Tag: american revolution
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Sullivan 250 | 1779: Why Sullivan County Took Its Name
11th in a 12-part monthly series to commemorate Sullivan County’s role in the 250th birthday of the United States of America November | 11 of 12 Have you ever wondered how Sullivan County got its name? The answer takes us back to 1779, when Tennessee didn’t even exist. We were part of North Carolina, and…
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Sullivan 250 | Why Blountville?
Tenth in a 12-part monthly series to commemorate Sullivan County’s role in the 250th birthday of the United States of America October 2026 | 10 of 12 The name Blountville was not chosen by accident. Neither was its location. By the 1790s, Sullivan County was moving beyond its earliest frontier days. Government needed permanence. Until…
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Sullivan 250 | Rocky Mount: Where Territorial Government Took Root
Ninth in a 12-part monthly series to commemorate Sullivan County’s role in the 250th birthday of the United States of America September 2026 | 9 of 12 When the Territory of the United States South of the River Ohio was organized in 1790, federal authority needed a place where government could operate in practical terms.…
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Sullivan 250 | William Blount and the Business of Building a Territory
Eighth in a 12-part monthly series to commemorate Sullivan County’s role in the 250th birthday of the United States of America August 2026 | 8 of 12 When William Blount was appointed governor of the Territory South of the River Ohio in 1790, the task before him was immense. The Revolution was over, but order…
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Where Americans Moved in 2025
You may have seen this pop-up in your feed recently. Though many will jump to political conclusions or shout we’re being overrun by newcomers, neither is entirely true. The graphic shows net domestic migration in 2025 per 10,000 inhabitants. That means the numbers are not percentages and not total headcounts. They show whether a state…
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Lexington & Concord–and Kingsport
We all learned in school about “the shot heard ’round the world.” I like to examine parallel history. What was happening here at that same time? How would locals know the Revolutionary War had begun? A war so significant it wrote a new chapter in modern world history. On the morning of April 19, 1775,…
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Sullivan 250 | A Federal Answer: The Territory South of the River Ohio
Seventh in a 12-part monthly series to commemorate Sullivan County’s role in the 250th birthday of the United States of America July 2026 | 7 of 12 Victory in the Revolutionary War did not bring immediate clarity to the frontier. In the Holston Valley, the early postwar years exposed a widening gap between rapid settlement…
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Sullivan 250 | 1780: When the War Passed Through Sullivan County
Sixth in a 12-part monthly series to commemorate Sullivan County’s role in the 250th birthday of the United States of America June 2026 | 6 of 12 By 1780, the Revolutionary War had reached the frontier in force. For the Overmountain settlements, the struggle shifted from simply holding on to taking action. The implications went far…
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Long (Island) Before Kingsport
I found a reference — new to me, at least — during a recent visit to the East Tennessee History Museum in Knoxville. The exhibit (on display through February 14, 2027) is “Lines Were Drawn: The Treaty of Holston and Its Legacy,” and one map stopped me in my tracks. It showed Long Island of…
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Sullivan 250 | The Holston River: From Long Island to the Future Capital
Fifth in a 12-part monthly series to commemorate Sullivan County’s role in the 250th birthday of the United States of America May 2026 | 5 of 12 Rivers functioned much like an early version of our modern interstate system, especially when they were navigable. Long Island (later King’s Port) in Sullivan County was considered the head…
