Community Profiles

History

[ Prehistory to End of Civil War ]    [ End of Civil War to Beginning of World War II ]
[ World War II to Present ] 

Prehistory to End of the Civil War

Early Times

The first Roane Countians were Paleo-Indians who first inhabited this area 10,000 to 15,000 years ago. Evidence of these ice-age hunters includes fluted spear points and other stone tools. The Paleo-Indians were followed by other cultures-Archaic, Woodland, Mississippian, and, finally, Cherokee.

Although the evidence is only circumstantial, some believe that the first Europeans to visit the area were Spaniards from the Hernando de Soto expedition about 1540. Serious settlement would not come, however, until more than two centuries later at the end of the French and Indian War. The treaty of 1763 gave the English all of the lands east of the Mississippi. Free of what one historian called "the French menace," settlers from the English Colonies moved west into the territory that would eventually become Tennessee. North Carolina claimed ownership of this territory and provided a certain amount of support to the early settlers.

Fort Southwest Point and the Beginning of the County

In 1789, North Carolina ceded the Tennessee territory to the U.S. federal government. The next year, the ceded region became known as the "Territory South of the River Ohio" with William Blount as the appointed governor. Early on, the Cherokees' dissatisfaction with various treaties led to Indian raids on settlers and travelers. To quell the attacks, Governor Blount called out the militia under Brig. Gen. John Sevier. In 1792, Gen. Sevier established his headquarters, which included a blockhouse and stockade, at Southwest Point, a wedge of high ground at the confluence of the Tennessee and Clinch rivers. Two years later, Congress authorized a fort at Southwest Point, which was established in 1797. Fort Southwest Point was the genesis of Kingston and Roane County. Settlements, complete with trading posts and inns, grew up around the Fort. By 1799, the Fort's garrison numbered over 400 men; it had become one of the most important military posts on the American frontier. That same year, just three years after Tennessee was admitted to the Union, the Tennessee legislature chartered the town of Kingston. Two years later, the legislature created Roane County with Kingston as its seat.

Transportation was the key to developing the western frontier, and Roane County was a center of transportation flow. The confluence of the Tennessee, Clinch, and Emory rivers made the county a focus for river transport. Early roads to the west, including Avery Trace and the Walton Road, went through the county.

County Development

The county experienced steady economic and social development up to the Civil War. Religion was a strong part of the social fabric, so the organization of formal churches was a high priority. The economic foundation was agriculture, much of which was based on the fertile river bottom lands. Corn was the dominant crop, and with corn as the raw material, the distillation of spirits was one of the leading industries. Another early industry, and the largest by the beginning of the Civil War, was iron production. Iron furnaces were in operation as early as 1796 in the White's Creek area near the southern boundary of Roane County.

A recurring issue, and one that took five treaties and 28 years to dispose of, was the Cherokees' claims to land wanted by the settlers. Forked-tongue diplomacy was the norm in dealing with this issue, but it was elevated to a new artform in 1807. In an earlier treaty, the Cherokee had been led to believe that if they ceded the land in and around Kingston to the government, Kingston would become the capital of Tennessee. And true to the agreement, Kingston did become the capital of Tennessee-for one day. On Monday, September 21, 1807, the first session of the seventh General Assembly of the state of Tennessee convened in Kingston. At the end of the day, the Senate and the House of Representatives resolved to "...adjourn forthwith from Kingston, to meet on Wednesday the 23d inst. at eleven o'clock, A.M. at the courthouse in Knoxville."

The Civil War

   By 1860, things were looking bright for the county. A handsome new courthouse had been completed in 1854 to handle the increasing needs of county government. Agriculture, which was increasingly based on scientific methods, showed remarkable progress both in the variety and quantity of products. Four iron furnaces were in operation producing products for local consumption and for export to other states. But the beginning of the Civil War and the end of good times was at hand.

Like most East Tennesseans, a large majority of Roane Countians supported the Union. That remained true even after the firing on Fort Sumter had turned most Middle and West Tennesseans into ardent secessionists. In the June, 1861 statewide referendum, Roane County rejected secession by a margin of more than three-to-one. Although hundreds of Roane Countians served in the Confederate Army, which controlled the area during the first two years of the war, many more fled through the mountains into Kentucky, where they were organized into Union Army units.

