Charles McClung

Charles McClung (May 13, 1761 – August 9, 1835) was an American pioneer, politician, and surveyor best known for drawing up the original plat of Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1791. While Knoxville has since expanded to many times its original size, the city's downtown area still roughly follows McClung's 1791 grid. McClung also helped draft Tennessee's constitution in 1796, surveyed and planned what is now Kingston Pike in 1792, and served as Knox County's first court clerk. His home, Statesview, still stands in West Knoxville and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Biography

Early life McClung was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to Matthew McClung and Martha Cunningham McClung, both of Scots-Irish descent.

McClung subsequently returned home and used his earnings to help his parents make improvements to the family farm. This grid was divided into 64 lots. Most of the early street names for the city (e.g., Front Street) were derived from street names in Philadelphia, where McClung had lived for several years. The road was built to connect Knoxville with Fort Southwest Point, which was the eastern terminus of the Avery Trace. The road was originally 30 feet wide and was many years later widened to 50 feet. During the same period, McClung was appointed Knox County's first court clerk, a position he held until 1834. He was present at the Tennessee constitutional convention in 1796 and helped draft the state's initial constitution. That same year, he was elected major in the state's Hamilton District militia.

McClung died while vacationing at Harrodsburg Springs, Kentucky, in 1835, and was initially buried in a private cemetery in Harrodsburg. In 1904, McClung's great-grandson, Lee McClung, had his remains reinterred in the family's plot in Knoxville's Old Gray Cemetery.