Knoxville

Knoxville, an early town on the John Engledow survey between State Highway 110 and Farm Road 856 seven miles north of New Summerfield in northeastern Cherokee County, was first settled by immigrants from Tennessee in the late 1840s. In 1854 William A. Pope opened a general store there, and a post office was established. By the time of the Civil War Knoxville had four general stores, a gristmill, a sawmill, a distillery, a tanyard, and a church used by Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian congregations. The community continued to prosper until the early 1870s, when it was bypassed by the International-Great Northern Railroad. Most of the merchants and residents moved to newly established Troup, on the railroad. The post office closed in 1875, and within a few years Knoxville was a ghost town. In the early 1990s only a cemetery marked the site.