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Tennessee Resources by J. B. Killebrew, A.M.
pub 1874 by Tavel, Eastman & Howell, Nashville, Tenn.

see map for land information

Population

Topics (below on this page)
     Women , farm-house, The Barter system, Farming methods, roads

The effect of the Civil War

     There was less change in East Tennessee, where the proportion of the slave population to the white was not so great as in the other divisions, and where the character of crops grown was not such as to demand arduous and continued efforts throughout the entire year.

     There is one class of farmers that is both prosperous and happy.  We refer to the small farmers who own from 100 to 200 acres, and who perform the work on them themselves, hiring only occasionally during the busy seasons.  This class is improving yearly.  Their farms denote thrift, and they luxuriate in an abundance of all the necessaries and many of the luxuries of life.  Such farmers - - - form a large majority in East Tennessee, and where ever they are found, a pleasing content prevails.  Relying upon their own strong arm for support, the question of labor does not affect them.  Depend upon no one, they form a class upon which the State must, in the end, rely for its solid and permanent advancement.  The march of events is working out the great problem of labor. 

The women of the rural districts

   They do their own household work.  It is not considered a hardship by them to cook, wash, iron, milk, churn, clean up, spin the "filling" and make the cloth for the entire family.  They also make their bed-clothes, and a generous rivalry is sometimes manifested by the house-wives in the making of the neatest counterpane or window-curtain, and other articles for the ornamentation of their homes.  At the annual exhibitions of the Fair in Knoxville, specimens of the handiwork of East Tennessee ladies arrest the attention of all spectators, by their beauty of design and elegance of finish.  Yet, after all, it must be confessed that this constant labor is worrying to the physical frame.  A woman who, in addition to bearing a house full of children, makes their clothes and does the drudgery of the whole family, shows too visibly the effects of it.  There is a care-worn expression about their countenances, and oftentimes a wasted frame, that speaks too plainly of overwork, anxiety and consequent premature old age.

The Farm-house

     Almost every farm-house is situated near a spring, to which is attached the omnipresent milk-house, where the milk and butter for the family are kept during the summer, fresh and cool.  A stranger, passing through the country, is always pleased at the table by the delicious coolness of the milk and the firmness of the butter.  Ice-houses are scarce, the cool springs which break out from the base of the mountains supplying their place.

The Barter system

     The character of the produce raised for sale in this division has established a barter trade, which is unequalled in the extent elsewhere in the State.  Almost every neighborhood has its country store, where spuncotton, calco, salt, sugar, and coffee are exchanged for feathers, eggs, chickens, dried fruit, etc.  These articles, after being thus collected is considerable quantities, are shipped to Knoxville and other points.

Farming methods

     The use of improved machinery, except in the valley lands, is impossible on the farms in East Tennessee.  The consequence is that the implements are very inexpensive, and are frequently made at the neighborhood blacksmith shop.  The valley farms are usually supplied with reapers, mowers, and horse-rakes; and resemble, in every particular, the best farms in Middle Tennessee.  The growing of corn and wheat, for a long period, in East Tennessee, without proper rotation, resting or clovering, has greatly impaired the fertility of the soil.  There is no better land anywhere for clover.  The rich, red, ferruginous subsoils, resting in the valleys upon limestone rock, are susceptible of being kept up to a point of high fertility by the liberal use of clover.  But the avarice of the farmer, or rather his stinginess to the land that so readily responds to kind treatment, has made the sowing of clover of but little benefit to the soil that grows it;  for as soon as it covers the surface wuth its rich foliage, and the work of renovation begins by shading, herds of stock are turned upon it, and the land is left in its nakedness to the blasting heats of a July sun which evaporate all moisture, and with it the fertilizing elements deposited while covered with the rich vestment of clover.  Or, if not grazwd by heards of cattle and sheep, the clover is converted into hay, so that the land receives little or no benefit from it.

Roads

     It is a serious drawback to the farming interests of East Tennessee to have so few good roads.  Usually they are execrable, and especially is this the case where the roads run transversely across the country.  No successful efforts have been made to build turnpikes, though rocks are abundant and convenient for that purpose.  With the exception of a few miles of McAdamized roads leading out from Knoxville, we believe there is not another in East Tennessee.  Prior to the war, one, partially McAdamized, extended from Morristown to Cumberland Gap; but, though toll is still collected, its condition is such as to warrant the remark that no worse road can be found in the State.

see below map for details

Greene County (page 497)   county seat Greeneville

     Greene county was created by the State of North Carolina, from a portion of Washington county, in 1783.  It is one of the very best counties of this section of the State, and its farmers are leading off in the work of agricultural reform.  They are organizing, all over the county, in associations for mutual benefit and improvement, and preparing for vigorous action in every department of their vocation.  Already the fruits of their labors are beginning to show themselves in the adoption of a better system of farming, and in introducing a higher bred race of animals into their midst.  Go into any portion of the county and it will be found that they are waking up to their interests and making bold and manly strides in recuperating their exhausted lands.  They are filling up the gullies, righting their fences, repairing their dilapidated houses and building new ones, plowing deeper, sowing more clover and grass, and producing more remunerative crops.  They are housing their cows, economizing their manures, bringing into use improved implements of husbandry and exerting themselves to elevate their vocation

     Especially are they alive to the importance of popular education.  Greene county was one of the first counties in East Tennessee to lead off in the adoption of the free school system, and now its children, rich and poor, white and black, have the glorious boon of receiving a liberal education.

