Tennessee's First Newspaper

Tennessee's First Newspaper is a Tennessee historical marker in Hawkins County.

Hawkins Co, rear yard of Newspaper courthouse at corner of Washington and Depot streets

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At the invitation of Territorial Gov. William Blount, George Roulestone and Robert Ferguson brought a printing press over the mountains from North Carolina, and established the Knoxville Gazette in a log cabin on the Hawkins County Courthouse Square. On November 5, 1791, the first issue of Tennessee's first newspaper was printed. In October 1792, the Gazette was moved to Knoxville, Blount's newly established capital.

Maps this old were drawn largely by eye, so places on them can sit miles from where they really are. The pin is ours and marks the marker's location today.

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1794 · Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1796 · Map of The Tennassee (sic) Government. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1796 · Kentuckey. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1797 · Tennassee Government. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1812 · Kentucky. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

Example

For example, one family's tree showed the Articles of Confederation marker in Pennsylvania standing under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s.

What that marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years there.

From one family's 77-marker roster

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Marker text and location from the Tennessee Historical Commission, as the Commission publishes them on its marker map.

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