Appalachian History

The Knoxville Journal 1890-02-03 ‘An Elopement’ Chattanooga, February 2,-News reaches the city of a romantic elopement, with an unhappy ending, in Polk County, Tennessee, yesterday. A young farmer named Stancel stole the twelve year-old daughter of a planter named McCash. The eloping pair went to Cleveland and were married last night by Squire Harry Parke. [...]

In August 1843, a Tennessee gold prospector working on Potato Creek discovered a reddish-brown and black decomposed rock that contained deep red crystals; his “gold” turned out to be red copper oxide. At the time, this copper deposit was one of the world’s largest finds. The Hiwassee Mine opened in 1850, and within 5 years [...]