On a pretty summer day, my daughter & I were looking for gift shops when we came across the Knoxville Soap & Candle Shop. We were impressed by the variety in the store. I asked if they were hiring. I had worked for 35 years, was now retired, and I was bored to death. The answer to my question was yes. They were looking to hire a candle maker. Well, I thought why not, I am a fast study. So, I went to work the next day as a part time employee. Then in 2005 the place that made the all-natural soap was closing and after much persuasion I took the job.

Running a small business requires entrepreneurs to wear many hats. Marketing is just one of them. To celebrate the can-do spirit of the small business owner, June is Entrepreneurs Do It Yourself Marketing Month.

When entrepreneurs think about marketing, we often get stuck on what to say…and for that reason, we never start. I believe that’s because we don’t have a clear picture of who we’re talking to.

For the first day of June, let’s start DIY Marketing Month by focusing on the most important person in your business organization: your customer.

Historical Marker approved for Horace Maynard

On October 15, 2010, the Tennessee Historical Commission approved an historical marker for the Honorable Horace Maynard. The marker will be installed in about four months and a dedication ceremony will be planned at that time. The marker has been funded by the City of Maynardville, and we are grateful to the City for making this important historical marker possible. For those newcomers to Union County and those too young to know, this is Horace Maynard:

Horace Maynard
Congressman
Diplomat
Postmaster-General

On a recent sunny Saturday in May, the smell of barbecue wafted through the air outside Maynardville's Union County Vendor Mall. The sounds of gospel music filled the inside, and owner Joanie Brock was filled with pride upon celebrating the one-year anniversary of her growing retail business.

Maynard-Vegas Saturday Nite Cruise-In is held on the last Saturday of each month at Hardee's in Maynardville, TN. It’s great fun to go to the Cruise-In event. It’s a great place for renewing old acquaintances and making new friends. No matter how old you are or how young, the common denominator is that all have a passion for the projects they are involved in. Some of the vehicles are original and some are a combination of the old and the new, but everyone enjoys the fellowship and telling stories.

By the late 1840s the political pressure to have a county seat where residents could vote and conduct business without having to make an overnight trip was sufficiently strong enough that an Act of the Tennessee legislature was drafted to form a new county from portions of the five surrounding counties–Anderson, Campbell, Claiborne, Grainger and Knox Counties. On January 13, 1850 the Act to establish Union County was passed. There was haggling over boundary lines and some lines were redrawn. Nonetheless, Knox County was not happy about losing so much of its tax base and filed a lawsuit ...

So now that warm weather is here, you might have already experienced it: the eerie feeling of one crawling on your leg, or having a swarm of them cluster near your skin. Yes! The season for ticks and mosquitoes is upon us - literally, and they’re hot on the trail for blood.

Both pests are annoying in their own right, but because blood is their meal of choice, ticks and mosquitoes can cause some considerable health complications as well! In fact, their blood lust makes them the perfect vehicles for spreading diseases like Zika Virus and Rocky Mountain spotted fever among others.

It appears that THE William Hamilton was already in the vicinity of Hamilton Crossroads by the time Tennessee became a state in 1796. All this area was Hawkins County until Knox County was carved out of Hawkins County, then Grainger out of Hawkins County in 1796.
In 1794 William Hamilton received a land grant from the Governor of North Carolina. This land grant included Hamilton Crossroads, which was in Knox County from 1792 to 1796.

Chamber of Commerce booth opening day at the Union County Farmers Market.

It’s been a long time…
It has been entirely too long since our last newsletter, and for that we apologize. Starting this month, please look forward to this newsletter arriving in your email boxes monthly. This newsletter will serve as our primary method of communication with you, our Chamber members. And without further ado...

Welcome to Jones Meat Sales. My name is Savannah Jones. I am fifteen years old and I am a farmer. My dad has been farming for 22 years and he wanted to pass the tradition on to me. Last year, I got my retail meat sales license to sell at the Farmer’s Market. We sell my family’s beef and pork which we raise on our farm. The pigs are kept in a barn on an automatic feeder and fed a high protein diet. The cattle are kept in a field with grass and an automatic feeder. All the profits from my business go into my savings account for college tuition.