PETROLEUM).
During the early years of the depression before the advent of the Tennessee Valley Authority, industries declined in the State as well as in all others. In 1933 there were only 1,56r manufac turing establishments employing but 94,909 wage earners whereas in 1929 there had been 2,832 establishments employing 128,057. The value of manufactured products dropped from $717,070,000 to $357,028,317. The chief industries in 1933 were knit goods, flour and other grain mill products, $14,259,581; chemicals, $13,609,346; cotton goods, $12,779,154; vegetable cooking fats, salad oils, etc., $11,553,502; boots and shoes, $11, 122,321; printing and publishing, $10,393,310; meat packing (wholesale), $8,838,119.
The steam railway mileage of Tennessee increased continuously until 1920, when the total was 4,078, but by 1934 this had decreased to 3,868. The chief railways operating in the State in 1925 were: Louisville and Nashville; Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis; Southern Railway; Tennessee Central; and Illinois Central. In 1932 there were 417 miles of electrical railway within the State, operated chiefly as city systems. The navigable waterways include the Mississippi, Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. The State highway department controlled 7,212 m. of roadways in of which m. were surfaced. New surfac ing placed from July 1, 1931 to Dec. 31, 1932 amounted to 323 m.
The daring Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto reached the Mississippi river in 1541, at a high bluff occupied by Chickasaw villages, believed to be the present site of Memphis. After a brief halt to collect food from the Indians and to build rafts, De Soto left the territory by crossing the Mississippi. It was 132 years before another white man saw Tennessee. The French missionary and explorer Father Marquette, in his voyage down the Mississippi by canoe in 1673, camped upon the western border, and eight years later La Salle and his companions left Canada to complete the exploration of the river. La Salle built Ft. Prudlomme in 1682 upon the Chickasaw Bluff, near the present site of Memphis, but it was soon abandoned. Later the French built Ft. Assumption, where Memphis now stands, and kept a garrison there, but made no attempt at colonization. The territory was a part of the English grant to Sir Walter Raleigh in and of the later Stuart grants, including that in 1663 to the proprietors of Carolina. James Adair, of South Carolina, a fur trader and explorer, is supposed to have been the first to go from the English colonies into Tennessee. A party of Virginians led
by Dr. Thomas Walker (1715-94) in 175o reached the Cumber land river and Cumberland mountains and named them in honour of the royal duke. In 1756 or 1757, Ft. Loudon, named in honour of John Campbell, earl of Loudon, was built on the Little Ten nessee river, about 3o m. south of the present site of Knoxville, as an outpost against the French who were now active in the whole Mississippi valley, and was garrisoned by royal troops. The fort was captured by the Cherokee Indians in 176o, and both the garrison and the neighbouring settlers were massacred.
Eastern Tennessee was recognized as a common hunting ground by the Cherokees, Creeks, Miamis and other Indian tribes. The Iroquois of New York claimed much of the central portion by right of conquest, and the western section was the home of the Chickasaws. By the treaty of Ft. Stanwix, in 1768, the Iroquois ceded whatever claim they had to the English, and in 1769 several cabins were built along the Holston and Watauga rivers upon what was thought to be Virginia soil. A settlement near the present Rogersville was made in 1771, and in the next year another sprang up about the store of Jacob Brown on the Nollichucky. After the failure of the Regulator insurrection in North Carolina in 1771, hundreds of the Regulators made their way into the wilderness. A survey of the western boundary-line between Virginia and North Carolina showed the settlements to be in North Carolina, but that colony made no effort to assert jurisdiction nor to protect the settlers from Indian depredations. Therefore in 1772 the residents of the first two settlements met to establish a form of government since known as the Watauga Association. A general committee of 13 was elected to exercise legislative powers. This committee elected from its members a committee of five in whom executive and judicial powers were lodged. A sheriff, an attorney and a clerk were elected, and regulations for recording deeds and wills were made. Courts were held, but any conflict of jurisdiction with Virginia or North Carolina was avoided. In 1775 the settlement on the Nollichucky was forced to join the association, and in the same year the land was bought from the Cherokee Indians in the hope of averting war. With the approach of the American Revolution, the dream of becoming a separate colony with a royal governor was aban doned, and on petition of the inhabitants the territory was an nexed to North Carolina in 1776 as the Washington district, which in 1777 became Washington county, with the Mississippi river as the western boundary. The population increased rapidly, and soon several new counties were created.