources of the Surrounding CountryAll Tributary to Knoxville Boundary of the
CountyTopographyGeology and the Geological Character of the Surface in
Relation to Agriculture and HorticultureGreat Improvements in Methods of
CultivationCoal. Iron, Brick Clay and Other Mineral ProductsMountain Gaps and
Their UtilityWater SupplyMineral SpringsClimateTemperature Throughout the
Various SeasonsRailroads.
IN enumerating the natural advantages of a city like Knoxville, it is necessary
to allude with greater or less fullness to the resources of the surrounding
country, for under the conditions of modern civilization these resources are
very largely tributary to the city's requirements. And it will be found also-
necessary to extend inquiry even beyond the limits of Knox county, for at the
present time the resources of the country, because of the facilities for
transportation offered by the numerous and increasing railways, are carried from
immense distances.
Knox county was taken in 1792 from territory then comprised in Greene and
Hawkins counties, and named in honor of Henry Knox, Secretary of War in the
cabinet of President Washington. The building up of a town where Knoxville now
stands was immediately begun. As thus established and named, Knox county
extended far beyond its present boundaries, which embrace about five hundred and
seventy-three square miles. The county is unusually irregular in shape, no two
of its boundary lines being of equal length and only two of them being parallel,
the latter being along Bays Mountain and Flint Ridge. The boundaries of the
county were shaped in the first place by the long straight ridges .traversing it
in parallels from northeast to southwest, these ridges giving direction to all
its natural water courses; and they have to a considerable extent determined the
natural products of the soil and the character of the inhabitants; for it has
always been held by philosophical writers upon historical and ethnological
subjects that the topography, soil and climate of a country have a wide and
far-reaching effect, if not a controlling one, upon the people themselves, and
their institutions, second, only even if second, to that of their government
itself. And some say that the people will be free that live in a mountainous
country.
The long, straight ridges mentioned, although so nearly parallel in direction
and uniform in outline, differ greatly in their geological structure; and as the
soil in the valleys comes originally from the rocks and depends mainly upon the
wearing and washings from the mountain sides, that soil naturally varies as
greatly as does the geological structure of the mountains themselves. From an
elevated point of view Knox county appears to be divided naturally into what is
called by Prof. Safford, in his Geological Survey of the State, the Ridge or
Valley region, and the Knobby region, the latter lying southeast of the
Tennessee river and the French Broad, and the former embracing the remainder of
the county, about four-fifths of its entire area. The topography of the county
lying to the southeast of the French Broad, mentioned above, while somewhat of
the same nature as that of the entire valley region, is yet broken up by short
spurs of hills running nearly at right angles to the longer ridges, which gives
the country the appearance of large and irregular groups of hills, which rise to
a height of from two to four hundred feet above the average elevation of the
surrounding country. The tops of these hills are somewhat rounded, and are
separated from each other by ravines, long, narrow, deep and winding, which
taken altogether give the country in the vicinity of Knoxville an appearance
peculiarly its own. The sides of these hills in many cases are too steep for
successful cultivation, but the soil of the valleys is especially rich, and
yields excellent returns even to fair cultivation, while in former years the
hillsides as well as the valleys were covered with heavy forests of white oak,
maple, hickory, poplar and other varieties of trees, and are still partially so
covered.
In former years, while primitive methods in agriculture, as in other
departments of industry, prevailed from the necessities of the situation, the
productiveness of the soil was utilized only to a limited extent; but in more
recent times the practices of farming have largely improved, and perhaps in few
portions of the country do these modern methods prove more beneficial to the
entire community, including the agricultural classes themselves, than to those
in the immediate vicinity of Knoxville.
A cursory glance at the geological formation of this portion of Tennessee
shows that the prevailing outcropping rock is limestone. It has been described
as a "red, ferruginous, sandy limestone," and Prof. Safford says that it is
interstratined with calcareous shale and flaggy limestone. There are large
quantities of iron imbedded in this rock, and as a natural result there are also
large quantities of this same mineral in the soil; but up to the present time no
process has been discovered by which this mineral can be extracted either from
soil or rock with profit. The chief value of the rock, therefore, lies in its
utilization as building material and as nagging stones. But it is and has long
been well known that the soil of limestone countries is especially adapted to
the growing of wheat and other cereal crops, and, though in the vicinity of
Knoxville the soil is inclined to toughness in its structure, is of a dark red
or brownish color, bears deep plowing and requires to be thoroughly worked; yet
all this is immensely to the benefit of the agriculturist, and when well
underdrained it yields excellent crops of wheat, oats and corn, and is also
capable of being well set with grass and clover. While in earlier years the
market crops consisted mainly in fowls, eggs, feathers, beeswax, ginseng. a few
pelts and now and then a young beef, at the present time all the great variety
of a prosperous agricultural community finds its way to the excellent markets of
the city of Knoxville, the demands of such a city, which is much wealthier than
in former years, having had their effect upon what the farmers raise.
