Compiled by Jack Neely for the Knoxville History Project.
Celebrated here since 1793, the Fourth of July may be Knoxville’s oldest holiday.
But it’s not our only thing to celebrate in July.
This Fourth of July is also the 155th birthday of Lawrence Davis Tyson (1861-1929), the World War I general and Democratic U.S. Senator from Knoxville described in recent KHP History Pages.
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July 15 is the 114th birthday of attorney Harvey Broome (1902-1968), the Fountain City resident who was a promoter of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and co-founder of the national Wilderness Society.
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July 17 is the 256th birthday of Samuel Carrick (1760-1809), who founded Blount College, which later evolved into the University of Tennessee. He also founded Knoxville’s first church, First Presbyterian. During his lifetime, Blount College became known as East Tennessee College, but was always located on Gay Street, on the present site of the Tennessee Theatre. Carrick never knew about UT’s current campus, but Carrick Hall, home of more than 1,000 students, is named for him.
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July 19 is the 172nd birthday of Andrew Jackson Albers (1844-1910). Son of German immigrants, the Cincinnati-born Albers was a Union naval pharmacist during the Civil War, captured and imprisoned by the Confederates. At war’s end he came to Knoxville, where he co-founded the Sanford, Chamberlain, and Albers wholesale pharmaceutical company. They built the Gay Street building now known as Tailor Lofts, which survived the Great Fire of 1897. The Albers Drug Company, as it was eventually known, was one of Knoxville’s most durable businesses. When his wife, Ella, died at a young age, Albers created an extravagant iron fountain in her memory at Old Gray Cemetery. It was removed more than 50 years ago, but a current capital campaign is raising funds to replace it.
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The same day is the 140th birthday of H.P. “Harry” Ijams (1876-1954), commercial artist and ornithologist who founded Ijams Nature Center.
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July 23 is the 151st birthday of Edward Terry Sanford (1865-1930), Knoxville’s contribution to the U.S. Supreme Court, where he served as associate justice from 1923 until his sudden death in 1930, which happened to occur the same day as the death of the chief justice, former President William Howard Taft, with whom Sanford was a close friend. Sanford is buried in Knoxville, at Greenwood Cemetery.
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The same day is the 149th birthday of James G. Sterchi (1867-1932), founder of Sterchi Brothers Furniture. Son of Swiss immigrants, Sterchi (rhymes with “turkey”) made a major success of his business, spawning more than 60 stores throughout the South. In the 1920s, when they built their big headquarters building on the 100 block of Gay Street (now Sterchi Lofts), Sterchi claimed to be the world’s biggest furniture retailer. In the 1920s and early ‘30s, Sterchi played a surprising role in the popularization of country music, which expanded the market for their lineof phonographs.
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July 27 is the 135th birthday of John T. O’Connor (1881-1968), Knoxville mayor. Born in Knoxville’s old Irish Town neighborhood on the north side of downtown, O’Connor was a Southern railway machinist, union organizer, and boxer, who in his youth was known as “Punch.” A popular mayor, he ran for Congress as a Democrat in 1936, and almost won that traditionally Republican district. The popular John T. O’Connor Senior Center, near old Irish Town, is named for him.
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July 27 would also be the 89th birthday of folksinger and civil-rights organizer Guy Carawan, who died last year. He helped popularize the anthem “We Shall Overcome,” and is one of four people, including Pete Seeger, who copyrighted the iconic song to assure that it could never be abused. In recent decades, he was a director of the Highlander Center, still located near New Market. A singer and multi-instrumentalist, he was a frequent performer in Knoxville, often with his wife Candie and son Evan, both of whom are also accomplished musicians.
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Also: On July 13, theater scholar Dean Novelli will give a talk on the history of the Lamar House, at the East Tennessee History Center. Now almost 200 years old, the Lamar House is best known as home of the Bistro and the lobby of the 1909 Bijou Theatre, but it was originally a hotel with associated ballroom and saloon, and may be the most storied building in Knoxville. The title of his talk, “Andrew Jackson Never Slept Here,” references an old misunderstanding about the building.
Featured Photo: Members of the Great Smoky Mountains Conservation Association, in the 1930s, including Harvey Broome at left, who would also become known for his national role in co-founding the Wilderness Society. Others include Mrs. Charles Myers; Mildred Query; pharmaceutical executive David Chapman, for whom Mount Chapman and Chapman Highway are named, in the foreground; and well-known Smokies photographer James Thompson, at right. Photo courtesy of Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection.
The Knoxville History Project, a nonprofit organization devoted to the promotion of and education about the history of Knoxville, presents this column each week to raise awareness of the themes, personalities, and stories of our unique city.
Learn more on facebook.com/knoxvillehistoryproject • email jack@knoxhistoryproject.org
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