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 In 1815, the town was empowered to elect a Mayor, and Thomas Emmerson, afterwards a Judge of the Supreme Court of the State, became the first Mayor.

That the name Knoxville had been adopted before November 5, 1791, is made certain by the fact that on that day appeared the initial number of the Knoxville Gazette, the first newspaper published within the bounds of Tennessee. Its publisher was one George Roulstone, a native of New England, whose Yankee enterprise appeared in the fact that while the paper from the first was called the Knoxville Gazette, it was for some time published at Rogersville, an older town, seventy miles east of Knoxville. It is supposed that the publisher was prevented by difficulties of transportation from moving his press to Knoxville. The Gazette was a three-column paper of four pages. It had not many advertisements and very little local news, but was filled with accounts of the French Revolution and of European affairs in general. It gave much space to questions of ethics, and reprinted many political and patriotic speeches.

The first and only Legislature of the Territory met at Knoxville in February, 1794.