The ''Knoxville Gazette'' was the first
newspaper
A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as p ...
published in the U.S. state of
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
and the third published west of the
Appalachian Mountains
The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They ...
.
Established by George Roulstone (1767–1804) at the urging of
Southwest Territory
The Territory South of the River Ohio, more commonly known as the Southwest Territory, was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 26, 1790, until June 1, 1796, when it was admitted to the United States a ...
governor
William Blount
William Blount (March 26, 1749March 21, 1800) was an American Founding Father, statesman, farmer and land speculator who signed the United States Constitution. He was a member of the North Carolina delegation at the Constitutional Convention o ...
, the paper's first edition appeared on November 5, 1791.
[Carroll Van West]
Knoxville Gazette
''Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture'', 2002. Retrieved: 7 July 2010. The ''Gazette'' provided an important medium through which Tennessee's frontier government could dispense legislative announcements, and the paper's surviving editions are now an invaluable source of information on life in early
Knoxville
Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state' ...
.
[John Anthony Caruso, ]
The Appalachian Frontier: America's First Surge Westward
' (Knoxville, Tenn.: The University of Tennessee Press, 2003), pp. 348-349. Retrieved: 7 July 2010.
Layout and publication
The ''Gazette'' was a typical late-18th century broadsheet consisting of two pages, each with three columns (later four). The first page contained news, while the second page contained advertisements and announcements. The paper typically measured by ,
but the size varied due to Roulstone's difficulties in obtaining paper.
[William Rule, ''Standard History of Knoxville, Tennessee'' (General Books, 2009), pp. 197-199.] The ''Gazette'' was normally published on a biweekly basis.
Roulstone was a native of
Boston, Massachusetts, but had moved to
Fayetteville, North Carolina, by the late-1780s, where he published an unsuccessful newspaper.
Upon the creation of the Southwest Territory (which included what is now Tennessee) in 1790, the territory's first governor, William Blount, saw the need for a newspaper through which the territorial government could announce its legislative decisions, and invited Roulstone to the capital's new territory, Knoxville.
[East Tennessee Historical Society, Lucile Deaderick (ed.), ''Heart of the Valley: A History of Knoxville, Tennessee'' (Knoxville, Tenn.: East Tennessee Historical Society, 1976), pp. 15, 293-294.] Blount and Roulstone spent several months in
Rogersville, Tennessee
Rogersville is a town in, and the county seat of, Hawkins County, Tennessee, Hawkins County, Tennessee, United States. It was settled in 1775 by the grandparents of Davy Crockett. It is named for its founder, Joseph Rogers (pioneer), Joseph Roger ...
, before moving to Knoxville, and the earliest issues of the ''Gazette'' were published in Rogersville. The paper's October 6, 1792 issue was the first published in Knoxville.
Roulstone published the ''Gazette'' until his death in 1804. His wife, Elizabeth Gilliam Roulstone, continued publishing the paper until 1808, when she and her second husband moved the paper
Carthage, Tennessee
Carthage is a town in and the county seat of Smith County, Tennessee, United States; it is part of the Nashville Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 2,306 at the 2010 census. It is located on the Cumberland River, which was importan ...
.
[A Brief History of Newspaper Publishing in Tennessee](_blank)
By James B. Lloyd, The University of Tennessee Libraries (website accessed January 2, 2008) During the same period, George Roulstone's former business partner, George Wilson, moved to Knoxville and established ''Wilson's Knoxville Gazette'', which first appeared in November 1804. Wilson continued publishing this paper until 1818, when he moved to
Nashville to publish the pro-Jackson sheet, ''Old Hickory''.
Knoxville entrepreneur
Frederick Heiskell worked briefly for Wilson's paper before leaving to co-found the ''
Knoxville Register'' in 1816.
Notable issues and events
The early issues of the ''Gazette'' are an invaluable source of information on life in early Knoxville. The paper's December 17, 1791 issue revealed the results of the lottery conducted for lots in the newly-platted city, with Roulstone himself drawing lots 27 (now First Tennessee Plaza) and 40.
[Stanley Folmsbee and Lucile Deaderick, "The Founding of Knoxville," East Tennessee Historical Society ''Publications'', No. 13 (1941), p. 3-20.][East Tennessee Historical Society, Mary Rothrock (ed.), ''The French Broad-Holston Country: A History of Knox County, Tennessee'' (Knoxville, Tenn.: The Society, 1972), map facing pg. 33.] In the Fall of 1792, the ''Gazette'' announced the opening of two of Knoxville's first businesses, the Cowan Brothers' Store and
Chisholm's Tavern.
The paper's November 17, 1792 issue contained a notice by the city's founder,
James White, threatening to prosecute anyone caught cutting timber on the town commons.
Early Knoxville architect
Thomas Hope placed an advertisement in a 1797 issue of the ''Gazette'' offering a reward for the return of some stolen tools.
Native American hostilities were a frequent topic in the ''Gazettes early issues.
[Walter Durham, "The Southwest Territory: Progression to Statehood," East Tennessee Historical Society ''Publications'', No. 62 (1990), pp. 3-15.] The paper gave detailed accounts of attacks such as the
Cherokee
The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...
assault on Cavet's Station in 1793 and the
Chickamauga Cherokee
The Chickamauga Cherokee refers to a group that separated from the greater body of the Cherokee during the American Revolutionary War. The majority of the Cherokee people wished to make peace with the Americans near the end of 1776, following se ...
attack at Ziegler's Station in 1792.
The May 22, 1795 issue contained the provisions of the Treaty of Oneida, which the U.S. had signed several months earlier.
[William MacArthur, ''Knoxville, Crossroads of the New South'' (Tulsa, Okla.: Continental Heritage Press, 1982), 24-25.] In one issue, the Cherokee
Chief Red Bird placed a notice in the ''Gazette'' warning the chief of the Upper Towns not to disturb
William Cocke
William Cocke (1748August 22, 1828) was an American lawyer, pioneer, and statesman. He has the distinction of having served in the state legislatures of four different states: Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Mississippi, and was one of t ...
, for Cocke "talks very strong and runs very fast."
Many events important to the early history of the State of Tennessee were covered by the ''Gazette''. The paper's January 6, 1795 issue contained a notice of the "annual escort" through the wilderness from
Southwest Point to
Bledsoe's Station, and mentions that construction of the Cumberland Road would commence at that time.
Throughout the Summer of 1795, the ''Gazette'' published announcements by Blount regarding arrangements for the state's constitutional convention, which took place the following year.
A later issue of the ''Gazette'' contained a letter from
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...
accusing
John Sevier
John Sevier (September 23, 1745 September 24, 1815) was an American soldier, frontiersman, and politician, and one of the founding fathers of the State of Tennessee. A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, he played a leading role in Tennes ...
of fraud, giving insight into the animosity that eventually developed between the two leaders.
[Phillip Langsdon, ''Tennessee: A Political History'' (Franklin, Tenn.: Hillsboro Press, 2000), p. 34.]
See also
*
The Rogersville Review
*
Early American publishers and printers
Early American publishers and printers played a central role in the social, religious, political and commercial developments in colonial America, before, during, and after the American Revolution. Printing and publishing in the 17th and 18th ce ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Knoxville Gazette, The
Defunct newspapers published in Tennessee
Publications established in 1791
Publications disestablished in 1818
Mass media in Knoxville, Tennessee
History of Knoxville, Tennessee
Rogersville, Tennessee
1791 establishments in the United States
1818 disestablishments in Tennessee