In a general way it may be stated that the varied resources of the great East
Tennessee valley are all tributary to Knoxville, this valley being one of the
most beautiful and prosperous in the state, and within its limits are embraced
nearly all of the agricultural resources of East Tennessee. It is one of the
eight natural divisions of the state, and is bounded on the southeast by the
Unaka chain of mountains and on the northwest by the Cumberland mountains or
table land. To the northeast it is continuous with the Valley of Virginia and to
the southwest it extends into1 Georgia and Alabama. This Valley of Tennessee is
therefore but a portion of that great natural highway which extends from the
Susquehanna river in Pennsylvania to the Coosa and Black Warrior rivers in
Alabama, which highway furnishes easy communication between New England and the
Middle States and the great Southwest. This highway is now traversed by several
lines of solid railway track throughout its entire length, which connect the
resources of the Southwest with the capital and industry of the Middle and New
England States, the benefits of which connection are largely felt by the city of
Knoxville, situated as it is almost midway along the railways in the Valley of
East Tennessee and near the head of navigation of the Tennessee river. This
valley in its southwest course enters Tennessee obliquely from the northeast,
but soon turns with a graceful curve toward the south and crosses the southern
boundary of the state in almost a southerly direction. And toward this southern
boundary line the mountain ridges that inclose the valley approach each other to
within a distance of less than thirty-five miles. The area of the valley is
about 9,200 square miles, considerably more than one-fifth of the entire area of
the state, and it includes all of the following counties: Hancock, Hawkins,
Grainger, Union, Jefferson, Knox, Roane, Meigs, and Bradley, besides most of
Sullivan, McMinn, and portions of Blount, Bledsoe, Anderson, Carter, Cocke,
Johnson, Greene, Washington, Monroe, Sevier, Polk, Claiborne, Rhea, Hamilton,
Sequatchee and Clarion. This valley, taken all in all, constitutes the most
interesting portion of East Tennessee, and also of the Appalachian range that
lies within the state.
The Tennessee river, originally named the Holston, to the mouth of Little
Tennessee, enters Knox county near its northeastern corner and in a remarkably
tortuous and serpentine course flows through it a little to the west of south
until it approaches the south corner of the county, when it turns to the
westward and then, having made a wide curve, again flows to the south and passes
out of the county, at about the width of the county westward from its point of
entrance. By these many windings a large part of the county is made up of rich
valley lands, which are well watered and drained, much to the benefit of the
owners of the lands, and the great value of the valley lands is only equaled by
that of the many tributaries that enter it in its tortuous course. These
tributaries are swift and clear streams, rising either within or without the
county, and flowing through long, narrow valleys, and are in their turn led on
either side by numerous branches which largely increase their volume before they
reach the main river. Upon many of these several creeks there were in former
days, to a greater extent than at the present time, numerous sawmills, which
reduced the forests to lumber of various kinds and shapes, that found ready sale
in the markets of the towns and cities of the state, and also on the farms, as
the farmers gradually supplanted log houses and barns with those of timber and
lumber.
Flint Ridge, sometimes called Chestnut Ridge, constitutes the northwest
boundary line of the county. The former is the older name and describes the
principal characteristic of the crest of the ridge, this crest being composed of
chert, or flint-like quartz or hornstone, much resembling true flint. The main
ridge extends from Virginia into- Georgia. On the eastern and southern side of
this ridge lies Bull Run Valley, one of the long valleys of the state, which
also extends from Virginia into Georgia, taking different names in different
parts of its extent. In Knox county it takes the name of Bull Run, from the
creek that flows through it, and which empties into Clinch river. This valley
contains a large quantity of rich farming lands. It is abundantly watered and
was at one time heavily timbered. This valley is bounded on the east by Copper
Ridge, which in its turn bounds Beaver Valley on the west, this latter valley
being one of the most fertile in the county. Hinds' Valley lies between Beaver
and Black Oak ridges, the lower half of which in Knox county, is watered by
Hickory creek, which flows into Clinch river. Grassy Valley, bounded by Black
Oak and Webb's ridges, is of much importance from an agricultural point of view,
much more so than Poor Valley, which comes next. But Knoxville Valley exceeds in
importance any of the others, it being in fact the valley of East Tennessee.
