The story
History
What is today Blount County was for many thousands of years Indian territory, passed down to the Cherokee tribe that claimed the land upon the arrival of White settlers in the late 18th century. Shortly thereafter, on July 11, 1795, Blount County became the 10th county established in Tennessee, when the Territorial Legislature voted to split adjacent Knox and Jefferson Counties. The new county was named for the governor of the Southwest Territory, William Blount, and its county seat, Maryville, was named for his wife Mary Grainger Blount. This establishment, however, did little to settle the differences between White immigrants and Cherokee natives, which was, for the most part, not accomplished until an 1819 treaty.
Like a majority of East Tennessee counties, Blount County was opposed to secession on the eve of the Civil War. In Tennessee's Ordinance of Secession referendum on June 8, 1861, Blount Countians voted against secession by a margin of 1,766 to 414. Residents of pro-Union Cades Cove and pro-Confederate Hazel Creek (on the other side of the mountains in North Carolina) regularly launched raids against one another during the war.
Throughout its history, the boundaries of Blount County have been altered numerous times, most notably in 1870, when a large swath of western Blount was split into Loudon and portions of other counties. Also, the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1936, while not affecting the legal boundaries of Blount County, has significantly impacted the use of southeastern Blount County.
Blount County has been served by The Daily Times, currently published in Maryville, since 1883.
On July 2, 2015, a freight train carrying hazardous materials derailed. About 5,000 residents were displaced from their homes within a two-mile (three-kilometer) radius.
2020 census
As of the 2020 census, 135,280 people, 54,720 households, and 35,299 families were residing in the county.
The racial makeup of the county is detailed in the table above, with non-Hispanic White residents forming the majority and smaller Black, Native American, Asian, Pacific Islander, and other or multiracial populations; Hispanic or Latino residents of any race comprised 4.22% of the population.
The median age was 43.9 years, with 20.4% of residents under the age of 18 and 21.1% aged 65 or older. For every 100 females there were 95.2 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 92.7 males.
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62.8% of residents lived in urban areas, while 37.2% lived in rural areas.
There were 54,720 households in the county, of which 27.8% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 52.7% were married-couple households, 16.2% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 25.0% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 26.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
There were 59,776 housing units, of which 8.5% were vacant. Among occupied housing units, 73.4% were owner-occupied and 26.6% were renter-occupied. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.3% and the rental vacancy rate was 5.8%.
2000 census
As of the census of 2000, 105,823 people, 42,667 households, and 30,634 families were residing in the county. The population density was 190 people per square mile (73 people/km2). The 47,059 housing units had an average density of 84 per square mile (32/km2). The racial makeup of the county was 94.73% White, 2.91% Black, 0.29% Native American, 0.72% Asian, 0.37% from other races, and 0.99% from two or more races. About 1.06% of the population were Hispanics or Latinos of any race.
Of the 42,667 households, 30.5% had children under 18 living with them, 58.4% were married couples living together, 10.0% had a female householder with no husband present, 28.2% were not families, and 1,384 were unmarried partner households: 1,147 heterosexual, 107 same-sex male, 130 same-sex female. About 24.4% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.5% had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 2.43, and the average family size was 2.88.
In the county, the age distribution was 22.8% under 18, 8.30% from 18 to 24, 29.40% from 25 to 44, 25.40% from 45 to 64, and 14.10% who were 65 or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.80 males. For every 100 females 18 and over, there were 90.80 males. As verified by 2000 U.S. Census, for every 100 females under 65, there were 98.7 males, for every 100 females under 55 there were 99.5 males, and for every 100 females under 20 there were 105 males.
The median income for a household in the county was $37,862, and for a family was $45,038. Males had a median income of $31,877 versus $23,007 for females. The per capita income for the county was $19,416. About 7.3% of families and 9.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 12.3% of those under age 18 and 9.1% of those 65 or over.
From Wikipedia’s article on Blount County, Tennessee, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4