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

Town on the rise

Knoxville, Ark., has grown by more than 500 in the last 47 years. In 1970, the Johnson County town was home to 202 people, by official Federal census. Estimated 2015 population was 746, that figure an increase of 15 from the 2010 census.

Johnson County is on a southwest corner of Northwest Arkansas. The county has been growing since 1970, after a four-decade decline. Before 2000, the county’s highest population was in 1920, when 21,062 people lived there. The 2010 official count was 22,781. The estimated 2015 population was 25,540.

Bill Doolin was born in Johnson County in 1858. He went on to found the Wild Bunch of train robbing and Hollywood fame. Doolin was killed by Deputy U.S. Marshal Heck Thomas in 1896 in Lawson, Oklahoma Territory. Doolin’s Wild Bunch did not include Kid Curry or the Sundance Kid.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Doolin

Knoxville is about 95% white. About 9% of families and 12% of the overall population has income below the official Federal poverty line. The town is just a little west of I-40 and a few miles east of the Arkansas River. Women outnumber men by 4%. About 30% of employed men in Knoxville work in manufacturing, compared to a statewide average of around 18%. For employed women, the figures are 20% locally and 8% statewide.

Tornado activity is at normal for Arkansas, or 91% greater than overall U.S. average. An F4 tornado went through Knoxville on Feb. 5, 2008, killing 13 people, injuring 139 and causing $119 million in property damages.

http://www.city-data.com/city/Knoxville-Arkansas.html

Local government workers in 2012 were: four fulltime at total monthly salaries of $9,645, and 11 part-time employees, paid $8,826 each month.