The rocks within this valley are of the Nashville and Trenton limestone, which
yields a dark, friable and fertile soil; and as all the creeks emptying into the
Tennessee on its right bank flow through this valley, and as the Tennessee
itself washes its entire eastern side, it is more abundantly watered than are
all the other valleys of the county. Added to all these natural advantages is
the artificial advantage of the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia railroad,
which runs along the bed of the valley, furnishing rapid transportation and
communication to and between the various towns and cities along its course and
to the farmers throughout the entire length of the valley. To all of these
things may be attributed the rapid and substantial growth of the city of Knoxville.
In connection with what may be stated on the subject of coal, it must be noted
that the rock formation in the vicinity of Knoxville is much older than the
carboniferous strata. In fact the Knoxville strata belong to the very oldest of
the stratified rocks, viz.: the Potsdam or Primordial group, as classified by
Prof. Dana. The layers of rock constituting the Knoxville group are immediately
upon the metamorphic or azoic rock, and belong to the very lowest of the Lower
Silurian age. After their formation came the Upper Silurian, the Devonian and
the Sub-Carboniferous, before any coal was formed. The Lower Silurian embraces
three great groups of rocks, viz.: the Ocoee conglomerate, the Chilhowee
sandstone, and the Knox group, the latter group being also divided into three
formations, viz.: the Knox sandstone, the Knox shale and the Knox dolomite.
The coal measures consist of a series of sandstones, shales and stone coal,
interstratified, and range from 200 to 2,500 feet in thickness. In the flat top
of the Cumberland tableland the sandstones and shales form the cap of the two
Short mountains in Cannon county; the sandstones and shales of the outliers in
Overton and Fentress, and the same formations are on the top of Lookout
mountain, Walden's Ridge and Racoon mountain. Coal is also found in Scott,
Cumberland, Van Buren and Grundy counties.
Of the Knoxville group the most valuable rocks are the sandstones, which are
interstratified with hard shales, the shales and sandstones being of many
different colors, such as brown, red, chestnut, buff, gray, etc., and many of
the iron ore deposits of the eastern counties rest upon the several divisions of
the Knox group.
The Knox shale is a very important formation, and is often interstratified
with thin layers of blue limestone, yielding the finest specimens of oolitic
limestone to be found anywhere in the state. This shale, between Knoxville and
Clinton, gives us Poor Valley, Hinds' Valley, Bull Run Valley, and Wolf Valley,
and in the Knoxville shale valleys are located some of the finest farming lands
in this portion of the state, the limestone contributing largely to the strength
and fertility of the soil, and some of the iron ore banks are located on this
shale.
But the Knox dolomite is the most important and massive of the three divisions
of the Knox group, the thicker layers being often worked into millstones, and in
the upper strata of this division there are cuts of dull, variegated dolomite.
which are worked as marble and used as building material. In color it is light
gray, variegated with brownish red clouds, and it is rather fine grained.
In addition to this variety of marble there are in the Knox group many iron
ore banks, which contain two species of ore, viz.: limonite and hematite. Any of
the strata of the Knox group will under certain conditions yield limonite, and
limonite banks occur in all the mountain counties from Johnson to Polk. Hematite
is found in the shale layers from one to two feet thick in Carter county, and
there occur in this division also jasper and chalcedony. Iron pyrites is also
found in the Knox group, usually associated with galena and blende. Carbonate of
lead is also found in some localities, as also is the black oxide of manganese.
Besides the above are found heavy spar, fluor spar, calcite and quartz.
The Knox dolomite and the Knox shale give some of the finest farming lands in
East Tennessee, and are therefore of special interest to the agriculturist and
to the inhabitants of cities, the aggregate area in East Tennessee of the
farming lands based on the Knox group being far larger than that of the same
lands based on the Nashville and Trenton groups.
But marble being one of the most noted products of the state, deserves a more
particular description than has thus far been presented. And this description
will be best given in the language of a pamphlet published in 1869. entitled
"Facts and Figures Concerning the Climate. Manufacturing Advantages, and the
Agricultural Resources of East Tennessee." printed by T. Haws & Co., Knoxville.
