Harriman

History

Harriman was founded as a Temperance Town in 1889 by temperance movement activists led by New York-born minister and plant manager Frederick Gates. Seeking a land venture that could attract industrial and economic development while avoiding the vice-driven pitfalls of late 19th century company towns, Gates and fellow prohibitionists chartered the East Tennessee Land Company in May 1889. In subsequent months, the company acquired several hundred thousand acres of land around what is now Harriman, including the plantation of Union Army colonel and state senator, Robert K. Byrd. The company's early investors included 1888 Prohibition Party presidential candidate General Clinton B. Fisk, who served as the company's first president, Quaker Oats co-founder Ferdinand Schumacher, and publishers Isaac K. Funk and A. W. Wagnalls. The East Tennessee Land Company's plan was to purchase land, build a town based on prohibitionist and other reform movement principles, and establish subsidiary companies to attract industry. After a successful land auction in Harriman in 1890, the company established three subsidiaries: the East Tennessee Mining Company to administer the region's coal and iron extraction operations, the Harriman Coal & Iron Railroad Company to develop the local railroad system, and the Harriman Manufacturing Company to attract industries by providing start-up capital. By 1892, several rolling mills, factories, and other businesses had relocated to Harriman. Harriman is named for Walter Harriman, a governor of New Hampshire whose son, Walter C. Harriman, was managing director of the East Tennessee Land Company. As a colonel (later general) in the Union Army during the Civil War, he had traveled on foot through the area with his 11th New Hampshire Regiment and camped…

Geography

Harriman is situated along the physiographic boundary between the Tennessee Valley region and the Cumberland Plateau region, with the Plateau—namely its Walden Ridge escarpment—rising several hundred feet above the city to the west. The Emory River enters the Tennessee Valley just west of Harriman at a pass known as Emory Gap, and forms an oxbow bend that surrounds the original section of Harriman. U.S. Route 27, known as Roane Street in Harriman, runs north-to-south through the city along the base of Walden Ridge. Interstate 40 runs east-to-west through the city's southern section. Harriman's southwestern boundary, which it shares with Rockwood, is located along US-27 about a half-mile south of the road's intersection with I-40. The city's southeastern boundary runs along Pine Ridge, which overlooks the Kingston Fossil Plant. Harriman's northern boundary is near US-27's split with State Highway 61. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and , or 1.86%, is water.

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• Kingston Elementary
  Elementary · Kingston · 808 students · 17.6:1 ratio
• Roane County High School
  High · Kingston · 652 students · 16.7:1 ratio
• Ridge View Elementary
  Elementary · Rockwood · 594 students · 14.8:1 ratio
• Bowers Elementary
  Elementary · Harriman · 568 students · 14.9:1 ratio
• Cherokee Middle School
  Middle · Kingston · 470 students · 15.7:1 ratio
• Rockwood High School
  High · Rockwood · 350 students · 14:1 ratio
• Harriman High School
  High · Harriman · 347 students · 15.8:1 ratio
• Midtown Elementary
  Elementary · Harriman · 297 students · 14.8:1 ratio