Knox County was created on  June 11,1792 by Territorial Governor William Blount from parts of Greene and Hawkins counties. Governor Blount designated Knoxville as the capital of the Territory South of the River Ohio from 1791 to 1796. Knoxville also served as the capital of the State of Tennessee from 1796 to 1812, with the exception of one day in 1807, when the legislature met in Kingston to fulfill a treaty obligation with the Cherokee, and briefly again in 1817-18. Frontier leader General John Sevier, a resident of Knox County, served as governor of Tennessee from 1796 to 1801 and 1803 to 1809, most of Knoxville's years as the state capital. Since no state capitol building was constructed until 1845, when work began on the capitol building in Nashville, the general assembly met in taverns and public buildings.  Blount Mansion (1792), the home of Territorial Governor Blount, is the most historically significant dwelling surviving in Knox County from the pre-statehood era. It is the only National Historic Landmark in the county. It was one of the original counties when Tennessee was admitted  as the 16th state on June 1st, 1796.  It is located just below where the French Broad and Holston rivers combine to form the Tennessee river. Knox County is a land of lakes and rivers, it is cradled by mountains. From several locations in Knox County one can look to the East and see the Great Smokey Mountains and look to the West and see the Cumberland Mountains. This is just the beginning of this web site. If you have information to contribute, please contact me at [email protected].

Knoxville 1904

Content Page