Following is a quotation from that pamphlet:
"There is great interest attached to the marble of East Tennessee. In the
columns and balustrades which largely contribute to adorn the state capitol at
Nashville and the national capitol at Washington may be seen specimens of the
fine quality of our variegated marble. We have in East Tennessee the variegated
fossiliferous, the grayish fossiliferous, magnesian, black breccia conglomerate
varieties. The first species is found in quantity in Grainger, Jefferson, Roane,
Knox, Monroe, Meigs, McMinn and Bradley counties. There are two varieties of
this species. The one is an argillaceous limestone, little fossiliferous, of a
dull, brownish red and sometimes greenish, and receives a smooth, fine polish.
The other is par excellence the marble of East Tennessee. It is a highly
fossiliferous, calcareous rock, has a bright ground of brownish red colors which
are more or less freely mottled with white and gray fleecy clouds and spots.
This variety is found in large quantities in Knox, McMinn and Hawkins counties.
Quarries are being worked in each of these counties and shippers find a ready
sale for all they can ship to the eastern markets. A block of the light mottled
strawberry variety was sent from Hawkins county to the Washington monument. This
block attracted the attention of the building committee of the extension of the
national capitol, who, although they had specimens before them from all parts of
the Union, decided in favor of and used the marble from East Tennessee. The
marble used in the Tennessee capitol was taken from Knox county. A large
quantity from the same quarry was used in ornamenting the Ohio state capitol.
One bed of grayish white lies near Knoxville, which is 375 feet thick; ninety
feet of which, near the base of the bed, is massive white marble. The remainder
contains more or less of the reddish points which make it variegated, the
mottling consisting of fossil, corals and crinoids. On the French Broad river
five miles east of Knoxville is a bluff of a beautiful light variegated marble
which could be worked with little expense. Black marble is found in some
localities in the extreme eastern part of the state. The whole extent of country
between the Cumberland and Smoky mountains is underlaid with the marble
formation, and geologists have long looked upon this region with peculiar
interest."
Zinc is also abundant in East Tennessee, there being a fine bed of this
mineral in Knox county, as well as at Mossy creek, and there are large
quantities of limestone interspersed with the marble beds.
But the greatest interest must always attach to the supply of coal, for as the
great industries of the world largely support the civilization of the age, so
does the consumption support most if not all of the great industries of the
world. And so far as Tennessee is concerned most of the coal in the state is
confined to the eastern portion, and in the main is limited to the Cumberland
mountains and their cognate ridges. And while in some cases this coal is
properly bituminous, yet in most cases it is semi-bituminous. Prof. Safford
says, "Our coal in good quality and in beds thick enough to be profitably
worked, is at least equal in the aggregate to a solid stratum eight feet thick
and co-extensive with the tableland, and hence to 4,400 square miles." If the
entire area of the state be taken at 42,000 square miles, which is nearly
correct, then the coal area, if evened up to a thickness of eight feet, would
occupy somewhat more than one-tenth of the entire area of the state. And as the
amount of coal within the state when the first settlers arrived, about 1760, was
in the neighborhood of 35,000,000,000 tons, considering a cubic yard equal to a
ton, and if at one time in the dim recesses of the past the entire state were
underlaid or overlaid with coal, as it may have been, it is easy to see what a
prodigious waste of valuable material nature has made in the denudation of such
a large portion of the state, whereby somewhere near 320,000,000,000 tons of
coal have been washed off into the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.
In 1865 Mr. S. W. Ely, an experienced geologist from Ohio, made a report to a
certain company by which he was employed, in which he said:
"In truth this inestimable mineral is so liberally deposited in the structure
of the Cumberlands, that it would tax the imagination to comprehend the
quantity. I trust the time is near at hand when Cincinnati and Louisville and
the interior towns of Kentucky will seek in the coal of your Scott county lands,
an article which exceeds in purity and other excellent qualities any I have ever
seen from the bituminous fields of the North."
Since this report was made, the Knoxville and Ohio railroad has opened up the
coal beds of Anderson county, which are within a distance of thirty miles of
Knoxville, and from these Anderson county coal fields, coal has since been
shipped not only to Knoxville, but also to many other towns and cities, both
east and west, as to Nashville, Memphis, Atlanta, Augusta and Macon.
