Knoxville Iron Company

The Knoxville Iron Company complex in 1889

The Knoxville Iron Company was an iron production and coal mining company that operated primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, and its vicinity, in the late 19th and 20th centuries.[1] The company was Knoxville's first major post-Civil War manufacturing firm, and played a key role in bringing heavy industry and railroad facilities to the city.[2] The company was also the first to conduct major coal mining operations in the lucrative coalfields of western Anderson County,[3] and helped establish one of Knoxville's first residential neighborhoods, Mechanicsville, in the late 1860s.[4]

During the 1890s and early 1900s, the Knoxville Iron Company was involved in two key events in the history of Tennessee's labor movement. The first came in 1891, when the company's Anderson County coal mines were among the targets of striking miners during the Coal Creek War.[5] The second came several years later, when the company challenged a state law requiring companies to pay employees in cash, leading to the Supreme Court ruling, Knoxville Iron Company v. Harbison (1901), which upheld the rights of states to ban scrip and other forms of non-cash payments.[6]

The Knoxville Iron Company continued operating in some capacity or another until 1987.[7] The company's mill is still used by Commercial Metals Company to recycle and manufacture steel rebar.[8]

  1. ^ J. S. Rabun, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form for Knoxville Iron Foundry Complex – Nail Factory and Warehouse, 6 October 1980.
  2. ^ Mark Banker, Appalachians All: East Tennesseans and the Elusive History of an American Region (Knoxville, Tenn.: University of Tennessee Press, 2010), p. 92.
  3. ^ Amanda Post and Emily Robinson, National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form for Briceville Community Church and Cemetery, October 2002.
  4. ^ Old Mechanicsville - History. Retrieved: 3 January 2011.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference shapiro was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ John Vile, Knoxville Iron Company v. Harbison. Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, 2002. Retrieved: 3 January 2011.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference highbeam was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference gerdau was invoked but never defined (see the help page).