Several Roane Countians served as regimental and even brigade commanders in the Union and Confederate armies. This division of loyalties tore apart communities, churches, and even families. Tensions were worsened by several changes in control of the area by Union and Confederate forces and by raids and guerrilla warfare activities. The result was economic and social chaos as crops and animals were confiscated; men of military age were conscripted; and churches, public buildings, and private homes were occupied by military units or destroyed.

There were frequent large scale troop movements into and through the county. The famous Confederate cavalry commander, General Nathan Bedford Forrest, maintained his headquarters in Kingston for a two-month period during the summer of 1863. His command departed just one day before a large Union force under the command of General Ambrose Burnside passed through Kingston en route to the "liberation" of Knoxville and East Tennessee, one of President Lincoln's prime objectives.

Although no major battles were fought in Roane County, there were numerous skirmishes and a larger engagement on November 24, 1863, when a Union infantry brigade stationed in Kingston repelled an attack by a Confederate cavalry brigade led by another famous Rebel commander, General Joe Wheeler.

  

End of Civil War to Beginning of World War II

Recovery from the War

At the end of the Civil War, Roane County was economically bankrupt and socially disorganized. Schools were either damaged or destroyed, churches were closed, farms were stripped bare of livestock and crops, homes and businesses had fallen into disarray, and the few industries still remaining lay idle. Soldiers, who had fought on both sides in the conflict, returned home with hearts filled with animosity toward those who had fought on the opposite side. The population as a whole was demoralized.

Considering the poor state of the county, recovery started rather quickly as people began to repair the damage from war and neglect. Within two years, merchants had reopened their stores and professional men were back in business. Churches and schools were repaired and reopened, and social life moved toward normality. Kingston was once again host to the riverboats that plied the rivers carrying mail, passengers, and cargo. Kingston was not, however, the center of post-war economic development. That took place in Oliver Springs and in communities that did not exist prior to the war, places like Rockwood and Harriman. For the most part, the impetus for post-war development came from northern entrepreneurs and industrialists. To say that Roane Countians welcomed these "Carpetbaggers" would be a stretch. But come they did. And with them came expertise, capital, ideas-and prosperity.

Iron, Temperance, and the Lost City

Union General John Wilder, who had commanded the famous "Lightning Brigade" of mounted infantry, was among the first to arrive. He had passed through Roane County during the war and had noted the iron ore and coal resources. He, along with W. O. Rockwood and other northern industrialists, formed the Roane Iron Company in 1867. One year later, the new town of Rockwood was founded. Rockwood epitomized the "company town" since it was the result of one large industry upon which most of the population depended for its livelihood. The company store provided life's necessities.

Just over 20 years later more northerners, in the form of the East Tennessee Land Company, were discovering Roane County. The Land Company was chartered May 25, 1989, for the express purpose of creating a "Utopia of Temperance and Industry." The company purchased Colonel Robert King Byrd's plantation, including the Byrd mansion and 10,000 acres, from his widow for $36,000. The plantation was cut up into lots and sold at the "Great Land Sale" on February 26-28, 1890. The sale was preceded by a national advertising campaign. Three thousand prohibitionists came from 18 states and paid $604,705 for 573 lots in the yet-to-be city of Harriman. The town mushroomed out of the soil within a crescent formed by the Emory River. Within two years, it was a thriving city with streets lined with brick retail establishments, magnificent homes, and an industrial base consisting of 29 businesses. Schools, churches, and social clubs were organized by well-educated people who were strict prohibitionists. Whether the reason was the absence of "Demon Rum" or the presence of an industrious people, Harriman prospered. In 1893 the American Temperance University was founded. The beautiful "Temperance Building," which housed the University, still stands.

Two months after the founding of Harriman, the town of Cardiff was promoted as another industrial center. Responding to national advertising, buyers flocked to buy lots in the new town. The land brought over a million dollars in just three days. Sadly, the town failed in just a few years, and few traces now remain of "The Lost Town of Cardiff."