The counties in which coal is found are the following: Anderson, Bledsoe,
Campbell, Claiborne, Cumberland, Fentress, Franklin, Hamilton, Marion, Morgan,
Overton, Putnam, Rhea, Roane, Scott, Sequatchie, Van Buren, Warren, White. Only
a small portion of this vast territory has as yet been developed, as previous to
the war there were but few railroads anywhere near the coal, but since then many
railroads run in all directions from Knoxville. connecting with the Cincinnati
Southern, the Louisville and Nashville, opening up new fields in all directions.
Besides the other minerals mentioned there are copper, lead, silver and gold,
though the last two metals do not exist in very large quantities. Gold is found
in Monroe, Blount and Cocke counties, in the former county a man in mining it
being able to earn about $1 per day.
The iron of the state of Tennessee exists in three distinct regions, as
follows: The Eastern region, the Dyestone region and the Western region. It is
with the two former only that Knoxville is especially interested. In the Eastern
region the iron ore is classified as limonite, or brown ore; hematite, or red
ore, and magnetite, or magnetic ore. In the Dyestone region, which skirts the
eastern base of the Cumberland Tableland, or Walden's ridge, the ore is
fossiliferous.
Limonite is the great ore of the Eastern region, and consists of iron, 59.92
per cent; oxygen. 25.68 per cent, and water, 14.40 per cent. Hematite consists
of iron, 70 per cent, and oxygen, 30 per cent, and magnetite iron, 72 per cent,
and oxygen, 27.6 per cent. Dyestone is a variety of hematite, and, as its name
implies, is used much for coloring.
In Campbell county, according to Prof. Safford, there is a remarkable bed of
fossiliferous ore, where, "owing to the great number of minor folds or wrinkles
in the rock, the ore layer is repeated a great number of times, and crops out in
numerous parallel bands for a distance of five or six miles; many of them being
from twenty inches to three feet thick. In some places it is six feet thick. The
Knoxville and Ohio railroad passes through this iron region. Coal also abounds
in vast quantities in the Elk Fork valley. There is a similar deposit of iron
and coal at Wheeler's Gap, also on the railroad."
The following extract from an iron manufacturer's communication to an
association interested in the extent of iron in East Tennessee, made previous to
1869, is of peculiar value in this connection:
"Within eight miles of Knoxville are abundant beds of iron, and within twenty
miles there is a body of iron said to be nearly equal in quantity to the Iron
Mountain of Missouri, and of precisely the same quality. * * * No country of the
world furnishes mineral wealth more convenient in locality, superior in quality,
greater in variety, or easier of access than are our vast deposits. Almost every
county possesses a wealth of iron sufficient to enrich a state or pay the debt
of a nation, and the facilities for manufacturing are as great as the mineral is
abundant. Convenient water power, an unlimited supply of timber and bituminous
coal, cheap food and cheap labor, furnish all the facilities for producing iron
cheaply and in unlimited quantity. A distinguished iron manufacturer from New
York gave it as his opinion that iron could be made by charcoal at one of the
mines of East Tennessee and hauled ten miles to the railroad at one-half the
cost of producing a similar article in the North. If that can be done with
charcoal ten miles from a railroad, what shall be said of mines equally rich and
exhaustless lying where the railroad track cuts the ore-bed and where coal banks
are as abundant as the iron?
"Along the line of the Knoxville and Ohio railroad, not fifty miles from
Knoxville, are numerous properties now offered for sale at moderate prices where
iron and coal lie side by side in limitless quantities and surrounded by
beautiful forests of choice timber, with lime and sandstone, fire clay and water
power close at hand, all waiting, as they have waited for ages, for the magic
touch of industry, to convert them to use. In some localities these iron beds
are pierced for the first time by the cuts on our railroads; and yet, such is
the blindness of our present policy that we bring from beyond the Atlantic the
iron rails to construct a railroad upon our own iron beds! More than two million
of dollars have been sent out of East Tennessee since the war, for iron and iron
wares that should have been produced at home. With such a fact before us there
can be no question of a home market for all we can produce. The foundrymen of
Knoxville have, until the present time, been compelled to purchase iron brought
from Scotland to produce a single mixture for soft, light and thin castings.
There are numerous places in East Tennessee where similar iron could be produced
profitably at less than the cost of this freight alone, saying nothing of the
price of the iron.
