I found this to be interesting reading, and thought I would pass it on. The Danville and East Tennessee Railroad needed help financially and it would be to Bristol - Goodson, Va. advantage to assist, however, the town needed a population of at least 5,000 residents. ( population at the time not even close). On Dec. 16.1889, it was decided that a census should be taken, so the census counters went on a "people counting hunt" Visitors from N. Y. were counted, people who had gotten off the train to have lunch in town were counted, people from close surrounding areas were counted, and later even accusations that a few East Hill Cemetery residents had their citizenship's renewed. If you were people and in town or close to town you were counted as a citizen of the town. On Jan. 4.1890 the census result was 5,382 citizens in Bristol. The "real count was closer to 2,902. This honest count was taken and sent to Richmond, but found in a census taker's drawer some 10 years later. A judge refused to rule on the census, but the suit pointed out almost certainly that a city status and incorporation had been obtained by fraud. Ten years later in 1900 the population was still short of 5,000 people by about 500 people. Source: Bristol,Tennesse / Virginia by Bud Phillips. I received this book as an early Christmas present and will do lookup of names mentioned on request, but the book is mainly history of the town and its' early and prominate people so you need to have an old family name in the town to be mentioned.