The Coming of the Railroad

One of the largest economic and social impacts on Roane County was the completion of the Cincinnati-Southern Railroad from Cincinnati to Chattanooga in 1879. The road entered Roane County through the Emory River Gap in Walden's Ridge. The point at which the railroad crossed the river became the principal distribution point for agricultural products up and down the Cincinnati-Southern line. Steamboats coming from Knoxville, Chattanooga, and Kingston made two trips a week up the Emory River laden with corn, hay, and other products. Since the railroad passed through the mineral-rich portion of the county, markets for coal, iron ore, and iron products were greatly expanded. During the first decade of its existence, the Roane Iron Company depended exclusively on the river as the outlet for its pig iron. Consequently, most of Rockwood's iron went to Knoxville and Chattanooga. The coming of the railroad substantially broadened the customer base for pig iron. Eventually, every major community in the county, except Kingston, would have both freight and passenger service.

Economic Diversification

Coal and timber formed the early economic base of the community first called Winter's Gap and, later, Oliver Springs. The community attained national prominence thanks to another natural resource-mineral springs, the water from which was alleged to have healing properties. Richard Oliver, the first postmaster and the man for whom the town was named, first commercialized the springs by transporting guests from his inn to the springs by horse and buggy. Large scale development took place in 1894 when the Richards family built a four-story hotel boasting its own electric and water plants, nearly 200 rooms, an Italian orchestra, a dance pavilion, elevators, a billiard room, wine cellars, bowling alleys, and tennis courts. The magnificent hotel attracted guests from all across the United States. But it burned in 1905, ending forever the resort era of Oliver Springs.

In the meantime, Harriman was prospering and Rockwood was moving to a more diversified economic base with the establishment of several new manufacturing industries just after the turn of the century. These included the Rockwood Hosiery Mill and the Rockwood Stove Works, both of which were highly successful. The early 1900s also brought the peach industry. By the 1920s, Kingston was the "Peach Capital of the United States." Peaches from thousands of trees on dozens of farms were shipped across the country.

The Crash

The year 1929 was one of the blackest in the history of Roane County. In March of that year, the Great Emory River Flood wiped out large portions of Harriman including the manufacturing industries along the river. Just after the flood, a blight struck the peach orchards. Within three years the Roane County peach industry was dead. The year 1929 also brought the Great Depression and that, among other things, led to the demise of the Roane Iron Company in January, 1930. Unemployment in the county was rampant. Many moved away. Others starved. But most persevered. On the horizon was the Tennessee Valley Authority, World War II, and the Manhattan Project.


Beginning of World War II to Present

National Programs and Roane County

he war years from 1941 to 1945 transformed Roane County in many different ways. Like every American community, the war took away most of the young men and reversed the economic environment of the 1930s. Too few jobs for too many people changed rapidly to a home-front labor shortage. But there were changes in Roane County that went far beyond what a typical American community experienced. These impacts came from two national programs that had a direct focus on the county. The Tennessee Valley Authority, which was formed in 1933 as one of the New Deal programs, completed Watts Bar dam in 1942 with the result that the face of the county was literally changed. The lake created by the dam uprooted people from their lands and took away some of the best river bottom farms in the county. In the trade, the people of the region got more electricity, a year-round navigable waterway all the way to Knoxville, and one of the most beautiful lakes and recreation areas in the country. The second national initiative, the Manhattan Project, not only changed the face of the county but its heart, soul, and intellect as well.

The year was 1939, and the Nazis were doing well. Their war machine was overrunning Europe and their scientists had just discovered fission. News of the discovery reached the United States within weeks. The implications were apparent to the nuclear physics community in Germany, the United States, England, and elsewhere. It might be possible to build a bomb, based on fission, of unimaginable energy and destructive power. The scientists that understood this possibility were terrified at the prospects for the world if the Hitler regime built the bomb first. It was also very clear that the Nazis were ahead.

