McMinn County Timeline
1796 Tennessee Territory also known as "the Southwest Territory" becomes a state.
1796-1818 Settlers come into Indian Territory.
1800 Fever in Knoxville (yellow fever probably)
1800 Thomas Jefferson · Elected President of the United States
1800 19 Counties existed in state boundaries
1800 Library of Congress established
1801 Anderson County · Created from Knox and Granger Counties
1801 Jackson County · Created from Smith County and Indian lands
1801 Roane County · Created from Knox County and Indian lands
1801 Claiborne County · Created from Granger and Hawkins Counties
1801 23 counties existed in state
1803 Louisiana Purchase
1804 Second Treaty of Tellico · Signed October 24 · Formal agreement to open first roads in area
1804-1806 Lewis and Clark Expedition
1805 Indian Treaty · Chickasaw Cession · Signed July 23 · Land transferred · Creek Treaty ·
1806 Indian Treaty · Dearborn's Treaty · Signed January 7 · Land transferred
1806 Campbell County County · Created from Anderson and Claiborne Counties
1806 Overton County · Created from Jackson County and Indian lands
1806 White County · Created from Jackson and Smith Counties
May 24 1807 Tornadoes hit Roane, Knox, Sevier, Jefferson and Cocke counties
1807 Bledsoe County · Created from Roane County and Indian lands
1807 Rhea County · Created from Roane County
1808 TN river floods-- Knoxville
December 1812 Severe Winter
1812-1814 War of 1812
1814 -1815 Andrew Jackson · Defeated the British at the Battle of New Orleans
1815-1821 Joseph McMinn is Governor 1816 "Cold Plague"
1816 Chickasaw Treaty · Signed September 20
Summer 1816 Unusually low temperatures state wide
1819 Financial Panic Hits entire country
1819 Drought
1819 The first steamboat reached Nashville.
1819-February Hiwassee Purchase Treaty makes Indian Lands available for settlers
1819 McMinn Co opened for settlement
1819/1820 Monroe Co opened for settlement
1819/1820 Polk Co opened for settlement
1819 Land transferred Hamilton County · Created from Rhea County and Indian Lands
1820 Judge Keith held Circuit Court in Calhoun
1821 Pumpkintown was never Athens. Merchant Eli Hurst is credited with commenting how the hills around the town looked like the town in Greece thus the Name Athens.
February 1823 Severe Winter statewide
1822 Athens dedicated as the County Seat
1823 Monroe Doctrine
1823 Courts moved from Calhoun to the County Seat of Athens
1823 Calhoun Presbyterian Church erected.
1823 Joseph McMinn Indian Agent in Calhoun
1824 Joseph McMinn dies at his desk. Buried in Presbyterian Graveyard of Calhoun (Now known as the Shiloh Presbyterian Cemetery) 1824 Gold in Coker Creek Monroe Co TN
1826 Forrest Hill Academy established
March 1826 TN river floods
1830 Ephraim Slack builds Mill on Mossy Creek
May 1830 Drought
1832-1833 Cholera epidemic statewide
Nov 13-15? 1833 Meteor shower- heavy, general panic statewide
1834 Reaper invented by Cyrus Hall McCormick
1834 First Newspaper published in Athens Valley Freeman
1834 John Walker Jr murdered by James Foreman
Feb 1835 Severe Winter East Tennessee
1835 Indian Treaty · Treaty of Removal · Resulted in the Trail of Tears · Signed Dec. 26
1835 Dahlonega GA Gold rush starts
1835 Planters Bank opened in Athens
1837 Panic of 1837
1837 Hiwassee Patriot a whig newspaper established
1838 State bank opened in Athens
1838 Cherokee Removal Starts known as "the Trail of Tears"
1838 Cholera epidemic Knoxville
June-winter 1838 Malarial fever epidemic-Knoxville
May 1840 TN river floods
1840 Underground railroad
