Some of the newspaper publishers in the early 1900s often ran "histories" of their counties / cities. I have a photocopy of The Athens Post (TN) dated in 1901. It was a special edition that gave a great deal of information about early settlers of McMinn County, dating from its origin in 1823. One might have to do a little digging in order to locate these issues, but the rewards can be great. I found a lenghty article on my 3g-grandfather and another short article on a 4g-grandfather. Copies of many newspapers on microfilm can be ordered from the LDS library in Salt Lake City. Larry in TX