Knox County TN Archives History - Books .....Natural Advantages - Chapter I 1900 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/tn/tnfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@gmail.com August 30, 2005, 9:48 pm Book Title: Standard History Of Knoxville CHAPTER I. NATURAL ADVANTAGES. Resources of the Surrounding Country—All Tributary to Knoxville— Boundary of the County—Topography—Geology and the Geological Character of the Surface in Relation to Agriculture and Horticulture—Great Improvements in Methods of Cultivation—Coal. Iron, Brick Clay and Other Mineral Products—Mountain Gaps and Their Utility—Water Supply—Mineral Springs—Climate—Temperature Throughout the Various Seasons—Railroads. 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: http://files.usgwarchives.net/tn/knox/history/1900/standard/naturala5ms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/tnfiles/ File size: 41.8 Kb