Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-01-29
EAST TENNESSEE.
A Flying Trip to the Switzerland
of America.

and Her Observation-Disclosures Ten
neSsee Unfversity-The Coal Creek
Region and the Coal Mines-Nhee-
Ier's statIoR-Back 20 Chattanooga
I'm the Tennessee Riyer-FertiIe Is
lands and vaIIeysLROckwoOd and
the Iron Interests-A Finishing
Stroke, with an ImPersonatiOn of
Dignity.
To the Union and Americans:
JANUARY %, 1ST4.-It is difficult to re-
alize how ignorant each section of our
State is in regard to the resources, growth
and prosperity of the others. Tennessee is
in fact divided into three distinct portions,
in each Of which the people differ in their
social characteristics, customs and habits.
For instance, in East Tennessee the aver
age farmer turns his attention to such crops
as will satisfy the cravings of the appetite,
and supply his domestic wants. He will
have on his little farm a patch of wheat to
make his -four, of corn and oats to feed his
stock, of sorghum to supply his strip, of
tobacco to fill his pipe. In addition, you
will be apt to see locks of geese and ducks,
of chickens and turkeys, a few hives of
bees, a milk-houSe, agood vegetable garden
and a fruitful orchard. On some farms,
dAot, aOA d . SlONAn@ M oNAO VI wv
of cotton, which the women and girls of
the household pick with their fingers, and
after carding and spinning it, use it in con-
nection with the wool from their small
focks of sheep to make winter garments
for the family. Linsey and jeans are much
more common in thai portion of the State
than in either Middle or West Tennessee.
The farmers raise no money CROP" but re-
" upon the surplus of food crops and of the
smaller industries to bring in such an
amount of money as may be needed to buy
salt and coffee and to pay taxes.
But il is not of the farms or farmers of
East Tennessee that l desire at present to
write, but to give your readers some idea
of the great industrial progress which is
being made in that division of the State.
In company with the Secretary of
the Bureau of Agriculture your cor
respondent left the city of Nashville
ON the morning of the 18th inst,
and after q most delightful ride over
the Nashville and Chattanooga railroad,
arrived at the latter place in time to see
some of its recent Improvements. Just
twenty years ago your correspondent pass
ed through this city for the first time. 1t
was then a small, untidy, slushy shipping
point with poor prospects. The only in
terest that attached to the place was the
magnificent scenery that surrounded it.
Lookout, with its awful form, arose then
as now with its cliff-like ramparts on the
southwest, and Mission Ridge, that was
made famous by lofty daring and intrepid
courage during the late war, skirts the
southeast boundary, looking like a great
natural fortifcatiOn.
TENNESSEE RIVER,
with its sinuous course, washes the north
and west side, and is the outlet for all
the products of the farm as far up as the
Virginia and North Carolina line. The
importance of this stream to East TenneS-
see has never been properly estimated by
Congress. Not until within the last two
years have appropriations been made suf-
ficiently large TO secure permanent and du-
rable improvements. For the years 1868
$40 and II the appropriations for the
removal of Instructions and the building
of dams, amounted in the aggregate, to
$4,000, and much of the work was put
ont, by contract. This system proved too
slow, and the Government abandoned the
contract system in 1872, and has since con
Quoted the improvements by hired labor.
Under the latter system, the work has been
rapid and effective. For the purpose of
improvement the river was divided into
four sections. The first section comprises
all above Chattanooga; the second between
Chattanooga and the Muscle Shoals; the
third the Muscle Shoals, and the fourth the
lower Tennessee.
During the last two years, the work on
the first section has been prosecuted vigor-
Ously between Chattanooga and Loudon,
a distance of IG0 miles, and comprised work
on fifteen distractions. Eighty-five thou
sand dollars were expended on this di-
vision. Only two of the works have been
completed. those at White creek and at the
head Of Half Moon Island. The results at
these places have more than met expecta-
ton. the water being deepened and the
period of navigation being extended for
more than one month. These works IN
sist of solid stone walls, which cOnfine the
water TO a narrower channel, and the char
acter Of the work is uneXceptionable. Col.
+. L. Hampton, the civil engineer of the
first section. has pushed his work with re-
markable energy and judgment, and could
Congress be induced TO keep up the ap-
preparation, so as to continue the improve
ments, the Tennessee river would De n
Of the finest nayigable streams on the con-
tinent.
The amount of produce shipped down to
Chattanooga will doubtless surprise many
Of sour welLinformed readers. Your cor
respondent visited all the storage and COM
mission merchants and ascertained the an
nual shipments for the last year to be as
follows: Corn, 100000 bushels; oats, 1900
bushels; wheat, 100000 bushels; coal,
100000 bushels; pig iron, $1,000 tons;
maple sugar, 10000 pounds; blackberries,
(dried,D p tons; other dried fruit,
$50 tons. Besides these articles,
there are transported from the river
above, saw logs, slaves, hooppoles, cedar
posts, etc, etc.
As many as one hundred and fifty fiat
boats usually come out of the Clinch,
Powelrs, French Broad, Poplar Creek,
Nolichucky, Watauga, HolstOn, Hiwassee,
Little Tennessee, and other tributaries of
the Tennessee. The HolStOn is now
called the Tennessee by many persons.
During the freshets, sometimes as many as
seventy fat-boats are seen at one time at
the landing at
CHATTANOOGA.
This city has, indeed, become the great
distributing point for nearly all the pro
ducts of East Tennessee, and as new III
dustries are developed, will rise in com
mercial Importance. AT present, i've
steamers are kept constantly employed be
tween lockwood and Chattanooga, a dis
lance of only one hundred and twenty
miles.
Your correspondent gained much more
information in relation to the trade of this
river, but want of space forbids further
mention of il.
The number OF mules that pass through
Chattanooga for points South, is amazing.
Two large feed stables with the arrange
ments for feeding one thousand mules at
4 time, have on record $4,000 for the
season Of 1869 and 20, and for the present
season, when viii end in April, there
have already gone South 10000. These
only embrace such as are fed at that point.
At least 20 per cent. more should be added
for through cars, BY far the greater num-
Der comes from Kentucky. Indiana stands
second, and Illinois third. In 1850 this
was the great mule producing State, but it
has fallen off until not II sixth sent to
the cotton States are now raised within its
borders. though everything is favorable for
the successful prosecution of this branch Of
huSbandry.
As a manufacturing point Chattanooga
has peculiar eXcellencies. The contiguity
of coal, iron and cotton fields, and the cheap