Kingsport in 1916 - When Jimmie Hamlett (cofounder of Hamlett-Dobson) First Arrived

Everyone in Kingsport knows the name Hamlett, thanks to the city’s oldest funeral home, Hamlett-Dobson.

The company was founded by Jimmie Hamlett, who came to Kingsport a year before the city was chartered. In 1929 he wrote a letter to the editor of the Kingsport Times, Howard Long, describing what it was like when he first arrived.

“I came to Kingsport May 1, 1916, arriving here about 6 p. m. I went to the Kingsport Hotel, thinking I could get a room there, but was told everything was full up. A man by the name of Callahan, lived in what is now the Poston house on Five Points. He told me he was full up but could give me a room for the night. The next day I went in search of a place to stay, but every place was full. I went back to my friend Callahan, and he said the best he could do was a cot on the side porch, so he fixed me up and I kept the place for seven weeks. Houses were very scarce, but finally one of the houses on Cherokee Street became vacant and I moved my family here. I was working in the Big Store, and going to and from my work I usually went across the fields, if they were not wet, which they usually were, for I believe we had more rain that year than I ever saw before. After a very heavy rain to get to Five Points, one would have to go around by the Baptist church. Some of the boys would wear their bathing suits to wade through the water on Market street.”

The Kingsport Hotel was on Main Street. The Big Store was a block and a half away at the corner of Main and Shelby.

“About the only electric lights we had then were in the homes on Cement Hill, and the only paved street was Main Street from Cherokee to Shelby. I believe that the only car in town was a Ford that Uncle Tom Hurst used. He certainly had that car well trained. He could jump ditches or mud holes and climb any kind of grade.

“I have a picture of Kingsport showing the Cement plant, the old depot, the Big Store, the Bank of Kingsport and the old Roller place, with the large frame building. That ground is now covered by the Fifty houses. This lot of houses were built about that time. For water we had to depend on wells in and about town.

“It seems wonderful what a change has taken place during the short time I have been in Kingsport. The building where the Presbyterian church now is, was used for a school and for worship on Sundays. On Sunday afternoons we would take our children for a walk, usually going up through the sage brush and small trees where the Dobyns-Bennett high school now stands, and over the Cement hill to the river.

“A great many travelling men visit our city now and time after time these men have told me what a wonderful city we have, so well laid off, clean and right up to date. In my travelling experience I have not been able to find any city that has anything on Kingsport. We have a fine class of people making up our city, and schools and best of all we have a group of churches which any city can be proud of. As to scenery, Kingsport can't be beaten for beauty and grandeur, and our city is located in the garden spot of East Tennessee.

“Looking back to the year when I came to Kingsport in 1916, when there were no paved streets, no electric lights and no water system, it is marvelous the improvements that have been made, and the wonderful changes that have been brought about. Then I found a new town with its thousands of inhabitants living in tents and small rough houses, with no conveniences whatever. I was talking with a travelling man before I came here, and he told me that at night you could stand at the Big Store and see the houses all lighted up on the hill. He had seen the Cement houses for those were about all the lights we had.

“Today we have a city that is right up to date and nicely laid out. A city government under an efficient manager and capable aldermen and a splendid force of policemen. As to schools, they cannot be beaten, our churches of which we are all proud, and in fact everything that goes to make a fine city.

“Yours very truly,

“Mr. J. M. Hamlett.”

This is Kingsport in 1918, shortly after Jimmie Hamlett arrived.