1842 TN river floods
1844 Tennessee Journal succeeds Valley Freeman
Nov 28 1844 Earthquake- Knoxville
March 1847 TN river floods
Dec 19 1847 TN river Floods
1848 Gold Located at Sutter's mill in California
1848 Athens Post started
June-Aug 1849 Cholera epidemic
Mid April 1849 Severe cold and snow statewide
June 1850 Cholera epidemic
about 1850 Spinning Mill built in Mt Verd area
Apr 29 1852 Earthquake- VA, NC, and TN
Aug 28-30 1852 TN river flood
1854 Cholera Epidemic
1857 Judge Charles Fleming Keith dies
July 17 1859 Tornado Decatur TN
1861 Abraham Lincoln becomes president
1861-1865 American Civil War Several Units formed here both Confederate & Union
Feb 1862 TN river flood
May 20 1862 Homestead act
1863 Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves
1864-1873 National Trade union Movement
Apr 27 1865 Sultana explodes on Mississippi river
September 1866 Cholera Epidemic
1866 Tennessee first state readmitted to the union
1867 Yellow Fever epidemic
Mar 1-7- 1867 TN river floods
Mar 6-14 1867 TN river floods Knoxville and Chattanooga
1869 Riverboat wreck on TN river near Dayton "RP Converse" and "Last Chance"
1869 First Transcontinental Railroad
1870 TN river near Chattanooga riverboat "Mary Byrd" wrecks
1871 Major fire in Chattanooga
Apr 20 1871 TN river floods
1872 Franklin Association Bank founded becomes Bank of Athens
1873 Yellow Fever Epidemic
Jan 22 1873 Blizzard in Middle TN
May-Aug 1873 Cholera Epidemic
1875 TN river riverboat wreck near Chattanooga "Hugh Martin"
Mar 1875 TN river floods Knoxville
Mar 3 1875 TN river floods Harriman
November 2 1875 Earthquake N GA and SC
Mar 17 1876 TN River floods
Jun 17 1876TN River floods
Dec 1876-1877 Severe cold statewide
1877-1878 Drought
Aug-Oct 1878 Yellow Fever epidemic
Jan 1882 TN river floods
1882 The Athenian started
Winter 1882-1883 Smallpox epidemic- Chattanooga Cleveland and Morristown
1883 TN river floods
Feb 1884 TN river floods
Feb 9 1884 Tornadoes throughout TN
Mar 1885 TN river floods
1885 Bank of Athens becomes First National Bank
Mar 1886 TN river floods
1886 McMinn Citizen started
1887 Drought
Mar 11-14 1888 Great Blizzard (largest before March 1993)
Mar 1890 TN river floods
1893 Financial panic statewide
Jan 1893 TN river wreck near Chattanooga "JC Warner"
Jan 1893 severe cold statewide
Feb 18 1893 TN river floods
1894 earthquake Knoxville
1894-1896 drought
Dec 20 1895 Coalmine disaster Dayton Rhea Co
Apr 1896 TN river flood
1897 Niota fire
Feb 1897 TN river flood
Mar 1897 TN river flood
1897 Goldrush in the Klondykes
1898 Spanish American War
1898-1899 Cerebro-Spinal meningitis epidemic Knoxville
Oct 1900 TN river flood
Nov 26 1900 TN river flood
1901 Trew's open Cotton Gin in Dentville
May 18-21-1901 TN river flood
Aug 14 1901 TN river flood
Dec 1901 TN river flood
Feb 28 1902 TN river flood
Mar 1902 TN river flood
Jul 5 1902 TN river flood
1903 RFD service begins in Athens
Feb 27 1903 TN river flood
Feb 3 1905 Severe cold statewide
1906 San Francisco Earthquake (Many McMinn Countians were there at the time)
Apr 30 1909 Tornadoes statewide
May 31 1909 TN river floods Knoxville
Mar 28 1913 Earthquake Knoxville
Apr 17 1913 Earthquake Ducktown
1913-1914 drought
1914 tornado
1916 polio epidemic statewide
1916 influenza epidemic
Jul 15-16-1916 TN river floods
Mar 1917 TN river floods
1917 America enters WWI ends Nov 1918
Winter 1917-1918 Winter storm statewide
1914- Nov 1918 WWI (rest of World except America)
Jan 27-28 1918 TN river floods
Fall 1918 Influenza pandemic statewide
