Tennessee

a state of the American Union. Its natural boundaries are the Mississippi River and the Great Smoky Mountains. It is bordered by eight states, a distinction shared with but one other state in the Union. The shape is nearly that of a rhombus, 385 miles long and 109 miles wide. Area, including waters, 42,050 square miles. The Tennessee River gathers the waters of the western slope of the Great Smokies, and flows southeasterly into Alabama, then westerly, returning northward through the state on the way to the Ohio. A curve of the Cumberland enters the north central part of the state, affording a second and deeper outlet to the Ohio. There are several well defined physical regions. The Great Smoky Mountains on the eastern border are a southern continuation of the Blue Ridge. A series of peaks exceed 6,000 feet in height. Mount Guyot is 6,636 feet high. The eastern valley of the Tennessee is a continuation of the famous Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Knoxville is the business center of this region. The western valley of the Tennessee is comparatively narrow, ten to fifteen miles in width, and has an altitude of from 300 to 400 feet. Within the great loop of the river lies the Cumberland plateau in the east, a tableland 2,000 feet above the sea. Nashville is the metropolis of this region. The Sequatchie Valley, running northward from the Tennessee Valley into the Cumberland region for sixty miles, is inclosed by rocky walls 1,000 feet high. Lookout Mountain, on the southern side of the Tennessee near Chattanooga, is an outlying fragment of the same tableland. For a general description of eastern Tennessee, its rivers, mountains, houses, roads, churches, people, and occupations, the novels of Charles Egbert Craddock are recommended. West of the Tennessee the surface slopes gently into a belt of rich alluvial land, known locally as the Mississippi Bottoms. This section is tributary commercially to Memphis.

FORESTS. Originally the entire surface of the state was covered with heavy forests. Nearly every tree native east of the Mississippi is found also in Tennessee. The state survey has described 140 species. The greater part of this forest wealth has been destroyed by the ax of the settler. The state has never taken high rank in the production of lumber for shipment, but quite a fleet of small river craft is engaged in gathering up hardwood lumber from local mills--hoop-poles, railroad ties, staves, etc. Log rafts are still seen on the rivers.

AGRICULTURE. Agriculture is the leading industry. Three-fifths of the inhabitants are engaged in farming. The soils are largely clays, the result of disintegrating limestone. There are rich alluvial soils in the valleys and sandy areas on the Cumberland tableland. Owing to differences in altitude, there is a wide diversity of temperature. In general, the winters are rather cold and the summers blistering hot.

Winter skating and an ice crop may be depended upon in the northern half of the state. The annual rainfall is fifty inches. Farm products are valued at $100,000,000 a year and over. Corn is a universal crop. It is the mainstay of the farmer. Other crops are more or less localized. Tobacco and winter wheat are important crops northwest and south of Nashville respectively. Cotton, next to corn in money value, is the leading crop in the territory tributary to Memphis. Peas help out the hay crop. Both Irish and sweet potatoes are raised in large quantities. Peanuts are a crop of some importance. Orchard fruits, peaches, plums, apples, and pears are raised for shipment. West Tennessee is developing rapidly as a truck region. The season is a little later than that of the Gulf States and a little earlier than that of Missouri and the Ohio Valley, thus favoring shipment to the large city markets. As to domestic animals, swine, cattle, horses, mules, and sheep rank in the order named. Much of the spare corn is converted into pork.

MINERALS. The state is rich in minerals. From two to six seams of soft coal underlie the Cumberland tableland. It is shipped largely in the form of coke for use in the iron furnaces. There are nearly 200 coal mines and over 2,000 coke ovens in this region. There are valuable iron ores in forty-four counties. The chief mines are near Knoxville and Chattanooga and in the highland region near Nashville. The mines of Polk County are reckoned on by the copper trust to produce 10,000,000 pounds of ingot copper a year. There are large deposits of phosphate rock. Zinc is found in workable quantities, as well as spar, a little gold, and an occasional diamond. There is an abundant supply of lithographer's stone, cement, limestone, pottery clay, and slate. Tennessee marble has been used freely for the inside casing of the Capitol and Library at Washington, and for prominent public buildings elsewhere.

The manufactures of the state may be grouped in order of financial importance as sash, doors, barrels, etc.; iron and steel products; cotton, flax, and woolens; flour and meal; leather, harness, and saddlery; chemicals and phosphates for fertilizers; paper and paints; wagons and carriages; pottery, glass, and quarry products; and tobacco.

HISTORICAL. The first white settlers entered from North Carolina and Virginia. The first permanent settlements were made on the Watauga and Holston, headwaters of the Tennessee, in 1769-71. During the Revolutionary War, these hardy riflemen took part in the battle of King's Mountain. The region was organized as Washington County of North Carolina in honor of the commander-in-chief of the patriot army. In 1784 the inhabitants became dissatisfied and organized the Independent State of Franklin, with pioneer John Sevier as governor. They relinquished the name and organization four years later. North Carolina ceded the region to the general government in 1790, and in 1796 it was admitted to the Union, taking the Indian name of the chief river.

The young state was much harassed by the southern Indians, who were stirred up by the Spaniards. Tennessee was famous for its riflemen. Wild game was abundant. The shotgun was unknown. Boy and man, each settler prided himself on his marksmanship. During the War of 1812, 27,833 volunteers came from Tennessee. Tennessee rifles followed Andrew Jackson in the Creek War and repulsed the British in an attack on New Orleans in 1815. Tennessee soldiers bore the brunt of the Seminole War. The government called for 2,800 men in the Mexican War. Three thousand men responded, gaining for Tennessee the name of the Volunteer State. O'Hara's famous poem, The Bivouac of the Dead, was written in honor of those who fell.

Tennessee seceded June 8, 1861. The eastern section, never in political sympathy with the rest of the state, opposed the act and sent 31,092 men to the Union Army. The middle and western sections favored secession, and furnished the Confederacy 115,000 troops. Many of the noted conflicts of the war were fought on Tennessee soil. The massacre of colored troops at Fort Pillow and the "unconditional surrender" of Forts Donelson and Henry may be mentioned. Grant was driven almost into the river at Shiloh. Murfreesboro, Chattanooga, Missionary Ridge, and Nashville were hard fought engagements. The battle of Lookout Mountain was fought above the clouds. Chickamauga, the bloodiest battlefield in the West, lies partly in Tennessee. The flower of the Confederate forces consisted of Tennessee men fighting desperately for their homes.

EDUCATION, ETC. In national matters Tennessee boasts of having furnished three presidents: Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk, and Andrew Johnson. Admiral Farragut was a native of the state. In church matters, the Methodists are the leading denomination. Baptists, Presbyterians, Catholics, and Episcopalians follow in the order named. The state aids the district to maintain a double system of education, one for white and one for colored children. The University of Tennessee is located at Knoxville. The Episcopalian University of the South at Sewanee; the Peabody School for Teachers, and Vanderbilt University, a Methodist institution, at Nashville, are the institutions best known outside of the state. Fisk University, under Congregational management, at Nashville, is perhaps the leading college for colored people.

POPULATION. The population in 1900 was returned at 2,029,616. Of this number 480,243 were colored, 108 were Indian, 79 were Mongolian. The whites are gaining slightly. Less than one per cent of the inhabitants were born outside of the United States. Less than thirteen per cent of the population live in large towns. Memphis, the largest city, had, in 1900, 102,320 inhabitants; Nashville, the capital, had 80,865; Knoxville, 32,637; Chattanooga, 30,154.

STATISTICS. The following statistics are the latest to be had from trustworthy sources:

See Jackson; Johnson; Memphis; Chickamauga