     The people throughout the county are kind, industrious and provident.  They are generous to strangers, and always glad to see honest, active and intelligent citizens settling in their midst.  They invite more population among them, and will sell them good and cheap homes.  They are anxious to develop the wealth of their county, and they feel the need of a denser population to do it.

     Greene county is bounded on the north by Hawkins, on the east by Washington, on the south by North Carolina, and on the west by Hamblen and Cocke counties.  Some portions of it are much broken, and mountainous.

     This county may, for description, be divided into three belts, in accordance with its geological formations, running north-easterly and south-westerly.  Beginning on the north-western side, we first have the Lick Creek country, in which the prevailing rock is a calcareous shale or slate.  This belt varies in width from four to six or eight miles, being much wider in the south-western corner.  The soil of this belt is generally adapted to wheat, but more especially to grass.  It is well watered and occasionally low white "sprouty" or "crawfishy" spots occur.  The best soil of this belt is in the northern portion, at the foot of Bay's Mountain.

     Passing over, for the present, the middle belt, e reach the ridges of the Unaka Mountains.  These occupy a belt from three to six miles wide on the North Carolina line.  Upon the tops of the mountains, here and there, may be found cultivated areas.  The rocks are sandstone, hard slates, rough conglomerates approaching granites in structure and appearance.  The soil is generally thin, gravelly and unproductive, but in spots it is a dark color and prairie-like, and yields buckwheat, potatoes and oats, with remarkable prodigality.  Sometimes buckwheat attains a height of six feet.  Fruit trees also do well, and especially peaches.  Generally, however, the mountains are wild, uninhabited, rugged and covered with dense forests of pine and hemlock, with an undergrowth of thick laurel, through which it is difficult to pass.  The inexpressible solitude of these airy elevations awes the mind, while it fills the soul with emotions of sublimity.

     Between the mountains and the first belt described, the surface of the country is greatly diversified by hills and valleys, but the soil is very strong and fertile, being based upon calcareous rocks, limestone and dolomite.  On this belt all the cereals grow well.  Greene county takes the second rank among all of the counties in the State in the growing of wheat, Wilson being first.  It is first in hay and flax, and besides wheat is second in wool, flaxseed and maple sugar.

     The Nolichucky courses through this middle belt, which, with its tributaries, supplies it well with water, and upon these streams are many fine alluvial bottoms.  The water-power afforded by the Nolichucky is very valuable, the descent of the stream being rapid, the banks solid and the bed rocky, abundance of material for the construction of dams being convenient and accessible.

     The Unaka or Smoky Mountains, which form its southern boundary, is indeed a valuable part of the country, on account of the immense deposits of iron ore of the best quality.  The ore is a brown hematite or limonite, containing a large per cent. of manganese.  An eastern company, with ample means, has developed an iron interest here, some eleven miles from the town of Greeneville, and has expended a considerable amount of money in the manufacture of pig metal.  This company is still actively engaged in the business, and is quite successful.  It labors under the disadvantage of having no railway communication.  The metal is hauled to the town of Greeneville, from whence it is shipped to market.  In the course of time, no doubt, a railroad will be constructed to this region.

     The best lands of the county lie on the Nolichucky and Little Chucky rivers and Lick Creek.  These lands will compare, in fertility andin the variety of their productions, with any lands in the State.  They produce unusual yields of corn, from fifty to seventy-five bushels to the acre, and are equally as favorable in the production of wheat and oats.  The Lick Creek bottoms are superior grass lands.  Of course all these lands are very valuable and command high prices, ranging from twenty-five to fifty dollars per acre.  The wheat of Greene county is noted for its excellent quality.  The uplands are remarkably well adaped to its growth.  The farmers, since the war, have wisely turned their attention to the grassing of their lands.  They are doing more grazing and raising more cattle and mules.

     Of course, there are some poor lands in the country, some of them naturally poor, but by far the most of them have been made so by injudicious cultivation.  Stock and spring water is abundant.  The timber is large and plenty of it, consisting of white and black oak, spanish and red oak, chestnut oak, hickory, maple, walnut, wild cherry, &c.  Labor is reasonably abundant, and wages run from eight to ten dollars per month, when the hand is boarded, and from fifteen to twenty, when he boards himself.  The facilities for transportation are very favorable.  The East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad runs through it.  The great drawback upon the country, is the lack of capital and enterprise.  Close attention is paid to the smaller industries.  Considerable quantities od land are for sale in every portion of the county, ranging from five to thirty dollars per acre.  For the most part the farmers are contented.  The county has an Agricultural and Mechanical Association, well organized and succeeding admirably.

     The principal town is Greeneville, situated on the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad.  It contains a population of about 1,000.  It is a moral, energetic and intelligent community.  There are flourishing schools in the place, and two excellent institutions of learning in the county.  Rheatown is also in this county, but not immediately on the railroad.