Knoxville, Ark., is a growing town

Knoxville grew by 220 between the census of 2000 and the count of 2010. That number might not seem much by some city counts, but the solid numbers are 511 population in 2000 and 731 in 20210.

Knoxville is in Johnson County, barely in the northwest corner of Arkansas and three counties east of Oklahoma. Johnson County was formed in 1833, three years before Arkansas became a state. The 2010 census count showed 25,540 people lived in the county. Bill Doolan, founder of The Wild Bunch outlaw gang was born in Johnson County in 1858 and killed in Oklahoma in 1896. Arkansas used to be a wild kind of place.

According to the 2000 census, 93.68% of Johnson County’s residents were white. Poverty level was roughly 15%-20%. Knoxville was about the same for racial background, with 95.89% white, but with a better poverty level of 9%-18%.

“The first white man to own the land on which Knoxville would be established was Thomas May, who has been described as Arkansas’s first millionaire. May owned nearly 800 acres of bottomland in Johnson County, on which he established a town he called Mayville. Records from 1850 indicate that May owned fourteen slaves and that his land produced corn, wheat, oats, potatoes, cotton, and hay. He also owned a sawmill, a lumberyard, a general store, a hardware store, and an ice plant.”

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“Businesses in Knoxville as of 2010 included manufacturing, stone, concrete, steel, and natural gas establishments. There are two flea markets, two boat companies, a trucking outfit, and a ceramics store, as well as restaurants and a country store. The Methodist congregation has disbanded, but the Baptist church remains. Knoxville Elementary School, once part of the Lamar (Johnson County) school district, is closed.”

http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=7175