"The iron of Carter county has borne a reputation for nearly seventy years
unsurpassed by any in the United States for toughness and adaptability to any
use. The castings of this iron will bend before breaking, and car wheels made of
it have worn more than twelve years on our railroads. And yet there is not a
blast furnace in operation in that county at this time, and we import from
abroad at vast expense the iron that might be obtained from these mines at
one-third the price we are now paying. The Tellico Iron Works of Monroe county,
more celebrated than those of Carter, with iron equal in quality and much
greater in quantity, have been idle for years, producing nothing."
At the time the above was written there were two furnaces in Greene county
carried on by northern companies, and one then recently established by Gen. J.
T. Wilder in Roane county, that were in quite active operation, producing three
times the iron that was being produced by all the old furnaces in East Tennessee.
When all things are taken into consideration, it may be stated with a good
deal of positiveness, that Knoxville is as well situated for manufacturing as
any city in the Southern states, except possibly Birmingham. Ala. And in some
respects it is better situated than this fine Alabama city. The climate, as
shown in this chapter, is most emphatically a temperate one, and it is naturally
perfectly healthful. If disease at any time prevail it is because of unsanitary
conditions which come about through oversight, or neglect, and which can always
in a short time be completely removed.
Provisions are abundant and average in price about the same as in other cities
in the country. East Tennessee, as has been shown, is a grass growing, grain
growing and cattle raisin country. Iron and coal are abundant and within easy
reach, by means of the great systems of railroads centering in Knoxville, an
outlet being supplied in every direction. By means of both railroads and the
numerous streams which flow from all parts of the mountainous country timber is
easily brought to Knoxville, and there is an almost inexhaustible supply of all
kinds, such as white and yellow pine, red, white and black oak, black walnut,
hickory, chestnut, yellow poplar, red and white cedar, ash, locust, cherry and
hemlock.
Brick clay is also abundant throughout East Tennessee.
One of the most important questions asked by an emigrant to a new country is
as to its climate. Is it hot or cold, wet or dry, and is it or is it not subject
to extremes of heat or cold, dryness or moisture? The entire history of
migratory movements .shows that in the main they are made along parallels,
either of latitude or of temperature, and not along meridians. Most if not all
of the writers on the climate of East Tennessee agree in placing it midway
between the two extremes of northern cold and southern heat, and thus well
adapted to health and industry. Of East Tennessee Knoxville is almost in the
geographical center and is nearly 1,000 feet above the sea, and thus while
considerably further south than Ohio its climate does not vary much from that of
the latter state. Altitude is one of the elements that determine the climate of
a country, the rate of decrease in temperature being one degree for every 300 or
350 feet of elevation, or, according to Prof. Henry, one degree for every 333
feet. As Knoxville is nearly one thousand feet above the sea its average
temperature is three degrees below what it would be if on a level with the
ocean. The average annual temperature of Knoxville is about 57 degrees, while
that of Middle Tennessee is about 58 degrees and that of West Tennessee about 60
degrees. Then, too, the force of the winter winds from the west and northwest is
greatly broken by the Cumberland mountains, and the winters are thus rendered
comparatively mild and pleasant. Swamps and stagnant pools are almost unknown in
this portion of the state, and hence the region of Knoxville is entirely exempt
from fever and ague. The mountain air is pure and wholesome, the elevation of
the country preserves it always from the encroachments of yellow fever, and the
emigrant to this region no matter whence he comes, whether from the Eastern,
Western or Southern states, or from Norway. Italy or France, finds himself upon
his arrival already acclimated to the eastern part of Tennessee.
According to the records preserved by Prof. Safford in his Geological Survey
of the state the average temperature of Knoxville for 1852 was 55.67 degrees:
for 1854 it was 57.67 degrees, and for 1856 it was 57.75 degrees. The mean heat
of summer along the parallel traversing the middle of the state ranges from 74
degrees in East Tennessee to 77.5 degrees in West Tennessee. The winter and
summer temperatures of Knoxville for the years 1852, 1854 and 1855 together with
the average winter and summer temperatures for those years, were as follows:
1852, winter, 39.28 degrees: summer, 70.87 degrees.
1854, " 37.76 " " 75.85 "
1855, " 38.40 " " 74.09 "
Average " 38.48 " " 73.60 "
From the Meteorological Record kept by the East Tennessee University for
January, 1868, the following statistics are derived:
Mean temperature for the month, 35.05 degrees; coldest day, the 3Oth: average
for the 24 hours, 20.16 degrees; warmest day. the 7th, average for the 24 hours,
52.86 degrees; the extreme temperatures for the year 1868 were 14 degrees and 92
degrees, and the mean temperature for the year was 60 degrees.
