Tasso, Tennessee
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Tasso is an
unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...
located in Bradley County,
Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...
approximately five miles north-northeast of the
business district Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or buying and selling products (such as goods and services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for profit." A business entity is not necessar ...
of
Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...
. Its coordinates are approximately 35.212 N, 84.804 W and its elevation is approximately 814 feet. It appears in the East Cleveland
US Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on March ...
records. Tasso is included in the Cleveland metropolitan statistical area.


History

The community is part of a region once called Chatata, meaning "clear water", by the Cherokee, and has been in existence since before the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
. The community was first called Fish Town, then McMillin Station, and then Chatata. The community was renamed Tasso in 1905 after an Italian poet who frequently rode the train through the community. The community once contained schools, a
post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...
,
train station A train station, railroad station, or railway station is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight, or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track, and a station building providing suc ...
, two stores, a blacksmith shop, flour mill, and a physician. The railroad was constructed through the community in 1858.


Civil War history

During the Civil War, Union troops under the command of general
William T. Sherman William is a masculine given name of Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era. It is ...
camped directly east of Tasso and the railroad in the same valley on multiple occasions in 1863. These troops reportedly were forced to abandon at least one
cannon A cannon is a large-caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder during th ...
in Little Chatata Creek south of Tasso after it got stuck in the creek bed while they were crossing. Troops under the command of Sherman also camped at the Blue Springs Encampments and Fortifications in southern Bradley County. In the spring of 1864, during the Civil War, a group of Company C soldiers of the
Confederate Army of Tennessee The Army of Tennessee was a field army of the Confederate States Army in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. Named for the Confederate state of Tennessee, It was formed late in 1862 in Tennessee and fought until the end of the civil ...
were camped in a field along the railroad just south of present day Tasso when the commander received word of a train transporting approximately 2,000 Union soldiers approaching from the south, followed by a Confederate train pursuing the former. The commander ordered his soldiers to place an explosive charge on the tracks just south of the community, hoping to derail the Union train and allow them to capture the cargo, which reportedly consisted of a cache of rifles and ammunition and three cannons. The Union train failed to detonate the explosive, which was instead detonated by the Confederate train, destroying the train and killing several soldiers. The Confederate soldiers who attempted to destroy the Union train, who had been watching from a nearby hill, immediately rushed toward the wreckage only to be unexpectedly met by a large band of Union soldiers who attacked from a nearby wooded area. The Confederate soldiers immediately fled and several were killed by the Union soldiers in the process. The Confederate train reportedly contained a cache of Confederate gold and silver coins intended for payroll that are rumored to still be buried at the site of the wreckage. Although no evidence of this has ever been found, a Confederate sword was discovered by a teenager in Little Chatata Creek adjacent to the railroad in 1970. This discovery was later followed by other artifacts from the wreckage, including mess kits, silverware, parts of boots, brass buttons, belt buckles, and a small number of coins.


Geography

Tasso is mostly a residential community, located in northeastern Bradley County on the edge of a large agricultural area. Since the 1980s the city limits have greatly expanded to within a short distance of the community. Several historic Native American sites are located near the community, including Beeler Spring approximately one-half mile to the east and Rattlesnake Springs about two miles to the northeast, where 13,000
Cherokee The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...
s were held in preparation for the
Cherokee Removal The Cherokee removal (May 25, 18381839), part of the Indian removal, refers to the forced displacement of an estimated 15,500 Cherokees and 1,500 African-American slaves from the U.S. states of Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama to ...
, which became known as the
Trail of Tears The Trail of Tears was the forced displacement of about 60,000 people of the " Five Civilized Tribes" between 1830 and 1850, and the additional thousands of Native Americans and their black slaves within that were ethnically cleansed by the U ...
. Much of the area around the community remains heavily agricultural with hundreds of acres of protected land and some of the most fertile soils in Bradley County. A
Norfolk Southern Railway The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...
runs through the community, connecting the area with Cleveland to the south and
Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...
and
Knoxville Knoxville is a city in Knox County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located on the Tennessee River and had a population of 190,740 at the 2020 United States census. It is the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division ...
to the north and is paralleled through the community by Little Chatata Creek. No numbered highways run through Tasso, but it is served by two primary roads, Tasso Lane (which connects to US-11) and Dry Valley Road (which connects between Cleveland and Charleston). Other major roads include Old Charleston Road (also connects to Charleston), Urbane Road, and Jenkins Road. Cleveland Regional Jetport, opened in 2013, is located on the eastern border of the community. A few industries have located warehouses in Tasso including Tri-State Truss, Pratt Industries,
Owens Corning Owens Corning is an American company that develops and produces insulation, roofing, and fiberglass composites and related products. It is the world's largest manufacturer of fiberglass composites. It was formed in 1935 as a partnership between ...
, Reliance Frame & Furniture, and Cleveland Recycled Fiber. There are two churches based in Tasso: Tasso Baptist and Tasso United Methodist.


References


Bibliography

* * * {{authority control Unincorporated communities in Bradley County, Tennessee Unincorporated communities in Tennessee Cleveland metropolitan area, Tennessee