From McWhirter’s Revised Hand-book of Tennessee, published by the Tennessee Bureau of Agriculture, Statistics, and Mines in 1885:

Hawkins is one of the northeastern counties in the State, lying along the Virginia line.  It is bounded on the north by Hancock county and Virginia, on the east by Sullivan county, on the south by Greene, and on the west by Grainger and Hamblen counties.

Its principal streams are the Holston and Clinch rivers, with numerous creeks capable of affording an immense amount of water power.

The Rogersville and Jefferson Railroad connects Rogersville, the county seat, with the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad, which extends along the southern portion of the county.  The public highways cannot be said to be in good condition, but some improvements have been made under the new road law, which imposes a tax upon property, and also requires a definite number of days’ labor to be performed.

The character of population is generally very good.  While there are few men of wealth, yet a great part of the citizens are farmers in comfortable circumstances.

At each town or village, and also in each scholastic district, school-houses and churches are to be met with.  The schools, with assistence from a tax, are well attended throughout the county.  At Rogersville are the large and elegantly-arranged buildings of the Rogersville Female College, beautifully situated in spacious grounds.  This institution has lately been purchased by the Synod of Nashville.  It is now in a flourishing condition.  McMinn Academy, a male institute, founded by a bequest from a former Governor of the State, who was a citizen of this county, has also a handsome building, picturesquely situated in the edge of Rogersville.  It has a large attendance.

Iron ore appears in many sections of the county, although not now being worked.  It is not generally known that one of the oldest establishments for induction of iron was formerly upon the North Fork of Holston, near Rotherwood, at the eastern end of the county.

There are number of mineral springs in this county of sulphur, chalybeate, epsom, alum, etc.  Hale‘s Sulphur and Galbraith‘s Chalybeate are fitted up for the reception of visitors, numbers of whom attend them every season.

In the northern portion of this county, some ten or twelve miles from Rogersville, were formerly works for the manufacture of salt, a stream of strong brine being reached by boring in what is substantially the same valley as the celebrated salt-works at Saltville, Virginia, are, and is supposed by many to be the same stream of water.  Salt was manufactured here sixty years ago, and its production was profitably revived during the late war.  Since that a company organized among the citizens was induced to stop operations by the representations of its superintendent, a man connected with the company at Saltville, Virginia.  The attention of capitalists is called to this matter.  The facts here given may be relied upon.

It is safe to say that in few sections can so great a variety of splendid timber be found.  All of the oaks, including white oak of a quality which has no superior, poplar, ash, hickory, etc.

In farming this county takes a front rank in East Tennessee for the variety and quality of its agricultural products.  Corn, wheat, oats, rye, some barley, and tobacco are grown, besides timothy, Herd’s grass or red-top clover, Randall grass or meadow fescue, and orchard grass grow well, especially upon the Holston river lands, where they grow with wonderful luxuriance.  Clover last year, of the ordinary red kind, grew six feet in length.  Timothy also has been known to yield three tons to the acre without any application of fertilizers of any kind.  White clover grows spontaneously.  Blue-grass is also the natural growth of several of the valleys which compose the county.

The cattle of this county have a higher reputation for their good quality than those of any other in East Tennessee.  Fine mules, horses, sheep, and hogs are also bred.

Some four or five miles north of Rogersville is a ridge, in which, extending for a distance of about seventeen miles, occurs that variety of marble which has become famous under the name of “Hawkins County Marble.”  It is found in various tints, from a pale-pink to a dark, richly variegated chocolate color.  It exists in apparently inexhaustible quantities, and some ten or twelve persons are actively engaged in quarrying and shipping it to all parts of the United States.  It is used in interior decorations, furniture, etc.  Emigration, whether in the form of labor (skilled or unskilled) or capital, is cordially welcomed by a people noted for their hospitality, kindness, and courtesy toward strangers, from whatever section or nationality.

The climate is all that could be desired, the water most abundant and pure.  The scenery from many points is remarkably fine.

The total tax for the present year is $1.15 on the $100, upon a very reasonable assessment.

Source:  McWhirter, A. J.  Revised Hand-book of Tennessee.  Nashville:  A.B. Tavel, printer to the state, 1885, pp. 106-108.  Click here to view the bibliographic data and digitized text free at the Harvard Library.