It Will Do You Good.  How Knoxville Grows and Why It Will Continue To Grow

At the meeting of the Marble City business league Thursday night a gentleman addressed the assembly with some statements of fact that are encouraging and worthy of notice.

He said that a gentleman visiting the city recently asked him to show him some of our city’s manufacturing business.  He of course knew pretty well the route to take a stranger.

Driving first to Ft. Sanders, he could, without changing a step, at once review in his mind the famous battle scenes of that site; view the splendors of the exceptionally fine mountain scenery; Longstreet heights and its cable car; Cherokee Heights and Knoxville’s new 100-acre park; our finest residences; the biggest college for colored people in the south; the Tennessee Medical college — a panorama of objects such as would inspire the meanest soul on earth to regard all things good and great.

…

Source:  Knoxville Daily Journal and Tribune, March 10, 1894, page 4

 

A Little Romantic Story.  The Heroine of the Aerial Car About To Be Married

A bit of romance has grown out of the memorable cable car accident of a few weeks ago, at Longstreet Heights, just below the city.

It will be remembered that there was just one heroine to that incident, Miss Alice Wardell, whose remarkable self-composed actions during the perils of that occasion were the subject of comment at home and abroad, wherever an account of the incident appeared in print.

A pathetic feature of this cable car accident which caused further special interest to be taken in Miss Wardell, was the statement that she was engaged to the only one of the party of the fateful car who met with such injuries that he died in an hour or two.  From the moment he was stricken unconscious until his death she had apparently no concern about her own peril or those of her party, but devoted herself to alleviating the pain of Oliver Ledgerwood.  Only once did he show any sign of consciousness, and that was when he opened his eyes into her face bending over him.  He smiled and closed them never to open them again.

With bated breath thousands witnessed the young woman, scarcely passed sixteen years of age, as she was lowered down from the dizzy heights of the car to the boat in the river 200 feet below.

As she was transported in a skiff to the shore she stepped lightly on to the shore as a mighty shout of welcome went up from the crowd assembled.  She astonished all with her cool deportment.  Her voice was without a quaver as she replied to a few of the thousand questions which came to her from every side.

There was a young man among the throng who greeted her whose heart fell at the feet of the handsome girl who displayed such heroism.  He had met her before, and his inexpressible joy and privilege was to escort her home from the tragic scene of the car.

His name is Dr. Joseph Horace Shank.  One night last week he appeared before a crowded opera house in the honorable role of a graduate in dentistry from the Tennessee medical college of this city.  His home is in Ohio, about twenty miles from Cincinnati.  His parents are among the respectable families in the Buckeye state and are reputed to be quite wealthy.

Dr. Cottrell, of the department of dentistry, says a brighter and more gentlemanly young man was never graduated from this college.  He possesses the best of moral habits and is in every way a model young man.

Thursday evening of this week the young dentist will wed Miss Wardell and take her to his home in Ohio.

The young lady is very popular among the young people of Knoxville and her host of admirers will greatly regret to lose her.  But none can regret the loss so sorely as her adopted parents, Mr. and Mrs. S. P. Wardell, to whom she had become as dear as if she had been their own child.  The only opposition they feel in the matter is because of her age, but they recognize it is a case of true love which is probably best not to attempt to thwart and they have given their consent.

Source:  Knoxville Daily Journal and Tribune, April 3, 1894, page 4

[Transcriber’s Note:  The accident occurred February 18, 1894.  In stories published at the time, Oliver Ledgerwood, an attorney aged 32, is identified as Alice Wardell’s fiancé.  In the 1900 Census, Alice and Joseph Shank are living in Ohio with a son, Charles, born in 1899.  No information about her or Charles is found afterward, but Joseph Shank lived until 1962.]

 

Personal

Dr. J. R. Jump, a recent graduate of the Tennessee Medical college, after a brief visit in the city, has returned to his home in North Carolina.

Source:  Knoxville Daily Journal and Tribune, June 20, 1894, page 4

 

Rogersville

Rogersville, Tenn., Nov. 18. —

… Clinton H. Morgan left on Wednesday to attend the Tennessee Medical college at Knoxville. …

Source:  Knoxville Daily Journal and Tribune, November 19, 1894, page 4

 

Amenities at the Medical College

A pleasant incident occurred at the Tennessee Medical college last Monday.  The literary society of the college, through Prof. Ristine, presented the eighteen months old baby of Prof. Oloffsson [sic] with a handsome emerald-studded ring, as a testimonial in being the namesake of his “old dad.”  Mr. Olofsson responded on behalf of the youngster, who, by the way, is a pretty fair specimen of adipose tissue, and stated that the young man’s dreams of late were intermitted [sic] with visions of pies and chickens, which were the “prodromal [sic] symptoms” of a great preacher, but that this little ring incident completely knocked the clergical bacilli, and his diagnosis was now that the young disciple of Sweden would become a pill roller, that is, provided no acute latent symptoms of base-ball fever overrides the original predisposition.

Source:  Knoxville Daily Journal and Tribune, December 2, 1894, page 6