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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…
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Kingsport’s Rising Popularity: 637 New Families in a Year
Over the past year, Kingsport has attracted 637 new families from 45 different states, averaging roughly 2.6 out‐of‐region arrivals per workday. In contrast, May 2025 alone saw 78 families move here from 27 states—an equivalent of about 3.7 families per workday. Of those 78, just 33 were home purchases (accounting for nearly $18 million in…
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Rate vs. Reality: The Real Math of Property Taxes
Explaining how property tax works is difficult at best. Today, in two separate publications from Tennessee and Virginia, I saw articles detailing rate changes. One was in Radford, Virginia, the other in Kingsport/Sullivan County, Tennessee. The articles state that Radford will increase it’s tax rate by almost 20% to $0.92, while Sullivan County’s preliminary certified…
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Kingsport Spirit 