During January, 1869. there were fifteen days on which plowing could have been
carried on. and every day of the month was fit for outdoor work. There were but
fewr days during the entire year which by reason of either heat or cold, were
unfit for ordinary outdoor work upon the farm or elsewhere. East Tennessee
occupies a happy mean in climate between the two extremes of heat and cold and
in all the elements that constitute a pleasant and healthful climate there is
scarcely a place between the two great oceans on the east and on the west, or
between British America and the Gulf of Mexico, that will bear comparison with
this region.
During the eight years immediately preceding 1881 the mercury descended below
zero only three times, viz.: in January, 1877, in January, 1879, and in
December, 1880. In the same eight years the mercury reached 100 degrees but
once. During three years of the eight it did not go above 95 degrees, the
average temperature for the eight years being 57.8 degrees. The mean summer
temperature was 73 degrees, and the mean winter temperature, 40 degrees. The
average maximum temperature was about 91 degrees and the average minimum
temperature about 2 degrees.
The following table shows the annual mean temperature, the highest and lowest
temperatures, the annual mean relative humidity and the total annual rainfall
for Knoxville for eleven years. 1871 to 1881, inclusive:
Annual Total
Annual Mean Highest Lowest Mean Rel. Annual
Year. Temperature. Temperature. Temperature. Humidity. Rainfall.
1871 58.0 95.5 6.0 71.1 48.22
1872 55.0 94.0 1.0 69.8 44.66
1873 56.5 92.0 6.0 70.5 59.25
1874 57.7 97.0 11.0 70.4 58.38
1875 55.5 94.0 2.0 71.7 73.87
1876 55.7 96.0 6.0 70.0 41.19
1877 57.0 95.0 14.0 68.0 54.35
1878 57.6 97.0 6.0 68.2 47.76
1879 58.8 100.0 3.5 65.5 48.95
1880 58.5 96.0 5.0 70.1 52.54
1881 58.6 100.0 9.0 70.4 46.67
The following table shows the average temperature for each month during the
years 1881 to 1898. inclusive:
Years. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May. June. July. Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec.
1881 36 42 44 55 64 74 78 77 74 64 48 44
1882 43 49 53 61 64 73 72 73 69 63 48 35
1883 39 46 45 59 65 74 76 73 70 63 48 41
1884 30 47 50 55 67 72 75 73 72 65 46 40
1885 35 34 43 58 65 74 77 75 69 54 47 49
1886 38 37 48 59 69 72 75 75 71 58 46 39
1887 37 49 49 58 70 74 79 75 70 57 47 39
1888 40 46 47 62 65 73 76 74 64 52 48 37
1889 41 39 49 60 63 69 76 71 65 53 46 52
1890 49 52 45 60 65 75 75 72 69 54 44 41
1891 40 47 46 60 63 75 72 73 67 57 43 36
1892 35 45 46 58 65 74 74 71 68 56 46 40
1893 30 44 48 53 64 73 76 74 71 56 43 40
1894 44 41 44 58 65 75 74 74 72 52 47 39
1895 36 51 48 54 63 74 72 77 69 56 50 39
1896 40 41 45 64 72 73 76 75 72 63 50 42
1897 36 46 53 59 63 75 77 75 72 63 50 42
1898 43 39 55 53 70 77 78 78 73 58 44 38
The following table shows the highest, lowest and mean elevation of the
barometer at Knoxville for the years 1881 to 1898, inclusive:
Years. Highest. Lowest. Mean.
1881 29.56 28.45 29.07
1882 29.60 28.49 29.08
1883 29.64 28.51 29.08
1884 29.60 28.47 29.05
1885 29.57 28.36 29.04
1886 29.64 28.33 29.05
1887 29.57 28.46 29.07
1888 29.53 28.54 29.07
1889 29.58 28.40 29.07
1890 29.56 28.52 29.09
1891 29.65 28.44 29.08
1892 29.52 28.39 29.68
1893 29.71 28.37 29.04
1894 29.53 28.44 29.07
1895 29.79 28.53 29.06
1896 29.66 28.16 29.08
1897 29.56 28.53 29.04
1898 29.62 28.42 29.04
The following shows the rainfall for the years 1881 to 1898 inclusive: 1881,
45.67 inches: 1882, 66.36: 1883, 52.67; 1884, 62.53; 1885, 54.70; 1886, 61.45:
1887, 42.98: 1888, 53.03: 1889, 47.73: l890, 49.59: l891, 46.61; 1892, 44.62:
1893, 43.42; 1894, 37.44: 1895, 38.75: 1896, 44.95: 1897, 52.95: 1898, 42.79.
