The Knoxville Gazette was the first newspaper

Newspaper

A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

 published in the U.S. state of Tennessee

Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

 and the third published west of the Appalachian Mountains

Appalachian Mountains

The Appalachian Mountains #Whether the stressed vowel is or ,#Whether the "ch" is pronounced as a fricative or an affricate , and#Whether the final vowel is the monophthong or the diphthong .), often called the Appalachians, are a system of mountains in eastern North America. The Appalachians...

. Established by George Roulstone (1767–1804) at the urging of Southwest Territory

Southwest Territory

The Territory South of the River Ohio, more commonly known as the Southwest Territory, was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 26, 1790, until June 1, 1796, when it was admitted to the United States as the State of Tennessee.The Southwest Territory was...

 governor William Blount

William Blount

William Blount, was a United States statesman. He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention for North Carolina, the first and only governor of the Southwest Territory, and Democratic-Republican Senator from Tennessee . He played a major role in establishing the state of Tennessee. He was the...

, the paper's first edition appeared on November 5, 1791. The Gazette provided an important medium through which Tennessee's frontier government could dispense legislative announcements, and the paper's surviving editions are now an invaluable source of information on life in early Knoxville

Knoxville, Tennessee

Founded in 1786, Knoxville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, U.S.A., behind Memphis and Nashville, and is the county seat of Knox County. It is the largest city in East Tennessee, and the second-largest city in the Appalachia region...

.

Layout and publication

The Gazette was a typical late-18th century broadsheet consisting of two pages, each with three columns (later four). The first page contained news, while the second page contained advertisements and announcements. The paper typically measured 10 inches (25.4 cm) by 16 inches (40.6 cm), but the size varied due to Roulstone's difficulties in obtaining paper. The Gazette was normally published on a biweekly basis.

Roulstone was a native of Boston, Massachusetts, but had moved to Fayetteville, North Carolina

Fayetteville, North Carolina

Fayetteville is a city located in Cumberland County, North Carolina, United States. It is the county seat of Cumberland County, and is best known as the home of Fort Bragg, a U.S. Army post located northwest of the city....

, by the late-1780s, where he published an unsuccessful newspaper. Upon the creation of the Southwest Territory (which included what is now Tennessee) in 1790, the territory's first governor, William Blount, saw the need for a newspaper through which the territorial government could announce its legislative decisions, and invited Roulstone to the capital's new territory, Knoxville. Blount and Roulstone spent several months in Rogersville, Tennessee

Rogersville, Tennessee

Rogersville is a town in Hawkins County, Tennessee, United States. It was settled in 1775 by the grandparents of Davy Crockett and is the second-oldest town in the state. It is named for its founder, Joseph Rogers....

, before moving to Knoxville, and the earliest issues of the Gazette were published in Rogersville. The paper's October 6, 1792 issue was the first published in Knoxville.

Roulstone published the Gazette until his death in 1804. His wife, Elizabeth Gilliam Roulstone, continued publishing the paper until 1808, when she and her second husband moved the paper Carthage, Tennessee

Carthage, Tennessee

Carthage is a town in Smith County, Tennessee, United States, and is part of the Nashville Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 2,251 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Smith County, and perhaps best known as the hometown of former Vice President Al Gore, and his father,...

. During the same period, George Roulstone's former business partner, George Wilson, moved to Knoxville and established Wilson's Knoxville Gazette, which first appeared in November 1804. Wilson continued publishing this paper until 1818, when he moved to Nashville

Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

 to publish the pro-Jackson sheet, Old Hickory. Knoxville entrepreneur Frederick Heiskell worked briefly for Wilson's paper before leaving to co-found the Knoxville Register

Knoxville Register

The Knoxville Register was an American newspaper published primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee, during the 19th century. Founded in 1816, the paper was East Tennessee's dominant newspaper until 1863, when its pro-secession editor, Jacob Austin Sperry , was forced to flee advancing Union forces at the...

 in 1816.

