A Roy Acuff record
In the 1940s and 1950s few Americans were better known than Roy Acuff, a native of Maynardville. He started off as a baseball player, but then an injury cut short his career and he began playing the fiddle.
In 1934 Acuff started going on hillbilly radio shows on stations such as WSM in Nashville (the home of the Grand Ole Opry). With the release of songs such as The Great Speckled Bird and The Wabash Cannonball he became nationally famous. And, with a great sense of humor, Acuff eventually became the host of the Grand Ole Opry.
Oakdale School near Loyston, an area now under Norris Lake
PHOTO: TVA
Here’s another tidbit about Union County. When man-made lakes were created by the Tennessee Valley Authority and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, many communities were flooded (see, for instance, the Clay and Johnson County pages).
In Union County, the town of Loyston was flooded by Norris Lake (see article on the right). It was moved and is now known as New Loyston.
The Union County marker at the Bicentennial Mall State Park
Since Union County was created in 1850, a lot of people think that the county’s name refers to the fact that a majority of its citizens sided with the Union over the Confederacy in the Civil War. However, in 1850, the word “union” had nothing to do with the Civil War; it was chosen because the county was formed through the union of parts of five different counties.
Here’s the Union County Courthouse in Maynardville.
