Unicoi County, Tennessee: History
This area was long inhabited by Indigenous peoples, including the historic Cherokee who encountered European and English traders and settlers. The mountainous terrain made it less attractive to subsistence farmers.
Unicoi County was created in 1875 from portions of Washington and Carter counties. Its first European-American settlers had arrived more than a century earlier but the population had been small. The county remained predominantly agrarian until the railroads were constructed in the area in the 1880s.
During the 1910s, the Clinchfield Railroad established a pottery in Erwin, which eventually incorporated under the name, "Southern Potteries." This company produced a popular brand of dishware, commonly called Blue Ridge China, which featured hand-painted underglaze designs. While the company folded in the 1950s, Blue Ridge dishes remain popular with antique collectors.
On September 13, 1916, a circus elephant, Mary, was hanged in Erwin for killing her trainer in nearby Kingsport. The hanging was the subject of a book, The Day They Hung the Elephant (1992), by Charles Edwin Price.