Existing comment:
"Clarksville at no period of her history has experienced greater prosperity ... new buildings going up, population increasing ... and not a respectable house in the city unoccupied."
-- Clarksville Tobacco-Leaf, 1869
Rebuilding the Local Economy:
Despite political turmoil, Clarksville rebuilt its economy. Early Union occupation prevented large-scale property destruction, allowing for rapid economic rebound. The tobacco industry reopened in October 1865 with limited shipments to New Orleans in December. From 1870 to 1880, tobacco production doubled. Local investors expanded the industrial base with new mining and oil companies. Cotton and woolen mills, foundries, lumber, furniture, tannery and brewing companies were also opened. Products shipped to national and world markets via revitalized steamboats and railroads.
Clarksville was an attractive place to live. The 1861 population of 5,000 grew to 8,000 post-war, due to returning Confederate veterans and pro-Southern civilians, Freedmen settlements, and relocating Northerners.
Stewart College and the Female Academy reopened as prominent educational institutions. New schools and, in particular, churches became the focal point for educating the emerging black community with five well-established congregations in Clarksville by 1875.
Clarksville's economic progress suffered its second great trial in less than 20 years when the massive fire of 1878 destroyed 15 acres of downtown including the courthouse, the core of the business community and tobacco industry. Clarksville rebounded yet again.
Financial Changes:
Tennessee's Legislative Act of 1865 forbade all banks from acting as a fiscal agent of the state, unless the president, cashier and directors were, "since the beginning of the Revolution, and are now, unconditional Union men." The same year, the US Treasury, under an act of Congress, authorized the First National Bank of Clarksville (a Unionist bank) to handle national currency, with Sterling F. Beaumont elected the bank's first president. In 1877 the state authorized several Clarksville banks as depositories of state funds. |