Category: History
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Kingsport-On-The-Holston
Rarely do we hear of Kingsport referred to as ‘ancient’. Instead, our Centennial Park downtown celebrates the city’s 100th anniversary in 2017; however, this article from a Knoxville newspaper was published in 1889. Kingsport was settled in 1761 and was first officially incorporated in 1822 as a riverport. The ‘model city’ we know today was…
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Great Mass Meeting of Tennesseans and Virginians at Kingsport
FORTY THOUSAND PERSONS PRESENT—ENTHUSIASM OF THE DEMOCRACY—EAST TENNESSEE SAFE FOR POLK AND DALLAS I enjoy digging into old newspaper articles, and this snippet from the 1844 Nashville Union is a real treasure. We often assume Kingsport only began in 1917, but for 156 years before that it was a bustling river port—the highest navigable point…
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The First Steamboat at Kingsport
Transcribed by AI from the 1847 Knoxville Register (14 years prior to the Civil War) “To the CASSANDRA, owned by the Messrs. Deerys & Churchwell, and commanded by Capt. Chapman, belongs the honor of having first succeeded in reaching Kingsport, the highest point on the Holston by many miles to which a steamboat has ever…
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Kingsport’s Potential Noted…in 1876
Today we think of Kingsport as the Model City incorporated in 1917. But there was a previous town incorporated in 1822 that we often overlook in history. It’s interesting to see newspaper articles published two generations before Northern industrialists arrived on the scene to build the city we know today. The time period was 1876–slightly…
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1902 – Centenarian’s View of Living in Kingsport Since 1822
From the 1902 Knoxville Journal… History is typically read in textbooks, but this is a unique, personal point of view of someone who lived it. She lived in Kingsport before, during, and after the Civil War! Keep in mind when she says ‘downtown district’ that it doesn’t mean the one we know, it means the…
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A Rosy Future for Kingsport
That’s a headline from the 1906 Chattanooga News. I’m fascinated with the period of history between the first Kingsport (1822) and the second one (1917). It started as a riverport but was left behind as commerce moved to railroads, and it had none. It’s often referenced as one of Tennessee’s “ancient” towns, but we only…
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Kingsport Came Near Being State’s Capitol
I didn’t write that headline. It came from an article published in the Knoxville Sentinel on September 14, 1901. The “Tavern” it describes is what we know today as the Netherland Inn, a landmark that reminds us Kingsport’s history stretches back much farther than the commonly cited 1917 incorporation date. In fact, 1917 marks the…
Kingsport Spirit 