Memphis

MEMPHIS, the largest city of Tennessee, U.S.A., a port of entry and the county seat of Shelby county; on the Mississippi river, in the south-west corner of the State. It is on Federal high ways 51, 61, 7o, 72 and 78, and is served by the Frisco, the Illi nois Central, the Louisville and Nashville, the Missouri Pacific, the Mobile and Ohio, the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis, the Rock Island, the St. Louis Southwestern, the Southern, and the Union (an industrial belt line) railways, and by two barge lines and river packets. Pop. 162,351 in 1920 (38% negroes) ; and 253,143 in 1930.

The city is built on the Chickasaw bluffs, 5o ft. above the flood stage of the river, and ha..; an area of 30•34 square miles. It is one of the country's chief centres of traffic, by rail, water and highway. Two cantilever railway bridges cross the Mississippi, one of which (the Harahan, completed 1917) carries also vehicular traffic, without toll charges, giving direct access to and from the fertile alluvial lands of Arkansas. Water and rail transportation facilities are co-ordinated by two municipal terminals, completed in 1913 at a cost of over $2,000,000. Natural gas was piped in from the Louisiana fields early in 1929, and hydro-electric power will be available from the Muscle Shoals district and from de velopments on the White river of Arkansas. The water-supply, from artesian wells, is ample for three or four times the present demand. The city operates under a commission form of govern ment, established in 1910. Through a city-planning commission, created in 1921, a comprehensive plan for improvement and de velopment has been prepared, and zoning ordinances have been adopted. The public parks cover 1,248 acres. The fine audi torium seats 12,500. Memphis is the see of a Protestant Episcopal bishopric. It is the seat of the colleges of medicine and dentistry and the schools of pharmacy and nursing of the University of Tennessee; the West Tennessee State Teachers college (1912) located at Normal, just outside the city limits; and Southwestern, a Presbyterian college, opened in Clarksville in 1875 and moved to Memphis in 1925. There are 84 schools and colleges in all.

Because of its geographical position and transport facilities, Memphis has long been a leading commercial city of the South, and since the World War and the revival of river traffic (begin ning with the establishment of the Federal Barge Line in 1918) its trade area has greatly widened and the volume of its whole sale and distributing business has increased vastly. Manufactur ing also has grown rapidly. In 1927 there were nearly 600 dis tributing houses, including the southern headquarters of many northern and eastern firms, and 286 widely diversified manufac turing establishments, with an output valued at $91,670,156. A branch of the Federal Reserve Bank is located here. Bank debits for the year totalled $1,906,725,500 ; postal receipts amounted to $2,371,720. Memphis is the largest inland cotton market (handling over 2,000,000 bales in a normal year) and the largest hardwood lumber market of the country. The Tri-State

fair, in which Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas participate, is held here annually.

History.

From a high point in the park that bears his name, De Soto (according to tradition) first saw the Mississippi, in 1541, and there he met in consultation with Chisca, chief of the Chickasaw Indians. Late in the 17th century the French built a fort within the present limits of the city, and the site was held by the French and the Spanish alternately until the close of the French and Indian War, when it passed to Great Britain. In 1797 it came into the possession of the United States. By a treaty of Oct. 19, 1818, negotiated by General Andrew Jackson and General Isaac Shelby, the Chickasaws ceded all their claims east of the Mississippi, and early in 1819 Memphis was laid out in accordance with an agreement entered into by John Overton, Andrew Jackson and James Winchester, the proprietors of the land. Its name was suggested by the similarity of its location to that of the Egyptian city on the Nile. The town was in corporated in 1826, and in 1849 was chartered as a city. By 1830 the cultivation of cotton was general in the surrounding country. In 1834 Memphis established her first steamboat line (to New Orleans) and in 1836 began the construction of a railroad. About 1840 Congress established here an experimental inland navy yard, where one iron ship was launched. In 1857 through railway con nection with the Atlantic (at Charleston) was completed. The decade 1850-6o was one of rapid development, and by 186o the city had a population of 22,623. On June 6, 1862, a Union fleet of 9 vessels and 68 guns defeated a Confederate fleet of 8 vessels and 28 guns just north of Memphis, and the city was then occupied by Federal troops until the end of the war, except for a few hours on Aug. 21, 1864, when General Nathan B. Forrest made a daring raid and took several hundred prisoners.

By 187o the city was well on the way to recovery from the prostration left by the war : the railroads had been rebuilt, river commerce was re-established, building was active, and the popu lation had increased to 40,226. Then, in 1873, 1878 and 1879, it was ravaged by epidemics of yellow fever, which resulted in over 8,000 deaths. Thousands fled the city and did not return. Busi ness was suspended for three months both in 1878 and in 1879, and intercourse with the outside was practically cut off. The city was left almost bankrupt. As a means of relief the State legis lature (on Jan. 29, 1879) repealed the city's charter, made it a "taxing district," and placed its affairs in the hands of a "legis lative council." A complete sewer system was installed, at great cost, and artesian wells were dug to supply the city with water. In the next decade the population, which had fallen to 33,592 in 188o, almost doubled, reaching 64,495 in 189o. The first bridge across the Mississippi was completed in 1892.