Mar 16-17 1919 TN river floods
Apr 3-4- 1920 TN river floods
April 12 1920 TN river floods
Dec 24 1921 severe storms statewide
1923 Measles statewide
1925-1926 drought
1925 Forest fires statewide
March 1925 "Scopes Monkey Trial" in Dayton Rhea Co
Oct 4 1926 Rockwood Roane co coalmine disaster
Nov 25-26 1926 Tornado
Dec 31 1926 TN river floods
Feb 3 1929 TN river flood
Mar 22 1929 Severe Storm east TN
May 2 1929 TN river flood
Oct 29 1929 Stock Market crash-- beginning of great depression
1930-1931 drought
Mar 19-1933 Flood TN river
1933 Measles epidemic statewide
Jan 21 1935 TN river floods
Mar 25 1935 TN river floods
Dec 1935 Forest fires statewide
1936 Meningitis statewide
Jan 1936 TN river floods
Summer-Fall 1936 Polio epidemic statewide
Winter 1936-1937 Influenza and pneumonia epidemic
1936-1937 Knoxville "Black death" probably yellow fever
Jul 21 1938 TN river floods
Jul 8-10-1939 TN river floods
1940 severe winter
1940-1942 drought
Jun 7 1940 TN river floods
Aug 1940 TN river floods
1941 Whooping cough statewide
Summer -fall 1941 Polio epidemic Hamilton co
Aug 1941 TN river floods
1941-1945 WWII
1941-1943 Measles epidemic statewide
Feb 5-6 1942 Tornado TN
Dec 1942 TN river floods
1943 whooping cough statewide
1943 meningitis statewide
1944 D-Day Normandy
Sep 29 1944 TN river floods
1945 VE Day victory Europe VJ Day victory Japan
1945 United Nations formed
1945 Diphtheria epidemic statewide
1945-1946 Polio epidemic statewide
1945 TN river flood
Jan 7 1946 TN river flood
Aug 1 1946 Battle of Athens
Feb 13 1948 TN river floods
Dec 31-Jan 1 1948-1949 Tornado TN
Jan 1949 TN river floods
1950-1951 Infectious hepatitis outbreak Knox co
Jan -Feb 1951 Severe winter
1951 Bowater's expands to include Calhoun TN
Sep 1 1951 TN river floods
Mar 1952 Tornado
1950-1953 Korea
Feb 29 1952 Tornado McMinn Co
Jun-Jul 1952 Heat wave Statewide
May 2 1953 Tornado McMinn and Meigs county's
1954 drought
Apr 28 1954 TN river floods
Aug 9 1954 TN river floods
Mar 1955 TN river floods
1957 Influenza statewide
Jan 23-31 1957 Severe ice storm statewide
Jan 28 1957 TN river floods
Nov 18-19 1957 Flood Spring city Rhea co
Nov 18 1957 TN river floods
Mar 27 1959 TN river floods
1960-1961 Infectious hepatitis epidemic statewide
Mar 2 1960 Ice storm statewide
Dec 12-18 1961 TN river floods
March 19 1963 Tornadoes Bradley and McMinn County's.
April 28 1964 TN river floods
Oct 5-6 1964 TN river floods
Oct 16 1964 TN river floods
1964 McMinn County Courthouse Burns
Mar 16 1965 TN river floods
Apr 15 1965 Tornado Bradley co
1966-1967 drought
1967 New McMinn Courthouse finished
1969-1971 drought
Feb 21 1971 tornado
Jan 7-8 1973 ice storm SE TN
Feb 8-11 1973 winter storm
1973 Major Flood hits East Tennessee
Apr 3 1974 Tornado Knox, Polk, Bradley, McMinn co
Feb 4 1976 earthquake Conasauga
1977 winter storm
Apr 4 1977 TN river floods
1979 TN river floods
1980-1981 drought
May-Sep 1981 weather related deaths--lightning strikes across state
Dec6 1981 Chattanooga coal mine disaster
Apr 2-12 1983 TN river flood
May 27 1983 Explosion- Benton fireworks factory
1985 President Ronald Reagan Visits Athens
1985-1986 drought
May-Sep 1986 Weather related deaths- lightning strikes across state
Fall 1987 Forest fires statewide
1991 Gulf War
March 1993 Greatest Blizzard in over 100 years
Feb 16 2003 Knoxville and East TN have several major waterway floods and mudslides.
March 19 2003 new war
April 30 2003 earthquake 4.9 centered in North east Alabama but felt all the way to KY
May 5-8 2003 Severe rainstorms and floods