In July 1939, at the suggestion of physicists Eugene Wigner (later to be Research Director at Roane County's Oak Ridge National Laboratory) and Leo Szilard, Albert Einstein wrote a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt urging him to start a research program on the feasibility of making a nuclear weapon; the recommendation was accepted. On June 13, 1942, approximately six months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and America's entry into the war, Roosevelt received the report. Scientists had concluded that an atomic bomb was feasible and recommended that a full-scale project be started. The report was approved by the President four days later. The Manhattan Engineer District (MED) was formed under the Army Corps of Engineers to develop the atomic bomb. The project was headed by Colonel [later, Major General] Leslie R. Groves. On September 19, 1942, two days after his appointment, Groves chose a reservation carved out of Roane and Anderson counties for [1] demonstrating the feasibility of producing relatively large amounts of plutonium in a nuclear reactor and separating it from the irradiated reactor fuel and [2] separating the fissionable isotope U-235 from natural uranium. One factor in the decision was the availability of a large amount of TVA-generated electricity from the just-completed Watts Bar dam and from other TVA facilities.

Places Called K-25, Y-12, and X-10

The Corps of Engineers moved quickly to file a "declaration of taking" in federal court to get immediate possession of 56,000 acres in Roane and Anderson counties. At first, the residents thought the people running around with surveying instruments were just more TVA men. Later they wished they were TVA men. The Corps tried to give the residents six weeks to clear out, but some got only two. Sometimes people would get home to find an eviction notice tacked to their door or to a tree in the front yard. Schools, churches, and roads were closed. Whole communities disappeared in a matter of weeks. In contrast to the TVA policy of assisting displaced residents in finding new land and quarters, the Corps of Engineers just kicked them out. One fellow observed that "...the only difference is when the Yankees came before, we could shoot at them." As harsh as the actions were, there was justification. General Groves and officials of the Manhattan Project were determined to beat the Nazis to the atomic bomb. Nothing was allowed to stand in the way of that objective.

The Corps of Engineers operation in East Tennessee was, in the beginning, called the Kingston Demolition Range. Later, it was officially designated the Clinton Engineer Works, which would eventually consist of three main facilities: the K-25 gaseous diffusion plant, the Y-12 electromagnetic separations plant, and the X-10 reactor and associated chemical facilities. K-25 and X-10 were constructed in Roane County and Y-12 in Anderson County. Construction and operation of these facilities required a work force that reached 80,000. Workers came from local communities and from across the nation. Only top officials and scientists had any idea of the objectives. Some thought it was just another New Deal social experiment. One local man, who quit in disgust, said that "...whatever it was the government was making over there, it would be cheaper if they went out and bought it." The project had an insatiable appetite for labor, materials, and equipment. They paid high wages and siphoned away labor from local farms, businesses, and industry. Complaints were widespread. The Roane County Farm Bureau protested that the project was grabbing up all the farm machinery in the area as well as taking away farm labor. Except for those making good money from the project, it did not enjoy great local popularity. One person commented that "Tons and tons of stuff goes in but nothing ever comes out."

The truth, of course, was that something did come out. On August 6, 1945 the city of Hiroshima, Japan was devastated by a single bomb. Three days later, the city of Negasaki experienced the same fate. The Japanese surrendered on August 14, 1945, bringing to a close the costliest war in history. The uranium in the Hiroshima bomb came mostly from the Y-12 electromagnetic separations plant, but a small quantity came from the K-25 plant in Roane County. The plutonium in the Negasaki bomb was produced from a process developed at Roane County's X-10 plant.

The Post War and a New Roane County

The end of World War II brought the beginning of the cold war and continued activities for the Oak Ridge facilities. K-25 geared up to produce the enriched uranium needed for the growing stockpile of nuclear weapons and for nuclear power plants. The Y-12 facility shifted all its work to the production of nuclear weapons components. X-10 became the Oak Ridge National Laboratory with a diverse research agenda. To satisfy the need for power at K-25 and elsewhere, TVA constructed new coal-fired power plants, including what was at that time the world's largest at Kingston. The war created a new Roane County with new capabilities and new opportunities. But the price was high. Of the fine young men the county sent to war, over 120 never came home.