Tag: philosophy
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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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The Case for Grounded Growth
There is a line on the population map that Northeast Tennessee should pay attention to. The map tracks net domestic migration—Americans moving from one part of the country to another—between 2020 and 2024. Green counties gained residents through migration. Purple counties lost them. Northeast Tennessee is on the green side, but just barely. Most maps…
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Kingsport After COVID
I still remember the mood at Kingsport’s 1999 Economic Summit. Beneath the optimism, there was a persistent worry: we were aging, and some feared the city would slowly become a retirement community—comfortable, yes, but eventually aging out into economic drift. That kind of concern is easy to feel in real time, especially when the loudest…
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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…