Talk:Seymour, Tennessee

Knoxville MSA?

I question the statement that the CDP is in the Knoxville MSA. It is centered in Sevier County, which is not part of the MSA (but is part of the CSA). Is there a good source of info on this?--orlady 14:40, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

I'm from Seymour, and while I doubt anyone will ever read this I feel compelled to point out that almost none of this information is accurate. Seymour has about 30,000 residents, not 9,000 or 18,000. Whoever determined that it takes 20 minutes to get to the GSMNP was either in a helicopter or was driving about double the speed limit the whole way (although in the latter case he or she would almost certainly have fallen victim to a shark-like highway patroller on the stretch of Chapman Highway just before Sevierville). It takes at least forty-five minutes to get to the Park, even from the closest extremity of town. And I can't prove it, but I'm almost certain Seymour was never the capital of Franklin. A town of 30,000 people is small by almost any standard, but even in the late existence of Franklin the town was not Seymour but Newell Station, a community with a population of about twelve (a slight exaggeration, but in any case Newell Station is now a single winding road and a Baptist church in the dense woods of the town's Southeast corner). The town's current name is that of the railroad magnate who laid the now inoperable tracks through the Boyd's Creek area--the same man, in fact, after whom Seymour, Indiana, is named (Thank you, Charles Ogle). Feel free to check my chronology on this, anyone, but I think if Seymour had ever been the capital of Franklin I would have learned the fact at some point during my eighteen years of living there. This is now officially the longest document ever composed about Seymour, Tennessee. --Daniel Cunningham, Vanderbilt University unsigned comment added by 129.59.22.154 (talk) 06:31, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

Actually, you're wrong, Daniel. Seymore, Tennessee was named after James Earl Seymore, the Tennessee state senator who originally wrote Franklin's Declaration of Independence from Tennessee. The reason you seem to be confusing Seymore, TN with Newell Station, TN is that Newell Station was once the commercial ying to Seymore's congressional yang. The twin cities lived and prospered together as near-equals until then-preacher H. R. Miller, the leader of Newell Station's First Baptist Church, wrote a sermon condemning Adrian Laurents, Seymore's most conspicuous resident, for indecency and hedonism. This was Newell Station's death rattle, and the residents and businesses that existed there defaulted and relocated to protest the viscious religious tensions that followed this controversy. Laurents, being wealthy from his oil ventures overseas, paid for the relocation of his amicable supporters, leaving Newell Station to be overrun by nature. In less than five years, the population had shrunk to 8% it's original size. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.59.103.13 (talk) 07:08, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Hello unsigned editor!

I think there may be two "Seymours" in Tennessee. In fact, our Seymour does refer to Newell Station, which is the location of the four Seymour schools and the Seymour Post Office (37865). All available information agrees with Daniel, which is why I appropriately have been updating the page to reflect these ideas. If there is a Seymore, TN, I encourage you to create a Wikipedia entry for this location.

Thanks, Rhodesgomer (talk) 16:46, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

I've removed mention of how long it takes to get to the GSMNP from Seymour, as it will vary widely according to traffic on the Parkway. On Black Friday, it may take an hour to get through Pigeon Forge alone. I've also touched up the part about Newell's Station. The confusion over whether or not it was the capital of the State of Franklin (it wasn't) is probably due to a misreading of the historical marker in the photo. Bms4880 (talk) 00:09, 30 December 2010 (UTC)

Population

According to the Sevier County Schools website (http://www.sevier.org/schools.html), there are 3,035 students in the 4 Seymour schools and another 559 at Boyds Creek. The census information says there are 8,850 residents with 24.3% under the age of 18. That's 2,150 kids. 2,150 is not close to 3,035 or what most people in the area would argue is more accurate of 3,594 (including BCE). That still doesn't include all the kids in Blount County or private schools, or for that matter, any children too young to be in school. Now, I know that the census is the more encyclopedic way to go about this, and that the information from the Chamber of Commerce does not meet Wikipedia's standards. At the same time, I don't want people to be misled to truly believe that there are less than 9,000 people in Seymour when it is much more logical to follow the Chamber's number of about 13,500 people in 2000 (http://www.seymourtennessee.org/info.html). There are probably much closer to 20,000 people that would consider themselves to live in Seymour. When we're dealing with an unincorporated community, does self-identification not offer a more accurate representation than census information or administrators from Ohio? Rhodesgomer (talk) 19:00, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

IMHO, the issue is not "what is the population?", but "what is Seymour?" People who live there have one idea about this and the Census has another. CDPs are statistical constructs. They are supposed to correspond to reality, but like any other federal government invention they are likely to be imperfect. The population of the Seymour CDP in 2000 is a verified fact that needs to be reported as such. However, the place that currently is regarded as "Seymour" by people in the area is an unincorporated community that apparently covers a larger area than the CDP. For example, it appears to me from the map that the CDP does not include Boyds Creek. Also, population may have increased since 2000, both in the CDP and the larger area. Accordingly, I think it is reasonable to point out that the Chamber of Commerce contends that the "real" population (of a larger area that the Chamber considers to be "Seymour") is larger than the CDP population. This should not in any way detract from the census data. --Orlady (talk) 23:57, 21 May 2008 (UTC)