Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1871-10-18
FACTS ABOUT EAST TENNESSEE.
Morgan County.
No. vi.


We expected to have prepared an article
on "Wool Growing" for the present issue,
but II press of business has prevented us,
and we give the following from an es-
teemed and reliable correspondent of Nor
gan county:
WARTDURG, Tenn, Oct. l, 1871.
DEAR CHRoNICLE-Let me say, through
the CHRONICLE, to those concerned, that
there is not a region of country in all the
South more romantic, inviting and varied
in phase, fertility and production than
Morgan county. Wartburg, the county
seat, is thirty-three miles west of the depot
atClinton, on the Knoxville and Kentucky
Railroad, twenty-One miles from Kingston,
the nearest point of navigation that con
tinues the year round, and fourteen miles
from Cooper's Landing, to which point
boats run eight or nine months in the year.
Speaking of minerals, j could only say
that | do not understand geology very
well, but do understand, pretty reliably,
that there is hardly farm in this county
upon which can not be found bitumous
coal in large quantities. ItFis simply the
truth that almost every acre Of land in the
southern and eastern portions of the coun-
ty lies ona bed of coal, and all this must
be of immense value ere long; for Cincin-
matt can not reach Chattanooga by rail
without penetrating the heart and center
of Morgan county, and to Chattanooga she
must go. East of Wartburg, the country
consists of high mountains and fertile val
leys. These valleys are cultivated to a re-
spectacle extent for this south country,
and the entire county is well watered.
Lands, improved, can be bought at from
enc to thirty dollars peracrc; unimproved,
at twenty cents to three dollars per acre.
West of Wartburg, the country is of u
different character, being more generally
level, with little of what we would call
bottom land, no large mountains and the
land of a poorer quality Having had oc-
casion to travel through the west eud of
the county recently, was astonished to
see how well the crops had withstood the
unprecedented drouth; and, also, at the
susceptibility of the land to bear improve
ment.
On almost every farm, which, by the
way, will yield an average of about fifteen
To twenty bushels of corn to the acre, no.
ticed one field on which the owner had
lotted his cattle, to be yielding from thirty
to forty bushels; ana this is true of almost
every farm. No land that | ever saw pre-
sents greater increase in yielding by n
little manuring than these table lands of
the Cumberland Mountain. And to say
that the lumber wealth of this county, if
developed would be beyond computation,
would only be to give am idea of the vast
forests of pine that bestud large districts
of country. But the time is, | think, now
at hand when these lands will rise in value
to fabulous figures. Now is the time for
speculation in this country, and now the
time for immigrants to find homes here
while land is cheap, for with the rail-
road immense wealth is brought to every
mans door who owns a few hundred acres
of this land. AS to politics, we rarely ever
hear it mentioned here every man thinks
as he chooses, and no one challenges him.
South Carolina and Massachusetts, might
pass for twins here; and so with religious
denominations, the people think different
ly, but all our religious quarrels are exotcs
and unwelcome to the people. Lands can
be bought for fifty cents per acre by the
tract, which bids fair to be worth five dol
lars in less than three years. l may write
more in detail HEREAFTER.