TENNESSEE. 



813 



T 





TENNESSEE, a Southern State, admitted to 

 the Union June 1, 1796; area, 42,050 square miles. 

 The population, according to each decennial cen- 

 sus since admission, was 105,602 in 1800; 261,727 

 in 1810; 422,771 in 1820; 681,904 in 1830; 829,210 

 in 1840; 1,002,717 in 1850; 1,109,801 in 1860; 

 1,258,520 in 1870; 1,542,369 in 1880; and 1,767,- 

 518 in 1890. Capital, Nashville. 



Government. The following were the State 

 officers in 1899: Governor, Benton McMillin; Sec- 

 retary of State, William S. Morgan; Treasurer, 

 Edward B. Craig; Comptroller, Theodore F. 

 King; Superintendent of Agriculture, John T. 

 Essary, succeeded June 1 by Thomas H. Paine; 

 Superintendent of Instruction, Morgan C. Fitz- 

 patrick; Insurance Commissioner, E. B. Craig; 

 Adjutant General, Horton C. Lamb; Attorney- 

 General, G. W. Pickle: Commissioner of Labor 

 and Inspector of Mines, A. D. Hargis, succeeded 

 June 1 by Robert A. Shiflett; Railroad Commis- 

 sioners, N. W. Baptist and Messrs. McKenzie and 

 Williams; Factory Inspector, Martin J. Noonan; 

 Prison Commissioners, W. M. Nixon, John H. 

 Trice, and W. M. Morrow, succeeded in July by 

 A. J. McWhirter; Librarian, Jennie Lauderdale; 

 Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, David L. 

 Snodgrass; Associate Justices, W. C. Caldwell, 



John S. Wilkes, 

 W. K. McAllister, 

 W. D. Beard; 

 Clerk, A. W. Mc- 

 Millin ; Justices of 

 the Court of Chan- 

 cery Appeals, M. 

 M. Neil, S. F. Wil- 

 son, R. M. Barton, 

 Jr.; Clerk, James 

 Turney. All are 

 Democrats. 



Finances. The 

 receipts of the 

 treasury for the 

 first quarter of the 

 year were larger 

 than usual owing 

 to the enforcement 

 of the law requir- 

 ing county officials 

 to make prompt 

 collections and re- 

 turns. The receipts were $1.304,611, the disburse- 

 ments $1,478,490. The cost of the legislative ses- 

 sion was about $86,000. 



The bonded indebtedness of the State at the 

 opening of the year was more than $16,000,000, 

 bearing interest at 3 per cent., and due, most of 

 it, in 1913. The floating debt was $850,000; 

 $250,000 of it was paid by June 1, and $600,000 

 was then borrowed in New York at 3| per cent. 



The State has a claim against the Government 

 of about $1,500,000, for the use of public build- 

 ings, prisons, railroads in which the State had 

 interest and damage by National troops during 

 the civil war. The Government has a counter- 

 claim against the State, amounting to about half 

 that sum, for bonds and unpaid interest upon 

 them. The State has also a claim for equipment 

 of troops during the Spanish war, amounting 

 to about $40,000. 



Education. The school population, by the re- 

 turns of 1899, was 760,183, while in 1898 it was 



BENTON 

 GOVERNOR OF TENNESSEE. 



732,823. There were 7,924 public schools and 

 9,078 teachers in 1898. The amount distributed 

 from the State school fund for the first half of 

 the year was $68,899. 



The State Board of Education decided in May 

 that no Senator may reappoint negroes to the 

 colored institutions of the State, and that here- 

 after scholarships will be good for only two vears. 



The summer normal schools were enabled *to do 

 better work this year, by reason of an increase in 

 the appropriation from $1,500 to $2,500. They 

 have help also from the Peabody fund. 



The report of a committee of the Legislature 

 appointed to investigate the affairs of the Pea- 

 body Normal College was quite unfavorable to 

 its financial management; the matter was after- 

 ward taken up by a committee of the State Board 

 of Education, which found that the finances had 

 been mismanaged, but did not fix the responsibil- 

 ity, and referred the reports and the testimony to 

 the trustees of the Peabody fund. Other edu- 

 cational institutions of the State were found by 

 the legislative committee to be in satisfactory 

 condition. 



A new building for a gymnasium and a manual 

 training school was opened in December at the 

 School for the Blind. W. K. Vanderbilt has 

 supplied Vanderbilt University with funds for a 

 dormitory. The University of the South, at Se- 

 wanee, has a school of forestry, established this 

 year under the Government Forestry Commission. 



Military. The militia organization of the 

 State having been broken up by the enlistments 

 for the Spanish and Philippine wars, the mili- 

 tary authorities decided that there was no longer 

 a State guard; and the Adjutant General has 

 been forming a new organization. At the close 

 of the year the returns from his office showed 21 

 organized companies, with a strength of 1,480 

 men, 25 noncommissioned officers, and 89 com- 

 missioned. In addition to the companies forming 

 the Fifth and Sixth Regiments, there are 3 un- 

 attached companies of infantry and a troop of 

 cavalry. Three of these 4 organizations are com- 

 posed of Confederate veterans; the fourth is Com- 

 pany G (colored), of Nashville. 



A large number of military, civic, and fraternal 

 organizations took part in the parade which 

 opened the exercises of the reception given to 

 the First Tennessee Regiment upon its return 

 from the Philippines in November. 



The Penitentiary. For the year ending Dec. 

 1 the gross earnings of the State Prison amounted 

 to $320,147.31, and the total expenses to $188,- 

 416.69, making net earnings $131,731.24. Of the 

 gross earnings, $306,731.35 were covered into the 

 treasury of the State and $218,470.45 were drawn 

 from the treasury, leaving a balance turned in of 

 $88,260.30. The difference between the balance 

 of the fund covered into the treasury and the net 

 earnings shown by the report, amounting to $43,- 

 470.94, represents bills and notes to be collected, 

 resulting from sales of coal and coke. The aver- 

 age cost of a convict in 1898 was $95.90. There 

 are 800 or more prisoners. The Supreme Court 

 decided, Nov. 1, that no workhouse, city, coun- 

 ty, or State Prison keeper has a legal right to 

 whip a prisoner. The court sustained a judgment 

 for $500 returned by a lower court against the 

 keeper of the Knox County Workhouse for whip- 

 ping a colored woman who was unruly. 



