KNOXVILLE. A city and the county-seat of Knox County, Tenn„ ll l miles northeast of Chat tanooga: on the Holston River, at the head of steam navigation; and on the Atlanta, Knoxville and Northern, the Knoxville and Augusta, the Knoxville, Cumberland Gap and Louisville. and the Southern railroads (Map: Tennessee, H 5). It has a site of great natural beauty among the foothills of the Clinch Mountains. There are State asylums for the insane and for the deaf and dumb, a fine Government building, a city hospital, court-house, city hall, city market, Lawson Mc Ghee Memorial Library, the building which served as the first Capitol of Tennessee. the Uni versity of Tennessee (q.v.), the Agricultural Col lege, and Knoxville College, for colored students. Other points of interest are the iron bridge across the river, Gray Cemetery, and the National Cem etery, in which are :3261 graves, 1047 of unknown dead. In commercial importance, Knoxville ranks with the chief interior cities of the South. It is the centre of the marble region of the State, and, besides a large trade in marble, both dressed and undressed, it has extensive wholesale inter ests, and ships considerable agricultural produce. Its manufactures also are important, including furniture, cotton and woolen goods, flour, lumber, foundry products, cars and car-wheels, wagons, and many other articles. The government is ad ministered by a mayor. elected every two years, and a unicameral council, which controls elec tions to the more important aims, the executive having no appointive power, and the three mem bers of the board of public works alone being chosen by popular election. The municipal budget
balances at over $350,000, the principal items of expense being $45,000 (approximately) for schools, $30,000 for street expenditures, and $25, 090 each for the fire department, for street light ing, and for the police department (including amounts for police courts, jails, reformatories, etc.). Population, in 1380, 9693; in 1890, 22, 535; in 1900, 32,637.
Settled in 1787, Knoxville was laid out and named (after Gen. Henry Knox) in 1791, and became organized as a town in 1794. It was the capital of the "Territory South of the Ohio' from 1792 to 1790. and of the State from 1796 to 1811. During the Civil War it was held by the Con federates until August, 1863, when General Burn side took possession. From November 10th to November a Confederate force besieged it unsuccessfully, and on the 29th made a desperate assault on Fort Saunders, in Avhiell they lost about 000 killed and wounded and 30(1 prisoners. Knoxville was chartered as a city in 1815, and was enlarged in 1888 and 1889 by the addition of \Vest and North Knoxville. Consult Powell, Historic Towns of the Southern States (New York, 1900).