Early in the century a problem resulted in violence, the tobacco company that bought tobacco off of farmers in exchange for a low price. Some farmers in Tennessee and Kentucky alike, refused to go along with the trust and they attacked property owned by the company. Men who where known as night riders went out at night and burned homes and barns of farmer that went along with the trust. Most of this went down in western Kentucky and in Montgomery and Robertson County in Tennessee. The governor sent the Militia to stop the violence and eventually the farmers got fair trade.
Also in 1908 rich businessmen started buying much of the property around Reelfoot Lake. they wanted to turn it into a resort but the local fishermen and others who make their living from the lake. Some attacked county officers and others kidnapped two land company lawyers and even killed one of them, The men who attacked where put to trial and somehow where all found innocent.
(They KILLED a man!!)
The state bought back the land around the lake and in 1925 it became a state game and fish preserve.
The states worst mining disaster happened in the Fraterville coal mine in Campbell County on May 19, 1902. An explosion of methane gas and coal dust killed all who entered the shaft that day. Only three males where left in the town. Three more deadly expositions took place in the next twenty years but none as devistating as that one.
Flu spread around the world in 1918 over the period of two months it killed 20 to 40 million people. it was the deadliest outbreak since the Black Plague in Europe in the 1300s. It spread quickly through the crowded cities and World War 1 army camps and busy factories. Most likely spread in in the US by sailors coming into Boston. It spread through the east coast and the rest of the country. Most all public gatherings such as movie theaters, court sessions, churches and schools had to be closed to keep it from spreading more. over half a million died in US and 7,700 people in TN.
Tennessee entered the era of mass transit in the 19th century. Street cars started to be used in the biggest cities in the state. They where owned by private companies and pulled my mule. Street cars made suburbs possible. Where families could live farther from the cities but get to work in the city. When the street cars became electric companies build their own plants. They led to building plants for homes and businesses to have electricity.
Because people often when of strike against companies, would interrupt the street service and the gas engine was also invented therefore making buses the main transit leaving street cars to the past.
Boy and girl scouts where also invented during this time but I want lunch and this is a huge paragraph so. You get the idea :)))
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