The presentation of averages, however, does not always give a clear idea of
what a climate really is: hence a few statistics regarding the extreme low
temperature at Knoxville since the establishment of the weather bureau may prove
of interest, if not of value. The lowest temperature during that period was on
January 10, 1884, when the mercury registered 16 degrees below zero. Perhaps the
most remarkable period of cold weather ever experienced at Knoxville since the
establishment of the weather bureau was during the week beginning on Sunday,
February 12, 1899. On that day the mercury went down to 6 degrees above zero; on
Monday it went to 9 degrees below zero, and on Tuesday morning, February 14, it
fell to 10 degrees below zero, and at that particular time Knoxville was the
coldest place reported in the United States.
Four great gaps in the mountains furnish available outlets for railroads, and
determine the direction of commerce and travel toward distant parts of the
country. The gaps in the French Broad in the Alleghanies on the east, of the
Emory river in the Cumberland range on the west, determine the direction of an
east and west line from the coast of the Atlantic to the Cincinnati Southern
railroad, and the Emory Gap, the Careyville Gap in the Cumberland range on the
north, and the gap of the Little Tennessee in the Alleghanies surely determine a
north and south line, connecting with the Georgia system of railroads and with
the southeastern seaboard towns.
Knoxville lies where all these lines must meet and intersect each other. It is
also' on the Tennessee river, which is for several months in the year navigable
for steamboats of considerable size. Knoxville is also on the East Tennessee.
Virginia and Georgia railroad, which connects the great northeast with the great
southwest, and could not be better situated for communication with all parts of
the country. There must have been much of the fortuitous in the selection of
this site for a city, for it was impossible for any one responsible for the
selection of the location to have foreseen the vast uses to which these gaps in
the mountains could be and would be put: there being then no such thought as
that railroads would at some clay find their way through them.
In this connection it may be well to note the distances from Knoxville to some
of the principal cities of the north and south: To Louisville and to Cincinnati,
266 miles: to Cincinnati via Emory Gap, 300 miles: to Norfolk, 539 miles: to
Port Royal, 378 miles: to Norfolk via Asheville, 578 miles: to Wilmington, N.
C., 487 miles: to Charleston via Augusta, Ga., 404 miles, and to Port Royal via
Augusta, 378 miles. The latitude of Knoxville is 35 degrees 56 minutes and its
longitude is 85 degrees 58 minutes.
The water supply of this region is ample and pure. From every vale and
mountain side there are many clear springs, numbering thousands in the
aggregate, which pour forth their cooling streams, and there are in some places
mountain torrents foaming over rocky beds and leaping over precipices; beautiful
brooks winding slowly through fertile fields, and larger streams filled not only
with clear water, but also1 with fish of various kinds, among: them the trout.
All along many of the streams is excellent water power which can never fail, and
which in time must be utilized to drive machinery of various kinds, and to
develop electricity in a much cheaper way than by steam, especially when the
price of coal shall have advanced by the introduction of more and larger
manufacturing establishments and a denser population, thus increasing the demand
for fuel all over the south. There are also many mineral springs, some of which
are known throughout the country, and in the vicinity of which have been built
up what are now famous summer resorts, where even in the summer months the
mercury does not rise much above seventy degrees, and where the nights are, in
the hottest weather, delightfully cool. At some of these places fires in the
grates are welcome throughout the entire year.
Additional Comments:
From:
STANDARD HISTORY
OF
KNOXVILLE TENNESSEE
WITH FULL OUTLINE OF THE NATURAL ADVANTAGES, EARLY SETTLEMENT, TERRITORIAL
GOVERNMENT, INDIAN TROUBLES, AND GENERAL AND PARTICULAR HISTORY OF THE CITY DOWN
TO THE PRESENT TIME
EDITED BY
WILLIAM RULE
GEORGE F. MELLEN, PH. D., AND J. WOOLDRIDGE COLLABORATORS
PUBLISHED BY
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
CHICAGO 1900
File at:
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