[1] The company was Knoxville's first major post-Civil War manufacturing firm, and played a key role in bringing heavy industry and railroad facilities to the city.

[2] The company was also the first to conduct major coal mining operations in the lucrative coalfields of western Anderson County,[3] and helped establish one of Knoxville's first residential neighborhoods, Mechanicsville, in the late 1860s.

[1] Noting the largely untouched ore deposits in the hills around Knoxville, Chamberlain decided to develop a large-scale iron works in the city.

He recruited Welsh-born ironmasters Joseph, David, and William Richards, who in turn brought in other Welsh immigrants skilled in iron production.

Shortly after the law was passed, a securities dealer named Samuel Harbison purchased several hundred coal credits from Knoxville Iron employees for 85 cents on the dollar.

The majority opinion, authored by Justice George Shiras, acknowledged the abridgement of contract rights, but nevertheless agreed the law was a legitimate exercise of state policing powers to promote order.

[6] Edward Terry Sanford, a future Supreme Court justice, argued the case on behalf of Knoxville Iron.

[15] The iron industry declined in importance in Knoxville in the 1890s and 1900s, as steel and railroad companies demanded a higher-quality ore than the kind typically found in East Tennessee.

[16][13] During the 1920s, Knoxville Iron general manager Willis P. Davis and his wife, Ann, first proposed the establishment of what would eventually become the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

[10] In 1982, Knoxville Iron's 1870s-era nail factory, the last surviving building from its original Second Creek Valley complex, was renovated for use as an event center in the 1982 World's Fair.