Blount and Beyond Online Magazine - Magazine - Page 10
Maryville/Alcoa/Blount History 3 Bits and Pieces
What is now Blount County was for many thousands of years Indian territory, passed down to the Cherokee tribe. Blount
County lies between the Tennessee River and the great Smoky Mountain. Little River, which receives the waters of
Crooked Creek, Pistol Creek, Nails Creek and Ellejoy runs through Blount County.. Abram, Nine Mile, Six Mile, Four
Mile, Baker, and Boyd Creeks are in the southern and western portions of the county.
The settlement of Blount County was begun in 1785. Robert McTeer established the first fort. and was about one and onehalf miles south of Eusebia Church.
The earliest settlers were mainly Scotch Presbyterians, and the first churches were organized by them. In 1786 Eusebia
Church was organized and in 1792 or 1793 New Providence Church was organized.
The raising of cotton was an important industry in the early history of the county. A large number of cotton-gins were
built. In 1802 gins were owned by Thomas Berry, James Scott, Samuel Houston, William Stanfield, William Lowry, and
Patrick Collins.
On July 11, 1795, Blount County was established by an act of the Territorial Assembly. Maryville was laid out in 1795.
The first merchants were John and Josiah Nichol, Lowry & Waugh, and King & Montgomery.
Among other early settlers of Maryville were Samuel Love, a hatter and hotelkeeper; James Turk, a saddler; Samuel
Houston, a blacksmith, Caldwell, a tailor; Alexander McGhee and Edward Gaunt, physicians, Jesse Wallace and James
Garner, hotel keepers; John Woods and John Montgomery, milers; and Gideon Blackburn, minister. The first newspaper in
Maryville was the Intelligencer, established in 1837 by F.A. Parham.
Most of the early settlers had little means; they were farmers throughout the early years of the county's establishment. The
first industry to make its mark on Blount County, as in other neighboring counties, was that of lumber.
Maryville College is one of the oldest and most highly esteemed educational institutions in Tennessee. Rev. Isaac
Anderson founded it, from 1819 to 1861, the institution educated and trained 150 men for the gospel ministry.
Shortly thereafter, on July 11, 1795, Blount County became the 10th county established in Tennessee, when the Territorial
Legislature voted to split adjacent Knox and Jefferson Counties. The new county was named for the governor of the
Southwest Territory, William Blount, and its county seat, Maryville, was named for his wife Mary Grainger Blount.
Like most East Tennessee counties
, Blount County was opposed to secession on the eve of the Civil War. Residents of pro-Union Cades Cove and proConfederate Hazel Creek (on the other side of the mountains in North Carolina) launched raids against one another during
the war.
Information from: History of Blount County Tennessee
Tennessee Genealogy, https://tennesseegenealogy.org/blount/history-of-blount-county-tennessee/.