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| Commemorative pamphlet produced in the days after the fire. Courtesy of Calvin M. McClung Historical Digital Collection |
I am happy to announce that my book, Knoxville's Million Dollar, will be published by the History Press and is expected to be released sometime in late 2019.
I have been obsessed with Knoxville's Million Dollar Fire of 1897 from the moment I was asked to develop a public talk for various local organizations around Knoxville. My first talk was centered around three milestone moments of the 19th century in Knoxville--the 1828 arrival of the Atlas (the first steamboat to successfully negotiate the dangerous stretches of the Muscle Shoals and Chattanooga to reach Knoxville and claim a prize), the November 1863 Civil War Battle of Fort Sanders, and the Million Dollar Fire of 1897. After giving the Milestone talk a half dozen or so times, I developed a talk on the fire itself which was well received. Then, in 2013 after completing my dissertation and Ph.D. studies at the University of Tennessee I wrote an article on the fire for the Journal of East Tennessee History that was meant to extinguish the fire for good as I planned to move on to focusing my life on publishing on primarily the Civil War era. The article in the Journal, naturally, took a scholarly focus on fire safety reform. But the fire to share more of this devastating conflagration that devoured Knoxville's central business district still burned inside. Beyond the often told riveting story of the race to get a steam fire engine and a group of firemen from Chattanooga to save Knoxville and the branding of the fire by Knoxville's city fathers and merchants, there was much more to explore, such as the faceless victims (published accounts almost always get the names or numbers of victims wrong) and the trials that ensued in Knox County Circuit Court and the Tennessee Supreme Court. With the Ph.D. achieved, I concluded that it was time to write the type of history that I always wanted to write and thus Knoxville's Million Dollar Fire is the product of nearly a decade of research. The book will be published by the History Press with a target date of Christmas 2019 for release. There are more stories than can be told in the book alone. Therefore, this blog will be a source for side stories as well as more in depth history of the fire itself, the victims, the fire department and its personnel, and 19th century Knoxville history in general. Please consider subscribing to the blog to receive updates for new posts that will be made once or twice a week up until the release of the book.
