For example, "on April 11, 1793, when settlers believed Indian attacks were imminent, 280 men, women, and children gathered in small huts at John Craig's station on Nine Mile Creek.

He signed up for the army during the War of 1812 and rose rapidly in rank, beginning his military and political career.

Maryville was a center of abolitionist activity throughout the early 19th-century; it was generated mostly by the Society of Friends, which had a relatively large presence in Blount County.

In August of that year, a Confederate cavalry raid, under the command of General Joseph Wheeler, attacked the courthouse where the Union troops had taken shelter.

To try to dislodge the federal soldiers, Confederates set fire to several buildings, including a store where the city's records were being kept.

Its local Union League provided a lively forum for political discussion,[13] and the Freedmen's Normal Institute was established on the present-day site of Maryville High School.

[15] In the 1970s, after several department stores and other retailers moved from the downtown area to Alcoa's Midland shopping center, the city spent $10 million on a renewal project called "Now Town".

Traffic was re-routed, facades were placed on old buildings, slums were cleared, and the Bicentennial Greenbelt Park was created.

The project failed to attract business back to the downtown locations; instead retailers moved to the new Foothills Mall a few years later.

He ran unsuccessful campaigns for president in 1996 and 2000, both times announcing his candidacy for the Republican Party from his hometown of Maryville.

[16][17][18] Maryville is located in north-central Blount County in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains.

Chilhowee's eastern flank— known locally as "The Three Sisters"— is visible from almost anywhere in the city, and dominates the southern horizon along US-321 between Maryville and Walland.

A number of small suburbs— including Wildwood, Ellejoy, and Clover Hill— surround Maryville to the east and west.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 16.8 square miles (43.5 km2), all land.

It was founded in 1819 by Presbyterian minister Isaac L. Anderson for the purpose of furthering education and enlightenment and whose mission was to do good on the largest possible scale.