Notable issues and events

The early issues of the Gazette are an invaluable source of information on life in early Knoxville. The paper's December 17, 1791 issue revealed the results of the lottery conducted for lots in the newly-platted city, with Roulstone himself drawing lots 27 (now First Tennessee Plaza

First Tennessee Plaza

The First Tennessee Plaza, or Plaza Tower, is an office high-rise located at 800 Gay Street in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. Completed in 1978, the 27-story structure is Knoxville's tallest building and an iconic part of the city's skyline...

) and 40. In the Fall of 1792, the Gazette announced the opening of two of Knoxville's first businesses, the Cowan Brothers' Store and Chisholm's Tavern

Chisholm Tavern (Knoxville)

Chisholm Tavern was a historic building at Front and Gay streets in Knoxville, Tennessee. It stood on the same block as William Blount Mansion. Construction was completed circa 1792, and it remained for almost 200 years until it was demolished as a part of urban renewal in the 1960s...

. The paper's November 17, 1792 issue contained a notice by the city's founder, James White

James White (general)

James White was an American pioneer and soldier who founded Knoxville, Tennessee, in the early 1790s. Born in Rowan County, North Carolina, White served as a captain in the county's militia during the American Revolutionary War...

, threatening to prosecute anyone caught cutting timber on the town commons. Early Knoxville architect Thomas Hope

Thomas Hope (architect)

Thomas Hope was an English-born American architect and house joiner, active primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee, during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Trained in London, Hope moved to Knoxville in 1795, where he designed and built several of the city's earliest houses...

 placed an advertisement in a 1797 issue of the Gazette offering a reward for the return of some stolen tools.

Native American

Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

 hostilities were a frequent topic in the Gazettes early issues. The paper gave detailed accounts of attacks such as the Cherokee

Cherokee

The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...

 assault on Cavet's Station in 1793 and the Chickamauga

Chickamauga

Chickamauga may refer to:* Chickamauga Indian‎* Chickamauga Wars , battles between Cherokee and Anglo-American pioneer settlers; also related to the American Revolutionary War* Chickamauga, Georgia...

 attack at Ziegler's Station in 1792. The May 22, 1795 issue contained the provisions of the Treaty of Oneida, which the U.S. had signed several months earlier. In one issue, the Cherokee Chief Red Bird placed a notice in the Gazette warning the chief of the Upper Towns not to disturb William Cocke

William Cocke

William Cocke was an American lawyer, pioneer, and statesman. He has the distinction of having served in the state legislature of four different states: Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Mississippi, and was one of the first two United States senators for Tennessee.-Biography:William was...

, for Cocke "talks very strong and runs very fast."

Many events important to the early history of the State of Tennessee were covered by the Gazette. The paper's January 6, 1795 issue contained a notice of the "annual escort" through the wilderness from Southwest Point

Fort Southwest Point

Fort Southwest Point was a federal frontier outpost at what is now Kingston, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. Constructed in 1797 and garrisoned by federal soldiers until 1811, the fort served as a major point of interaction between the Cherokee and the United States government as...

 to Bledsoe's Station

Bledsoe's Station

Bledsoe's Station was an 18th-century frontier fort located in what is now Castalian Springs, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The fort was built by long hunter and Sumner County pioneer Isaac Bledsoe in the early 1780s to protect Upper Cumberland settlers and migrants from hostile...

, and mentions that construction of the Cumberland Road would commence at that time. Throughout the Summer of 1795, the Gazette published announcements by Blount regarding arrangements for the state's constitutional convention, which took place the following year. A later issue of the Gazette contained a letter from Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...

 accusing John Sevier

John Sevier

John Sevier served four years as the only governor of the State of Franklin and twelve years as Governor of Tennessee. As a U.S. Representative from Tennessee from 1811 until his death...

of fraud, giving insight into the animosity that eventually developed between the two leaders.