Johnson City

By Sonya A. Haskins

The Johnson City area was originally settled in 1777 by pioneers from North Carolina with land grants who were dissatisfied with their representation in North Carolina.

These local citizens held a convention and formed the state of Franklin in 1784. This state was never recognized by Congress. It fizzled out in 1788, and Tennessee was formed in 1796. More settlers came to the new state, but the area was destined to grow into a city when a combination of railroad connections in the area sparked growth during the late 19th century. In 1903, the creation of the National Soldiers Home brought disabled veterans of the Spanish-American War and the Civil War to Johnson City. Readers of this book will enjoy viewing photographs and reading about early residents, prominent homes, and historic buildings such as the East Tennessee Normal School, which opened in 1911. Many of the more than 200 photographs in this volume have never before been published.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Jun 8, 2005
• ISBN: 9781439612965

Sonya A. Haskins

Author Sonya A. Haskins lives in Jonesborough, Tennessee, with her husband and children. In Jonesborough, she takes the reader on a fantastic photographic journey, detailing many facets of Jonesborough life from the late 18th through the early 20th centuries. Sonya is also the author of Images of America: Johnson City.

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INTRODUCTION

Though the area we now call Johnson City was initially known by several names, including Brush Creek, Haynesville, Johnson’s Tank, and Johnson’s Depot, ultimately Johnson City was the name chartered on December 1, 1869. The history of Johnson City itself would be incomplete without an introduction to the history of Upper East Tennessee.

Settlers began coming into this area in the late 1700s. The first permanent settlement was made in 1769 by Capt. William Bean on what is now called Boone’s Creek. Around the same time, other settlers coming across the mountains from Virginia and North Carolina were building small settlements on Brush Creek.

The settlers called a meeting at the Watauga settlement, where the Sycamore Shoals park is now. At this meeting, they established the Watauga Association.

By 1784, local citizens were dissatisfied with their representation in the North Carolina government. Although Johnson City was still mostly farmland at that point, with a few scattered settlers, they were concerned about the lack of representation. There were frequent attacks by the Cherokees and other frontier tribes that had to be combated without the help of North Carolina militia, and local towns were building their own schools, roads, and courthouses. Thus, the Wataugans decided to secede from North Carolina, and they formed their own government, the state of Franklin, named for founding father Benjamin Franklin, but by 1789 it had collapsed. Rocky Mount, a few miles outside of Johnson City, was the United States Territorial Capital from 1790 to 1792. Then, in 1796, Tennessee was admitted as the 16th state of the union.

A stage line ran through the area by 1825, but true growth in the city began when the railroad line between Bristol and Knoxville was completed in Johnson City in 1858. With the coming of the railroad, Henry Johnson saw the potential of the area for growth. He had purchased a lot from Abraham Jobe and built a combination dwelling house and store, which was used as the railroad depot. The place was called Johnson’s Tank for a while, because the steam engines obtained water there, and later was called to Johnson’s Depot.

By the end of the 1800s, Johnson City was experiencing immense economic growth. The Johnson City Foundry and Machine Works was established in 1883. The Enterprise, the city’s first newspaper, was published the same year. Tipton Jobe built Jobe’s Opera House in 1884 and began offering a stylish form of entertainment.

While the railroad was an impetus for growth, it also threatened to ruin the city when the Charleston, Cincinnati, and Chicago Railroad collapsed in 1890. By 1893, several businesses failed, including the Carnegie Land Company, Carnegie Furnace Company, and the Embreeville Freehold Company.

The city was not destined for failure, however. Congressman Walter P. Brownlow initiated efforts that resulted in the development of the National Soldiers’ Home in Johnson City in 1903. Then, in 1909, Johnson City was chosen as a site for one of the state’s four normal schools to educate the state’s public-school teachers. The school, which eventually developed into East Tennessee State University, opened in 1911, the same year that Johnson City became a stop on the state’s highway route from Memphis to Bristol. In 1978, planning began to build a medical school at ETSU; the Johnson City Medical Center was completed in 1980. Interstate 26, between Interstate 81 and Asheville, North Carolina, opened in 2003, assuring our continued significance for travelers.

Since the development of Johnson City began, there have been a few names that stand out—Johnson, Jobe, Tipton, Taylor, Love, Crouch, and numerous others—but there also have been many people who have contributed to the history of the city in small yet meaningful ways. In this book, the reader will meet many of the more renowned citizens of Johnson City, as well as less well-known individuals. Hopefully, as local citizens or visitors to the area read the book and look at the images, a greater appreciation will be gained for driving on the State of Franklin Road, visiting the pond at the Veterans Administration, watching the trains on Legion Street, or just noticing others around us more carefully. There is much to be learned from the stories of history.

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STREETS AND BUILDINGS

This postcard shows Windsor Hotel in the background, Hamilton National Bank on the left, and Liggett’s