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The Fourth Chickasaw Bluff, which rises high above the Mississippi River even at flood stage, has long presented a logical place for settlement. Though they had departed prior to Hernando de Soto’s expedition through the area in the 1540s, Native Americans dwelt there, and ongoing settlement began again in 1795 when Spain built Fort San Fernando on the bluffs. Soldiers, traders, and squatters occupied the area until the formal founding of Memphis.

Prior to Spanish occupation, John Rice and John Ramsey claimed five-thousand-acre tracts based on North Carolina’s British-based titles. John Overton purchased Rice’s tract from his heirs, and Andrew Jackson and James Winchester bought into the venture. In 1819 they founded Memphis, named for ancient Egypt’s capital.

For a variety of reasons, Memphis grew slowly. A national economic depression, a river sandbar, loss of the county seat designation to neighboring Raleigh, yellow fever, a severely restricted hinterland, depredations by raucous flatboatmen, and competition from other ports all retarded growth. By th

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